Expediting Departure Travel Day Routine

[mazboy]

2+ hours? wow. we put the chairs together the night before and after we get up...takes a while for wife we leave. Connecting and dumping should take us about 30 minutes or less.


as for hitching up the night before, go for it. I just put the front legs down to give some relief.


as for dumping, you don't have to dump everytime you go somewhere, especially not the black water.

[Theunz]

I see where several members are hooking up the night before departure and leaving their landing gear down. With almost 40 years of truck driving and thousands of times hooking and unhooking behind me, I can tell you without a doubt that leaving the legs down while still hitched is a recipe for disaster! Sooner or later, especially since your in a hurry, you're going to forget to raise them and possibly damage them when you drive off. Same goes for unhooking, never pull that pin until le legs are down.I ALWAYS IMMEDIATELY tend to the landing gear when hooking or unhooking. It will not hurt your truck one iota to rest solely on the hitch overnight, and the stability issue will be negligible.

[rslopez65]

Takes us 15 to 30 minutes in the morning with the longer time being on days we have to dump. Not sure what is taking you so long especially when it seems you have everything done the night before. We don't hook-up until we are ready to leave, only dump black if needed (usually every 7 days), we secure the TV's and the coffee pot, fold the table leaves down and we are pretty much ready to hit the road. He disconnects the water, I take care of the electric cord and back the truck up onto the hitch. Final walk around and we are good to go. We rarely travel more than 200 to 250 miles a day either. Of course we are retired and have no reason to hurry.

[saber707]

Originally Posted by 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.

Why rush. We're retired, no need to rush anything.

[DebNJim B]

We pretty much follow what others do. Usually takes us 30-40 min. I dump tanks the night before unless it's the last day and I want a good flush. If the black is half or less I leave it for sloshing and if I dump it I run the flush for a few minutes with valve closed to add sloshing water. I seldom hook up the night before as that only takes a few minutes especially if we havn't moved the truck since unhooking. I leave the fresh water about 1/3 in case we need a flush on the road. We try to keep the travel to 250-275 per day so we usually leave between 9 and 10 am to make an easy day. Someone once said it's not so much the destination as the journey. We try to follow that. We have learned to just relax on travel days and not add stress to a situation. Being retired of course helps that.

Here's one though. Last week we were on our journey home for the summer. One night we stayed at a cg with no sewer and had to leave in the morning with full tanks all around. I was a bit nervous as I've seen discussions about always traveling with empty tanks so as not to put added stress on the tank supports on the bumpy roads. I was really sweating bullets when I hit rough patches of I81 and I78 in PA. Anyway we made it safe and sound with all hydronics intact. I will still try to avoid that in the future. I think the main point is whether it takes 15 minutes or 2 hours to leave, just take it easy, relax and enjoy the RV lifestyle. Life is good, especially this life.

[timandsusan]

X2 to retired Monty travelers! Since we plan to drive about 300 miles per day, we leave around 9 ish, plan to stop every 2 hours or so for a break to enjoy life, and arrive around 3 ish. Not a tight schedule. On getting ready to leave, do what you think is needed and leave. Again--we are retired.

[CaptnJohn]

We are in no hurry but find 30 - 40 minutes in the am is enough. I have 2 gray and 2 black tanks I dump the night before. In the am she takes care of the inside while I finish the outside. Slides go in while level before I hook up.

[Slow Hand]

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 have a Ford LOL
My truck is very quiet considering it's a diesel. it takes me about 10 minuets to get on the road in the morning. I also sometimes pop it in if it's going to rain the night before. Nothing like wet slides LOL

I do everything the night before except the electric and tv. I am more noisy than my truck. if I see my neighbor i will let them know my plains. Wife helps with the wheel chocks.

I try my best to be a good camper and respect those around me.

[waynemoore]

I for one would not be all that happy with anyone idling a diesel at an early hour even if I was told the day before. 10 minutes is a lifetime when one is trying to sleep.

I can assure you that you can start the truck and put it in gear and go. It dose not need to warm up. Just take it easy for a a short distance.

But if you must warm it up leave at a later hour.

[Theunz]

While 10 minutes is a little excessive, I wouldn't want to pull 14,000 pounds or so without at least a couple of minutes to warm the oil. If your a light enough sleeper that a modern diesel wakes you up than you might want to sleep with a fan or some other noise maker. When we stop at a rv park, especially one near a highway, I fully expect to hear people to start pulling out at daybreak.

[Our3231CK]

Also retired, don't rush anymore, don't stress your on vacation. After some practice your routine will come. Take time to enjoy your surroundings. Just sayin :-)

[beeje]

It is a proven fact that todays engines are being HARMED by letting them warm up, instead of just starting them up and going right away. Its an old habit to brake for us old timers.

[Theunz]

No doubt excessive idling is bad for these new diesels with all the emissions systems. Maybe old habits ARE hard to break, but I'm just not convinced hammering a cold engine dragging a lot of weight won't harm it. With no load, sure just start it and go, just wait until it comes up to temp before flogging it.

[twindman]

If you wait to hook up in the morning, the engine gets warmed up at least for 3-4 minutes getting everything taken care of at the last minute.