Tips for long trip with travel trailer?
My family is planning a trip from northern NY to central Illinois in late June. About 850 miles. The plan is to take my 1/2 ton pickup and 15 foot travel trailer. I have thoroughly serviced the tru...
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My long trips have been 600 to 8000 miles round trip. One of those included taking a party of ten from Detroit to western Montana and back, two weeks. Some others with wife and children, later years with wife alone or with wife, daughter, SIL and twin preschool to school age children. How it works depends on who is going, and how long is the overall trip. A really long (e.g. 2000 miles or more) trip is a series of 200 to 400 mile one day trips with a night of camping each day.
What seems to make them work with family along has been to keep the driving around 6 hours a day or less. Enroute stops for visiting interesting places (don't have to be major tourist destinations) help, as do occasional stops at a public park (most small towns have one) for the toddlers to get out and run around.
I try to get into a campground or RV park early enough to fix supper there, while the young ones get out to let off some more steam, use up the energy that would otherwise keep them awake late into the night. I don't do parking lot or truck stop overnights with family, particularly with small children, although I might do them when traveling alone. Confined to the car or truck all day, then confined to the inside of the TT when stopped, it is difficult for settling children down.
I've done 800 mile days, and where we have Interstate highways all the way my kids and nephews and nieces have done up to 1200 miles on overnight drives, when the children are still young enough that they sleep most of the trip. I've never done these long one-day trips with a RV, however. I can't maintain the same average speeds, driving fatigue is greater, and driving marathons to a single destination miss the point of why I am RVing. I'll do those in a car instead, comfortable car with low workload for driving.
What seems to make them work with family along has been to keep the driving around 6 hours a day or less. Enroute stops for visiting interesting places (don't have to be major tourist destinations) help, as do occasional stops at a public park (most small towns have one) for the toddlers to get out and run around.
I try to get into a campground or RV park early enough to fix supper there, while the young ones get out to let off some more steam, use up the energy that would otherwise keep them awake late into the night. I don't do parking lot or truck stop overnights with family, particularly with small children, although I might do them when traveling alone. Confined to the car or truck all day, then confined to the inside of the TT when stopped, it is difficult for settling children down.
I've done 800 mile days, and where we have Interstate highways all the way my kids and nephews and nieces have done up to 1200 miles on overnight drives, when the children are still young enough that they sleep most of the trip. I've never done these long one-day trips with a RV, however. I can't maintain the same average speeds, driving fatigue is greater, and driving marathons to a single destination miss the point of why I am RVing. I'll do those in a car instead, comfortable car with low workload for driving.
