Brief first trip report
We picked up our new 2014 A127TH from Wilmington RV on May 30. Several hours were spent over, under, and inside over the weekend which followed, with the end result that we feel like we have a good handle on systems and operations.
On Friday the 6th, we hitched up and pulled her to Hot Springs, NC, about 280 miles from our Raleigh, NC home, for a Friday + Saturday night stay at the Hot Springs Resort CG along the French Broad River. The trip was in the company of good friends who drove their nice 31' Class C and who are veteran RV'ers. By mutual agreement, we planned for most meals in town, just a 5 minute walk from our sites. The CG bathrooms and showers are nice enough, and close enough, so all we hooked up was electric in order to run lights and the A/C at night.
I used a 1/2" drive 24 volt impact driver to run the stabilizer jacks down. No adapter needed as I have a set of 1/2" drive sockets on board the truck at all times.
It was cool on Friday evening, and not too humid, so we left the windows open with the ceiling fan on. It got into the upper 80s on Saturday, with more humidity, so we closed her up and kicked on the A/C an hour before bedtime. Very nice and cool all night, with only a little bit of awareness of the compressor kicking on and off.
The couch cushions as the main bed mattress were very comfortable. We brought a comforter as a mattress pad, put fitted sheets over the top, and had a light blanket for a top cover.
The camper pulled like a dream. Our Class C friends hold their Interstate speeds down to 62-63, some 5-7 mph slower than our first tow home from the dealership. I was very surprised at the fuel mileage--16.8 mpg on the 153 mile segment from Raleigh to Statesville and 15.2 mpg from Erwin, TN back through the Blue Ridge Mountains via Boone, NC on 2-lane roads with many small towns, and on to Raleigh on 4-lane.
We had very little gear on board--two coolers, two bicycles, and a few miscellaneous household items, water tanks empty, and just two days worth of clothing, so we were about as light as we're going to be. I am nonetheless very happy with the fuel burn.
Our tow vehicle is our oldie but goodie F350 single rear wheel 4WD Crew Cab longbed diesel, an '02 model which turned 243,000 miles along the way. We were turning only 1,500 rpm @ 60 mph and she held on to top gear in OD topping out most of the hills. Realizing it gets hillier the farther west we were headed, I kicked off the cruise control by around Statesville in order to pick up a little speed going downhill and ease back on the throttle on the uphills, thus helping the trans stay locked in top gear with the torque converter locked.
Sure enough, we fielded about a dozen questions about the rig, first and most amusingly from a couple tenting across the path from us. As soon as the husband realized I was about to back it into the site across from him, he picked up his chair, turned it around to watch the set-up, and soon thereafter came over for a closer look.
Headed to Chesapeake Bay where the Rockwood will be our bedroom suite parked in the driveway at the family vacation home during the Whole Fam Damily week in July, to a wedding in West Virginia in August, and probably down to the NC coast during September or October. We're already scheming for places to take our grandson once he gets a little over his present early toddler age. This is looking like a whole lotta fun.
Fox58
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Newbie to modern-era small RV camping, but grew up in the 1960s with a Cox tent camper w/ parents and 3 sisters. Yes, a little tight in there.
Rockwood A127TH.
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