by Phyllis McCrossin
A friend is considering hitting the road, at least temporarily, and seeing what adventures await her. She has many, many questions. It’s interesting to note she thinks King and I are “experts.” She should know by now we generally fly by the seat of our pants.
I recall the summer before the King and I hit the road. I would meet with a friend who travels during the winter months. I peppered her with hundreds of questions. In addition, I watched countless YouTube videos, I joined Facebook groups, I purchased maps and guidebooks. I studied, mapped our route, planned out stops and studied some more.
Our first trip out, we stuck to the planned route until we got to Benton Harbor – a whopping 24 miles. King announced he did not want to drive through, around or near Chicago pulling the trailer. So we drove to Indianapolis instead. I should note, seven days later we were pulling the trailer through Los Angeles and San Diego. The comfort level changes quickly.
When we leave this fall (and we haven’t come close to even setting a tentative date) we are considering driving to California by way of Florida (to visit my recently widowed sister). We will point the truck south and see where we end up. It’s as much planning as we can muster. The world’s largest pistachio in New Mexico and the Ernie Pyle museum in Indiana are still on my list, but one never knows where the route will actually take us.
But back to my inquisitive friend… She recently asked how long it takes King and I to get the trailer ready for travel. OK, the safety things such as packing bearings, checking tires, wiring, etc. can be started any time. The earlier the better so maintenance bills can be spread out. The actual getting the trailer ready? An hour. Maybe. Apparently we have it down to a science. My friend was dubious but, as I reminded her, we are not moving things from our home into the trailer. The trailer IS our home.
We found it takes trial and error (lots and lots of error) to figure out how to stow things away for traveling down the road at 50 or 60 miles per hour.
Items you think are absolutely secure in reality are not. They have to be stowed away, padded with blankets, or placed in crates. For example, when we are stationary King’s favorite DVDs are lined up on a shelf above a window. Before going down the road, they get placed in a box and put on the bed surrounded by pillows.
The TV, which is on a swivel wall mount, gets padded with more pillows and bungeed to the wall. I also bungee the toaster oven in place. The coffee pot and coffee cups get stowed in the sink. And while I got rid of most of my mementoes when we took to this lifestyle, I still have a few treasures that get placed in a box on the bed and surrounded by pillows. (We use pillows a lot).
But all this we learned by trial and error. We’ve had quite a few broken cups and spilled silverware. One needs to check all cupboard doors and drawers to make certain they are latched. The refrigerator too. It is most disheartening to open the trailer door and find food all over the floor.
As an aside, we have, on occasion, traveled down the road with the refrigerator running on propane. We don’t do it now. No bad experiences, but we choose to error on the side of caution.
When packing, most of the weight inside the trailer needs to go front of the axels. Sway bars and levelers on the hitch are invaluable.
Our trailer is old. It does not have built-in stabilizer jacks so when we set up camp, we use portable ones picked up at a big box store. The difference between using jacks and not using jacks is unbelievably noticeable. Yellow plastic wheel chocks and plastic levelers are a godsend.
YouTube videos and online forums will tell you that dumping ice in the toilet before heading down the road will help loosen solid matter in the black tank. It does not. At least not for us.
Running a hose through the window and into the toilet and attaching a cleaning wand to the hose works better, and is more labor intensive. Let’s face it, it’s a gross job that can’t be ignored.
There is no right or wrong way (except for common sense things like don’t use the drinking water hose at dump stations for cleaning the black tank and don’t leave the valve on the black tank open when you are camped or a poop pyramid forms in the black tank. That is advice we heeded and has served us well).
Everyone has to have a first time for doing things and learning by trial and error is about the best advice I can give.