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Hobbes525's avatar
Hobbes525
Explorer
Jul 17, 2017

Tips for first time long haul road trip.

Hello fellow RV'ers. Mi wife and I are going to be embarking on our first long haul road trip with our two sons. (13 and 8). I hope this is the first in a long line of annual family vacations. :)

We live approx 20 min west of Milwaukee, WI and will be heading down to Orlando, FL.

We are planning two days for travel. I plan to leave between 4 and 5 am the first day and drive Nashville area. We have made reservations at a camp ground there. I hope we can make it there around dinner time to give us time to relax and rest up for day two.

I was planning to go through Rockford Ill on 39 to champaign and then taking 57 south and picking up 24 into Nashville. This gets me around chicago and avoids the dreadful drive on 65 to Indianapolis which I made more times then one person should ever have to in their lifetime. :)

For day two it looks like 24 to Chattanooga and then 75 all the way. Tried to find some ways around atlanta but doesnt look like there are many options.

We will do the same thing on the return trip.

We're pulling a 30' TT so we plan on taking it nice a slow. we will be in Florida for a solid 11 days with some off days planned between all of the touristy stuff. Really looking forward to it.

We have done some smaller, two our drive, trips with the camper so I've gotten a good feel for how the trucks pulls with it. Be a long trip I could use some tips and or advice any seasoned RV'ers would have.
  • My family has transitioned over a 4 year period from hitting it hard (5-600 miles/day) to the 300 mile rule this year.

    Our main motivator in the earlier years was not knowing if we'd have the chance again. We are over that now.

    Our trips are far more relaxing, but they are missing something from that first year or two... You can enjoy a trip with either strategy.
  • My first tip is to slow down. That first day is nearly 600 miles, double what most RVers do in a day. We used the 3/3 rule for overnights. 300 miles or in a campground by 3pm. You'll only average 50 MPH so you're looking at a 12 hour first leg. It's been a while since I traveled with kids, but I remember a considerable amount of crankiness after 8 hours on the road.