First Long Trip

[GL1800Rider]

This is our 3rd outing but our first long one (1020 miles) after taking delivery June 18th. Ended up at Noccalula Falls Campground in Gadsden, Al. for the BamaGanza15 rally. We had just picked her up from the dealer a couple days before leaving and had a new AC installed under warranty (froze up) and a new cooling fan on our 4 door refrigerator (bearing noise).

Only issues we had this trip was the ice maker line leaked for the 2nd time ( pulled panel under fridge and shut off the supply valve) and the temp/pressure valve on the water heater vented a very small amount of water a couple of times but I guess it is working like it should as the water temp gets pretty hot.

Most of the trip was US highways with exception of about 150 miles of interstate. Kept the speed between 55-60 most of the time with some fairly hilly terrain in Northern Alabama and ran with generator for about 8 hours with a 3000 pound car in tow. Fuel consumption ranged between 7.5 and 8.8 with about 2700 miles on the odometer when we got home. We were fortunate to pay between $1.87 and $1.99 for fuel and were able to use our accumulated Shell gas cards ($50 card for $40) so not cash out of pocket.

We were pretty much maxed out on the loaded weight and carried 75# in the front tires, 80# in the rear and 72# in the air bags. Steering tracked pretty good but I was more comfortable with both hands on the wheel. Overall it was a very relaxing trip with the DW and three furry kids.

[Creativepart]

Glad to hear it. It's unfortunate you've had so many initial issues, though. We got lucky and had only a handful of really small things.

Pressure Relief Valve leakage is pretty normal - and it sometimes gets worse if you open the valve up to vent the pressure. Many times the leaking will just go away over time. We don't travel with our HWH on - if you do, perhaps that's aggravating the issue.

We did 3 short trips to get acclimated and test everything out then went on a month-long 3700 mile BIG trip. Everything worked fine and no new problems arose.

Hopefully, after you get these initial problems tackled that will be the end of it for a good long while.

[GL1800Rider]

The relief valve triggered after initial set up at two campgrounds then never occurred again so not a biggy. I might add that the AC and heat pump worked great. We had temperatures down to the upper thirty's for a couple of nights and it still produced heat.

As with most units there are always a few bugs to work out. The only thing directly Forest River related (I think) is the ice maker water line. The others were Dometic issues and even the water line may be. Best thing is our dealer, Tri-Am RV in Ocala, Fl has been fantastic getting us in and has had if ready for us on our requested time frame.

[Creativepart]

We just traveled through your area and found a really nice state park about 8 miles north of Lake City. The Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park. We only stayed one night, but the entire park was great and super relaxing place to be.

In December they have a big drive-thru Christmas thing and there were signs of them getting ready for that already. But, I recommend that State Park to anyone nearby.

We use RV Park Reviews - Trusted Reviews of Campgrounds & RV Parks to evaluate places we think we're going to stay at and on a 1 to 10 scale this state park has a 9.1 rating. Which is super high for a park with a lot of reviews.

By the way, the guy that owns this website also owns campgroundreviews.com.

Here's the review for that state park: http://www.campgroundreviews.com/regions...ter-state-park