Road Trip Report and Questions

[tamdle]

My 2016 GT XL 352QS warranty will be over at the end of June, and I have not put that many miles on it yet. So far, we drove about 1200 miles to 3 short camping trips. This is my very first RV, it took me some time to get used to it.

At the end of March, did some upgrade to the chassis by adding front and rear sway bar as well as adding the BluOx TrueCenter steering stabilizer. After another road test for 500 miles, it now ready for my 2 months road trip from Willis, TX (60 miles north of Houston) toward El Paso, Large Array in NM, Tucson, Palm Spring, Corona California, Sandiego California, Santa Paula California, Las Vegas, Page AZ, Silverton CO, Taos NM, Santa Fe NM, Amarillo TX, Wichita Falls TX then back to Willis TX. Expecting to put an additional 4,000 miles during the two months travel.

So far, we have been on the road for 2 days, the total miles driven was around 550 miles. On night boondocking at the Ozona Visitor Center and last night was at the Saddleback Campground in Balmorhea TX. Will spend another night here then we will be heading toward Large Array NM tomorrow morning. The bad part of tomorrow night is no campground to stay, we may have to boondock for couple nights. We booked two nights at the Western Motel RV Park in Magdalena couple weeks ago, couple nights ago, they called and said that they don't have enough RVer to stay at their camp so they decided to go to take a vacation in California and close down the site for few days. Now we don't have any place to stay. They said that we could stay at the Large Array Visitor Center, but I am not sure yet.

Anyway, here is the what I found so far on this long trip. The RV was packed to the capacity. Took it to the public scale at Love, it was loaded with 23,620 pounds including my wife and me. Towing a Jeep Grand Cherokee at 4950 pounds. Weight distribution was fine with nearly 16,000 in the rear and nearly 8,000 in the front. The coach was loaded with 2/3 tank of fresh water and 10 gallons of cooking water as well as 10 gallons of drinking water for expected boondocking, 1/3 of black and 1/3 of gray and full fuel. Maybe I have too much water. I will use up some of the fresh water down to 1/3 and keep it at that level as well as reduce some black and empty the gray to keep the coach lighter. Since this is my first long trip, I may over packed the coach. That is what I called "Live and Learn".

That said, the mileage was around 6.3 mpg. Road condition was a little hilly after San Antonio on I-10 West. Hit side wind about a hundred to hundred and fifty miles total. I was doing an average of 60 mph at 2250rpm. The cockpit was noisy but it was not that bad. I measured it around 82db to 87db. I was able to carry a normal conversation with my wife without having to scream. With the BlueOx front sway bar and RoadMaster rear sway bar installed as well as the BlueOx TrueCenter Steering Stabilizer, I still have to fight with the side wind a little to manage the coach. However, on the good road condition and less wind, it seems to work very well.

Some minor thing happens to the coach. Both of the bedroom door guides make of wood broke. The bracket holding the blind at the dining table broke and the whole blind smashes down on the dinette table and scratches it. I have some spare part that Cel sent to me to fix the larger blind by the sofa, I was able to modify it and fix the blind at the dinette table.

This morning, the freezer frosted up, I have to use the hair dryer to defrost it. Hope it will work again. It was working really good.

I have another few thousand miles to go and many nights to camp, I will keep you update on my longest venture on the RV. But so far, I love the RV. The layout is great, with four slides, it is very roomy, all system works well, from the water pump to the water heater, the air conditioning system, etc. They were all functions properly. I was trying to make everything works as hard as possible under the Texas heat to see if any would fail before my warranty will be out in couple months.

Here are my questions:
1 - Does anyone have a problem with the blind bracket made of hard plastic. Did you find any stronger part to replace it? On the bigger blind, I managed to squeeze my hands between the wall and the blind cover and hold the blind to the bracket with "zip-tie" and seems working fine. However, space and brackets for the blind at the dinette table were smaller and different design, I was not able to squeeze any zip-tie there. It will break again in a matter of days if the road is bumpy enough.

2 - The bedroom door guide made of the wood piece, on the rough road, the door would knock these guide out easily. Did you find any better part to replace it?

3 - I also have the EZ tire monitoring system. I keep the tire pressure in around 100 psi because the load that I currently have. On the heated Texas road, the pressure fluctuates so much that at some point it went up as much as 109 psi. I have to stop and deflate it to keep it under 105 psi. The next morning, when the temperature getting cooler, it dropped down to 91 or so, I have to pump it back up to 100psi, then I have to deflate again. I was wondering if you running into the same issue. If you do, how did you handle this matter?

As always, thanks for your help in the past and long in the future too.

I will update my trip to keep you all posted on my experience with Forest River support and the Georgetown XL coach.

Have a wonderful day.

[Jim G]

I have not had a problem with the blinds falling, but I had a similar problem with the floor bracket on the bedroom doors coming loose from the floor. They are only attached with staples rather than screws. My wife decided she would like the doors taken out to allow more room between the bed and wall,
so I replaced the doors with a nice curtain hung from a long rod hung from the aluminum door frame. It works great.
I also have a TPM, I run the tires at 95psi cold. The pressures go up as high as 110 psi when hot, and sometimes drop to 90 during cold nights, but when at a normal cool temp, around 60 degrees, they return to 95. All tires generally stay within a couple of pounds of each other at all temps.
Safe travels-

[tamdle]

Originally Posted by Jim G

....

I also have a TPM, I run the tires at 95psi cold. The pressures go up as high as 110 psi when hot, and sometimes drop to 90 during cold nights, but when at a normal cool temp, around 60 degrees, they return to 95. All tires generally stay within a couple of pounds of each other at all temps.
Safe travels-

So you allow your tire to hit as high as 110psi.

I thought that was the max that the tire could handle before it getting into the danger zone. My tire is 225/80R22.5 and on the side wall, it marked 110psi max. That is why I very hesitate to have the pressure more than 108psi. Since my lowest requirement is around 100psi to handle the load, with the Texas road during the summer time, it could vary as much as 5 to 15psi easily, that is why I have to stop and release the air out of the tire to hold it down below 108 and then have to pump it back up when we park overnight with the temperature cool down.

Am I worry too much or should I be?

Also, the temperature is inconsistency for all tires. Example, my rear twin on the right-hand side could read 100 degrees on the outer and may be 89 on the inner. Not sure how could that be. I can understand small variation but too much variation is concerned me. Could my TPMS bad? The TPMS is a brand new one just bought for this trip.

[Broadway Joe]

Tire Pressures are specified as rated when cold, you don't relieve pressure after driving, and temps are going to be hotter on the side getting sun.

[tamdle]

Originally Posted by Broadway Joe

Tire Pressures are specified as rated when cold, you don't relieve pressure after driving, and temps are going to be hotter on the side getting sun.

Thank Joe,

That explained it. Makes sense but I didn't think of that.
As for the pressure, so it is okay to have the tire pressure up on the hot tarmac?

I know that is really depending on how old the tire is, but for general speaking, what is the pressure could cause a tire to explode? I have no idea and it would be good to know.

Thank!

[Broadway Joe]

If you are traveling the normal friction with the pavement and tire flexing will cause them to heat up, look at Nascar. They start with very low pressures knowing they will increase to the specs they want after a few laps. The increased pressure, unless abnormal won't hurt anything. You Don't see truckers pulling over and lowering their tire pressure.

[tamdle]

Originally Posted by Broadway Joe

If you are traveling the normal friction with the pavement and tire flexing will cause them to heat up, look at Nascar. They start with very low pressures knowing they will increase to the specs they want after a few laps. The increased pressure, unless abnormal won't hurt anything.

Thank Joe, I never have to pay too much attention to my car tire pressure vs. the car weight because it is not that tight range. But for the RV (first time RV owner), I have to learn how to manage the pressure vs. the weight of the loaded coach.

Thank for your input, it makes me feel better now.

Have a wonderful day,
Tam Le

[Vince and Charlette]

Wow! Sounds like you are describing my 2015 GT to a tee. Did all the suspension upgrades you did. Finally got some improvement with Somo Springs.
All of the long window blinds fell off in the past year. Dining table miniblind fell off just last week. Called company. They were fully aware of the problem. Said FR should have been using 4 clips per window instead of just two. Without batting an eye company put 12 new one in the mail just last Friday for free. Note the bedroom shade clips and sofa clips are type 1 since they can be replaced by removing valance. Dining table window takes type 3 which allows getting screwdriver around shades since valance can't be removed.
Rebuild the door stop out of plastic or live with it. More advice available for $1 per item!

[elchilero53]

Ok. I'm a little bit late but try Eagle Guest Ranch at Datil NM west of the VLA. They have a small RV park there with hookups. Phone 575-772-5612. They might be able to help you. The other RV park is in Pie Town, phone 575-772-2727. They have hookups too. I don't know about Quemado. There is an old KOA at Socorro on the south side of town but it has partial hookups (no sewer on most sites but it does have a dump station). Those are your options before Springerville AZ. Safe travels!

[CaptnJohn]

Originally Posted by tamdle

Thank Joe,

That explained it. Makes sense but I didn't think of that.
As for the pressure, so it is okay to have the tire pressure up on the hot tarmac?

I know that is really depending on how old the tire is, but for general speaking, what is the pressure could cause a tire to explode? I have no idea and it would be good to know.

Thank!

The cold PSI on the tire is where you should be prior to leaving. You stand a greater chance of tires exploding by UNDER inflation than anything else.

[tamdle]

Originally Posted by elchilero53

Ok. I'm a little bit late but try Eagle Guest Ranch at Datil NM west of the VLA. They have a small RV park there with hookups. Phone 575-772-5612. They might be able to help you. The other RV park is in Pie Town, phone 575-772-2727. They have hookups too. I don't know about Quemado. There is an old KOA at Socorro on the south side of town but it has partial hookups (no sewer on most sites but it does have a dump station). Those are your options before Springerville AZ. Safe travels!

Thank for sharing, We arrived the Very Large Array (VLA) last night around 6:30 pm. Went to the Tourist Parking was just about 2 miles from the entrance on NM-60, parked there last night, a little noisy at first because it was right on the side of the road, but then around 10:00 pm until 6:00 am, no traffic, slept like a baby.

This morning I went into VLA, and they did confirm that that spot was okay to park there overnight. They did mention about the BLM in Datil which is about 15 miles away. 5 miles east of VLA, there are two parking areas, very nice and clean, one on the north and one on the south side of NM-60. Then there is another about 10 miles east of VLA as well.

Another word, there are plenty of boondocking along NM-60 for folks that would like to visit VLA with an RV. We drove the 36.5 feet RV towing a Jeep to the VLA visitor center this morning and parked there for couple hours during the visit and there are plenty of space there too.

Just so you know.

Thanks again for sharing. I really do appreciate.

Tam Le

[salwolfe]

I have had the shade falling down problem also. It will probably happen again as I used only 2 replacement brackets sent to me at no charge by FR. Some folks have added a 3rd one and that would give one some insurance, but I did mine while on the road and didn't take the time to install a 3rd. Keeping my fingers crossed - don't know why FR doesn't install 3 to start with since they are plastic parts.

[tamdle]

Originally Posted by salwolfe

I have had the shade falling down problem also. It will probably happen again as I used only 2 replacement brackets sent to me at no charge by FR. Some folks have added a 3rd one and that would give one some insurance, but I did mine while on the road and didn't take the time to install a 3rd. Keeping my fingers crossed - don't know why FR doesn't install 3 to start with since they are plastic parts.

When the RV travel through some of the rough roads, it shakes off the shade which only held by two "plastic" brackets. The plastic brackets were mounted on the metal bar. To keep the shade from vibration off the plastic and put too much load on the plastic bracket, I used the "zip tie" to wrap the frame of the shade and around the metal bracket. This will hold the bracket and shade's frame tighter which does not subject to vibration. That seems to work fine for me.

[Vince and Charlette]

I used zip ties also over the bed and sofa. That was six months ago and it looks fine. However, I couldn't get to the ones over the dining table. That's when I called the manufacturer. They said there are supposed to be four clips on the long shade assemblies not three and certainly not two. I thing that's why they are falling off so frequently. FR installs all of them with just two clips. Anyway, manufacturer sent me four new ones for each window at no charge.

[tamdle]

Originally Posted by Vince and Charlette

I used zip ties also over the bed and sofa. That was six months ago and it looks fine. However, I couldn't get to the ones over the dining table. That's when I called the manufacturer. They said there are supposed to be four clips on the long shade assemblies not three and certainly not two. I thing that's why they are falling off so frequently. FR installs all of them with just two clips. Anyway, manufacturer sent me four new ones for each window at no charge.

You were right, I could do it over the sofa but not being able to do the same at the dining table yet. I am in the middle of the trip when this shade felt down. I am going to wait until I get home at the end of June then I may have to take the whole valence apart before I could zip tie the sucker.

[gectisme]

Some information from Tireman's site that I read when I was wondering the same about my tires going up 8-10psi on a really hot day.

RV Tire Safety: Hot tire pressure

[tamdle]

Originally Posted by gectisme

Some information from Tireman's site that I read when I was wondering the same about my tires going up 8-10psi on a really hot day.

RV Tire Safety: Hot tire pressure

Many thanks for your information. This certainly help me to rest assure that I will have a safe travel with proper reading on tires.