Thor Forums

[neeliec]

We recently returned from our real shakedown (literally) cruise in our 2016 Hurricane 27K. Prior to this trip, we had been out in it a total of 3 nights, and to places only a short distance from home. This round trip was a little over 2000 miles, from our home in southeastern Arizona to Pleasanton CA, in the San Francisco Bay Area. Our trip was 13 days of adventure, challenges, inclement weather, learning about our RV, and trying to not get too stressed. While we have taken the same route too many times to count in our car(s) over the past 13 years, this time we saw things through a very different windshield!

Our first night was at the campground at Lake Havasu State Park, right on the lake. It was a really nice place - not busy and very scenic. Our second night was in Bakersfield CA, at the River Run RV Park - a very nice clean park with all the amenities.

Our next 6 nights were spent at the Fair RV Park in Pleasanton CA. It is located on the edge of the Alameda County Fairgrounds, and was mediocre at best. But I’ll leave the review for another time/place. Our last night in the coach was at Orange Grove RV Park, just east of Bakersfield CA. The whole park is in an orange orchard, and we picked lots of fresh oranges to take home with us - free! The last 3 nights of our trip were spent with friends, not in the coach.

The good news is, we had no serious issues with the RV. We ran into lots and lots of rain, and did not find any leaks. We fought very strong winds, and managed to stay on the road - both of us with white knuckles at times.

We found our way around the interior, trying to stay organized but sometimes finding we had to keep moving “stuff” to go to bed or to get in the shower, etc. We know this process will take some time as we become more accustomed to using our little home on wheels, and not bringing/packing a lot of extra stuff we don’t really need. One thing we brought, and were glad we did, was a small portable electric ceramic heater with a thermostat. We had some pretty chilly nights, and the little heater did its job keeping the coach from getting too cold.

We found the king-sized bed comfortable if not a bit hard (for me). We have the factory mattress, but may change it out down the road. I added a fluffy mattress pad and that really helped. I just keep thinking we’re basically sleeping on a sheet of plywood. We appreciated all the storage in the bedroom area, but found we really would have liked a couple coat hooks - maybe one inside the closet and one outside to hang a jacket or hat.

The bathroom is doable, but tight. I have mobility issues and need a step to get up into the shower, and then find the enclosure very very snug. We plan to change out the sliding glass door to an adjustable rod and curtain. We also find a lack of towel bars. We’ve thought of installing something on the wall behind the toilet, but are not sure what - a bar? Some coat hooks? A couple more towel rings? The towel bar device on the door doesn’t cut it.

The kitchen was fine for our needs. I prepared a few simple meals on the trip, but we ate out much of the time with family and friends. Since we have no toad yet, we had to prepare for not being able to go out to eat once we got set up for the night. All that worked just fine.

The sofa/dinette area is in need of some modification for us. The sofa itself is not comfortable for “relaxing.” It is narrow and stiff. We have removed the larger table and put the smaller one in one of the holes, allowing us a smaller dining area but more walking around space. We would like to think of removing the sofa and putting in some loungers.

We averaged around 8.5 MPG on the trip…guess that’s within the normal range. We are not towing anything - yet. We had the pantry door fly open just once, and plan to add a latch to remedy that. We also found that the upper left cabinet over the couch/dining area popped up each time we would take sharp left turn. Another latch will be installed. All the other doors stayed in place during our travels.

Rattles, squeaks, noise & frustrations:

• the TV over the entry rattled even on smoother roads & we’ve be troubleshooting that - no solution yet
• the driver’s side window and/or frame rattled incessantly, more so when we had a cross wind coming from the left. I know several folks have mentioned a similar issue, so I’ll be searching the forum for solutions
• there was some kind of “banging” noise coming from the passenger’s side wall - could not isolate it. It sounded like a big marble on a string, banging on intermittently on the wall. Not sure what it is, but will continue to search for a solution
• the buffeting from strong cross winds was scary and took lots of effort to stay on the road in places
• the road noise was so bad it was impossible to listen to the radio, or even carry on a conversation in normal voice levels
• many of the highways we travelled were in terrible condition…full of ruts, potholes, cracks and roughened surfaces. We felt really beaten up by the jostling, bouncing and bumping over these roads, but know that traveling in a larger RV is very different than in our regular cars. It was just exhausting to experience these bad roads in the RV.

Overall, the trip was a good one and we feel we learned a lot from our first big adventure. We look forward to tweaking our coach to suit our needs, and to adding some things to make our trips more comfortable. We are also thinking of shopping for a toad, but that will take a lot of thought and research.

Eileen in AZ