New Member Taking my Biggest Road Trip Yet

[spaceboy_13]

Howdy Y'all,
I'm new here. I'm from Seattle WA and bought a 2005 27ft Minnie Winnie in 2017 and then a 2011 Honda Fit to follow along behind in 2019. Added the Blue Ox tow brackets a couple months later. The Winnie only had 10,000 miles when we got her, she's been amazing, and of course the Honda is a Honda (55K when we got her). We quickly realized that just bringing bikes along didn't cut it... having the toad is really nice.

So far, our trips have been pretty much local. Washington has a ton of beautiful places to camp. The farthest from home we've been is Bend, Oregon. Next month (June) we are hopefully going to take the rig all the way to Southern Cal to visit friends and relatives. I've been going crazy trying to fix every little thing and get everything perfect for the long trip. Maybe going too crazy. Installed a dash cam, a new TPMS system, and tapped all the power from the fuse box to clean up all the cables while we're driving.

One thing I did that I'm really happy with is I bought a complete set of Ford wiring diagrams and workshop manuals for the 2005 E-Series. I found the set on eBay for about $100. I've also learned so much from YouTube, LOL.

We've had many fun years with this rig so I'm eager to support this community. Hopeful that I can help somebody just starting out with some of the questions I had back in 2017. Take care!

-pete

 

[Eagle5]

Hi Pete,
Sounds like a great trip! I like going southbound on US 101 for the trip down, as that way all turn-offs for scenic views are right-hand turns. Oregon and California have wonderful ocean views.
I also like McCloud RV Park, which is south of Mt. Shasta. It would be a good spot to spend a night or two on the way back home.
Have fun!
Eagle5

 

[Morich]

So many great places ---but SO FAR !
We have a son in Huntington Beach, which gave us excuses to go that far West but once that was done, the trip North just never really got done well enough!
If I were in Seattle, it might take a decade to get it done well enough to look further out!

Welcome to the group and hope it can help both sides!

 

[spaceboy_13]

Just wanted to say our trip was quite the learning experience. We endured ice maker, AC, and electric step failures, parking at a friends' house in Temecula on an enormous anthill, and the biggest thing was a blown out hydraulic line rendering our slide-outs inoperative. Wow! We managed to make it home safely with a ton of stories. Biggest take-away is that you've gotta be your own tech. Carry extra parts, understand ALL the systems on your camper. I was so focused on the Ford powertrain I didn't even think of servicing the AC, fridge, or (mainly) hydraulic system. Also our little rig that had lived so happily in mild Seattle weather about melted in 100+ deg California heat. Ugh! I learned SO MUCH, but had a really fun time.

 

[creativepart]

I was so focused on the Ford powertrain I didn't even think of servicing the AC, fridge, or (mainly) hydraulic system.

This so common. We have plenty of new RV owners show up and tell us they bought a 10-20 year old motorhome cheap but, they know how to fix trucks so they’re not worried at all.

You’ve learned a major lesson.. a successful RVer needs to be able or at least ready to work on all the “house” subsystems on every RV trip.

I don’t carry hardly any spare parts with me, but I work hard at checking everything out pre-trip and start the trip with confidence that there are few gotchas waiting for me.

A big help I find is when leaving on a lengthy trip we always plan for a very short travel day the very first day of the trip. That way we’re not in a hurry to leave early that first day when things seem to go wrong. Our first day is almost always 100 miles at most.

 

[spaceboy_13]

Our first night was in Eugene, OR, more like 300 miles from here. But we really didn't start having trouble until we hit the high heat. That, and the terrible highways in California (not that Washington's are much better... Oregons are fantastic!). We were driving over the "grapevine" pass into Los Angeles with an active fire, 100+ degree temps, 60 mph crosswinds, with no bandwidth to watch for potholes. We hit a bunch. That night, the hydraulic line blew when we tried to extend the slide-out. We figured it just got beat up during that harrowing drive.

Good times! Take care!
-pete