Newbie

[Freem06]

We are getting ready to take out our Trail Sport R-Vision for the first time. We have never set up to camp in an RV before. I have seen lots of videos on how to set up on the outside of the campsite with water, sewer etc but I am not sure of what steps we need to do on the inside when we get there. Can someone point me in the right direction to get some information on this ? Thank you for any help and I look forward to getting to know other campers as we start this new journey

Paula

[Mark_and_Linda]

Welcome to the Forum....haven't been on in awhile. We went from a pop up to a tt. I thought I knew everything when I had the pop up, nope, still learning after two years. Just take your time every time you go out. I was helping my neighbor winterize his 5th wheel a few weeks ago....he has done it numerous times but after we discussed it....you still forget things.

[Caveman_Charlie]

Yes, thanks for reporting back it's always good to hear how things actually worked.

[Dog_Folks]

Thanks much for the trip report.

[Freem06]

We have returned from our trip and yes we had a few hiccups to overcome. We arrived at the campground and started to set up. We pulled out the "beginner" box with all of our hookups and started to hookup everything. Sewer hose on, water hose on, wait where is the electric cord we need. Looked everywhere could not locate it. Off to Walmart we went in a hurry. The store was closing for Christmas Eve and it was 45 min away. Got to the store found a cord. Ok, we are back on track. Get to the trailer and it is the wrong one. We think its ok we have tent camped for years we can survive the cold and figure out what to do tomorrow. There was one place we did not look in we found out and when we did we found the missing plug. YEAH lights and heat. Plugged it in and off we went to sleep.
The next morning we get up and I decide to try the water since we had not actually turned it on. Cool, water is coming out of the faucet and the toilet is flushing like it should, Well except when it flushed the first time and sprayed water across my knees and on the floor. Husband walks in and asked why is there water on the floor in front of the sink ? We look under the cabinet and the inlet water connection plastic connector is cracked like someone overtightened it. So we unhooked the water. I am sure there were things we could have done to actually have water in the reserve but to be honest we could not figure out what to do. Our goal before we go next time is learn how to use the reserve water and electric. All in all we had a wonderful time and plan to go out at the end of Jan again. 🙂

[2112]

The only suggestion I can make is once you have the water connected run the faucet's to get any air out BEFORE you turn on the water heater. Turning on the electric water heater without water in the tank will fry the element before you knew what happened.

[Caveman_Charlie]

campigloo wrote:
Congrats on the new toy! Turn the fridge on at least the night before. Have your basics packed and the rest is easy to figure out. Don't over think it, just have a good time. The rest will come soon enough. Have fun!!!!!!

Good point on the fridge. They are slow to cool down, I always start mine the night before and then pack it with cool food in the morning.

[campigloo]

Congrats on the new toy! Turn the fridge on at least the night before. Have your basics packed and the rest is easy to figure out. Don't over think it, just have a good time. The rest will come soon enough. Have fun!!!!!!

[Caveman_Charlie]

Another vote here for camping in your driveway the first time.

[dadmomh]

Welcome! Agree Camp Driveway is excellent. Don't run back in the house to get whatever you need, just make a list like it's the real thing.

The very, very first thing on the inside list after hooking up water, electric....even before sewer....is to check the faucets to make sure they are truly off, not on. Some faucets turn reverse to a home faucet and our old camping buddies hooked up, got into a lengthy chat and didn't realize the bathroom faucet was running wide open until they saw water running out from under the HTT. Made quite a mess for their 2nd or 3rd trip out. Water in the GFI in the vanity, running all over the floor and into Lord knows what areas. That is on my list since I'm the inside person and it's #1. Then you can flip on the A/C, put out the slide once the stabilizers are set, start getting your "stuff" in order.

Also agree, take your time...except on the faucet thing. You'll likely feel like you have no clue how you got into this, but a trip or two and it'll be second nature. Enjoy!

OH, BTW, open cabinet doors slowly and be ready for falling objects.

[Dog_Folks]

Welcome. This will be a exciting trip for you. SLOW DOWN. Going fast is when things get broken, and by taking your time, you will enjoy it more.

[lushy]

Another Camp Driveway / Camp Backyard vote here.

Best bet is to set up and camp a night or two at home to test things out. If you have a question, come back here and ask it. There is a lot of good people with knowledge, help, and ideas here. Welcome and have fun with the new TT. We are expecting snow here today, so camping is a few months away. Merry Christmas!

[Freem06]

We are lucky that the State Park is only 45 min for our house so that is were we are going to go. I had wanted to go to an actual RV park so there would be a front office of knowledgeable people but living in South Texas we have a lot of Snowbirds right now and finding a spot was hard.

I got up a looked at the manual again but guess its like a band-aid, just yuck it off and its not so bad afterwards. 🙂

[Hoosier_Daddy]

Camp Backyard or Camp Driveway is a great suggestion. Highly recommended way to get to know your TT without straying too far from home.
We'll do it on a whim when we need to "get away". 😉

[RoyB]

Best thing we did in the early days was to camp out at the house (and no cheating) and you will find out real quick what you need...

We also had a close by STATE PARK that we called our home base and this is close enough to home to come back for things that you didn't remember to take with you. Also camping close to a LOWES or WALMART will provide for everything you will need when camping...

You will eventually build-up all the necessary things to bring along on the trips.

We use the ACTION PACKER tubs from LOWES to store all of our bring along things that needs to go with the trailers. This way we can just load up the tubs and hit the road...



It will become all second nature after a couple of trips... Making short close by trips are best to do to get to this point...

The main thing is to Have Fun...

Roy Ken