I planned to buy a truck and TT for about a year and finally pulled the plug past weekend. We did a 30 minute drive to a nearby campground to try everything out. Some thoughts:
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I need more small containers to hold stuff in place. I have a lot of open storage spaces, but they're so big everything slides around.
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Bigger, open campgrounds will be my friend. This one had spaces so small and close together I could barely fit my truck in the space, let alone the trailer.
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Tent camping is dead to me.
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The University of YouTube is fantastic. I had nearly zero questions and didn't feel like I needed any more tools or equipment with me.
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Don't tighten my sewer hose to the campground sewer as tight as it will go. It got stuck and took me an extra five minutes and some banging to get it separated. Which was less than fun as the fumes were in my face.
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Grey tanks can fill up fast. Mine is only 30 gallons.
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I probably need a bigger diameter fresh water hose so my tankless water heater will have enough flow to operate off the spigot instead of only off the fresh water tank.
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I jacknifed the trailer while backing, but had the sense to only go about 1mph so damage was super minimal and limited to the hitch and tongue. My spotter (wife) was essential to not hitting more things.
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A mattress topper or new mattress is a requirement before the next trip. They should honestly sell RVs without a mattress if they're going to be that bad.
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Running the heater the first time will set off the smoke alarm. On that same note, a space heater is perfect if attached to shore power
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Blank tank flush connections are indeed pretty useless. Just flush, refill, flush again, refill again, flush again. Worked way better.
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RV neighbors are friendly and will talk about your setup with you.
>RV neighbors are friendly and will talk about your setup with you.
Just wait until they gather around watching you struggle backing into a tight spot.
- pack a cordless drill and 3/4″ socket/adapter for those scissor jacks 😉
- Get a box of nitrile gloves to keep in the compartment with your dump station gear.
- make sure you have a 4 way lug wrench OR know that the lug wrench in your truck will work for the lug nuts on your trailer. thats the worst, staring at a flat tire, knowing you have a spare and not having the right lug wrench to change the tire. also, check tire pressure on the spare when you make your pre-trip prep.
- Talk about spotting needs and communication with your wife. we started with walkie talkies but quickly realized that just having an open cell phone call between us was the best way to communicate without yelling or keying the mic when the other was trying to speak. also, make sure she knows where to be so you can see her and hand signals.
- pack a 2′ level and some scrap 2x8s for quick leveling for setup. if you’re gonna be setting up a touch OFF level, make sure rain water wont land on top of your slideout and run in towards the camper. made that mistake exactly ONCE.
State parks are where it’s at for space. However a lot of them don’t have full hookups. So a honey wagon is a useful buy.
My wife’s one rule when buying our TT was that she would be taking showers so be prepared to empty the grey tank.
Our TT is 30 gal for both grey and black. The grey will fill up a lot faster.
We have put foam mattress we got off Amazon in both the trailers we have had. Stock mattress are absolute garbage.
Wife and I just got the 260BHLE basically identical just longer/different floor plan. Any surveyor legend specific advice you have? We are taking our first trip this weekend hah!
There is a twist on cap for the sewer outlet that has a garden hose connector with a cap. Get two 5-7 gallon Jerry cans (whatever fits under your sewer outlet) and a short sacrificed garden hose. Empty off two jugs of gray water every day and dump at the dump station. You shouldn’t fill up the gray each day assuming you take quick showers and don’t wash every dish completely.
They make an adjustable extension foot for the trailer jack that will save you a lot of time cranking. Also will free up your leveling blocks for the other points. One of my favorite additions
Source: Thoughts after my first outing
