Basic RV preparations before 1st trip

[tennisgolf]

Hello everyone. Just purchased a new 2020 Minnie Winnie 31K with a full body paint in Sacramento. Haven’t taken it out yet because I want to make sure I am doing the right things before our first trip. Could someone outline the basic preparations as far as the RV goes such as charging the batteries filling up the tanks etc etc. Thank you very much.

[be happy]

I am going to figure you have all the inside stuff taken care of i.e. plates, towels, food that kind of stuff.

As for the "tanks" your fresh water tank is up to you as far as I am concerned. I travel with mine around 1/3 so when I stop I have water for stuff. I like to keep the water down for the weight.

Your propane (as you coach is new) should be full.

Check your tire pressure per the recommendations on the MH.

Make sure you have all the fresh water hoses and connections, sewer hoses, and all the stuff related to those operations.

I would suggest making your first trip close to home or a good rv parts store. That way if you find you are missing something just go and get it.

Do not be afraid to ask other folks about stuff when at the rv park. We have all been there, yes its fun to watch a newbie set up camp. But we are also there to help. Do not over think stuff just go out and enjoy what you have.

[tennisgolf]

Thank you very much for the advice. What about plugging the RV 8 hours before your trip etc so the battery’s are charged etc. thanks.

[thefinchnest]

In addition to making sure things are topped off, making sure that you are road ready minutes before your departure is important. After a cargo bay door incident, we began a running list of things to "check off" before we roll down the road at 65mph. This has turned into our Pre-flight Check list and it comes in handy when trying to remember everything before "campground check-out" time.
From turning off propane tanks to checking the fridge for loose or open containers. Making sure antennas are down and, the afore mentioned, cargo bay doors are latched.
Simple things that can be overlooked during a rush to leave or before your first cup of wake-up juice.
Enjoy your journey!

[luvlabs]

Two things to remember on your first trip:

1. You are going to forget something important.

2. There is always a Walmart nearby.

We have over the past 20 years forgotten sheets, dog leashes, certain foods, pillows, and so on and still survived.

[SeeTheUSA]

Disinfect your fresh water system ... I do ours when a motorhome is new, then annually. Be sure to remove any onboard filter element before this process:

https://www.rvbasics.com/techtips/sa...er-system.html

[Morich]

One item often overlooked is going to be needed more likely for folks near mountains! Areas with flat country often build a water tower to get the water pressure needed, but those with mountains nearby, may just put a tank high up on one. That means folks near mountains are more prone to having extra high water pressure when we camp down in the valley. Invest a few dollars to insure you do not run into high pressure and blow a line in the RV.
I do not like regulators that hold it to 25 PSI as that gets way to little flow in the shower but I like one that controls it to 40-50 as 60 is often spec for too high.
I do like to plug the RV in and turn the frig on at least a day before starting a trip as that lets me get it cold before loading. Check cabinet and drawer loading and ask what happens if something like a door flies open. I find it better to store messy things like a bottle of syrup, down low and assume things may open. The bottle may survive a drop from six inches but not from four feet! Sudden corners may pop a drawer open if it is loaded heavy so put the lighter things with heavier if it seems a question. Things like storing all heavy pans together may work better at home. Storing things takes a different view, so try to look that over a bit.
Different RV react different to the road, so it takes some time to sort out what mods may be needed. I never had the problem before but my current unit twists when I go across dips like driveways and this twist can cause an outside bin door to pop open, so I now have bungie straps added to the inside as a "safety" for any popped doors. Also look at how things are stored in the bins and try to avoid packing so that loose items may shift and be against the door if it opens. Hoses and cords may fly out if loose but stay in if in plastic containers.
Think with a somewhat paranoid mind before starting and it can relieve a lot of the trauma of not having a water or sewer hose when you get there!
Last thing I do before moving is a walkaround to pull on all doors to assure they are actually latched and locked as well as take a look for anything that may have been missed like the door mat, picnic table cloth or some cord, etc.

[BobC]

If your driveway is relatively flat, I suggest spending a couple of nights there to get the hang of things before venturing further. Alternatively, go someplace close. There's a campground near Winters, Lake Solano, that would be a good location for a shake-down cruise. It has hookups but is a campground, not an RV park so there aren't a lot of amenities. On the other hand, Winters is a nice town with good food and shops:

Solano County - Lake Solano Park

1. Read your owner's manual cover-to-cover while walking through your MH, physically looking at each item.

2. Make sure you know where all the circuit breakers and fuses are located, along with all switches and GFCI outlets. You'd be amazed at the number of posts on this and other forums where people have electrical problems, only to find out there's a tripped GFCI somewhere.

3. The same goes for all water and waste valves. Make sure you understand your generator's operation as well as your heater's operation. And, never turn on your water heater unless the water system is pressurized and you've run enough water through the hot water tap to ensure the tank is full.

4. We've found that an oil-filled radiant heater is a nice addition. It's effective, safe, totally silent and will save on your propane use. We use the propane heater to get our MH warm and then use the radiant heater to keep it warm:

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=oil+fille...nb_sb_ss_i_3_9

Good luck and, feel free to PM me if you'd like, I live in Elk Grove.

[AZAspect]

One thing that often times gets overlooked is having some gloves for the sewer hookup. We have used the kitchen reusable gloves in the past but find we like the disposable ones you can get at Home Depot much better. A small box will fit right in most sewer compartments by the discharge valves.

My wife and I have a checklist as mentioned above and that gets updated when something else comes along that we didn't anticipate. I also would mention to make sure your outside compartments are not only latched, but locked as well if you have both. I missed locking one once and the latch on the other side vibrated loose...thank goodness my wife happened to look in her side mirror just as it occurred.

I echo carrying a third of a tank of freshwater. It's nice to have that water available for the toilet, washing hands or whatever on the road. And since your rig is new, disinfect the water lines after removing any filters. Your manual should have detailed instructions on how to do this.

Being a former submariner, we always did "angles and dangles" when we left port and before we got very far into our patrol. This helped identify what was loose and needed to be stowed properly. Well, we obviously don't do angles and dangles in a motorhome but ensure to walk around the inside and look for things that could move or fall about. My wife puts those mats that come in a roll at WalMart for all of our cabinets to help keep everything secured. Take a couple of extra dish towels in case your stovetop decides to start squeaking down the road. You can place them under the metal to metal contact to stop that horrible noise until you can properly adjust/fix it.

Take a note pad to write down things you find that you want but don't have. A certain spice, a different tool, movies and what have you. After a couple 2 or 3 trips you'll be pretty well stocked to your wants/desires.

And of course take along whatever you use for online capabilities. If you run into a problem, log into here and ask away!

Congrats and enjoy! You will have problems at some time or another. You can either make yourself miserable and crazy over this and that or you can simply accept that it happens, fix it and get back to your great life on the road! You've got thousands who have your back right here!

Al

[creativepart]

First trip needs to be 1 to 3 days and super close to home. You are going to forget a zillion things and have twice as many questions about how to do stuff.

About batteries, etc. We bring the RV home 3 to 4 days before a trip and plug it in and turn on the fridge and check the tires, and on and on and on.

Go to YouTube and watch a bunch of RV Trip checklist videos. That will help a ton.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-HDs085s_w

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-JQ7rnj7kM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYDgDfxfgHg

[BobC]

Originally Posted by AZAspect

One thing that often times gets overlooked is having some gloves for the sewer hookup. We have used the kitchen reusable gloves in the past but find we like the disposable ones you can get at Home Depot much better. A small box will fit right in most sewer compartments by the discharge valves.

Costco has some really sturdy Nitrile gloves in the tool or auto section. I'd been using the ones from the pharmacy section but the new ones are much better.

[akeagle]

A couple more things I didn't see mentioned: Its a very good idea to get a good electrical protection device to plug into the campground utility post then plug your onboard power cord into that. It is invaluable to detect and block voltage variations, spikes, opens, shorts, etc, that could severely damage your motorhome's own systems. These devices aren't cheap. I think I paid about $200 for mine, and at one campground we stayed at it didn't allow power to our Minnie Winnie. When I checked closely the readout said there was an open neutral at the post. While that particular problem probably wouldn't have damaged my coach, there are other threads on this site with horror stories of either how their coach was toasted by bad campground power or how their device prevented it.

Wheel chocks. Not the cheap plastic ones that can be easily crushed with minimal effort. Get the hard rubber kind. Harbor Freight carries them and if you watch their discount coupons you can get them for about $5 each. I got 4 of them and tied them on each end of two 3 foot pieces of all weather rope. If parked on a significant slope put both chocks on the downhill side of your dualies. If level, place one in front of the dualies and one in back. When breaking camp just pull the rope to retrieve both chocks at once.

While fresh water and sewer hoses were already mentioned, bear in mind that water, electrical, and sewer connections can essentially be co-located, they can also be separated, sometimes by considerable distances, or otherwise not in the "normal" location on the left side of your rig. We once stayed at a campground where the utilities were at the back of the space, the better part of 20 feet from the normal location. Its good to have two sewer hoses, one 20 feet (fully extended) and a 15 foot extension. For fresh water a 25' and a 15' might be best. A couple 15 footers might suffice too.

Oh, one more thing (yeah, sounds like Columbo!) If your coach doesn't have levelers, get some leveling blocks. The yellow plastic variety are ok. A pack of 10 x 10s are good for the front tires and 10 x 20 (24?) for the dualies. The biggie here is that your fridge needs to be reasonably level to operate for extended periods, like overnights or longer, to prevent damage to the internal workings. If your Minnie doesn't have a round bubble level, get one and mount it somewhere conspicuous, like the galley countertop near the entry door. The conventional wisdom is that the fridge will be ok if the bubble is at least half in the center circle.

Otherwise I believe the best advice has been given at least a couple times: Go on a few local, weekend campouts so you can get the hang of all the little details one needs to master to have enjoyable, trouble free roadtrips.

For what its worth, we bought our Minnie Winnie 27Q a year and a half ago and absolutely love it! Bought it used from an RV rental firm with about 38k miles on the odometer. We've since added about 20k more miles on two trips on the Alaska Highway to the Lower-48 and back. It performed perfectly with no problems at all.

Welcome aboard, and good luck!

[BobC]

Originally Posted by akeagle

The conventional wisdom is that the fridge will be ok if the bubble is at least half in the center circle.

I've read in several forum postings that if you're comfortable, your refrigerator is comfortable, so it's nothing to obsess over. On the other hand, if you have the comfort range of a mountain goat, all bets are off.

Also, although the Harbor Freight chocks are great, they do have a pretty overpowering odor, especially when new so don't store them inside the coach's living area.

[akeagle]

Originally Posted by BobC

I've read in several forum postings that if you're comfortable, your refrigerator is comfortable, so it's nothing to obsess over. On the other hand, if you have the comfort range of a mountain goat, all bets are off.

Also, although the Harbor Freight chocks are great, they do have a pretty overpowering odor, especially when new so don't store them inside the coach's living area.

Maybe I was lucky with the rubber chocks, mine weren't "off gassy" at all. I can easy see that happening though. I keep mine in one of the back storage compartments anyway.

[Hopeful1]

We found this site several years ago and purchased products suggested. We have used them all! Enjoy!
https://www.trekwithus.com/6-things-...nd-experience/