On Wednesday, we took off on a 3-day shakedown run to Standing Indian Campground. We had a good time and leaned a bunch about the MH. Keep in mind, we’ve never had an RV of any kind, so the camping rules of engagement were new to us.
Some of the many lessons learned follow.
The Rain Rule.
Before going to bed, expect it to rain, even when you know it’s not going to rain. And then prep for it. Depending on the degree of non-compliance to the “it’s going to rain tonight” rule, you are guaranteed an equal degree of punishment.
- Leaving your shoes, clothing or the last roll of paper towels outside, is going to bring some early morning showers. Not severe, just enough to irritate you and ruin your socks and paper towels.
- Leaving the roof vent(s) open will bring twice the rain and you’re going to be swimming through the coach to let the dogs out in the morning.
- Leave the camera, iPad or portable GPS out in the gazebo, or leave the basement door open (where the inverter lives) and you can expect a monsoon, the likes of which hasn’t been seen since Noah boarded up the doors of his Chris Craft.
For the record, I violated
all The Rain Rules, so you know the problems I encountered and who was diving home barefoot.
Conservation of power/water is essential!
I was shocked at how much water we used without even realizing it. We arrived at the campground with a full tank and by day two I realized we were going to run out if we didn’t make some immediate changes. A couple of key components to stretching the water supply were:
- Avoid using the MH facilities and opt for the campground's facilities as much as possible.
- Get the dogs water from a separate source, not out of the motorhome’s water tanks. Two GSD’s will drink a surprising amount of water!
- Paper plates! I can’t say enough about these wonderful things. Use them and feed them to the campfire. Before leaving on the trip, we had actually stocked the coach with real plates and silverware. It seemed like the thing to do. But washing plates and accessories is wasteful and needs to be avoided.
Battery power is gold! Use it sparingly and life will be much kinder on you.
I left home with the refrigerator running on the inverter, which worked great and was nice and quiet. We arrived at the camp grounds at 1:30 and between then and that evening I watched 30+ amps of reserve disappear each hour. Toss in another 50 amps for entertainment, some microwave hot chocolate and a little cabin lighting ambiance, and my bag of battery power was down to stems and seeds.
Switching the refrigerator over to gas was a huge Amp saver, and we continued to run it that way the rest of the trip. My camp neighbor, an ill-tempered, power weightlifting woman, who I’m sure has several homicides to her credit, glared at us the entire day as we had to run the generator for almost 7 hours to recharge our batteries. Personal safety alone dictated we curb our obsessive love for amps.
Soft Drink/Adult Drinks/Energy Drinks
Keep them in an ice chest, not the refrigerator. They just bog the refer down and keeping the door shut benefits overall performance. Drinks will stay cooler, there will be less stress on the refrigerator, and the melting ice makes good water for the K9’s.
So now we’re back. The MH is drying out and among other things, I’m in the market for a new camera. But we had fun and I’m a bunch smarter today than I was on Wednesday.
As my Red-Neck Neighbor says, It’ll be Much More Better Next Time…
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