Early year RV road trip USA.

patzx12

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Should this be a Ride report or in Campers?
No harm mods can move it.

We did a big road trip earlier in the year. It may be of interest to some.
I always fancied doing one of these but Its really Yamonda1 fault he gave me the nudge to do it.
We entered early March into O Hare.
Chicago is nice enough, a bit quiet in winter. I have lots of family here but no time to do the visiting thing. A day and a half, big walk downtown and visit to the Sears Tower.
 

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Early shuttle to Middlebury Indiana. Weather was moderately bad, quite a bit of carnage on the road, Just 140 miles but passed 3 incidents. Some American drivers do not slow down for severe weather.

This was a relocation deal from El Monte, all the RV's are built in Indiana and need delivering. These Rv's were brand spanking new.

They gave us a Coachmen Leprechaun A "small" American at 29ft. I own a Coachmen Freedom.
I was surprised to see how little has changed with the build from 2004 to 2018. You unlock and lock it with a key, a big dash knob to tun on the lights, no alarm or immobiliser. Basic an functional.
This yoke was on a Ford cutaway V10 6.8L my yoke is a 6.0 GM V8.
There was about 20 renters in our group for that day most from Europe. A quick instruction and off we all waddled.
The El Monte guys were sound, gave us a bit of stick about the Leprechaun us being from Ireland. I suggested it was racist all good fun. Being from Ireland always gets a response from Americans you meet, a real ice breaker.
 

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We were in Quaker country, interesting and nice farm country. Mary was really interested in the Amish and Mennonite culture. I dont know much but I know they are excellent farmers. Good to see them in the horse and buggies.
Up till now we didn't have a firm plan, its a road trip so i had some ideas and it was weather dependant anyway.
The RV's were winterised so we had to head south before filling the water tanks.

We headed East to the I-75 due to the dodgy weather.
Once we hit the I-75 it was home to us we have done a lot of runs North - South.
Non-stop through Indiana - Ohio first night stop was just over the border in Kentucky. A spotless rest area with good services. We bedded down in great comfort, it was cold but the RV had LPG heating.
 

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The Problem with Motorhome camping in UK or Ireland is that it is hard to be spontaneous and just park up for the night.
I know most of the plonkers in the CC plan a nightly stopover 9 months in advance!!
I was hoping the US would be different.
 

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More please Pat...
Cracking looking RV... :thumb
 
Next morning through Tennessee and the first minor issue. I thought my RV had a big overhang but when I entered a Waffle house for breakfast the tail started scraping on what I thought was a minor ramp. A lesson learned. After this we recced every ramp before proceeding. Thoughtfully Coachmen had added a couple of scraper bars under the tail, these were well scraped through before we were done. It felt horrible scraping the tail.
 

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On to Dublin Georgia, a nice wee town, things were heating up a bit but still unseasonably chilly.
Georgia is divine, I loved it.
The State and the wonderful people with their lovely accent which sounded straight out of the movies. I really need to have a Georgia motorcycle ride in my future (cue, Bilko for good routes).

Tip: if on a road trip you can buy anything from Goodwill and Salvation army thrift stores, they are everywhere.
We buy extra an suitcase for the trip home for a fiver.
Mary loves shopping anyway so we stocked up, toaster, sandwich maker, hair dryer, wine glasses and the all important corkscrew.
 

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On to Atlanta rush hour, we had to go downtown to get go juice.
Mary is a really good truck driver better than me and loves playing with traffic.
2 Walmart cushions allowed her to see over the dash, the driver seat had no height adjustment!

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El Monte were easy to deal with but could I fec get exact details on our insurance cover. I paid for extra 3rd party cover but the details of the RV damage cover was iffy.
We resolved to treat this vehicle like it was built from crystal. Easier said than done.
We used our driver - co driver system just like we do on the bike.
We brought with us our brilliant Walmart Magellan USA satnav and dashcam. We had a pair of waki-talkies. We never manoeuvred without one of us outside giving directions.
There was no situation when manoeuvring that slow and slower didn't resolve.
 
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The steering was odd on this Ford, we had to hold on with both hands and keep correcting right - left -right all day long.
Watch Mary's hands in this clip. My Chevrolet has none of that, A finger and thumb is all that is needed.
I thought is was Tire pressure and eventually got them checked and pumped to 90psi. They were well down. Surprising they let it out without checking them.
It didnt make any difference to the steering.

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On to Savannah for an overnight at KOA, we were in the overflow area due to it being Spring break and coming up to St Patrick's day.
I did not want to treat the RV like a family car but we had no secondary transport so we took it downtown.
With it's lofty driving position and absolutely smooth engine and transmission it was a doddle in heavy traffic.
What you have to learn about is handling the overhang, when we turn left the tail turns equally right.
If we are next to fuel pumps and decide to pull out like you do with a car we would collect the fuel pumps with our tail.

Savannah is very nice and has I think the third biggest St Patrick's day parade in the USA.
We were too buzzed to sit quiet in a pub so gave the festivities a miss.

Next issue was low trees, There is a lot of gubbins on the roof of one of these RV,s and I got it tangles is the branches of some sidewalk trees.
It could have been nasty but with me up and down the ladder and slow and slower we extracted our self.

So: watch out for ramps and low trees.



Nothing like the ritual of pulling over and making our coffee, a simple thing but very nice.
 

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Mary and i are chronic insomniacs but for some reason we sleep like babies parked up in a camper.
In bed early and up with the break of day fresh and ready for the adventures of the day ahead.
It is a similar buzz to a bike trip.

There was something in Deptford's ride report: "Half a Spanish ride report" about riding from winter into the sun.
It's wonderful and we just did it.
Winter to summer in a couple of days.
A bright crisp day, shorts are on, winter clothes stored in the locker and on to Florida.
230 miles to Daytona, traffic is fast everything is cruising at 80mph.
The RV is well able to keep up.
The welcome centres are great, everyone who arrives in Florida gets a free glass of Orange juice.
 

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These truck drivers are possessed, Cruising at 80 and stop for nothing. Roll on the driverless lorries.
 

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