Tips for long trip with travel trailer?

[72cougarxr7]

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 truck, changed all fluids, new brakes, new clutch, new belts and hoses.
I am also in the process of servicing the TT, new brakes and wheel bearings. Just replaced the tires and the spare last fall.
Planning on bringing a tool kit and a good jack.

Any tips on things I should be doing to prepare for this trip?
Or just general tips for a long trip with the TT?
This will be my first long trip with the trailer, until this I haven't been more than 60 miles from home with it.

[RedRocket204]

RavensFan24 wrote:
I think the sensors in the road sense the axles in a certain time set that determines the payment. Just like a stop light when someone doesn't pull up to the line,so the light stays red forever....and if there is a gap once the light turns green, it'll start to turn red again

Just a FYI on the road sensors. Those are actually an electrical circuit whereby a car, motorcycle, bicycle is the completing ground to the circuit, the trigger.

I always thought the iPass and other toll readers were done by sophisticated systems via a camera... an advanced red light camera type system that also can read an iPass sensor mounted in the vehicle. Not sure on that though.

[bedpan]

Hey Larry,

Our little people travel well. They are 7 and 9. We always factor them in though. Our last long trip 1400mi round trip took us a few days each way. Stopping every couple hours for a walk and bathrooms. We travelled with a plug in cooler and supplies for picnic meals most of the time. Find a park for them to play for an hour. Prep a meal eat and play.

Truck and trailer are in getting serviced right now. Leaving in 10 days.

LarryJM wrote:

Here IMO is very one wise experienced gent with some very sage advice. Having a safe place for the "little people" to burn off some energy while you enjoy not having to ration water or electric makes the small additonal cost of an actual CG worth it's weight in GOLD IMO. However some folks love to have cranky kids so each to their own.:p

Larry

[LarryJM]

wannavolunteerFT wrote:
Good luck on making the trip with two small children. Be prepared for it to take much longer than you expect. That will be two long days for the children. I sure hope you have lots to keep them busy while riding, and plan stops where they can run around and work some excess energy off. Remember you may not be able to pull into that McD's with the playground easily. Consider stopping somewhere besides WalMart, so the kiddos can play. My DD is heading this way with her toddler and mentioned the last trip that should have taken 2 1/2 hours required 4 stops as the little one was very unhappy riding.

Here IMO is very one wise experienced gent with some very sage advice. Having a safe place for the "little people" to burn off some energy while you enjoy not having to ration water or electric makes the small additonal cost of an actual CG worth it's weight in GOLD IMO. However some folks love to have cranky kids so each to their own.:p

Larry

[Passin_Thru]

I try to drive 67. I run day and night and I've run a big truck mostly at night. I nearly had a wreck in Tn last week when some Maroon passed me on the right doing about 100 when I was moving to the right lane after passing someone and with my turn signal on. Our safety man used to say, "Turn on the turn signal, move over to the line and count 3 and you may hear the BEEP BEEP." That guy flipped me off too. Every body out there is drunk when driving and if you drive like they are you will avoid a wreck.

[FishHaggis]

A long trip will inform you well on your needs. I did a 5500klik trip two years ago and I became convinced I did not have enough truck for what I was pulling. Loved the big trip though.

Bedpan, good luck. Sounds like you have a good setup and with an extra week built in, you won't feel the stress of a tight timetable like I did. Would be great to hear how the trip went.

[bedpan]

Congrats Cougar,

Read through the thread with some interest.. Leaving on 6000mi trip in a couple weeks. Trying to sort out the last details of things to take care of so interesting to get peoples takes on things. I am in a recently new to me truck (13 F150 with 25,000mi on it) and a brand new Starcraft 18BH. Only done a couple 500mi trips with the combo so still getting things sorted out.

New to TT's, new to towing.. What could possibly go wrong 😉 TT tows no problem, sticking to 300mi =/- 100mi a day. Going over 30 days or so (got another week to spare on the tail end if things go long).

Bring on the highway!

[72cougarxr7]

Well, I am back from the trip and it went well. the only issue we had was the rear differential cover developed a leak on the way home in Indiana. Luckily there was a nearby truck repair shop that got me right in and re sealed the cover with silicone. They were even pretty fair on the bill! I always worry about having repairs done on the road, some shops will take advantage because they know your from out of town and need to get home.
I averaged about 15 mpg towing, which I thought was pretty decent.

Got to visit the John Deere Commons visitor center and took a short boat ride on the Mississippi River.
My wives family even behaved pretty well!

[Crabbypatty]

While its impossible to predict everything, I bring spare parts having had issues over the road. After having brake issues, I now carry a pair of brake assemblies and a pair of bearings. I have two axles but I have each left side right side is enough along with bearing grease and punches. Tire repair kit. Electrical wire, connectors, wire ties and volt meter. Extension cord for 30 amp. Sometimes your site may get its power from a mast 30 feet away. Extra length of water hose and sewer hose. We did park at a cg and have to have extension all the utilities including cable tv. Teflon tape, pipe wrench. Duct, electrical and eternabond tape. Small plumbing supplies. A couple of tarps and bungies cords. Rachet straps After that its the personal stuff, we cook outside as its hot to cook inside during the summer.Just another note. AAA will not tow your travel trailer. You need Good Sam for that. I broke down on NJ turnpike and AAA was useless. I wasn't leaving my TT along and limped it off the road myself.

You also did the most important thing and that is to pre-flight everything before having an issue.

Happy Trails

[RavensFan24]

I think the sensors in the road sense the axles in a certain time set that determines the payment. Just like a stop light when someone doesn't pull up to the line,so the light stays red forever....and if there is a gap once the light turns green, it'll start to turn red again

[itguy08]

danimal53 wrote:

Question: How does the i-pass (or EZPass or whichever) work when towing a trailer? I know in IL, i-pass automatically catches the trailer on camera and deducts the appropriate amount. What about when using Ipass on the other states' systems? We're prepping for a 1000 mile trip Chicago to Vermont in a few weeks.

I think it has a scale hooked up. At least on the PA Turnpike I think it works this way as the classes are based on weight. When we brought our unit home, I took the PA Turnpike to avoid the Harrisburg, PA traffic. It registered as a class 2 (which is under 15k lbs) for that trip. I was thankful I was under my 17,100GCWR.

[mrjmrobertson]

danimal53 wrote:


Question: How does the i-pass (or EZPass or whichever) work when towing a trailer? I know in IL, i-pass automatically catches the trailer on camera and deducts the appropriate amount. What about when using Ipass on the other states' systems? We're prepping for a 1000 mile trip Chicago to Vermont in a few weeks.

We traveled from MD to Minneapolis last month using the EZPass. PA, OH, IN, and IL all recognized that we were towing the trailer and charged accordingly.

There was a slight discount using the EZPass in a couple of states; PA & OH if I remember right.

[PopBeavers]

Gdetrailer wrote:

Personally, I AVOID driving at night as much as possible.

I would rather hit a deer than a cow. Missed a cow once by three feet towing at night.

[RavensFan24]

I'm prepping for a trip to MD from FL and I'm trying to add funds to my EZPass Account, since I haven't used it in years. While reading their site, they said that if you are towing a camper/trailer of any kind it will charge you full price for the number of axles you have versus the discounted EZPass rate for a single vehicle.

Side note: I have 2 old EZPasses and I'm just trying to activate 1 and tie a credit card to it. I called into EZPass and they said it'd be a 3 minute wait. I'm at an hour and 13 minutes as of this post. Thank God for speakerphone and unlimited minutes.

[danimal53]

shirleyj62 wrote:
We have done this trip several times as we have family in upstate New York and we live in the Chicago suburbs. I presume you will be using the tollways? The New York "I-Pass" transponder will work on all expressways from New York to Illinois.

There is a Flying J/Pilot that we overnight at near Ashtabula, Ohio. it is right off the tollway and about half way between upstate New York and the Chicagoland area. They have a Denny's there where we always have breakfast.

Enjoy your trip.

Shirley

I'm also from Chicago, in-laws in New Jersey so we've done that drive a number of times (though not yet while towing). I've done it straight thru a few times and with an overnight stop in OH. Straight through is quite exhausting, just depends on what schedule allows. I agree on full size TV spare, a must. And a cordless impact wrench is very useful in changing tires. I find when rotating my TV tires, the aluminum rims stick pretty good on metal, so I need to bang them off w/ a sledge (hit the TIRE only) so just have a plan or some experience in changing your own tires. but you obviously seem pretty well prepared, so enjoy the drive!

Question: How does the i-pass (or EZPass or whichever) work when towing a trailer? I know in IL, i-pass automatically catches the trailer on camera and deducts the appropriate amount. What about when using Ipass on the other states' systems? We're prepping for a 1000 mile trip Chicago to Vermont in a few weeks.