Dfb
Senior Member
We had the right rear spring hanger bolt break... I replaced them with NON wet bolts..
That was mentioned to me by Gary (garym) my neighbor at the rally that the back bolts on the back axle took a lot of torque and broke easily.
I asked the guys at More-Ride about that and he knew of the issues, but told me if I keep it greased I would not have trouble. When they are not properly maintained you have trouble. I asked about proper grease intervals and he told me once a year unless I'm putting on 20K a year.
That being said, I carry spare parts now, and enough tools to fix on the fly if I have to.
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I don't have the time, but at some point. I'll post my trip from Phoenix to Niagra Falls to the bourbon trail in October 2024. Will be going to Springfield Illinois in April to pick up my 2020 Legacy Edition that has had frame issues for years. Problem is, it's worth less than half what I paid for it. I'm fixing it, but done with Keystone
Would love to hear it!
Advice... Write it on another platform and then copy and paste it into this one. Saves 10 minutes of typing and then something happens and you need to start over! I have that experience!
New post coming later today!
Dfb
Senior Member
My own opinion, it's not worth much. The suspension is way underbuilt. Things like this should never happen.. I have owned cars , trucks and trailers with leaf springs.. Non have ever broke.. if a pickup is overloaded the springs will flatten and even reverse, but not break..... The bolts on my springs broke..
Heading out of Pahrump to Quartzite was uneventful. No big stories here. Made it through the Spring Mountain range in 50˚ weather and no snow, no traffic in Vegas and light traffic the rest of the trip south. We did pull back into Quartzsite after dark in search of somewhere to boon-dock. No brainer, right? Well, I had it in my head I wanted to park in Hi Jolly and not knowing the area Apple maps took me somewhere in town. I think it was a monument. We pulled in there and figured out where we missed it and drove back out there. Wife was concerned we were going take someones spot. I told her there are no spots out here and I found an out of the way place, got leveled up and unhooked. We left the UTV trailer loaded and hooked up.
A friend had told me about a place called Silly Al’s pizza that we had to go to so we went out to find that. We got in and the place was packed. We picked the night of the playoff game between KC and the Buffalo and everyone was in for the game. When it got over 30 minutes later we finally got our pizza and it was ok, but the service was pretty slow. Have to give them a pass though as it was packed in there.
The next morning we got up, got all hooked up again and headed south to Yuma. Easy drive day! and uneventful. We drove right up to a friends home and after a short visit he led us to a privately owned home he had arranged for us to land. Squeezed the rig into her front yard and started the complicated process of unhooking. I have a Pull Rite auto slide hitch and and was aware that you need to be straight in line with the camper, or a very small degrees turned. Straight was impossible in my situation, so I pulled the pins and lifted the head out of the cradle. That worked, but complicated getting it hooked back up 5 days later.
We paid $150 for the 4 night stay with full hookups, which I thought was reasonable. She had 30A and 50A outlets, but the 2 - 30 amp plugs did not work and my 50A cord was not long enough to reach the pedestal. I called her (she had left to go visit someone) and I informed her of the situation. She called back and told me her neighbor had a 50 to 30 adapter and we could use it. I asked her, “Are you sure? They make them but that is a seldom used adapter and it was probably 30 to 50.” She said, “no… he is an electrician and he knows what he is talking about.”
She called me back an hour or so later, when we were away and told me her neighbor had gone over and plugged me in and we were good to go. That did not make me happy as I know what could happen if it was not done correctly and right away started thinking about everything that would be smoked on my RV if anything was done wrong. I just told her “OK” and went on about my business. If anything was smoked there was nothing I could do about it now. I once had a friend call me after he tried something similar and toasted his refrigerator and microwave by sending an additional 120 V line down the neutral therefore making 240 volt outlets out of every outlet in his RV. If you are going to try to do your own electrical work, be sure you know what you are doing and what the consequences are for messing up.
Later on when we got back she came out of her house so proud, asking if we had power and she showed us what he had rigged up. Lets just say we were all lucky. One of the stupidest rats nest I have ever seen, but it didn’t hurt anything and as long as I didn’t turn on anything more that a fan, I would be fine. I eventually went to an RV supply store and bought a $22 50A to 30A molded adapter plug and fixed the issue. I have an electrical background and always have a VOM with me, in short I can troubleshoot and know what I can do and what not to do. I knew I could get an adapter, but I cannot figure out why you can even buy one as it allows you to shoot 50A of capacity into a 10 gauge SO cord. (check the photo below)
We went on for the next few days doing the tourist thing, seeing sites and visiting a lot of good friends from our part of the country who winter in Yuma. We had a pretty big get together with people who are part of an organization we all volunteer at, the Western Minnesota Steam Threshers Reunion in Rollag, MN. They had planned it for when my wife and I would be there. That was very nice! The WMSTR is a non profit "living museum" that has a 4 day show every Labor Day weekend. If any of you are ever interested in attending we have room for probably close to 500 RV's, dry camping only. If you ever want to attend, let me now and I'll get you set up!
We also made a day trip to Los Algodones, Mexico. That was a first time experience for us. Had a lot of fun there… Got into my haggling mode again so I was in my element! Came out with our limit of Mexican adult refreshments, Lots of medicines that would have (and has) cost us 80%+ more in the US, and even stuff we didn’t need in for form of “art”, but I had a good time buying it! I was fascinated by the electrical infrastructure I saw there, or lack thereof… and some of the wiring jobs shop owners did to get by!
Getting hooked up to leave was a challenge. I either had to back in at an angle and perfectly line up to get the 5th wheel head dropped back into the cradle, or pull the head off and put it back in the cradle before hand. I chose the latter, so I had to take the wedge off of the pin box, hook it up like a normal 5th wheel, pull ahead until I was straight and unhook and put the wedge back in and re-attach. This meant the 5th wheel would be free to slide wildly, but there was no way to could run into the cab. As it was, it stayed forward as I was going downhill while re-aligning so it went well. I made my own wedge that bolts to the pin box with 2 - 1/2” bolts and I welded the nuts on the back side so the I can remove the wedge if needed in about 30 seconds. That worked out very well.
Coming up… our next leg to Mesa. Stay tuned!
A friend had told me about a place called Silly Al’s pizza that we had to go to so we went out to find that. We got in and the place was packed. We picked the night of the playoff game between KC and the Buffalo and everyone was in for the game. When it got over 30 minutes later we finally got our pizza and it was ok, but the service was pretty slow. Have to give them a pass though as it was packed in there.
The next morning we got up, got all hooked up again and headed south to Yuma. Easy drive day! and uneventful. We drove right up to a friends home and after a short visit he led us to a privately owned home he had arranged for us to land. Squeezed the rig into her front yard and started the complicated process of unhooking. I have a Pull Rite auto slide hitch and and was aware that you need to be straight in line with the camper, or a very small degrees turned. Straight was impossible in my situation, so I pulled the pins and lifted the head out of the cradle. That worked, but complicated getting it hooked back up 5 days later.
We paid $150 for the 4 night stay with full hookups, which I thought was reasonable. She had 30A and 50A outlets, but the 2 - 30 amp plugs did not work and my 50A cord was not long enough to reach the pedestal. I called her (she had left to go visit someone) and I informed her of the situation. She called back and told me her neighbor had a 50 to 30 adapter and we could use it. I asked her, “Are you sure? They make them but that is a seldom used adapter and it was probably 30 to 50.” She said, “no… he is an electrician and he knows what he is talking about.”
She called me back an hour or so later, when we were away and told me her neighbor had gone over and plugged me in and we were good to go. That did not make me happy as I know what could happen if it was not done correctly and right away started thinking about everything that would be smoked on my RV if anything was done wrong. I just told her “OK” and went on about my business. If anything was smoked there was nothing I could do about it now. I once had a friend call me after he tried something similar and toasted his refrigerator and microwave by sending an additional 120 V line down the neutral therefore making 240 volt outlets out of every outlet in his RV. If you are going to try to do your own electrical work, be sure you know what you are doing and what the consequences are for messing up.
Later on when we got back she came out of her house so proud, asking if we had power and she showed us what he had rigged up. Lets just say we were all lucky. One of the stupidest rats nest I have ever seen, but it didn’t hurt anything and as long as I didn’t turn on anything more that a fan, I would be fine. I eventually went to an RV supply store and bought a $22 50A to 30A molded adapter plug and fixed the issue. I have an electrical background and always have a VOM with me, in short I can troubleshoot and know what I can do and what not to do. I knew I could get an adapter, but I cannot figure out why you can even buy one as it allows you to shoot 50A of capacity into a 10 gauge SO cord. (check the photo below)
We went on for the next few days doing the tourist thing, seeing sites and visiting a lot of good friends from our part of the country who winter in Yuma. We had a pretty big get together with people who are part of an organization we all volunteer at, the Western Minnesota Steam Threshers Reunion in Rollag, MN. They had planned it for when my wife and I would be there. That was very nice! The WMSTR is a non profit "living museum" that has a 4 day show every Labor Day weekend. If any of you are ever interested in attending we have room for probably close to 500 RV's, dry camping only. If you ever want to attend, let me now and I'll get you set up!
We also made a day trip to Los Algodones, Mexico. That was a first time experience for us. Had a lot of fun there… Got into my haggling mode again so I was in my element! Came out with our limit of Mexican adult refreshments, Lots of medicines that would have (and has) cost us 80%+ more in the US, and even stuff we didn’t need in for form of “art”, but I had a good time buying it! I was fascinated by the electrical infrastructure I saw there, or lack thereof… and some of the wiring jobs shop owners did to get by!
Getting hooked up to leave was a challenge. I either had to back in at an angle and perfectly line up to get the 5th wheel head dropped back into the cradle, or pull the head off and put it back in the cradle before hand. I chose the latter, so I had to take the wedge off of the pin box, hook it up like a normal 5th wheel, pull ahead until I was straight and unhook and put the wedge back in and re-attach. This meant the 5th wheel would be free to slide wildly, but there was no way to could run into the cab. As it was, it stayed forward as I was going downhill while re-aligning so it went well. I made my own wedge that bolts to the pin box with 2 - 1/2” bolts and I welded the nuts on the back side so the I can remove the wedge if needed in about 30 seconds. That worked out very well.
Coming up… our next leg to Mesa. Stay tuned!
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We finished up out visit in Yuma and headed east to Mesa to button up the trip. That drive went well, and we got to Mesa in the daylight… problem was we didn’t have anywhere to land. We were supposed to call a park on Thursday and make arrangements but Verizon phone service crashed in Yuma on Thursday and that call didn’t happen. That park, and we soon figured out many other parks do not answer phones on weekends. Weekends apparently start on Friday there. Everyone we called got sent to an answering service and our calls were never returned.
We parked in a Walmart on the east side of Mesa and our friend who we chased back to Mesa ran us around looking for something that might be open. We struck out. My wife had been trying to find somewhere we could park on BLM land, but she was running into “closed for camping” spots. We figured out later that a lot of BLM land in the Phoenix area had been closed to camping because of the homeless making it a long term home and leaving things a disaster. Some of them were people who had come into our country try without proper documentation… so they closed it all off and went in and cleaned house. Wonder if that will ever come back?
In any case, we ran out of light and headed back to the Walmart where our rig was parked… went in and talked to the manager and got permission to stay the night. He told me they frown on it after 2 nights, and I assured him we would be gone in the morning (Sunday) as soon as we had a place to stay. I guess I have that experience under my belt now! It went fine.
I woke up at 3AM and started searching again to find somewhere to park. A KOA popped up in Apache Junction only 11 miles from where we were. Not sure why that search eluded us the night before, but none the less I called them at 8AM and they had a spot available for us for 3 nights. Got out there, got the rig unhooked and went on with our tourist plans with friends.
The only thing of note was our walk through an aviary somewhere in the area and a trip to a gold rush town in Apache Junction. The latter… if you looked up “tourist trap” I am sure this place would be front and center, but the tour staff was entertaining and put up with my typical BS. Imagine going 100’ down into a gold mine without leaving grade! I actually believed it until we walked up 15 steps on the other end to get out after our 50 yard walk through the mine… that was on the level! Wife was not feeling well 1/2 way through so our guide took her back to the elevator, opened the door on one side (the mine side) and then opened the door where we came in and let her go through! In other words, the “elevator” had never moved, just made noise and wiggled a little! One cool thing about the gold rush town was a zip line we paid too much to ride. I had no idea what was about to happen and the end was pretty exciting. Something about thinking that something went wrong and you’re going to crash through a building, and then going from about 40 MPH to 0 in 2 seconds! Quite and adrenaline rush!
The KOA was very nice. Got some clothes washed in their laundromat and started getting packed up for our trip back home. Every mile now would put us a mile closer to ND and while I was really sick of driving but very glad to be heading home, cold or not!
More later.
We parked in a Walmart on the east side of Mesa and our friend who we chased back to Mesa ran us around looking for something that might be open. We struck out. My wife had been trying to find somewhere we could park on BLM land, but she was running into “closed for camping” spots. We figured out later that a lot of BLM land in the Phoenix area had been closed to camping because of the homeless making it a long term home and leaving things a disaster. Some of them were people who had come into our country try without proper documentation… so they closed it all off and went in and cleaned house. Wonder if that will ever come back?
In any case, we ran out of light and headed back to the Walmart where our rig was parked… went in and talked to the manager and got permission to stay the night. He told me they frown on it after 2 nights, and I assured him we would be gone in the morning (Sunday) as soon as we had a place to stay. I guess I have that experience under my belt now! It went fine.
I woke up at 3AM and started searching again to find somewhere to park. A KOA popped up in Apache Junction only 11 miles from where we were. Not sure why that search eluded us the night before, but none the less I called them at 8AM and they had a spot available for us for 3 nights. Got out there, got the rig unhooked and went on with our tourist plans with friends.
The only thing of note was our walk through an aviary somewhere in the area and a trip to a gold rush town in Apache Junction. The latter… if you looked up “tourist trap” I am sure this place would be front and center, but the tour staff was entertaining and put up with my typical BS. Imagine going 100’ down into a gold mine without leaving grade! I actually believed it until we walked up 15 steps on the other end to get out after our 50 yard walk through the mine… that was on the level! Wife was not feeling well 1/2 way through so our guide took her back to the elevator, opened the door on one side (the mine side) and then opened the door where we came in and let her go through! In other words, the “elevator” had never moved, just made noise and wiggled a little! One cool thing about the gold rush town was a zip line we paid too much to ride. I had no idea what was about to happen and the end was pretty exciting. Something about thinking that something went wrong and you’re going to crash through a building, and then going from about 40 MPH to 0 in 2 seconds! Quite and adrenaline rush!
The KOA was very nice. Got some clothes washed in their laundromat and started getting packed up for our trip back home. Every mile now would put us a mile closer to ND and while I was really sick of driving but very glad to be heading home, cold or not!
More later.
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We used to live about 5 miles from the Organ Pizza place. Interesting place. My mom played organ for church for years, and we took her there. I think she got a kick out of it.
If you stayed at the Walmart on McKellips, that is close to where we live. I would guess you took the 60 highway headed to AJ tho.
By the way, we are really glad we live here right now and not in the Midwest or even East!! LOL
If you stayed at the Walmart on McKellips, that is close to where we live. I would guess you took the 60 highway headed to AJ tho.
By the way, we are really glad we live here right now and not in the Midwest or even East!! LOL
It was on Southern Ave... Maybe Superstition Springs? I have no idea what begins and ends or where.
While we were there there was some crazy light show going in to the east. It was called Imaginarium? Looked cool over the fence, but we never went in.
We did use 60 extensively while we were there to go back and forth from the KOA to Mesa somewhere along Broadway where my good friend winters.
Organ Stop Pizza is really cool, and I think a good value when you consider the entertainment. We have been there on 2 separate occasions now on visits to your area and will go again when we come back.
We got hooked up and headed out on Wednesday morning with the intent of driving close to 400 miles a day, taking 1 extra night on the road than we did on the way south. The the planned destination for night one was Albuquerque. We drove took the same route we took on the way down through Payson and Holbrook even though I didn’t like it on the way down. It was the shortest and this time we would be in daylight. We did enjoy the drive… for me it was being able to see what the road was going to do next vs what was going to happen next as far as my headlights could show me. I drove truck all my working career and I am in the habit of driving 1/2 mile more ahead of me, not the 400 feet I can see at night. Wife got a little anxious when we got on the last 40 miles, AZ 377 to Holbrook because of our earlier encounter with the Amazon driver there.
Got on I 40 at Holbrook and headed east. I had to get fuel at Tucumcari and exited to get to the Love’s truck stop to do so. The ramp was insane rough and not knowing that I was using ramps like I normally would. We hit one **** of a bump and and within 15 seconds my Tire Minder started squawking at me about rapid tire deflation on the right front tire of my Montana. I looked and it said 75 PSI (had been at 80) and was a red circle vs black. I got into Loves and stopped short of the fuel line and went out to investigate. I heard and found a slow leak but could see nothing in the tire. Speedco (Loves) was of no help to me. 5 hour wait, and he said they don’t patch tires and they likely would not have my size. He did do me a favor and pointed me to Rays Truck Service just north of them. I drove over there and they got me right in. I still had 59 PSI in that tire 15 minutes after the initial warning. I told him I did not want a plug, I wanted it patched so he took the tire off and pulled it off the rim. He said… Sorry man, you have a broken belt and the tire is junk. He took me over to see it and the inside of the tire had a big blister where the leak was. He seemed so apologetic he couldn’t fix it. No doubt when I hit that sharp bump on the ramp the tire failed. I said “Do you have a new tire”? and he did, but it was $140. I told him, “put it on please”! He got it mounted and back on the rig and I was out of there no more than 20 minutes after I pulled in. Hugo, the service man and the rest of the staff at the desk I dealt with were very nice people and the $30 labor charge was more than fair! More on Tire Minder in my trip observations I that will be my final post on this trip in the coming days.
Back over to the Loves to get fuel and then back on the road. A few hours later we pulled into Albuquerque (where we had stayed on the way south) for the night. Coming into Albuquerque from the west at night is a pretty cool sight with the lights of the city from the top of that hill. We got to Nomadland. I had made reservations so there was no problem getting my same sight. Dan’s staff had put out cones in our site as it is used for staff parking during the day, so after moving them, getting parked and electrical hooked up, we had something to eat (and drink!) and retired for the evening.
Got on I 40 at Holbrook and headed east. I had to get fuel at Tucumcari and exited to get to the Love’s truck stop to do so. The ramp was insane rough and not knowing that I was using ramps like I normally would. We hit one **** of a bump and and within 15 seconds my Tire Minder started squawking at me about rapid tire deflation on the right front tire of my Montana. I looked and it said 75 PSI (had been at 80) and was a red circle vs black. I got into Loves and stopped short of the fuel line and went out to investigate. I heard and found a slow leak but could see nothing in the tire. Speedco (Loves) was of no help to me. 5 hour wait, and he said they don’t patch tires and they likely would not have my size. He did do me a favor and pointed me to Rays Truck Service just north of them. I drove over there and they got me right in. I still had 59 PSI in that tire 15 minutes after the initial warning. I told him I did not want a plug, I wanted it patched so he took the tire off and pulled it off the rim. He said… Sorry man, you have a broken belt and the tire is junk. He took me over to see it and the inside of the tire had a big blister where the leak was. He seemed so apologetic he couldn’t fix it. No doubt when I hit that sharp bump on the ramp the tire failed. I said “Do you have a new tire”? and he did, but it was $140. I told him, “put it on please”! He got it mounted and back on the rig and I was out of there no more than 20 minutes after I pulled in. Hugo, the service man and the rest of the staff at the desk I dealt with were very nice people and the $30 labor charge was more than fair! More on Tire Minder in my trip observations I that will be my final post on this trip in the coming days.
Back over to the Loves to get fuel and then back on the road. A few hours later we pulled into Albuquerque (where we had stayed on the way south) for the night. Coming into Albuquerque from the west at night is a pretty cool sight with the lights of the city from the top of that hill. We got to Nomadland. I had made reservations so there was no problem getting my same sight. Dan’s staff had put out cones in our site as it is used for staff parking during the day, so after moving them, getting parked and electrical hooked up, we had something to eat (and drink!) and retired for the evening.
Carl n Susan
Senior Member
Site Team
RV LIFE Pro
I hate tire issues. What kind and year was the tire?
I think they’re 5 years old. Towmax. Been good tires and are wearing well, but time to get them off. More on that later.
BTW, even Hugo at Rays called them China Bombs! At least it didn’t blow!
Carl n Susan
Senior Member
Site Team
RV LIFE Pro
They are/were referred to as BlowMax here on the MOC when they came new on Montanas. A Search will uncover a number of horror stories.
Much better 80 P.S.I. tires are now available.
Rays sold me a Hercules tire. Not sure what their reputation is... In any case I am going to be making some changes with the suspension before my next cross country road trip.
The next morning we got up and got ready to go. Found Nomadland’s owner and one of his managers in the office and thanked him for using the cones to keep our spot open. He’s a really great gut and runs a maticulous operation. If we travel that way again we will certainly overnight there.
Got on the road fairly early and planned on getting to Dodge City, KS. About 500 miles but we got an early start, so we broke our own 400 mile rule. We got fuel a couple of times, the last being the Loves in Dodge City. Lots of livestock and related support stuff in that area. Close to the loves there is a HUGE packing plant. I have never seen so many refer semi trailers staged in one place in my life.
I had been looking for a place to stay in the area, and RV Life Pro was pointing me to a place in Kinsley, KS. I had been trying to get hold of 4 Aces RV park for 2 days and left messages, but calls were never returned. I decided to drive there anyway (35 miles east of Dodge City) as I had seen a review somewhere about the same issue but they had self check in… just find a spot and follow the directions at the office. We drove right in, found a pull through spot where I would not have to unhook the train, and got electrical hooked up. I went to the office and found the self check in form and wrote a check for $39 to the campground… I think $34 was the site and $5 was for the electrical. I put the form and the check into the attached envelope and dropped it into the slot in the office door. Never did see a soul there except for one other RV’er moving around. Getting into cooler temperatures, I took the opportunity to winterize the rig. All of my tanks were already empty, to all I had to do was pump in the pink stuff. Got that accomplished in about a hour (Splendide takes the longest) and had a bite to eat and went to bed.
Next morning we were back on the road for another 500 mile day, this time landing in Sioux Falls, SD. I am very familiar with Sioux Falls being my home town, lots of relatives in that area, and I spent 18 of my years trucking career turning the Fargo to Sioux Falls run 4 days a week. Trip to Sioux Falls was uneventful and kind of boring, but in a good way. Back into the flat lands, but the wind was not in my favor. Truck didn’t care, but I was down around 8 MPG, which is WAY below my trip average that I will touch on later.
Once in Sioux Falls we fueled up and stayed at the Flying J on the north edge of town. When I got there I parked right next to an RV transporter and that would have been fine but while I was walking around the rig I noticed the transporter had his engine running and windows blocked out. Guess he was sleeping in there, but it was a non-emissions truck and his stove pipe was right near our bedroom window. Got in the truck to find another spot and drove around some gas pumps at an island that was fenced in for construction reasons and right into a dead end! I thought I could get across the parking lot there, but there was a big curb between me and freedom! One of the attendants came up to me and said… Now what are you going to do? He knew enough to know my predicament with the double trailer latch up! I laughed along with him, and then we went to look at my options, short of unhooking.
I found a narrow spot on one end of the fence blocked by a couple of cones, but it was paved and if I could get a little wider turn and get straightened out a little I should just make it. The attendant moved the cones and I started to back the rig. I was surprised how well it went, only took 2 tries to back up around a curve about 100 feet. Took every inch I could to get the widest right turn possible and got though with nothing extra to spare. Right front camper tire (my new one) just touched the curb around one of the new fuel islands but didn’t scuff it. Second trailer follows exactly in the same wheel tracks as the camper so that was a non issue there. I did not plan it that was when I built the trailer, but I’m glad it worked out that way. If the camper makes the corner, so will the UTV trailer.
Got pulled into a spot all by ourselves and turned on the furnace. Temps were now in the mid teens above 0, and I had plenty of propane so I wasn’t going to have to conserve on the last night in the RV. We kept the slides in to make it easier to heat and that turned out to be a good thing as we got 5” of that fluffy white stuff overnight and I didn’t have to worry about dragging in any snow with the slides. We do have slide toppers so maybe that would not an issue but I knew the slides would not be out again until later this spring and I would not have liked to roll them up wet. Part of the reason I bought this floor plan was the accessibility of everything we are likely to need with all 3 slides in, including the refrigerator, bathroom and the bedroom.
Saturday morning we met some old friends for breakfast in the truck stop restaurant. Friends Paul and Karen actually got us into RV’ing something like 30 years ago. I met Paul when I was an active ham radio operator as was he. We both were long time truck drivers and we would chat a lot via 2M ham when we were on the road. Those times were before cell phones were as widely available and affordable as they are now. In any case we, and other friends from SD I knew would go out on weekend (sometimes longer) trips and they instilled in us the fun of the lifestyle. They are a little older than we are and have retired from the RV life, but we stay in touch and it is always good to see them when we can make it work.
We had breakfast and drank coffee for about 90 minutes which was just about right for the roads to clear off. We said our goodbyes and we were on the road! Next stop Fargo, ND, only 250 miles away on a road I have driven well over a million miles on over the years! Any luck we’d be home by 4:30 PM.
Finishing the trip stuff up in the next post.
Got on the road fairly early and planned on getting to Dodge City, KS. About 500 miles but we got an early start, so we broke our own 400 mile rule. We got fuel a couple of times, the last being the Loves in Dodge City. Lots of livestock and related support stuff in that area. Close to the loves there is a HUGE packing plant. I have never seen so many refer semi trailers staged in one place in my life.
I had been looking for a place to stay in the area, and RV Life Pro was pointing me to a place in Kinsley, KS. I had been trying to get hold of 4 Aces RV park for 2 days and left messages, but calls were never returned. I decided to drive there anyway (35 miles east of Dodge City) as I had seen a review somewhere about the same issue but they had self check in… just find a spot and follow the directions at the office. We drove right in, found a pull through spot where I would not have to unhook the train, and got electrical hooked up. I went to the office and found the self check in form and wrote a check for $39 to the campground… I think $34 was the site and $5 was for the electrical. I put the form and the check into the attached envelope and dropped it into the slot in the office door. Never did see a soul there except for one other RV’er moving around. Getting into cooler temperatures, I took the opportunity to winterize the rig. All of my tanks were already empty, to all I had to do was pump in the pink stuff. Got that accomplished in about a hour (Splendide takes the longest) and had a bite to eat and went to bed.
Next morning we were back on the road for another 500 mile day, this time landing in Sioux Falls, SD. I am very familiar with Sioux Falls being my home town, lots of relatives in that area, and I spent 18 of my years trucking career turning the Fargo to Sioux Falls run 4 days a week. Trip to Sioux Falls was uneventful and kind of boring, but in a good way. Back into the flat lands, but the wind was not in my favor. Truck didn’t care, but I was down around 8 MPG, which is WAY below my trip average that I will touch on later.
Once in Sioux Falls we fueled up and stayed at the Flying J on the north edge of town. When I got there I parked right next to an RV transporter and that would have been fine but while I was walking around the rig I noticed the transporter had his engine running and windows blocked out. Guess he was sleeping in there, but it was a non-emissions truck and his stove pipe was right near our bedroom window. Got in the truck to find another spot and drove around some gas pumps at an island that was fenced in for construction reasons and right into a dead end! I thought I could get across the parking lot there, but there was a big curb between me and freedom! One of the attendants came up to me and said… Now what are you going to do? He knew enough to know my predicament with the double trailer latch up! I laughed along with him, and then we went to look at my options, short of unhooking.
I found a narrow spot on one end of the fence blocked by a couple of cones, but it was paved and if I could get a little wider turn and get straightened out a little I should just make it. The attendant moved the cones and I started to back the rig. I was surprised how well it went, only took 2 tries to back up around a curve about 100 feet. Took every inch I could to get the widest right turn possible and got though with nothing extra to spare. Right front camper tire (my new one) just touched the curb around one of the new fuel islands but didn’t scuff it. Second trailer follows exactly in the same wheel tracks as the camper so that was a non issue there. I did not plan it that was when I built the trailer, but I’m glad it worked out that way. If the camper makes the corner, so will the UTV trailer.
Got pulled into a spot all by ourselves and turned on the furnace. Temps were now in the mid teens above 0, and I had plenty of propane so I wasn’t going to have to conserve on the last night in the RV. We kept the slides in to make it easier to heat and that turned out to be a good thing as we got 5” of that fluffy white stuff overnight and I didn’t have to worry about dragging in any snow with the slides. We do have slide toppers so maybe that would not an issue but I knew the slides would not be out again until later this spring and I would not have liked to roll them up wet. Part of the reason I bought this floor plan was the accessibility of everything we are likely to need with all 3 slides in, including the refrigerator, bathroom and the bedroom.
Saturday morning we met some old friends for breakfast in the truck stop restaurant. Friends Paul and Karen actually got us into RV’ing something like 30 years ago. I met Paul when I was an active ham radio operator as was he. We both were long time truck drivers and we would chat a lot via 2M ham when we were on the road. Those times were before cell phones were as widely available and affordable as they are now. In any case we, and other friends from SD I knew would go out on weekend (sometimes longer) trips and they instilled in us the fun of the lifestyle. They are a little older than we are and have retired from the RV life, but we stay in touch and it is always good to see them when we can make it work.
We had breakfast and drank coffee for about 90 minutes which was just about right for the roads to clear off. We said our goodbyes and we were on the road! Next stop Fargo, ND, only 250 miles away on a road I have driven well over a million miles on over the years! Any luck we’d be home by 4:30 PM.
Finishing the trip stuff up in the next post.
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I have made the drive to Fargo from Sioux Falls literally thousands of times over the last 30 years so it was like a normal day at work for me. The snow from the previous night was all cleaned off the interstate and the road was dry for the most part, but there were some spots that had been treated with chemical that were wet. That is nice for a “safe” drive, but not so nice for everything behind me. All the way home I was figuring out how I was going to get the Montana, my new UTV trailer and the UTV itself washed up in single degree temperatures when I got home.
As mentioned earlier, Katy had packed everything (into totes) that was in-accessible with the 3 slides in so that there was no need to extend them when we got home as we knew we were going to be in single digit temperatures when we pulled in. Those totes, I think about 6 of them lined the aisle left when the slides were in. Not having to worry about LP any more for this trip, we elected to leave the RV furnace run on the way home to keep things things that shouldn’t freeze from doing just that. The alternative and one we used on the way south was to move a bunch of stuff to the truck. I took the temp sensor out of the refrigerator and clipped it on a cabinet door and bought the receiver to the truck. We set the thermostat to 45˚ and the furnace maintained that the 5 hours home, even in single digit temperatures.
We pulled in to our town at 5:00 PM, got the UTV unloaded and unhooked the trailer in the street and backed the Montana into the driveway. I started hauling things to the house while Katy stayed in the RV binging everything to the door so I didn’t have to go in and out. Even with things in totes, except clothes it still took an hour to get it all unloaded. I always struggle with everything that we take with. If I were making the trip alone I could travel with 25% of what we bring! The way I see it, half of what we brought we never used! We used to travel with a tent camper! What did we do then? I used to point that out every once and a while but after way to many “discussions” about this matter, I am not going to die on that hill and just play along. I am genuinely curious how many others have those experiences? Could be either way… Maybe your husband overpacks! I do have to admit that I travel “tool heavy” and I am frequently reminded of that, but hey… I can rebuild my suspension on the road!
Finally got the camper unloaded and backed into its normal off season camper spot next to my garage. I took my new LiPo4 battery out of the RV and put it in the heated garage just because I needed to top off the charge and I feel better about storing it in a warm environment.
Special thank you to my neighbor for spending an hour cleaning the snow off all of my concrete driveway and parking surfaces so I did not have to do that when I got home.
I washed the truck the next day, (black truck was white with road chemical) and as soon as it got above freezing I got the pressure washer out and spent 3 hours on the RV, UTV trailer and the UTV itself getting the crap off of them to try to avoid trouble later.
So… there it is. Story about the highlights and lowlights of our first extended trip south after retirement. It was something we looked forward to for many years leading up to this trip and it was worth it, but not without surprises and lessons learned. I am sure we will repeat it next winter but there will be some big changes… not with all of the equipment, but the way we travel.
In the coming days, weeks and months I am going to mention some of the lessons learned and make some recommendations to readers who may be planing something similar (long trip) for the first time. I look to these pages to learn, and asked many questions here before we left and things I learned here and from other sources were invaluable to me. I would like to think my experiences could be of some help to others.
When I comment on thins going forward, they will not apply to everyone because of life-style, skill set, preferences, etc. I and I am sure others would appreciate comments and other opinions that readers can consider for planning purposes leading up to a big (or any) trip.
Thanks for riding along folks!
As mentioned earlier, Katy had packed everything (into totes) that was in-accessible with the 3 slides in so that there was no need to extend them when we got home as we knew we were going to be in single digit temperatures when we pulled in. Those totes, I think about 6 of them lined the aisle left when the slides were in. Not having to worry about LP any more for this trip, we elected to leave the RV furnace run on the way home to keep things things that shouldn’t freeze from doing just that. The alternative and one we used on the way south was to move a bunch of stuff to the truck. I took the temp sensor out of the refrigerator and clipped it on a cabinet door and bought the receiver to the truck. We set the thermostat to 45˚ and the furnace maintained that the 5 hours home, even in single digit temperatures.
We pulled in to our town at 5:00 PM, got the UTV unloaded and unhooked the trailer in the street and backed the Montana into the driveway. I started hauling things to the house while Katy stayed in the RV binging everything to the door so I didn’t have to go in and out. Even with things in totes, except clothes it still took an hour to get it all unloaded. I always struggle with everything that we take with. If I were making the trip alone I could travel with 25% of what we bring! The way I see it, half of what we brought we never used! We used to travel with a tent camper! What did we do then? I used to point that out every once and a while but after way to many “discussions” about this matter, I am not going to die on that hill and just play along. I am genuinely curious how many others have those experiences? Could be either way… Maybe your husband overpacks! I do have to admit that I travel “tool heavy” and I am frequently reminded of that, but hey… I can rebuild my suspension on the road!
Finally got the camper unloaded and backed into its normal off season camper spot next to my garage. I took my new LiPo4 battery out of the RV and put it in the heated garage just because I needed to top off the charge and I feel better about storing it in a warm environment.
Special thank you to my neighbor for spending an hour cleaning the snow off all of my concrete driveway and parking surfaces so I did not have to do that when I got home.
I washed the truck the next day, (black truck was white with road chemical) and as soon as it got above freezing I got the pressure washer out and spent 3 hours on the RV, UTV trailer and the UTV itself getting the crap off of them to try to avoid trouble later.
So… there it is. Story about the highlights and lowlights of our first extended trip south after retirement. It was something we looked forward to for many years leading up to this trip and it was worth it, but not without surprises and lessons learned. I am sure we will repeat it next winter but there will be some big changes… not with all of the equipment, but the way we travel.
In the coming days, weeks and months I am going to mention some of the lessons learned and make some recommendations to readers who may be planing something similar (long trip) for the first time. I look to these pages to learn, and asked many questions here before we left and things I learned here and from other sources were invaluable to me. I would like to think my experiences could be of some help to others.
When I comment on thins going forward, they will not apply to everyone because of life-style, skill set, preferences, etc. I and I am sure others would appreciate comments and other opinions that readers can consider for planning purposes leading up to a big (or any) trip.
Thanks for riding along folks!
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I'll have to check on that. I'm new to Li battery. It shipped at 80% so you may be right. If so... I'll have to put a load on it pull it down some.
Thanks!
scottandsusan
Senior Member
thanks for sharing your trip with us. I enjoy these kind of stories and the challenges and victories along the way.
I turn 60 this summer so retirement is not to far away. My wife and I are looking forward to some extended length trips around the country.
I turn 60 this summer so retirement is not to far away. My wife and I are looking forward to some extended length trips around the country.
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