First Summer Roadtrip

[Retired]

We bought our 06 Fleetwood Flair at the end of March and spent all of April doing maintenance, repairs and upgrades. 14-15 May we camped at a local county park for a systems test before we hit the road. All is working well except the propane. I smell propane when I open the valve. The tank gauge reads empty, the monitor inside the RV reads full. We will have it checked out when we get to Tucson.

I am retired, my wife teaches and this year started taking summers off. This is our first real RV trip, we have been planning for this for years,

Day 1: We left home in Byron GA at 2pm. Sailed through Atlanta and Birmingham and stayed at Sunset RV, a small no frills but very clean RV park in Cottondale AL. 182 miles.

Day 2: 386 miles, stayed at Farmers Branch RV park in Dixie Inn AL. Clean no frills, good for an overnight if its all you can find.

Day 3-4: 120 miles. Stayed at Tyler State Park in Tyler TX. Beautiful park on a small lake, fishing, swimming and paddle boats.

The coach has been flawless. The 8.1 hums right along at 70 mph, 7.0 mpg so far, no TOAD.

We have been in and out of rain for the past 3 days, We will go from the mid-70s to high 90s tomorrow.

We should have done this years ago.

 

[Retired]

Forgot to mention, we are planning on Byron, Tucson, Vegas, Denver, Byron. About 5000 miles round trip.

My co-pilots:

 

[Retired]

 

[Hillman]

Sounds like an awesome trip. I'm not sure you should let those co-pilots read the maps for you, though.

 

[Retired]

Day 5 our longest yet. 427 miles. We left Tyler TX at 7am and were hooked up at Midland RV Park by 5pm. 4 stops along the way for fuel, pizza and to let the co-pilots tend to business. I-20 has been rerouted south of Dallas, flew right through mid-morning on a Sunday.

 

[Retired]

Day 6: 398 miles, stopped at Dream Catcher RV in Demming NM for the night. No frills, friendly people.

Day 7-15: We arrived in Tucson at the Davis Monthan AFB FamCamp, but not before stops at Texas Canyon Rest Area and a stop to see "The Thing." Had a nice visit with my sister and two brothers, we dont get to see each other very often, this is the first time in 10 years that was not at a funeral.

Day 16: We drove the 400 miles to Vegas and pulled into Nellis AFB FamCamp. I wanted to stop over in Hualapai Mountain Park near Kingman AZ, but no vacancy. We plan on being here until 7 Jun to visit grandkids then off to Denver. Its been 106-108 the two days we have been here. With both ACs running full blast and a big fan, its bearable in the coach but not much else. On the Tucson to Vegas leg I broke down and ran the gen so we could use the coach ACs. We have been averaging 6.55-6.9 mpg on the Workhorse 8.1 chassis.

The FamCamps are very nice. In Tucson we paid $26 a night, Vegas in nicer and only $22 a night. Power and water but no cable or free wifi. We have Amazon and Netflix and an unlimited data plan so we dont need cable or wifi.

 

[Retired]

Minor coach woes:

The steps work when they want to. The motor looks pretty new. I have cleaned the wiring connectors and lubed the pivot points. They worked fine the 8 days we were in Tucson. At the first gas stop after we left they quit working. They worked once today. Big PITA not having steps, tomorrow I will investigate more. I suspect the switch that keeps them out when parked.

The dash AC works until the temp hits about 100, then it blows hot air. Probably low on coolant, we will live with it until we get home.

The two big slides are being uncooperative. The sofa and dinette slide quit extending all the way out. I removed most of the basement weight but it is only extending about 1/2 way.

The kitchen slide is going out but it is moaning and groaning much more than usual.

On a positive note after 2200 miles the 8.1 is humming right along, the gen fires right up, the levelers are working great and all the appliances are doing what they are supposed to do.

So far it has been a nice trip.

 

[AuntieDodo]

It sounds like you are having a good time despite the steps and slide issues.

Did you have the propane smell investigated?

Enjoy the journey. Safe travels.

P.S. Your copilots are gorgeous.

 

[Retired]

We are living without propane. We just haven't had time to address it. We have granny's quilts if we need them in the mountains. It's been in the 50s in Denver. My granny made the quilts in the late 40s. They have never been used.

 

[Rbjewell]

We bought our 06 Fleetwood Flair at the end of March and spent all of April doing maintenance, repairs and upgrades. 14-15 May we camped at a local county park for a systems test before we hit the road. All is working well except the propane. I smell propane when I open the valve. The tank gauge reads empty, the monitor inside the RV reads full. We will have it checked out when we get to Tucson.

I am retired, my wife teaches and this year started taking summers off. This is our first real RV trip, we have been planning for this for years,

Day 1: We left home in Byron GA at 2pm. Sailed through Atlanta and Birmingham and stayed at Sunset RV, a small no frills but very clean RV park in Cottondale AL. 182 miles.

Day 2: 386 miles, stayed at Farmers Branch RV park in Dixie Inn AL. Clean no frills, good for an overnight if its all you can find.

Day 3-4: 120 miles. Stayed at Tyler State Park in Tyler TX. Beautiful park on a small lake, fishing, swimming and paddle boats.

The coach has been flawless. The 8.1 hums right along at 70 mph, 7.0 mpg so far, no TOAD.

We have been in and out of rain for the past 3 days, We will go from the mid-70s to high 90s tomorrow.

We should have done this years ago.

Keep on RV’ing! Sounds like you are having a wonderful time. Enjoy!

 

[Retired]

Day 16-20:Vegas was miserable hot, 106-108 every day. This was my first visit that was not in the winter. I have no desire to go back, well maybe when Elvis makes his triumphant return.

Coach woes: Did a walk around yesterday afternoon and the valve extensions on the passenger rear wheels tore loose from their mounts. I had to buy a rivet gun and rivets to reinstall.

This morning the two big slides would not come in. The sofa/dinette sounds like its off the track, I looked and everything seems ok, finally got it in, its staying in until we get home.

The kitchen slide wouldnt budge. Unloaded everything and it finally came in real slow and jerky. We only had maybe 100 lbs of weight in it, that includes the basement storage.

I cant get the steps working, stopped by WM and bought a step stool.

Left Vegas this AM and drove to Salina UT. Beautiful once we left I-15 and turned onto I-70. The last time I made this drive was 1979.

Tonight we are staying at a TA truck stop. We stayed at a state campground, RV parks, Escapee park, air force base campground, so tonight we are trying a truck stop.

Averaging 6.5 mpg in the mountains, between 5000-7000 ft, much higher grades tomorrow.

 

[Retired]

I discovered that my 06 Fleetwood Flair does not power the 110V outlets off the house batteries.

The owners manual states that only the VCR and bedroom TV outlets will have power when not on shore power or the gen.

I cant use my cpap machine or use the instapot when on house batteries.

I checked the bedroom TV, it didnt have power anyway, so something is amiss.

I would really like an outlet with power at the passenger seat, kitchen and night stand. The outlets are there, I just need to figure out how to rewire them.

 

[RKins]

Does your rig have an inverter? If so, is it on? Maybe the CB needs to be reset on it?

 

[Retired]

Day 20: Roughest day on the road.

Left Salina UT at 7am heading east on I-70. The road was really rough, lots of 5-6% grades.

Made it over Vail Pass at 10,000ft with no issues.

Road work on Loveland Pass had east traffic down to one lane. I got caught behind a big truck doing 25 mph. No clean air on the radiator, the transmission overheated and the coach came to a stop. Engine temp on my scan gauge read 220. 11,000ft altitude.

I was stuck in the only lane of traffic about 50 yards from the entrance to Eisenhower Tunnel.. I kept the engine running, transmission in neutral and the heater going full blast. After about 5 minutes I was able to get to the shoulder, another 15 minutes and I was able to continue on. As soon as I got moving the engine temp came down to 197.

I changed the fluid in the Allison just before I left on the trip. I will look at it in the morning and see if it has a burned smell. I may have to find a shop and have it changed before we continue on. We plan on being here 5 days.

Once it cooled down there were no issues, smooth shifts and normal operation.

The icing on todays cake? One of those hard bumps on the road cracked my passenger windshield. The crack is about 4in long but Im sure it will be all the way across before I get home.

I have Progressive and full glass coverage so at least the damage is covered.