Well, not really frustrated just overwhelmed like drinking from the fire hose of OJT (on- the-job-training). Driving the truck to FL was really quite enjoyable. Even with the U-Haul trailer behind us and driving in downtown traffic, things went quite well. The truck drives very easy, rides pretty smooth, and it’s pretty cool being up above most of the other traffic and seeing what’s going on up ahead of you. Loading the U-Haul in WV was a typical MAXSON MOVE – SNOW in other words.
We picked up the camper in Sanford, FL on the 9th, and even before we drove off of the dealer’s lot, the learning began. We had about 3 hours of training on how things work on both the outside and inside of the trailer. About 50% of it stuck. We’re relearning the rest now.
After the initial training session, we began the hard work of transferring all of our stuff from the truck and U-Haul into the camper. Man-O-Man, it looked like there was WAY TOO MUCH STUFF!! We began to stuff stuff in every nook and cranny. After an hour or so of this, we were finally ready to turn that little (5X8) U-Haul back into its new home. That done, we returned to the camper and tried to get hooked up.
I had asked the dealer service guys for some help to get hooked up since I had never done it before or even used a fifth wheel hitch. Well, a mechanic wasn’t readily available so I had to wait. Things didn’t seem to be progressing too fast so I decided to give it a try by myself. Since I can’t see the hitch in the back of the truck from the driver’s seat, it was really hard to get the camper king pin into the truck’s hitch. After about eight tries, as Judy gave me directions, we got it done. That’s when the mechanic finally arrived. He said, “Yep, looks like you got it.” Thanks Dude. One thing he did do was to give a hint about buying a mirror to put on the camper’s pin box so that you can see the king pin and truck hitch. That way you can get them lined up and hitched. We will look for one.
With the truck & trailer all hitched up, we were ready to drive off of the lot. The time had come. Could I really tow this big thing with the truck and keep it on the road? We were about to find out. Judy took a short movie of me pulling out and then got in. We were on our way!
Everything went really well on the short drive to the camp ground. I didn’t feel uncomfortable driving the rig and the trailer followed right behind us. I noticed that the truck “felt” the camper and that it was working noticeably harder than with the U-Haul. We found out later that we were hauling 800 pounds more than we needed to, yup a completely full tank of fresh water! The tank had been filled by the dealer so that he could check it for leaks and had not been drained. I drained it at the campground.
The work continued after our arrival. Guess what. I got the trailer backed into the spot in just my second try. I knew right away on the first try that I hadn’t pulled far enough forward to get it turned in so I pulled up and backed it right into the spot.
One of the cool things about the trailer is that it has an automatic leveling system. In theory, you back into the spot, push a single button and the trailer starts putting down jacks and bingo, it’s leveled out. I had seen it work at the dealership. Now to make it work here. I pushed the button; jacks started to deploy, the trailer was going through its paces, but mysteriously, it shut itself off. It was NOT level! I tried again with the same results. After trying a bunch of things for nearly an hour, I called the manufacturer and then the dealer. He said he would send us out some help. The mechanic arrived right away, and he instantly saw the problem. The ground was not level enough for the automatic system to work so it was never going to work without some wood under the jacks. We got that problem solved and the system worked just as advertised. Too cool.
We’ve been in the trailer for 6 days now and every day is both new and full of things to learn. Right away we started stowing stuff away. We really could have used some assistance, but the best person we know for this is about 11 hours away across the water. Some things found several resting places until they finally found a real home. We ran out the slides a few times to see how they worked and tried to use everything to make sure all was ok. The trailer seems to be in good shape. On about day 3, we realized that we did not have several things that we really needed. Obviously, with the weather we had when we loaded the U-Haul in WV caused us to forget some boxes in the storage room. Big cooler, coffee cups, the wok, pots & pans, bath towels, the popcorn popper, crock pot, and several other things were all missing. It’s been really expensive replacing everything. Bummer!
Living in the trailer is interesting. Normal things are pretty close to normal and everything else has to be relearned or modified to fit the “new” way. The water pressure isn’t like at home, and the john doesn’t really flush. But it works. Nothing like a squatty potty in the village though. You have to be conscious of how much electricity you’re using (the trailer only has a 50 AMP limit). We haven’t busted the limit yet. 50 AMP is enough to run 2 air conditioners and lights at the same time. We had a surge/voltage protector installed in the trailer to protect all of the electronics against bad power. Electric is included in the fee at the campground so we use the electric fireplace and another heater that we bought for heat since the FL heater has been absent the last two morning; 37F was the low last night. Our propane furnace has only come on a couple of times. Propane is really expensive, so we even cook on an inductive cooker that we bought for that purpose. Since we lived with one just like it overseas, we figured that we could camp with one. We have a Chinese water pot to heat water also. There is a microwave/convection oven though which is nice.
So, with the first week under our belt, we think that things are getting along pretty well. On Monday, we will make our first day long pull (only 145ish miles) with the trailer to see how that goes. I failed to mention that we had a set of air bags installed on the truck this week which will help with the ride and stabilization. That was another great adventure, and we will report on that next week. We have pictures of this on our site and you are welcome to go look at them along with others there. http://www.flickr.com/photos/asiatracks/
The place we are staying at is really nice. It’s a modern KOA campground with lots of nice campers/motor homes. We walked around looking at how everyone had their rigs set up. You can learn a lot if you pay attention.
We will try our best to update every week as to what we have been up to and the “stupid American story” of the day/week.
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