About the Blog: We started RVing in 2019, but did not decide to start blogging about our experiences until 2021. So, we have some catching up to do. We’ll sprinkle in some new present-day stories as they happen. But if you have time, start at the beginning. You’ll learn (and hopefully laugh) a lot.
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You Got Hitched? I Towed You It Wouldn’t Last
By now, you know that we are the “Class C Broads” so towing a travel trailer was ultimately not for us. Trust me, I loved Sally, our travel trailer, and I wanted to make our relationship with her work. It was my “first” trailer after all, and people always say you remember your first. But relationships (even with RVs) are tough, and sometimes rather than staying in a bad one, it is best to just break up. In this post, I’ll share the main reason for my travel trailer heartbreak.
By now, you know that we are the “Class C Broads” so towing a travel trailer was ultimately not for us. Trust me, I loved Sally, our travel trailer, and I wanted to make our relationship with her work. It was my “first” trailer after all, and people always say you remember your first. But relationships (even with RVs) are tough, and sometimes rather than staying in a bad one, it is best to just break up. In this post, I’ll share the main reason for my travel trailer heartbreak.
Sway.
In mid-March 2019, we purchased an Andersen 3350 'No-Sway' Weight Distribution hitch. We made two mistakes with that hitch. First, shortly after getting the travel trailer home, we managed to bend the triangle plate when we were lowering/raising the jack. (That’s a strong jack!). The triangle replacement costs about $60. Rookie mistake. Easy fix.
The second mistake was not realizing that if the trailer is backed into a site at an angle, the triangle plate would turn. Then, to re-hitch to leave a site, the truck had to be at pretty much that same angle or the hitch system could not be reconnected. Andersen has proposed two “easy” solutions to this problem in their Straightening Triangle -- Quick Fix Video, but both seemed really cumbersome and not so “easy.” By way of example, our back-in site at Arrow Rock state park was lodged between some trees, which made for a very long re-hitching process.
Yet, the main issue we had with the Andersen hitch is that is simply did not seem to stop the sway at any speed over 55 mph. That first forty mile trip to Arrow Rock state park (see prior blog post) was long and exhausting. We double (and triple) checked to make sure that the tow system was hooked up correctly and did not see any issues. We were planning on traveling on the interstates quite a bit so towing using this system seemed to be very limiting for us.
I was not about to give up on the travel trailer yet though. Sure, she had a mind of her own, and liked to veer off course every now and then. But that was like any good woman, I was told. Sometimes the good ones like to stray…or in this case sway. Maybe we just needed something else to redirect her, focus her, and put her on the right course. Maybe if I got her a nice expensive gift, she would straighten out. Like….a new puppy?
The new puppy was a Husky. By the end of May 2019, we decided to try the Husky 32217 Center Line Hitch system. Kasie had already performed significant research online on tow systems before purchasing the Andersen system so the reality was that the Husky purchase was a very well-researched decision.
Kasie had the Husky system installed within a day. The unit comes with a special lift tool to position the spring bars into the holding brackets; the tool takes a little more muscle than we anticipated so that was a negative to the system but it was still workable overall. We drove the trailer and truck to a nice level parking lot to perform all of the installation measurements to make sure the head height and head angle are correct and that the frame brackets are at the right height to provide bar tension. Check out this Husky installation video.
We were cautiously optimistic that this would solve our sway problems. Unfortunately, during our trip to St. Louis (see prior blog post), we still felt uneasy with the sway, especially at higher speeds. I felt at times like the trailer was driving us, instead of the other way around. My incessant worrying about each little pop noise or movement made the drive exceptionally unpleasant for Kasie as well. From the looks of things, we were going to either get divorced from the travel trailer or each other 😊.
To this day, I don’t really know why that relationship with Sally really failed. Maybe it was just exceptionally windy the days that we tried to tow. Maybe there were unusually large numbers of semi-trucks on the road those days. Maybe we were doing something wrong. Maybe we just didn’t have enough patience. There are thousands of people who successfully tow travel trailers. And both the Anderson and Husky systems are filled with glowing on-line reviews. But for whatever reason, we just couldn’t figure out how to make the towing experience work for us, especially if we were on the interstate.
Of course, I miss Sally. She was my first, after all. But the reality was that she was just a nice three-month spring fling. Yes, she was good while she lasted, but she swayed in the end. She just wasn’t going to be the RV that I was going to take home one day to meet my parents.
I hope Sally found her forever home and is happy with a new family. I wish her the best. Ride. Sally. Ride.
Our First Camping Trip!
In my last blog, I covered some of the basic travel trailer “accoutrement” that we needed to camp (e.g. weight distribution hitch, TPMS, etc). I ended that blog by noting that after purchasing nearly $2500 in stuff, “we were ready to actually start camping!”
I lied.
When: Saturday, April 6, 2019 (one night)
Where: Our friends’ farm (north of Columbia, Missouri)
Cost: Priceless
Our first camping trip to dewinterize our travel trailer, Sally, at our friends’ farm.
In my last blog, I covered some of the basic travel trailer “accoutrement” that we needed to camp (e.g., weight distribution hitch, TPMS, etc.). I ended that blog by noting that after purchasing nearly $2500 in stuff, “we were ready to actually start camping with Sally!”
I lied.
Before we could start camping, we had to dewinterize the RV. Luckily, our good friend Scott (an experienced RVer who owns a barn with electrical and water hook-ups) offered to help guide us through the process. There was a catch though. We had to drive the RV on dirt/gravel country roads 20 minutes north of town (past Hallsville) to his farm and camp there for the night. Yes, we both lost our RVirginity to Scott.
In all seriousness, Scott was incredibly generous with his time. We later learned that is true about most RVers. The RV community is filled with wonderful folks who want to share what they have learned. Indeed, once you get someone talking about their RV, it’s pretty hard to shut them up. Let me say that again: “once you get someone talking about their RV…..”
I don’t have any photos or video of that first dewinterizing process. We flushed the pink antifreeze out of the tanks, made a small fire, and drank some beer. It was uneventful, and I never anticipated that just two years later, I would be blogging about the experience.
It apparently takes at least four dogs to supervise the RV dewintering process.
I do recall that because we did not have a sewer connection (only electric and water), neither Kasie nor I showered. I also opted to do my morning “business” in a field behind Scott’s barn, rather than go to his house. This was oddly liberating in some ways. Yep, there I was, not too far from the dogs in their little pen – each of us doing our business and being super proud of the business we had done.
Like I said: classy.