The Shakedown...our successful first trip out.
This past weekend we took the new Aerolite 174es out on its maiden shakedown cruise for a night at the campgrounds at Mt. Madonna County Park.
http://www.sccgov.org/sites/parks/Camp%20Here/Pages/Get-back-to-nature-while-staying-close-to-home-.aspx
Getting up and down the hill was uneventful and a real pleasure with the Expedition. Although our site had water hookups, we went fully loaded with 52 gallons of fresh water. I don't live on a flat street so we needed to take the rig over fully loaded to another part of town to get the weight distribution set up properly before we left town. I also wanted to see how the rig would handle going up that very steep hill with a completely full load.
Backing into the site was a little more difficult than I'd anticipated due to a inconveniently placed tree and due to the fact that a couple of other oversized TT campers parked their TVs a little bit too far out in the street where I needed to turn. I managed to make it straight in on the third try but I learned that I should aim to arrive as early as possible to avoid such “obstructions”.
Most of our equipment worked fine although I noticed a few issues:
1. The fresh/black/gray tank level indicators are simply not accurate. Even after we ran the water into the gray tank for 20 minutes, the indicator still registered as empty. Are these typically woefully incorrect or is this a “warranty” issue I should bring up at our next servicing?
2. Our 6 month old was sleeping on the lowered dinette and I sat down next to him to change his diaper. You can guess what happened next. The wooden support on the right side ripped out of the screws and the table top went crashing to the floor…luckily my son was not injured. Now I’m a pretty big guy…6’1” & 270 lbs (but I’m on a diet ;))so I can’t be completely certain it is Aerolite’s fault, but the support only had three size 6 wood screws that only went into the support board about a quarter inch. To top it off, two of the screws were barely an eighth of an inch from the top of the support strip…I’m pretty sure my 40 pound daughter would have ripped it off if she’d sat on it. When I got home I re-attached and reinforced both sides with eight 1 ¾ inch size 12 wood screws…now they are both solid. I’m convinced that whoever put this in had absolutely no care for whether it would support anyone.
3. We noticed that once it got dark, most everyone with a TT went inside and started watching videos/television. A few of the folks with tents and HTTs were outside around the campfires, but I was surprised that such a large number of the TT folks just shut down. I remember camping being hanging out under the stars roasting hot dogs and marshmallows. If I were going to stay inside and watch TV I’d just as soon stay home. I might understand this at an “RV park” style facility, but is this common at a real campground?
Overall it was a great experience and we are set up with eight more trips over the next four months. My 2 and 4 year old sons had a blast and my 5 year old daughter (who has never been camping before) said it best when she exclaimed “this is the best camping trip ever!”
http://www.sccgov.org/sites/parks/Camp%20Here/Pages/Get-back-to-nature-while-staying-close-to-home-.aspx
Getting up and down the hill was uneventful and a real pleasure with the Expedition. Although our site had water hookups, we went fully loaded with 52 gallons of fresh water. I don't live on a flat street so we needed to take the rig over fully loaded to another part of town to get the weight distribution set up properly before we left town. I also wanted to see how the rig would handle going up that very steep hill with a completely full load.
Backing into the site was a little more difficult than I'd anticipated due to a inconveniently placed tree and due to the fact that a couple of other oversized TT campers parked their TVs a little bit too far out in the street where I needed to turn. I managed to make it straight in on the third try but I learned that I should aim to arrive as early as possible to avoid such “obstructions”.
Most of our equipment worked fine although I noticed a few issues:
1. The fresh/black/gray tank level indicators are simply not accurate. Even after we ran the water into the gray tank for 20 minutes, the indicator still registered as empty. Are these typically woefully incorrect or is this a “warranty” issue I should bring up at our next servicing?
2. Our 6 month old was sleeping on the lowered dinette and I sat down next to him to change his diaper. You can guess what happened next. The wooden support on the right side ripped out of the screws and the table top went crashing to the floor…luckily my son was not injured. Now I’m a pretty big guy…6’1” & 270 lbs (but I’m on a diet ;))so I can’t be completely certain it is Aerolite’s fault, but the support only had three size 6 wood screws that only went into the support board about a quarter inch. To top it off, two of the screws were barely an eighth of an inch from the top of the support strip…I’m pretty sure my 40 pound daughter would have ripped it off if she’d sat on it. When I got home I re-attached and reinforced both sides with eight 1 ¾ inch size 12 wood screws…now they are both solid. I’m convinced that whoever put this in had absolutely no care for whether it would support anyone.
3. We noticed that once it got dark, most everyone with a TT went inside and started watching videos/television. A few of the folks with tents and HTTs were outside around the campfires, but I was surprised that such a large number of the TT folks just shut down. I remember camping being hanging out under the stars roasting hot dogs and marshmallows. If I were going to stay inside and watch TV I’d just as soon stay home. I might understand this at an “RV park” style facility, but is this common at a real campground?
Overall it was a great experience and we are set up with eight more trips over the next four months. My 2 and 4 year old sons had a blast and my 5 year old daughter (who has never been camping before) said it best when she exclaimed “this is the best camping trip ever!”
