First time RV camping

[madsend81]

Last November we took our new to us TT to my folks in Tucson on a shakedown trip to see how the truck and TT did. This past week we took it on our first camping trip to the local mountains here in San Diego. William Heise County Park just outside of Julian.

We've done exclusively tent camping for the past 20 years, so we're new to camping with an RV and we thought staying local with a town nearby with supplies if needed would be prudent. We also happened to pick the hottest days of year so far (97° ?).

We had power and water hookups at the campsite, so no need to test the PPOB on this trip.

A few things we learned:
-Grey water tanks can fill fast! Despite our efforts to conserve water going into the shower and sink, it still filled faster than I anticipated.
-The Dometic AC in our TT is a champ. Kept it on the lowest setting and our teenage boys both said they were too cold.
-Our dog isn't into camping much. Her two favorite things were sleeping in the TT or taking dust baths.
-Bacon, eggs and biscuits for breakfast never gets old.
-Pro Trailer Backup Assist for newbies is great, no matter what seasoned truck drivers claim. I didn't have too much of a difficult spot to back into, but backing in went much quicker than if I tried to do it manually.
-My grey water dump valve is leaking, internally, bad. ? Went to dump when leaving the campground and grey water started pouring out as soon as I opened the cap! I confirmed the valve was closed, but water kept flowing. Thankfully I had my hose ready to go and quickly hooked it up, opened the black tank valve and dumped it before the grey water was done draining.
-You can't make s'mores if you leave the chocolate in the fridge at home. ??‍
-The small fridge in our trailer gets really cold. The eggs were partially frozen by morning #2. ? We defrosted them in the warm sun and all was well.
-When your 5 yr old daughter wants to help with the dangerous jobs, you figure a way to let her help (she saw her older brother chopping wood and wanted to try. I had her help with making some kindling with me holding her hand on the hatchet.)
-A day in the outdoors beats a day in the office.

Now for some pics:

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[Snakebitten]

Awesome post!

 

[Christarpher]

Love this! You my friend are living the dream! Glad everything went smoothly for you and your family (sans grey water tank )

 

[Buyer2021]

Great post, thanks for sharing, welcome to the wonderful world of RV camping, wishing you many more happy Smiles of fun!

 

[GregBC]

Awesome stuff!! What model of TT is that?

 

[madsend81]

Awesome stuff!! What model of TT is that?

It's a 2020 Jayco Jayflight SLX 184BS. 23' long bunkhouse model with a slideout dining table. Sleeps 5. It's a decent, lightweight TT. Gross weight is 4,000 lb so no real challenge for the PB to tow it.

Here's the kids playing cards in the TT while my wife and I took the dog for a walk. Both boys are 6'1". They just fit.

 

[Gord0]

Welcome to RV camping!

Tip for the fridge. Get a couple thermometers. I struggled with mine and had the freezer setting wrong. Turned it to to "coldest" which blocks off most of the cold air to the fridge, then cranked the fridge setting to make it colder in the fridge... Turned into a giant ice block on the coils...

 

[UGADawg96]

One easy way to deal with the tank valves is to add one of these as a secondary valve.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000BGHYJS/

We use this to keep track and tune our fridge and freezer temps.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07XD68GX6/

 

[madsend81]

One easy way to deal with the tank valves is to add one of these as a secondary valve.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000BGHYJS/

I saw that when I researched dump valves when we got back. I'll be picking one up along with a replacement grey valve.

As for our fridge, it's a mini fridge style, so no separate controls for freezer and fridge. Just need to dial the setting down a notch or two.

Thanks for the suggestions. Part of the fun of camping is learning from experience and passing that knowledge on to others.

 

[SaCho]

We bought our first RV last fall and still waiting to do an actual camping. We have been tent camping for around 20 years, RTT for couple of years. This is my first pick up and absolutely loving my truck. Did some dry runs but not at a campground yet. It’s a Stsrcraft Autumn Ridge 26BHS. Our 2022 XLT FX4 seems to get a bit low upon hitching even after weight distribution hitch. Still getting used to the feel, even though I am licensed for tractor trailers. 2kW PPoB trips with ground fault. Working on work around with EcoFlow Portable Power Station. AC is nice. Still haven’t tried heating option. Trying to refrain from using shower/toilet much. Will be updating as we explore more.

 

[Aron]

Welcome to the world of RVing!

I understand why you did it with the leaking valve, but once you get it fixed you’ll probably want to drain the tanks in reverse order. Black tank first, then grey. The grey water will help rinse out the drain pipe before you have to put it away.

 

[madsend81]

Welcome to the world of RVing!

I understand why you did it with the leaking valve, but once you get it fixed you’ll probably want to drain the tanks in reverse order. Black tank first, then grey. The grey water will help rinse out the drain pipe before you have to put it away.

Yes, that was my plan, but since I couldn't stop the flow of grey water, I had to get the black water drained before the grey water was done. There was a hose at the dump station, so I was able to rinse everything down when I was done.

 

[EBR]

We going to do a shake down of our new RV Today.

 

[Cobraman428]

We going to do a shake down of our new RV Today.

Nice looking rigs!

 

[RHCan]

Now that’s living.
Now I’m sure I want to get a TT for the wife and me.

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