the start of a new life

[Kattwo]

Originally Posted by riverss

I am 79 years young and every day is an adventure as only those that have traveled through those years will know what i mean. My bride of 50+ years and bought a new Rockwood RLF8299BS back in February with the vision of the open road staring us in the face. I prepped our Ram 2500 6.4L CC SB (GAS) & B&W Patriot hitch for our first of (hopefully) many road trips.we hooked up and pulled out for a 14 state , 33 night , 4,339. 01 mile maiden voyage. how about that for you faint at heart adventurers? Our FR Rockwood gave us 100% and we could not be more satisfied with our choice. our GPS (which i will not name because that kind of language is NOT aloud) put us in some bad situations and i was forced to do maneuvers that were NOT happy times but the Reese Revolution served me well and i was so happy that i did not have to get out in the pouring rain to manipulate a slide hitch. in my state of mind i would have certainly put the corner into my cab. we had no issues our Rockwood 8299 BS or the Ram after i had the factory trailer brakes problem resolved. we towed over many 7% grades and as high as 10% with out an issue with an over all trip mileage of 9.7 MPG IMHO fantastic. we are getting our Ducks in a row for our next adventure next month in Co +++

I'm planning on doing the same. I thought I was too old at 67 but I'm encouraged by your post. I'm afraid I will make the wrong choice in an RV, etc. My RV will be my full time home. Any newbie advice???

[tjmezzan]

Originally Posted by Paul GA

I've had one about two months. Was coming back last week from Charlotte on business and needed something for this weekends trip. You can pick "Closest Camping World".
Did that just outside of Spartanburg, ended up at somebodies house out in the boonies.

We used ours last year, traveling from California to the East Coast. Traveled over 12,000 miles in about 2 months. The only mistake I made at first was to tell it to detour around toll roads. Well, it wanted to take us on an 800 mile detour at one point, so I changed the setting as I was driving. Pretty easy to do. We paid a lot of tolls while on the east coast, but nothing worth the cost of gas it would have taken to go an additional 800 miles. I also ignored the GPS when it told me that propane wasn't allowed in certain tunnels or on certain bridges. I couldn't have gotten where we wanted to go if I listened to the GPS, but over all, it was great. It let me know if I was overweight, too low, too long, etc. all along the way. It let me know in plenty of time to make adjustments.

[riverss]

thanks for all of the great reply's. i am not as tech savvy as i once was and i thought that i had crossed my 'T' s and dotted my 'I 's by using the Dock and downloading the chosen destination.the multi trip function and i did not get along very well. too many bells and whistles for my like. i have always tried to use the KISS method and i just now had to give up my old flip phone for one of the new'smart' ones.I am going to try to make friends with it and see what happens on this next outing and if the results are the same i will have one for sale cheep.

[TreeLady]

Originally Posted by riverss

thanks for all of the great reply's. i am not as tech savvy as i once was and i thought that i had crossed my 'T' s and dotted my 'I 's by using the Dock and downloading the chosen destination.the multi trip function and i did not get along very well. too many bells and whistles for my like. i have always tried to use the KISS method and i just now had to give up my old flip phone for one of the new'smart' ones.I am going to try to make friends with it and see what happens on this next outing and if the results are the same i will have one for sale cheep.

Learn to use your smart phone!! It will save you a lot of grief. If you know a teenager, let them teach you how to use it. Especially the "map ap". I used that all the time to find places and roads and to get us out of some tight spots.
Plus finding restaurants, stores, walmart, etc. Never too old to learn!!

[riverss]

wow it is GREAT to know that i am with such fantastic company. age is a state of mind and since i cant remember much my state is very young lol. I did all of my pre-trip-inspections etc in the two days that we were to start our trip.i move slow but thorough. we, my bride of 50+years and our faithful spoiled hound Lilly and yours truly set out for our Colorado adventure early in the cool Texas July morning. Heading west with the sun at our back it is a beautiful day to be traveling. BAM!!! My tire pressure monerter sounded I checked my mirrors immediately as i instantly looked for a safe landing place all i could see was a cloud of smoke in my right mirror. i do not drive fast even on the interstate 60 is my preferred speed. luckley there was a place to get to and i dove for it. i surveyed the damage and it appeared to be confined to the tire and none to the slide area of the RV. I called Good Sam emergency road service and noted the time . we had only been on the road for 35 minutes. there was a repairman there within 30 minutes and we were back on the road in about one hour. Thank you Good Sam. the service man and i had a long talk about tires and i decided to return with him to his place of business and buy 4 new E rated tires to replace the D rated ones that came on my 5th wheel. there was absolutely no warning what so ever . we were lucky. our trip continued on to Roswell NM (and i saw no aliens) on to Clines Corners then we made our way up 550 to Farmington' overnite, Delores overnite, over Lizard head pass to Ridgeway overnite. then to Ouray for a week. we came back through Gunison walsenburg, Raton, Clayton Amarillo, Lubbock, Abilene and home . I am going to have to examine the only issue that i have with my rockwood is that the refrigerator will not hold a safe temp in hot Texas weather and it is the improper installation due to poor air flow.this trip was 2189 miles, 16 days. planning our next now ya hoooo!

[CaptnJohn]

A lot of miles on that trip in 16 days. My wife of 47 years and I moved south in 2013 and have so much to see and explore. We have done a lot of the north and west. We take our 2 boys, one is 3 and one nearly 18. Never had but one bad day on the road since 1974.... Hope to see you on the road one day.

Originally Posted by riverss

wow it is GREAT to know that i am with such fantastic company. age is a state of mind and since i cant remember much my state is very young lol. I did all of my pre-trip-inspections etc in the two days that we were to start our trip.i move slow but thorough. we, my bride of 50+years and our faithful spoiled hound Lilly and yours truly set out for our Colorado adventure early in the cool Texas July morning. Heading west with the sun at our back it is a beautiful day to be traveling. BAM!!! My tire pressure monerter sounded I checked my mirrors immediately as i instantly looked for a safe landing place all i could see was a cloud of smoke in my right mirror. i do not drive fast even on the interstate 60 is my preferred speed. luckley there was a place to get to and i dove for it. i surveyed the damage and it appeared to be confined to the tire and none to the slide area of the RV. I called Good Sam emergency road service and noted the time . we had only been on the road for 35 minutes. there was a repairman there within 30 minutes and we were back on the road in about one hour. Thank you Good Sam. the service man and i had a long talk about tires and i decided to return with him to his place of business and buy 4 new E rated tires to replace the D rated ones that came on my 5th wheel. there was absolutely no warning what so ever . we were lucky. our trip continued on to Roswell NM (and i saw no aliens) on to Clines Corners then we made our way up 550 to Farmington' overnite, Delores overnite, over Lizard head pass to Ridgeway overnite. then to Ouray for a week. we came back through Gunison walsenburg, Raton, Clayton Amarillo, Lubbock, Abilene and home . I am going to have to examine the only issue that i have with my rockwood is that the refrigerator will not hold a safe temp in hot Texas weather and it is the improper installation due to poor air flow.this trip was 2189 miles, 16 days. planning our next now ya hoooo!

[riverss]

18 States, 50 nights , 6,530 miles and only one tire failure (knock on wood)

[CaptnJohn]

Originally Posted by riverss

18 States, 50 nights , 6,530 miles and only one tire failure (knock on wood)

That tire failure was a real bummer. Especially on a new 5er. I bought my 5er last December. It arrived with Trailer King LR E tires. With about 5000 miles on them I replaced all 5 tires 3 days ago with Carlisle. They are also LR E. Next time I'll switch to LR F as both the E and F require 95# PSI.

[riverss]

i have 15 inch wheels and do not know of a load range higher than E with the Lippert torque flex suspension the tires are rather close together and i think i am stuck here .

[riverss]

this was our third trip in our new Rockwood 8299BS. the first to the east coast then to Colorado and now to Las Vegas NV to witness one of our lovely granddaughters marriage. the trip out and back was without any major hiccups. i did some mods to channel the air properly in the back of the frig and it help a lot. it held at 40 deg and below in the warm temps. the roads on I 40 in Arizona are terrible and it was difficult to miss the divots and ruts.no excuse for an interstate to have such a poor surface. 55 to 60 is my preferred speed. we made it back home and surveyed the damage. the clothes hanger rack in the closet was on the floor with all of our hang up garments. believe it or not there was not a screw or glue attaching the piece of wood to structure only a few staples every 10 inches or so no wonder it fell. then i noticed that the refrigerator had broken loose at its lower mounting and moved out about 1 inch out and the side wall by the refrigerator had moved away about 1/2 inch. no glue or screws just staples i am really disappointed with the assembly of this RV. a bit of structural adhesive and a few screws would have prevented this failure. now i am facing unwanted down time for the unnecessary repairs if assembled properly. yes there were several other items like the fire place screws coming loose and one of the hanging light fixtures over the island unscrewed and hung by its wires. an easy fix but should not have happened on a new rig bought in February 2016 with 17,000 miles and 52 nights on it. i have owned several RV's and know there will be issues but these items IMHO are preventable. don't get me wrong i really like this floor plan and so far the major items but doggone it it would not take much to prevent stuff like this from happening.

[CaptnJohn]

riverss with the tools of today it hardly takes any longer to drive a screw than to run a staple. There are screw guns that run rolls of screws. The only negative is the screw guns are more costly and screws are much higher than the next to nothing cost of staples. They could add the extra $10 - $12 to use screws on my future units and quadruple the cost to me.