Truckin'

I have begun the daunting process of learning to drive our pick-up truck. I need to do this for several reasons. I may never tow the RV, but when we’re camping I can not leave all the local running around to Bill. It wouldn’t be fair. Especially because he does all of the long haul driving. Also, what if an emergency occurs? Using the truck when we’re home will definitely come in handy. But, most importantly, conquering my fear will bring me a great sense of accomplishment.

The truck stands 6’ 6” high, is 22’ long and weighs 10,000 lbs. I am 5' 1½”. I have no corresponding length, but I’m a person of great depth. My weight is nobody’s business. All you need to know is that it’s considerably less than the truck’s. I could not be more intimidated by the prospect of driving this beautiful beast.

I didn’t get my license until I was in my late 20’s and didn’t use it regularly until my early 30’s. My late start has left me feeling less than confident in my driving abilities. I make up for that with caution. I am afraid I will not be able to handle such a large vehicle. My biggest fear is that I’ll make a mistake and damage the truck in some way. So, I’m taking things nice and slow. 

For my first lesson Bill took me to a large empty parking lot and ran me through some drills. I did OK. Better than I expected. He gave me an 8 on a scale of 1 to 10. Next step - local street driving. I’ve assured my family and friends I will give them plenty of notice so they can plan to stay indoors during this phase.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

-Diane

It's Not the Tools...It's the Carpenter

So far I've set up and broken down the RV about a dozen times. I gain more knowledge and confidence each time I do it; but, it seems every time I set up, something doesn't work right.

I think I've gone about learning the rig as well as you can. We bought the RV from Chuck Neer of C. Neer RV in Equinonk, PA. Thank God for Chuck. When we picked up the rig, he took 2 or 3 hours to walk us through every component, system, valve, and switch. We weren't rushed and asked many questions. Even so, by the time the walk-through was over, my head was spinning. Thankfully, Diane and I had the good sense to videotape the entire thing for future reference. I've also read many of the manuals, talked to other RVers, and researched different things on line. But there's no substitute for experience.

On our maiden voyage at the end of February 2015, buried in snow and subjected to sub-zero temperatures, among other things, the battery froze, the heat wouldn't work, and we had problems with the electric system. (More on this misadventure in a future post.) Once again, thank God for Chuck. I tormented the poor guy with telephone calls for days. On one of these panic stricken calls, Chuck good-naturedly ribbed me by saying, "Wow! It's 10am and I hadn't heard from you yet. I was getting worried." On that voyage and subsequent trips I have found that invariably I'm the problem. I'm getting better but I have a lot to learn.

On our latest foray, I went with utmost confidence. We store the RV at the place where we were going to be staying, and they put the RV on the site for you. Just hook up the electric, water, and sewer and start having fun. Right? Wrong! I forgot to mention one very, very important thing - leveling the RV. Our rig has a "Ground 3" automatic electric leveling system. It's has a big button that says "Auto Level." Just push the button and watch it do it's thing. Right? Wrong! The guys who put the RV on the site manually pulled the pins and allowed the landing gear to drop to the ground. Long story short...you can't do that. The motorized portion of the jacks was maxed out and there was not enough stroke to level the RV.

This wouldn't normally be a big deal. Just hitch the RV onto the truck, raise the jacks, and start over. Right? Wrong! We drove 3 hours to the campsite in my pickup truck with 3 of my grandchildren, 5 bicycles, coolers, luggage, and NO HITCH. I had taken the hitch out to make room for all the stuff. I could have gotten the camp people to come back with their truck, but I managed to operate the jacks individually and got the rig pretty close to level (although the eggs did run to the back of the pan). So when I say to myself, "I've got this down. Right?'' Wrong!

-Bill