As some folks know, I bought an Excursion and a 30' travel trailer recently and plan to hit the road full time in a mere couple of months, working from the RV on the road wherever I am. I'm a consultant that has the luxury of working remotely, so where I am doesn't really matter so much as long as I have a 4G signal.

This past weekend was the inaugural trip - I wanted to start getting the kinks worked out before I live in it full time. There were a few things that went wrong, but a lot of things that went right and I learned a few things too.

This thread is going to be me documenting my adventures from the towing and RV aspect of this trip. Comments, thoughts, questions, jokes, well-intentioned criticism, etc. are all welcome. I plan on documenting another aspect of this trip on another forum, but I'll save that nugget for later.

Friday afternoon when my friend and I left it was pouring rain pretty much all day. I had a brief dry spell in the morning when I was able to run out and get some stuff done but other than that I got pretty wet. The kicker was when I tried to lower the TV antenna and it wouldn't drop all the way. I had to go up on the roof in the rain, at which point I realized that I needed someone inside the RV to retract it while I guided it to where it was supposed to go. So I called her on my phone from the roof and said, "Get your butt out to the trailer right now please".

I changed my clothes after that. I was soaked to the skin.

We got 20 minutes from home and someone pulled up next to us on the freeway to let us know that the trailer had a flat tire. Wonderful. I changed it with the help of a friendly CHP officer, and we were on our way once again.

The weather was supposed to be rainy but no snow was expected over Donner pass - we were headed to some hot springs in central Nevada to get away from the wet weather. However when we got to the foothills, there were signs advising that chain control was in effect over the summit. We did some googling and determined that even if you have a 4x4 with snow tires, if you're towing a trailer you need chains on one axle of the tow vehicle, and one trailer axle. So I stopped and got SCREWED OVER by a gas station charging outrageous prices for ordinary cable chains. When we got to the checkpoint, the guy asked if we had 4x4 and electric trailer brakes and waved us through. So I bought those chains for nothing.

The trip over the summit was pretty intense. There was about 6" of wet snow on the road with no pavement visible. Traction seemed OK at first but it quickly got hard to control and I had to engage the 4x4. The weather got worse and worse and I was leaving about 500 feet of stopping room in front of me. But we made it over without a scratch. But instead of the trip taking 2 hours, it took 5.5 hours.

We didn't get to camp until midnight. We set up quickly and went to sleep and didn't even get into the spring. I left the furnace switch on "fan on" instead of auto so the battery was pretty much dead in the morning. Also the fridge was complaining about something and I realized that we had gone through a whole tank of propane overnight! Something seems wrong about that.

The spring the next morning felt great. We soaked in the natural hot water, lounged around, and relaxed. I even took a long nap in the afternoon. Then it poured rain again. We got into the springs again at night and saw a few small shooting stars until the clouds rolled in.

I recharged the battery during the day but I had my friend read the battery meter on the display panel and I have a feeling she pressed the wrong button or misread it because the battery died again (and therefore the furnace) in the middle of the night. I went out in 41 degree cold (it's cold for me, I live in California) and hooked the truck up to charge the batteries. I let the truck run for a few hours and the battery was only 2/3 full so I know it couldn't have been charged up yesterday when she checked the meter. I hadn't charged it anywhere near that long.

We got up, soaked again, and started to pack up. That's when I realized I had two flat tires on one side of my trailer.

I figured out a way to jack up both axles with one jack and removed both tires to take them into town. I had no air compressor with me - something I will definitely change next time. The first flat tire that we got on the way up was an RV screw. Probably picked it up at the RV dealership.

There was nothing wrong with the other two tires. He aired them up, dunked them in water and no leaks. So how do two tires, both on the same side of the vehicle, that held air perfectly fine for a month in front of my house, suddenly lose all their air without explanation? Answer: some jackass didn't like me idling my truck and let the air out of my tires. And it would be MUCH better for that person if I never, ever find out who they are.

The trip home was almost as snowy - they almost certainly started chain control shortly after we drove through - and it rained just about the whole way home.

The truck is such a powerhouse. It's incredible how much power this truck has. I can accelerate uphill (ok, slowly) in overdrive at 5000' pulling an 8000# trailer. That's some serious power. I had no problem maintaining nearly any grade at 60 mph. Nothing slowed this thing down. Out of the entire trip, the truck was the only thing that gave us ZERO problems. It just started every morning and worked hard all day.

And right before I left - I noticed my Bronco suddenly has a flat tire that it didn't have the day before.

I also received a violation notice from the city because my RV was parked in the front yard. Apparently they aren't terribly fond of such things. If I park it in front of my house in the street it must be moved every 3 days. No storage unit within a reasonable distance will take an RV this big. I don't know of anyone with enough room to store it, even temporarily. So I guess I'll be playing dodgeball with the city inspector until I can get out of here.

 

Right on sounds like you got a few kinks worked out. Just to give you a heads up one battery usually won't last all night with the furnace running so you might want to install a second or third. I've seen guys with 6 before. Lol. Or invest in a nice little quite generator that will purr away most of the night. Good luck.

 

Andy, please post up pics of your rig, both TV and trailer.

Subscribing.

 

I second the request on the pictures..... and please post some scenery pics as you travel !


Just some thoughts.....


As was already mentioned..... do a dual battery set-up at a minimum. Group 29 or 31s. Triple would be even better. Unfortunately, it won't be cheap as the batteries must be matched, so your current battery won't help you.


If you don't already have all LED lighting in your TT, do so NOW. Learning to live with a finite supply of power is quite an adjustment. Lower your thermostat setting some. Run the faucet less.... the water pump uses a lot of juice.


Consider a solar charging system. There is LOTS of reading out there on this. We run a 100W set-up on our popup, and we can dry camp almost indefinitely as long as we have a fair amount of sun every other day. If I were living in my camper I'd probable have 200W or more, just to play it safe. Solar power is nice and quiet, so you will offend no neighbors, use less gas (especially in the south west!!), etc.


If you are going to run a generator, get yourself a Honda or Yamaha (I prefer Honda) inverter generator. Size it to run your A/C ..... so you will likely need an EU3000i or 2 EU2000i's run in parallel.


Can't wait to read more of your adventures ! I would do it if I were in the position to work remotely...

 

Sounds like a ton of fun, I would think a generator is almost a must... I lived on my yacht for about a year and when away from marinas the Gens would be running 24/7... I have never been in a TT but guessing it would be similar to boating... Wife says if I cant tow a 4 seasons resort she don't want any part of it lol

BTW, It's on my bucket list to try someday. (Not to tow the 4 seasons)

 

Remember......"a bad day camping is better than a good day at work!"


And yes, we need pics!

 

Do you have an EGT gauge? The reason I ask is I towed a 29' with my Ex out to Barstow. I was able to maintain 50mph up Tehachapi. Any faster than that and my EGT would get over 1250 deg. I had plenty of pedal left to go faster, but I don't think the engine can hold EGT's over 1300deg. My coolant, oil and transmission temps all remained fine.

 

Technically, yes, I do have an EGT gauge. It's still sitting on the shelf in my garage. It's on my (long) list of stuff to do. I'm not terribly worried about it even though I will get the gauge on there before I start. Downsizing from a 1300 sq ft house (which I admittedly don't use that much of now that I'm single) to a 30' trailer still takes a lot of effort. I have a lot of stuff to go through and decide whether I should keep, store, or take with me.

I went down the solar path far enough to research what I would need. My remote work involves two laptops, an external monitor, two phones, and some other stuff that adds up to at least 1 KWH per day of usage - and that's without AC. That's a pretty good size solar array, and solar is far from cheap. By the time I got the panels (even at < $1/W), batteries, mppt charge controller, wiring, etc. I would probably be into it $3000. That's a big generator and enough fuel for it to last 15 years.

So instead I'm looking at a couple of high-capacity batteries ($$$$) and a decent size generator that I don't have to run more than a couple hours a day when I'm dry camping somewhere.

The trailer is a 2014 so it already has LED lighting, except for a couple of fixtures that I already planned on swapping out for LEDs.

Pics of the truck and trailer are coming. I've never been terribly motivated to take pictures but I owe you guys.

Here are some scenery pics that my friend took from last weekend. I love the high desert. It's truly beautiful and about as close to unspoiled as you can find these days.

 

That is insanely beautiful! I wish I had access to natural springs and the like near me but I guess I'll have to do with the AT

 

There are few things better than sitting in a cattle tub of 104* mineral water and looking up at the milky way at night, hundreds of miles away from civilization.

 

I finally got some pictures uploaded to my computer:





The next time I have them hooked up I will get a pic of them together.

 

Nice looking set up!

 

One nice thing about living in the country is my RV stays in my driveway and nobody cares.

ST tires are only rated for 65 MPH, beyond that they get to hot. Also make sure they are D range. When you replace the tires get US tires and not the cheap Chinese ones that came with your unit.

 

X2



The pictures are great, but I'm sure they don't do justice for the real thing!

 

Yeah it annoying as hell to have to leave it in the street. I tried to put it in the front yard, but a jackass neighbor called the city and they came out and told me I had to move it. It's not like it's a 20 year old POS that I rent out to a family of immigrants. So I guess the jackass neighbor would rather have it on the street.

I can't get storage for it this late in the season without it being over an hour away. Most places won't store anything over 30'.

The city is going to start making me move it every 3 days - probably pretty soon. I can't wait to get out of here.