Tips for Traveling in a Travel Trailer

As described in my March 20, 2016 post "RVing Family--From Tent Trailers to the Edge to the Sunseeker and Beyond," my family and I spent years RVing in a 24ft Heartland Edge Travel Trailer.  It was a great little rig, and provided numerous enjoyable trips throughout the US and Canada.  We would pile three adults (the mother-in-law, as well as the wife and I), three kids, and two dogs in our 24ft travel trailer.  Along the way, we learned a few things about crowded RV vacations. 

Lessons Learned

(1) Maximizing Space--The longest trip we did in our 24ft travel trailer was a little over three weeks.  During the trip, we traveled from Alaska to Kansas, with a couple day stop in Oregon.  On half of this trip, my father accompanied us.  Then we substituted my father for my mother-in-law for the remainder of the trip.  The effect was the same--within our small travel trailer, we crammed three adults, three kids, and two dogs for a trip that lasted a little over three weeks.  It goes without saying that the key to making this trip successful was to maximize the little space we had.  The first and most important step for maximizing space was getting rid of the dinette table.  For the whole trip, we kept the dinette table and its legs stored in the largest storage compartment in the trailer.  We never once used it.  This provided a lot of crucial movement room for multiple lanes of "foot traffic" throughout the trailer.  Often, we opted to eat outside of the trailer.  But sometimes we would be chased inside the trailer by rain or mosquitoes.  When we ate inside, we just didn't use a table.  Yes, our seven year old boys would sometimes spill stuff; but let's be honest, they would have spilled stuff even if we had used the table.  The second "most important" space optimizing step was managing dirty laundry and shoes.  The kids hated to wear their shoes and would inevitably kick them off at the first opportunity.  Plus, they had multiple shoes--a pair of sneakers, Crocs, and a shower shoes each.  This made for a minefield of shoes to navigate through.  In order to solve the shoe problem, my wife bought a bunch of the plastic hanging shoe racks, which we fastened to all the beds.  This is where the shoes went.  As for laundry, the best solution we could figure was to give everyone a small mesh bag to put dirty laundry in.  Other than bed time, these mesh bags would remain on the end of everyone's bed.  At night, they'd be put on the trailer floor.  These bags also made doing laundry easier, because I could just dump the entire content into an RV park laundry machine without having to figure out whose laundry was whose (I usually do the laundry when RVing, and I refuse to sort it--white, colors, don't care--it all gets washed on cold).

(2) Managing moisture--Three adults, three kids, and two dogs produce A LOT of hot, wet air.  This hot air, coupled with outside moisture, can quickly create a lot of moisture build-up within the trailer.  The key to managing moisture is leaving as many windows as possible partially open when in the trailer, as air circulation helps keep the moisture down.  Add a fan if possible.  The A/C will also remove moisture from the air, though far up north it might be too cold to run it at night (even in the summer).  In order to manage moisture, you can also find small kits that absorb moisture from the air, such as Damprid, or you can use a small plug-in dehumidifier.  Additionally, cook outside if possible, as cooking adds moisture to the air.  My wife loves cooking on a fire.  Finally, don't store anything wet in the RV.  If you have wet clothes, leave them outside hanging on the awning at night.  If you have wet clothes that you need to put somewhere while driving, I recommend putting them in your vehicle if possible.  If you're running the AC in your vehicle, the AC will help remove the excess moisture from within the vehicle.

(3) Develop a routine--The best way to efficiently utilize small spaces with a lot of people is by developing a routine were everyone knowing where they are going to eat, where they are going to sit, etc.  Effectively, everyone gets their own assigned space.

(4) Spend as much time outside as possible--This really goes without saying.  The whole reason we RV is to spend time outside.  Who wants to RV just to stay in the RV?

(5) Enjoy yourself--Let's be honest, you don't need a lot of space to be happy when you're having fun.  But when you're not having fun, well, things really start to feel cramped.

Happy Rving!!

Scipio    

The Edge Crossing Into Shoshone National Forest

RVing Family--From Tent Trailers to the Edge to the Sunseeker and Beyond

Welcome to my blog.  I've had it for awhile, but never had anything interesting to say.  No guarantees that I will have anything interesting to say in the future.  But at-least I've thought of a blogging topic.  I've always enjoyed reading other people's travel blogs, so I decided I might write a travel blog too.  If you enjoy it, or have any thoughts or recommendations, I'd appreciate the comments.

As for traveling, my family and I are RV'ers.  We got into RVing slowly, buying a used tent trailer about eight years ago.  During our first trip with the trailer, near catastrophe struck when, after slamming on the brakes to avoid hitting the vehicle in front of us, the tongue of the trailer buckled, nearly breaking off.  Luckily no one was hurt, but we had to get a tow truck to pull the darn thing away.  I never trusted, and therefore never used, that tent trailer again.  In short, we pretty much flushed the $2,000 we paid for it down the toilet.

About three years later, my Grandma gave me her old tent trailer.  It had been sitting in her garage, unused, for at-least 20 years.  She lived in California, and we were in Virginia at the time.  In hopes of having a little adventure, my wife and I piled our three-year-old boys (triplets) and two dogs into our SUV and drove from Virginia to California's San Joaquin Valley.  We visited with Grandma, grabbed the trailer, then proceeded to take a two week RVing trip to the coast of California, up to Oregon, and then across the country, with stops in Yellowstone, Devil's Tower, and the Badlands.  The trailer was small and cramped for our two adults, three kids, and two dogs, but the trip was amazing.  Upon getting back to Virginia, a simple interest in RVing had grown into a commitment to make it a permanent part of our lives.  But we needed something bigger.

Bigger was a problem, since our SUV only had a 5,000 lb tow capacity.  When I went to one of the local RV dealers and explained what I was looking for--a travel trailer that I could use for my family of five, plus mother-in-law, and pull with my SUV, he convinced me to buy a travel trailer that had a "dry" weight of 4,800 lbs.  When I pointed out how close that was to my tow capacity, he assured me that it was no problem.  He told me that all I had to do was pull it without water; and when I got close to my RV destination, fill it up.  Of course this isn't true.  As soon as you start adding extra passengers to the vehicle, and clothes and food to the trailer, you quickly exceed the 5,000 lb tow capacity.  In short, the RV dealer was a sleazy, lying, untrustworthy, scammer.  But his scam worked.  I bought the trailer he recommended.

Only after the fact did I go on the various RV forums and learn that I had been taken (lesson--RV forums are a GREAT source of information).  Angry, I went back to the RV dealer and told them I wanted to trade the travel trailer I had just bought for something lighter.  They agreed; though all-in-all, I paid about an extra $2,000 for the lighter travel trailer.  What can you do.

In the end, we ended up with a 2012 Heartland Edge, which had a dry weight of about 3,700 lbs.  We loved it.  It had a queen bed, a dinette that turned into a bed, and bunk beds.  In all, it slept six.

We took the Edge all over the place--local camping trips in Pennsylvania; up to the Maritime Provinces of Canada (New Brunswick, Nova Scotia; and Prince Eward Island); across the United States; and up the Alaska-Canadian Highway to Alaska.  While in Alaska, we did a wonderful trip to Seward, with a stop at Denali National Park.  Finally, we brought the Edge back down the Alaska-Canadian Highway.  The mother-in-law often joined us on these trips. With three adults, three kids, and two dogs, our 24ft Edge would get pretty crowded.  But it worked.

Recently, my wife found out she was pregnant.  ITS ANOTHER BOY.  We decided that our wonderful little Edge trailer probably would be unable to accommodate the new addition.  So it was time to go bigger.  Figuring that the mother-in-law would continue to join us on our trips, last week we went ahead, traded-in the Edge, and bought a 32 ft Forest River Sunseeker 3170DS Class C motorhome.  Equipped with a loft, bunk beds, queen size bed, a couch that converts into a bed, and a dinette that converts into a bed, we can sleep 9 people in this beast of an RV.  Thus ends the adventures with the Edge. I hope it ends up in good hands. It is a great little trailer.

Driving across the US with the Edge in Tow