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Mike_E_'s avatar
Mike_E_
Explorer II
Sep 17, 2017

Maiden voyage

Well, we picked up our '18 GD Reflection 29RS on Sept. 9 and had to wait a WHOLE 6 days before we could camp in it....torture.

Got her loaded up, picked up dear wife from work and off we went on our way to Whistler for the weekend.
Our truck handled it amazingly. Yes, it pulled it up all the hills at speed, but it was the many descents that had me going "Wow." It is way smarter than I am. I made the comment to my wife, "It's like the truck can see what is coming". Very impressed.

Got to the campground at around 6:30, so we had about a good hour of light left. The attendant told us we had a pull-through site and I said, "Well, that's no fun. You've got a guy who's never backed up a 5th wheel before...AND it's getting close to dusk." "I'll tell you what," she said with a grin, "why don't you stand around here talking to me for half an hour and then I'll give you the last back-in spot that will barely fit your trailer?" I was just about to say "PERFECT!" when my dear wife said, "The pull-through will be just fine."

Got unhooked, hit "auto-level" and started to get my hoses etc set up.
Seemed like only 10 minutes before we were on our chairs with Bailey our Lab at our feet.

Tried everything out and were pleasantly surprised that everything was as it should be.
Then I noticed some water on the floor up by the bathroom. A little poking around and I found that the toilet was leaking when flushed. Further info has led me to believe it is the 'vacuum breaker' at the back of the toilet. Message has been sent to our dealer for it to get looked at/fixed.

Had a great sleep. The bed was very comfy.
Bailey had a better sleep lying in front of the fireplace all night

Anyway, here's a couple pics.

Pic 1: Truck with Andersen rail mount and ball in lowest position and the adapter facing rearward. Could swing the adapter around to move the trailer farther back, but I'm concerned I might unweight the front of the truck too much. There is lots of pinbox clearance as set up, so I might just leave it as it.




Pic 2: dinnertime view of the sun hitting the mountain tops. We are currently on "GD loop" here : a Solitude right next to us, and a Reflection 303RLS next to him.



Cheers,

Mike, Susan, and Bailey.

13 Replies

  • mr. ed wrote:
    Durb wrote:
    Nice. I'm glad your first outing was a success. 3 years in our trailer and I have never backed it in while dark. I'm planning on some supplemental lights to help when the time comes.


    I never backed mine into a site when it was dark, either. I always made it a pint to arrive at an RV park while there was some light. If I knew I couldn't make it before dark I'd opt for staying at a different venue overnight, such as Walmart. If I had a significant other to help guide me, I may have attempted it, but there are too many opportunities to hit something when it's dark. Just not worth it, IMO.


    Yeah, I was kidding about the backing up in the dark part.....definitely wouldn't want to have to do it.
    In fact, our next trip is about a 6 hour drive from us, so I'm planning on heading down ahead of everyone else to get there in the daylight.
  • Durb wrote:
    Nice. I'm glad your first outing was a success. 3 years in our trailer and I have never backed it in while dark. I'm planning on some supplemental lights to help when the time comes.


    I never backed mine into a site when it was dark, either. I always made it a pint to arrive at an RV park while there was some light. If I knew I couldn't make it before dark I'd opt for staying at a different venue overnight, such as Walmart. If I had a significant other to help guide me, I may have attempted it, but there are too many opportunities to hit something when it's dark. Just not worth it, IMO.
  • Nice. I'm glad your first outing was a success. 3 years in our trailer and I have never backed it in while dark. I'm planning on some supplemental lights to help when the time comes.