Expediting Departure Travel Day Routine

[FloridaFlockers]

Looking to the group for any advise that might help us leave our site a little faster on travel days. Right now it takes us about 2+ hours to leave our site. Hoping for some advise to lessen this time before we hit the road on travel days. The day before we try and sto anything (sewer tote, ladder, stair handle, grill...) we can,clean top of the slides..... For us the big time consumers on travel day are the draining/ flushing of our gray/black tanks and rinsing the sewer line.

One area I think we might save some time..... is to hitch the rig to the truck the last thing we do the night prior to leaving. Our rig is a 2017 3820FK with the Norcold RV (gas/electric)fridge. Understand we need to be pretty close to level for the fridge to continue cooling. Is anyone aware of any problems we might have if we were to hitch up the night prior to leaving? I would leave the 6PT leveling grounded for stability and remain connected to the shore power, sewer, water. I would NOT connect to the trucks 7pin. Thanks in advance, Joe.

[team bradfield]

when we are traveling on vacation, staying at KOA's overnight on the way to our destination, I never unhook the truck or the 7 pin. When black tank is full drain and flush the night before leaving. when DW and DD are getting ready in the am, i drain the gray and stow the sewer line, disconnect water and put hose away, the ladies turn the pump on if they need water, I always travel with a 3rd full tank of water. Last step for me, while DW is putting slides in, I stow the electric cord, when slides are in I retract the landing gear and we are normally on the road in 1 hour. Of course we have been doing this for so long we just go through the motions. DW has her inside tasks, stowing chairs, shades, fridge lock, slides and I have the outside tasks. we never trade off, that's how mistakes are made

[fatcatzzz]

We have our morning move time down to about 30 to 40 min. First, after showers the night before I remove sewer hose and water hose. We carry about 1/4 to 1/3 water in fresh tank to take care of toilet during the night and rinse dishes in the morning. All outside equipment, grill, carpet and chairs are picked up day before. Wife rolls up inside carpets, rinses coffee cup etc. Pull slides in, lower sat dish, hook up truck, pick up landing gear, unhook electric, DO WALK AROUND, check lights and off we go. Order may change a little but this pretty close to what we do. Practice make perfect!

[WeBeFulltime]

Originally Posted by fatcatzzz

We have our morning move time down to about 30 to 40 min. First, after showers the night before I remove sewer hose and water hose. We carry about 1/4 to 1/3 water in fresh tank to take care of toilet during the night and rinse dishes in the morning. All outside equipment, grill, carpet and chairs are picked up day before. Wife rolls up inside carpets, rinses coffee cup etc. Pull slides in, lower sat dish, hook up truck, pick up landing gear, unhook electric, DO WALK AROUND, check lights and off we go. Order may change a little but this pretty close to what we do. Practice make perfect!

We are full timers but pretty much mirror this procedure. I suspect you are spending too much of your time on the black & gray tanks. They don't have to be sanitized like you plan to drink from them!

[twindman]

It takes me about 15 minutes to drain and flush the tanks. 15 to put away the hoses, etc and put up the stabilizers. Another 5-10 to hook up and raise landing gear. When really pressed we shower night before and I drain tanks then.

[MidMOTraveler]

Depending on the length of a stay “less is best”.
If we’re only 1-2 nights somewhere we don’t do more than 2 chairs.
Black tank gets dumped then 2 minutes of fill and dump again, then the grays.
Whole ‘nother story if staying weeks! We’re kinda Parrot Heads so the tropical theme comes out����

[beeje]

What We Be Fulltime said. Think of the septic tank at your house (if you have one), your not drinking the water. Even when it is pumped out, its not totally cleaned and sanitized. Its just going to get refilled with nasty stuff again.
The most time is spent on dumping the tanks. Not because I take too long thought. It is because the people in line in front of me take FOREVER. None of there stuff is ready when they pull up (they had plenty of time in line waiting). They put there gloves on and treat the job like its a hazmat spill or something. It really pisses me off when they get out there 50' hose and drag it into the camper (when they do not have a black tank flush) to fill up the black tank several times to flush it out.
Then comes the process of cleaning/serializing, drying all the hoses etc. before it is put away into its own respective containers.

This is not rocket science. Get-R-done ASAP and save the super cleaning for a time when you are in a place where no one else is waiting to dump.

Sorry for the rant

[waynemoore]

What Beeje said. When in a dumping station and other people are waiting get with the program. Dump the black tank, close the valve. Dump the kitchen tank and the shower at the same time close those valve. Quick rinse of the hose and put it away. Now get out of the way and do the final things that you want to do.

This is dumping the tanks not a career.

Just saying is all.

[DQDick]

We usually stay with full hookups and Joyce sweeps the floor while I dump the tanks. We get done about the same time. We do save some time by using paper bowls or plates for breakfast so I can get right to removing sewer and water while Joyce finishes inside. We pull in the slides and then both put away the electric line, hitch up and leave.

[Kid1956]

I would add.. I check the tires, and torque the wheels usually the night before.. tires to 5lbs below what the max is, like 75 for my 80, knowing the pressure will go up 3-5lbs on the road.. I dont need them to blow out for over-rated pressures. See alot max the pressures with the tires cold, thn blow them out on hot roads..

[Creeker]

No problem for us in hitching the night before if needed. We've done it for 15+ years on several different 5ers all with RV type fridge. Your still level side to side and should only be a little nose high.

[waynemoore]

Sorry about the last rant. So back to the subject.
DW has the inside and I have the outside. I have dumped the tanks the night before and we also showed the night before. At that time the sewer hose has been rinsed and put away. Paper plates used for breakfast. Water hose and water softener drained and stowed. I keep the fresh water tank at lease half full. Provides water for the potty and helps with the pin weight. Once DW puts in the slides in I am free to hookup. Stow the power cord. The power cord is the only problem area. The sun happens to be shining on it then things go fast. if not and it is a cold morning then all bets are off. It’s like trying to get a mad bob cat into a box. It fights you every step of the way.

Of course if we have stayed in a camp site for several weeks things take much longer.

But when traveling we can be on the road in 30 minutes or less. We set a time to be on the road and work to that.

[davemitchell59]

Great tips everyone.


We're new at this, so I wanted to read the thread to see what we were doing wrong. But, to my surprise, we seem to follow a similar routine. I generally don't take up the sewer hose until the morning of departure to let grey water out and just in case we used more water than expected overnight. I'll flush the black tank the night before and I don't mind traveling with a little water in the black tank as it helps break things up ... If you know what I mean. We'll typically have a little water in the fresh tank too just in case we need to boondock unexpectedly or want to use the toilet as we travel.


As for departure routine ... She does her inside stuff and is responsible for the slides. I do the outside stuff. Once she has the slides in, we're usually ready to stow the power cord, hitch up, and hit the road. We typically discuss a departure time the night before and work toward it the next morning. We don't always make it, but we generally aren't in a hurry to get somewhere either. Our biggest delays come when we didn't do some prep work the night before.


We try to schedule the legs of our travels to give us plenty of cushion when arriving and departing. We generally try to limit our time on the road to 8 +/- hours. If we're out by 9, that puts us in our next stop before beer-thirty and dinner time. No sense adding stress to a vacation or retirement by being in a hurry.

[Texan]

As for as rinsing your black tank you can fill the tank with about 10 or 12 gallons of water and let it slosh around while traveling down the road and it will do more for cleaning your tank than taking time to continually fill and drain. Sometimes we overthink these little chores. I have the outside duties and my wife has the inside. The only thing I do inside is remind the wife about the dowel stick for the sliding shower door.

[AZ Traveler]

We can be on the road pretty quick if needed but I generally plan only 4-6 hours per day on the road and don't tend to be in a big hurry so an hour+ to pack up is often reasonable.

When needed, I can put most all up the day before including hoses, power cable and outdoor gear and just leave the slides, jacks and hookup for the morning of departure which can be done in 20 minutes. Can even use the park's restroom for shower if we are headed home and want the rig clean when we get there.

[Slow Hand]

I do everything the night before we leave. I even hook up the truck but leave the landing gear down. Only thing to put away in the morning is the electric cable and tv cable. Wife gets up gets ready and puts the slides in. We hit the road in less than 15 minuets. I let the truck run to warm up just a bit. We sometimes leave in the wee hours of the morning.

[Montana Man]

I do the man work. She does the woman work. You will eventually get into a rhythm and get it down to about an hour. It takes X amount of time to do what needs to be done. Whether you do some the night before or all of it in the morning. I will take longer to clean the black tank on the last morning.

[beeje]

Slow Hand, So you are one of people that idle your dodge diesel for ever in the wee hours while everyone else is trying to sleep.?? (don't know your truck, not in sig) Sorry if that's not the case, but it seems like I hear a lot of trucks unnecessarily running in the wee hours of the morning. Not everyone is leaving when you are.

[AZ Traveler]

Originally Posted by beeje

Slow Hand, So you are one of people that idle your dodge diesel for ever in the wee hours while everyone else is trying to sleep.?? (don't know your truck, not in sig) Sorry if that's not the case, but it seems like I hear a lot of trucks unnecessarily running in the wee hours of the morning. Not everyone is leaving when you are.

I would not want to pull a heavy rig without a few minutes of warm up.

[FloridaFlockers]

An update, left Huntsville (Redstone Arsenal) yesterday. Got our leave time down to about an hour, which I can live with. Hooked the truck the night before, but left the jacks down for stability. Kind of anal (pun intended) about flushing the black when we dump. So dumped & flushed the night before, only had to dump grays in the AM & stow the sewer and power line. Put everything else away the night before too. Appreciate all of the inputs, thanks Joe.