5 RV Road Trip Tips

Going on an RV Road Trip is unlike any other vacation you can imagine or have ever experienced

Taking a road trip in a recreational vehicle is unlike any other vacation you can imagine or have ever experienced.  You are entirely self-sufficient, carrying everything you need in your RV, including kitchen and bathroom facilities.  It can be safer than staying in hotels where you may be exposed to vermin or diseases, and the feeling of independence you derive from it can be empowering.  By the way, staying in your RV is also less expensive than staying in a hotel.

Because an RV trip is a unique experience, it involves a learning curve.  Here are some helpful tips to make your first excursion a little easier. 

1. Arrive at Your Destination Before Nightfall

If you are traveling to Island Cay At Clearwater Beach during the summer, you should have no problem arriving before sunset, which doesn't happen until late in the evening.  If it is fall or winter and you are traveling to a destination farther north, you may have more difficulty.  In either case, there are two excellent reasons why you should make an effort to reach your destination during daylight hours. 

First, it helps you to familiarize yourself with your new surroundings.  Part of the fun of an RV trip is waking up somewhere new every day (or every few days), but it can also be disorienting, especially if you haven't had a chance to look around and get your bearings.  The other reason to arrive while the sun is still up is that finding your campsite, parking your RV safely, and hooking it up to the water, electricity, and sewer is all much easier when it is still light enough to see what you're doing. 

2. Restructure Your Days

Ordinarily, when you are on vacation, you may want to sleep later than usual.  However, an RV trip gives you the opportunity to see and experience things that you typically miss in your everyday life.  When you travel by RV, you make your own schedule, so consider waking up early to catch the sunrise and then taking a nap to make up for it in the afternoon. 

3. Learn to Operate the RV Bathroom

Having a bathroom in the RV is convenient in some respects, but it also requires special treatment.  For example, you should not use regular toilet paper in an RV bathroom.  You should use toilet paper designed to dissolve in your RV's Blackwater tank.  Before you set out on your trip, you should hook up to water, flush the toilet, and then drop some scented capsules down there to help control the smell. 

What you flush down the toilet remains in a tank underneath the RV until you dump it.  You should only dump the blackwater tank in areas designated for the purpose and study how to do it beforehand to prevent spillage. 

4. Make Sure Your RV Is Level When Parked

If your RV is not perfectly level when parked, it can feel disorienting, like you are floating in the water.  It can also affect how appliances in your RV work, specifically the refrigerator.  Campgrounds try to make the sites as level as possible, but this isn't always possible.  If your campsite is not flat enough to keep your RV level, you can use leveling blocks under the wheels.  These are like big Lego bricks, and they can be placed under the RV's tires to level it. 

5. Bring a Toolkit

A toolkit is handy for minor vehicle repairs and fixing things that may go awry inside the living area of your RV.  It's not only for repairs, however.  For example, you know that you need to use leveling bricks to keep your RV even, but how do you know when you've succeeded?  Keep a level in your toolkit, and you won't have to second guess yourself. 

Conclusion

Before you leave, make a checklist of all the things that you have to bring with you before you go, such as cookware and the things that you can purchase on the road, such as food.