Newbies in our 60's

The best advice I was ever given was to camp close to home on the first outing to check everything. You may have missed an explanation at the dealer or something may malfunction, and if you're close to home, you can return and have it fixed/explained further. We always do this before we head out on our first real trip of the season, too.

Welcome to the forum, lots of good info on this and other RV forums available. Questions can be answered here about routine maintenance, check lists, etc. Give the folks here as much info as you can when asking questions (make, model, specifics about what's wrong, etc), and you will find much friendly, helpful advice. Again, welcome and happy camping.

Take notes - lots and lots of notes.
Then go back and transcribe them.
Then create your own startup and shutdown task list.
Review it every time you get ready to go somewhere.
Review it every time you reach a destination and set up for the night/week/month.
It's amazing how easy it is to overlook the "obvious" and forget to do something or disconnect something or .... whatever. It can also be expensive.

Pretty soon - it'll all be second nature.

Relax & have fun!

Make certain when you pick it up that the dealer thoroughly explains how everything works. For example I bought an older Class A (I'll admit it was for a bargain basement price). I couldn't get the levelers to work and used it for 8 months assuming that they needed repairs (like nearly everything else on the rig). Actually, all I had to do was set the emergency brake before I operated them and they worked just fine! It sure would've been nice if the dealer had had the professionalism to thoroughly go through the rig with me before I left with it.

Steve

Congratulations! I had a 35 ft. Hurricane 2003 for ten years, it was a decent motorhome. Look into a Good Sam Maintenance/warranty policy. A lot of very expensive things can break or malfunction...it is a good repair insurance policy. Make sure the levelers work properly and the slides function properly. Check the awning for function and damage. MOST IMPORTANT..make sure you have a surge/undervoltage/overvoltage protector BEFORE you plug into ANY power pedastal. Improper wiring or improper voltage and voltage spikes can do a lot of damage to your components and systems. a good unit will cost between 250-376 dollars, there are portable units (subject to theft) and hard wired units. I prefer the hardwired unit. Run your generator once a month for about 30 minutes under load..it is good maintenance and prevents the carb from varnishing up and if you are not going to use the MH for an extended period use Stabil in the fuel tank. Get a good tire pressure monitoring system for the coach and if you are going to tow a car add monitors for it.
Enjoy your coach and camp a lot.

Take a lot of close to home camping trips to learn about your coach!

darsben wrote:
Before you pick it up MAKE SURE EVERYTHING WORKS CORRECTLY. Do not accept/pay for unit until you see everything work. SOme places count on your eagerness to take possesion to not do a thorough job of fixing all the problems before selling the unit to you. YOU WILL NEVER be in a better bargaining position as you are now. THey want your money make them earn it. Otherwise you may find yourself waiting weeks and weeks to get a problem fixed. This forum abounds with horror stories about poor after the sale service.

The place you bought the unit is not your friend. They want as much money with as little effort as possible.
INSIST on a complete walk through with the fridge on and hot water heater working, hooked up to water supply or water tank filled. Check AC, Furnace etc do not pay until satisfied

All good points BUT ....
As a new RV'er you may not even know what should be checked. The big stuff (fridge, stove, water heater, etc) will be obvious. Some stuff may not be as obvious or easily forgotten.

We recently moved from a Truck Camper back to a TT and when we took the PDI there were a couple of items I never even thought about. My examples were: how did the couch fold out to a bed, where was the mechanical override for the slide? Also I had never cranked up a 7400# TT with a manual tongue jack. Those TTs I had in the past were significantly lighter. I quickly realized I needed an electric tongue jack. Probably if I had known that earlier I could have negotiated it into the deal.

If I were now to decide I wanted to move to a MH I would either find a friend who had one to walk through it with me or perhaps even pay a professional to join me. There are several mobile RV repair guys in my area that offer that as a service.

Coach-net. Covers the coach and tow vehicles. $100/year. Just having to pay for ONE tow will be more than 5 years of coach-net.

Maintenance records. If none. Maybe not done. Run all systems on 110v. Run all systems on 12v, except ac. Run all propane systems. Run all systems on generator.

Do like we do go and enjoy. Stay safe.