I took delivery of the RV on Wednesday afternoon. It was Thursday afternoon before I decided that I really had to figure out how to drive the RV. The first step was to unhook everything. It went well until I got to the power compartment. The door wouldn’t open. Buying a coach on consignment made for a sticky situation, but the maintenance guy stopped by, got the door open, and made an adjustment so it would open and close in the future.
With everything unhooked, it was time to put the jacks up. That required starting the engine and pushing a couple of buttons (thank goodness for the laminated page with instructions on jack operation). Immediately after the second button was pushed, an alarm started screaming. That alarm’s job was to keep me from trying to drive off with the jacks down. It took a couple of tries, but the jacks were finally in travel mode.
It was time to drive. I sat in the driver’s seat and tried to move it forward. It wouldn’t move (turned out a wire was loose). I found the button to adjust the pedals and moved them back. I could reach everything just fine. Next, I made sure the mirrors looked to be adjusted properly. I could move part with an electric switch at the driver’s seat. The other part had to be moved manually from outside. Mirrors on RVs tend to provide really good visibility.
Now it was really time to drive. I started out moving straight forward about 30 feet, stopping, and then backing up to where I started. I was trying to get a feel for how the fuel pedal moved and the coach reacted in going forward and back, and to get a feel for how the brakes felt stopping the forward and backward motion. When going back, I was watching the mirrors to see what it would look like to back into the camping spot. After going back and forth about six times, I took a deep breath and made a right turn onto the street in front of the camping area. I was really driving, checking out what the scene looked like out the windshield and what the stripes on the road looked like in the mirrors. I could tell I had the coach between the lines.
Soon there was a “Y” off to the right. I took that. More looking at the view and the mirrors. Then I came to a street where I made a left turn. It was a residential street. I got around the turn without running over any curbs. Next a right back onto the main street. Then I spotted a big, empty parking lot. After a left into the parking lot, I spent my time driving around islands. I was carefully watching the back tires to make sure I had gone far enough forward to clear the island. I ended my time in the parking lot backing into a parking space. I was able to see the lines in the mirror. I was surprised how soon the back tires kissed the parking block and how far forward I was.
After feeling more comfortable in the parking lot, I made a right out onto the street and headed back to the campground. Without too much trouble I was able to pull around and back into my parking space again. The coach wound up positioned so everything could be hooked up, and I put the jacks back down. First trip: 3.7 miles. Then I was back to camping.
Piloting an RV and Other Real-Life Experiences 