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RV Camping Tips and Ideas
We received a request for some RV camping tips from a friend of ours, and decided to include the information here for the benefit of anyone looking to avoid some camping pitfalls with their RV. We encourage you to drop us a line if you have a good tip so we can include it.
Use Checklists!!!!!!! No matter how many times you move your RV, you can forget to do something! Roof vents and TV antennas are the biggest offenders for most folks, but basement storage bins being left unlocked can make you lose some good stuff!
Learn about the many places you can go RV camping. Private RV parks are popular and easy to find, but there are many RV camping locations off the beaten path. Public lands are available in every state for camping, and a quick way to find your states public land management resources is by using the RV Camping Map.
Check tire pressure before every trip!!!!!!! I do, and still had a double dual blowout on I-10 last December. I figure that I caught a nail or something that caused one tire to go low pressure, and all that it took was time to heat up the other tire and take them both out!
Speaking of on the road problems…if you can’t change your own tires like we can’t, or you do break down, roadside assistance is worth every penny! Our double blowout cost us $385. That was the cost of 2 tires and tax. Service call, labor, mounting and balance was covered by the road service. We also picked up a nail in a front tire and just needed the spare put on…No additional charge!
Staying in RV parks alot??? There are several discount camping clubs that might work for you and where you need to travel. Check them out carefully as no club is right for everyone. We don’t stay in RV parks more than a night or two a month, so we don’t belong to a discount program. Our Discount Camping Section has a list of several discount camping clubs.
Weigh your rig!!! It is SOOOOOOO easy to overload an RV!!!!! You really need to weigh each corner of a motorhome separately so you can balance your load, and hitch weight ratios on trailers must be adheared to. Your life depends on it!
Measure the height!!!!! Don’t guess!!! You WILL get into situations where a building canopy is too low for you to fit…also remember when parking at a curb that the top of the vehicle may be hanging over the curb due to slope of the street…this can be very embarrassing if you tag a light pole or tree too close to the street.
Get a pair of small hand-held Family Radio Service(FRS) radios to communicate with each other during parking/backing of the RV, or get on the same page with hand signals. I suggest the FRS radio method as most reliable…and if you get separated in Walmart they work too!
When staying in RV parks or campgrounds with hookups, don’t leave the black tank “open”. Only dump black when tank is 2/3 full or more otherwise you stand a good chance of having a clog. The same is true to some extent with the gray tank. Dump black first every time so the gray water can help clean out the dump hose.
Are you towing a vehicle? If you tow with all 4 wheels down, you will not be able to back up more than a few feet at most!!!!! This is always a problem at the worst possible place. For example, I dumped our motor home at Colorado’s Chatfield Reservoir a couple years ago with the Jeep hooked up and couldn’t make the U-turn I thought I could, and had to disconnect the Jeep before I could back up to complete the turn. I was lucky that there was only one person waiting to go by me as I unhooked the Jeep, then got the motor home out of the street. This can happen even easier at fuel stations. Don’t forget that some vehicles can’t be towed 4 down!!!
When you pull into an RV park and go to hook up water, I suggest turning on the water for a second or two before hooking up your hose. I would have had quite a bit of rust in my tank if I hadn’t followed this advice. In addition I’d suggest a water sediment filter that goes between the water spigot and the motor home to help keep junk out of your tank.
When we camp in the desert Southwest, often the water taste is poor. We’ve found that the Pur brand of charcoal water filtration system available just about everywhere like Walgreens, Walmart, Kmart etc works great to take the smell and bad taste from the water.