Too many miles?

[brebar]

Hello everyone. I am new to the RV experience, I just purchased a new Tracer 240 TE. I have planned a trip from Michigan to Glacier NP. I reserved all the camp sites along the way.

My question is, did I "over do it", as far as miles between campsites?

The first three days I am going to be driving 516 miles from Holly MI to Lake Gogebic MI, then from Gogebic to Devils Lake ND, 491 miles. Then from Devils lake ND to Shelby MT, 650 miles. most of the way we will be traveling on US. 2.

I recently read in "The RV book" by Mark Polk that I should try not to travel more than 350 miles per day. (I planned the trip before I bought this book)

I planned the trip so that we can stay at Glacier for 6 Days and relax and tour the park.

Any opinions or scoldings would be appreciated:h

[bid_time]

I did the same type of thing a couple of years ago. What I did was I left at 3 a.m. in the morining. Wife and kids would sleep in the car until 11 ish. Then we would stop for 30 - 45 min for breakfast and continue on until 3 p.m when we would stop for the day. We never unhooked the camper, just plugged in. From 3 in the afternoon to whenever the wife and kids would go swimming, playing tennis, volleyball, or whatever. I would usually go to bed about 8, wife and kdis stayed up until 11 or 12. At 3 a.m. we would jump in the car and go. wife and kids slept, I drove. We could easily cover 500 or 600 miles in a day depending on type of roads. One day we drove 641 miles in 12 hours. I will tell you though. After 3 days of this, you really will need a break and should take at least a day off. I wouldn't do it for more than 3 days out of 5.

[Reader1]

Welcome! You do have a tough three days of travel. We have done that also. It is helpful if there is more than one driver. Just make sure that all drivers understand completely that if they are at all tired to stop, not surge ahead thinking they "can do it." One of the things we did a couple times, instead of leaving from home first thing in the morning, we left when DH got home from work and drove through the night. I would not recommend this for everyone or for a lot of trips, but when our goal was to put down a lot of miles there were some advantages to driving through the night. Fortunately when we did that we had three drivers so at least one was sleeping. Use this trip to evaluate how you want to proceed with future trips, there may be some that you want to put down a lot of miles some days and there may be some that you want to take it slow and enjoy each day of your vacation. Best Wishes and enjoy your trip!

[JIMNLIN]

Some may make 500-600 miles a day (10 hrs) towing on our interstates and similar 4 lane systems but no one is gonna' make that kind of miles in 10 hrs on 2 lane highways that go through every berg on the road with the usual number of red lights/stop signs like city fathers like to see.

The last 540 mile trip we made was from CO to home. The A/C broke down which was no big deal in the CO/NM/UT mountains but with temps in the upper 90s/100s in KS and OK stopping for the nite was out. So we pushed on for 540 miles and 13 hours on without the benefit of the interstate system.

[GilliedogKiwi]

One thing to remember is to enjoy the trip as well as the destination - to me anyway. We do about 6 hours driving between stops usually when doing a long distance trip but have done up to 10 when driving to Florida. When backing into a campsite may I suggest that your wife/partner stands behind in the camping spot and helps direct you using your cell phones (with yours on speaker of course or through the vehicle radio system) and work out some hand signals for backing so you both understand what each other means (We learned to do this pretty quickly!!). Above all BE PATIENT WITH EACH OTHER! Also when you are in the travel trailer put your keys on the winder handle for the antenna if you have one. Then you don't forget to put down the antenna for the TV before you move away from the campground! (the dealer told us this trick and its a great one). We wish you the best in your travels and hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

[JJensen79]

Don't be scared. Find a large parking lot and practice backing up and turning around obstacles so you get the feel of how the truck and trailer handle together.

Camping in the driveway is the best way to start. Keep a note pad handy and mark down everything that you have to go back into the house for.

Create a few check sheets, one for getting ready to leave for a trip, arriving at campsite, and leaving campsite. There is even an app called RV checklists that you can customize. These will help so nothing gets forgotten.

My salesman told me that the most important thing to remember about rv'ing is to slow down, relax and have fun.

[brebar]

Ok...!! First, I would like to say THANK YOU to all the folks that responded to my OP. I learned allot.

I have my work cut out for me trying to re schedule my trip out west. I will try to cut those 500+ mile days in half. My wife and I have only three weeks to take this trip. I'm retired but she is not, so we have some restrictions for time.

I'm realizing now, that this trip is maybe too ambitious for first time RVers. The original plan was to go to Glacier for 6 days...Yellowstone for three days and then to Badlands for 2 days.

BTW I have not even been inside this TT for more than 20 minutes. I have never pulled anything more than a 12ft aluminum fishing boat. Pulling this thing through the mountains scares the heII out of me. Backing this thing into my drive way is a big deal!!

Sewer hoses, surge protectors, white, grey, black water tanks, weight distribution hitches, batteries, rv parks, propane tanks, leveling, backing up, getting a flat tire, slide outs, dump station etiquette, getting water, TV and TT and tongue weights, storage, MPG, calibrating tank monitors, and many more things, trip planning, it's really over whelming.

Thanks again, and I will try to visit the archives to get questions answers rather than bore you with the same old stuff. I may also discover that it's not as difficult as it seems to me right at this time.

We will be camping in my backyard to test all of the systems on board before we go and we will be taking a few short trips (less Than 60 miles) before we embark on our first RV vacation.

Thanks again everyone, you are awesome!!!

[sdianel_-acct_c]

I wouldn't want to do it. You will probably go only 55-60mph. You will have to stop for fuel which adds time. Figure 10-12 hours with no weather, construction or traffic delays. If you don't leave real early (sunrise) you won't get to the next stop before dark. Arriving at your next destination after dark is no fun. Will the RV park offices be open when you arrive?

[TucsonJim]

I'd call those campgrounds asap and see what their cancellation fees (if any) are. Most of us don't make reservations but just call ahead to see if they have any openings. The only exception I make is if I'm going to be in a park on a holiday weekend.

If you're going to crank out the big miles the first few days, do what several others here have suggested. Find a place to legally park and catch some shut eye. There are lots of posts on the forum about free places for the night. Some Walmarts, Cabelas, Bass Pro Shops, truck stops, rest areas, etc. are possiblities.

[Trackrig]

Brad,

It would help or relieve stress on you if the person sitting in the right hand seat is good with a GPS. Either a stand alone unit or on their phone to help you with directions in the morning and at night in the dark. There's nothing like being lost in the dark when tired. We've found it good to have both a phone GPS and the Garmin in case one of them is wrong - it happens.

Also you might call the RV parks and see how they handle check in and check outs after hours. Most of their offices aren't open after 6:00PM. Some will just have a note on the door telling you to park in any open space. You never know. Then they'll want you to check in at the office after they open at 8:00 or 9:00AM. For most of the RV parks you'll be parking after they're closed and you'll want to be gone before they open in the morning. Sometime after lunch each day, call the next RV park and see how they want to handle it and what space the want you to park in.

Another reason to call them is to check how to get to the park. Yes, you'll have a GPS, but due to road construction, temporary reroutes are often necessary and often confusing. We never would have figured out how to get into the Prince of Tucson RV park without calling them. Their off ramp was completely blocked off, the frontage road on one side of the freeway was blocked half way down (with no place to turn a 40' MH and toad around in)and the frontage road on the other side was confusing with all of the barricades. I don't know if we would have found the place without specific directions from them.

Use the Gas Buddy app for your fuel. The navigator can also use Google sky view to see what the gas stations are like - will they have enough room for you? Way out on some of the roads with less traffic, you might let the other half have some driving practice so they can spell you when needed.

Yes, I think you're being too structured in your reservations for that time of year. There are truck stops, truck fuel stops, public rest stops, WalMarts, etc to use for brief (4 - 8 hours) stops to sleep at. Again go to your Apps and look for rest stops, rest areas, truck stops, mypilot, RV dump, sani dump. Sometime around 3:00PM when you have an idea of where you want to stop for the night, the navigator can find an RV park in that area and give them a call.

Bill

[pianotuna]

Hi,

I hope these help:

Free and Low Cost Campsites

Bob's Cheap or Free Campsites

not necessarily boondocking

brebar wrote:
Am I being too structured here?:o

[brebar]

Terryallan wrote:
Just be aware, 500miles is going to take you more than 10 hours. Close to 12. Do you want to drive that long? As for your reservations. Redo your math, and change them. Won't cost as much as missing one, and may cost nothing. I'd change them to 250 miles apart. 5 or 6 hours per day.

Alright, I can see I made a mistake. A bit too ambitious trying to get to Glacier NP in 3 days from lower Michigan. I'll see if I can change the reservation schedule.

My experience reserving campsites in Michigan, at least the popular sites such as Ludington SP, is that, if you don't have reservations by Jan or Feb your not going to go there. We have also found from experience that sometimes there is not a hotel room for a 100 miles around these areas during the summer.

That is why I booked the entire three week trip in January.

Do you Rv ers do the same thing? Am I missing something? Am I being too structured here?:o

[Lantley]

brebar wrote:

midnightsadie wrote:
nope your not going to make it. call and cancel the camps, AND the very first thing you forgot is , YOUR ON A VACATION SLOW DOWN ENJOY THE TRIP. if you don,t you,ll miss the joy of having the rv. you can sleep any where,

OK....Your the second or third person to mention this. My biggest fear is not having a place to stay after a long journey.

Remember, I'm new at this and it seems to me that, if I don't have a place to stay for the night, I'll be wandering around pulling this 27' TT with nowhere to stop.

Do you just pull over in some small town parking lot and sleep for the night? Is it OK to do this?

You can overnight at Wal Marts, Cracker Barrel, Bass Pro Etc. Beware of your surroundings and you'll be fine.
Pulling into a CG after dark is no picnic.
You really need to reconsider your current plans as a newbie you are biting off more than I think you can chew.
When I was younger,more energetic,more ambitious and not quite as wise
I took a few 650 miles jaunts while towing, however that allowed me to reach my destination. I did not have to drive any further. Now I have wised up and set more reasonable 300 mile goals.

[West_Beachhouse]

We drove our TT from N CA to GNP, we took two weeks and traveled approx 300 miles per day. Occasionally we did drive greater than 300 miles per day and by the end of the day, I was less than pleased. My husband is a professional driver with many miles of experience even he agrees to 300 to 350 miles per day.
Check the cancellation policies of the campgrounds.
Best of luck and have fun. Be safe.
West Beachhouse

[Terryallan]

Just be aware, 500miles is going to take you more than 10 hours. Close to 12. Do you want to drive that long? As for your reservations. Redo your math, and change them. Won't cost as much as missing one, and may cost nothing. I'd change them to 250 miles apart. 5 or 6 hours per day.

[intheburbs]

Just about every Walmart in the country allows overnight RV parking. Except maybe some urban stores.

Check with the store manager, don't put out chairs or a bbq, and be respectful of your surroundings.

I'll be making the 1600-mile run to Albuquerque solo - wife and kids are meeting me there. Plan is to drive until I want to stop, park at a Walmart, sleep, wake up, and get back in the saddle.