I am on the 4,000 miles (estimated) trip, so far I have completed around 2200 miles and still have another 1800 miles to go, maybe the trip will end up over 4,000 miles. I began my journey on May 5th from Willis, TX to Balmorhea, Bosque Del Apache in New Mexico, Very Large Array in NM, Narco AZ, Tucson AZ, Palm Desert CA, Corona CA and now in Santa Paula CA. Next Monday, we will depart for Page AZ, Silverton CO, then head down toward Taos NM, Santa Fe NM, Amarillo TX, then back home in Willis right around June 28th.
This is my 4th trip on my new RV bought in July 2016. The first trip was 200 miles round trip, then 2 trips after that at 500 miles roundtrip each. All kinks worked out before I took this long trip. My next trip will be around 3,000 miles toward the end of the year and the next one is in the plan for 10,000 miles toward the Midwest, then Alaska.
So far, I did an average of 400 miles a day. Begin driving around 9:00 am then stop for the lunch break around noon at rest area for an hour or so, then drive until I hit my target between 400 to 420 miles depending on where the next stop is. If the destination is more than 500 miles, I would break it down into two days and do one around 380 to 400 miles for day one then the balance on the following day. On the two days driving destination, we normally stop at a rest area or state visitor center for overnight. This way, I would arrive at my destination right around 11 am to 12 pm the next morning and have an additional half a day of pleasure. I have not use any Walmart or Truckstop for overnight yet since the rest areas are conveniently located right on the freeway. However, I do stay away from all of the truck stops and truck parking.
Since this is my first long RV adventure, before I took the trip, I did plan out my route carefully and know exactly how far between one point to the other, another word, I note down the coordinate of each of the rest stop that I need along the route, and use the Gas Buddy apps to pinpoint the gas station/truck stop that I need to refuel where the best gas price could be, etc. and map all of those coordinate to my Garmin GPS. On my next trip, I will not plan the same way and be more flexible.
So far the coach performed well (knock on wood), only a few minor things happens that were fixed quickly, nothing that can't be fixed with a screwdriver and some gorilla glue.
The RV was loaded near its capacity and with a near capacity on the tow vehicle as well. After all, through some good steep grade and flat land driving, I average out at around 6.8 mpg. My average daily use is around 4 to 5 KW of electricity with 2 air conditioning units running at most of the time to keep cool during the day and sometimes I have to use two portable electric heaters to warm at night where the temperature dropped down below 65. Even though all of the RV campgrounds that I stayed were full hookup and including all of the utility, but I would like to keep track with my usage (just for grin). One thing that I learned about my air conditioning system is it works well with the cold air, but use the heat strip as the heater for the coach does not work well at all. The two furnaces work well and warm up the coach fast, but since all electric was paid for and included in the RV daily charge, so I rather not burn my own propane. For the heat, I bought a 1500 watts portable heater and it works very well for me.
Good luck on your trip and hope you have as much fun as I am now!
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