First real trip

We left Utah yesterday on a 10 day trip to a bluegrass festival in Grass Valley, CA, about an hour east of Sacramento. We left home around 2:30 on Thursday after spending about two hours longer than anticipated getting last minute stuff aboard. DW: "Did you think of .....?" Me: "No! Where did you put .....?" DW: "Can't remember if I packed that or not. Look around!" And so on. As it turned out we got most everything we needed except that around one hour into the trip, I remembered that we didn't bring the Direct TV box, so I guess we won't be using the dish.

The Tundra is well matched to the 3124kb as long as you don't plan on going 75 mph up a grade. We set the cruise control to 65 mph and locked out overdrive. Drove all the way to Elko before filling up. Looks like we're getting around 12 mpg which isn't quite as good as I had hoped but given all the passes we climbed, I'm not too surprised. I had hoped for 14.

We've driven I-80 across Nevada many times (without a trailer). We were surprised at the much smaller number RVs and even cars than we usually see. I attribute it to the price of gas. Good news is that it was us and the semis that had the highway to ourselves.

Spent the night at the Double Dice RV park. Got set up without any glitches. Several people came by to ask, "What is THAT?" It was quite windy but we remembered to get some pool noodles as suggested on this forum. Worked like a charm.

Drove to Truckee, CA today. We had steady 30 mph headwinds which I thought would adversely affect our mpg but when I filled up at Lovelock we again hit 12 mpg. This stretch is much less up and down than the first leg but the wind was really strong.

We did have one humorous incident. A guy in a camper drove past us, honked his horn, and raised a clenched fist in the air with a smile on his face. I thought maybe this was some signal known to all RVers except me. So we pulled off at the next exit, checked everything out but found nothing wrong. Then it hit me. I'm a member of E Clampus Vitus, a fraternal organization founded during the gold rush to mock the Masons, Oddfellows, etc. Today the members are mostly people with an interest in the history of the American West. But we preserve all the absurdity and tomfoolery of the original organization. This guy was a fellow "Clamper" who saw my ECV sticker on my truck and was giving me the "Sign of the Well Jackass", a sign of recognition between Clampers. And I took it to mean my wheels were falling off or something. We had a good laugh.

We're staying at Coachland RV park. Nice place just north of Lake Tahoe but I'm surprised how many large RVs here have permanent structures (like snow roofs) built around them. Apparently it is a cheaper way to "have a place at Tahoe." We'll be here two nights, then off to the Bluegrass Festival. That's a short climb up Donner Pass, then it's all down hill. I certainly hope we get more than 12 mpg!!!

Not sure if I'll have WiFi at the festival. If not we'll report when we get home on the 16th.

[B_and_D]

It sounds like your trip is going well! Let us know how the rest of it goes.

Have a great time!

PS: I enjoyed the utube video you posted! Those kids were really talented.

My daughter, at age 20, has suddenly become interested in playing the piano (after I tried for years to get her to try). Better late than never. She seems to have an ear for it.

Thank you for your post. Please continue to share your adventures when you have time. Thank you also for your real world mpg figures and traffic observations. We have a trip coming up just after the 4th of July and I was wondering what if any effect the price of fuel was having on the traffic level between major cities. Thanks again and safe journey.

It is possible that you might do better on gas mileage when you head back. Going to Grass Valley from Utah you are going east/west, and that is basically going into the wind. Going back you should have a tail wind.
I have noticed a good two to three miles per gallon difference on I80 depending on which way I am going....

Mike

Today was a rather short leg from Lake Tahoe to Grass Valley. We managed to maintain at least 55 going over Donner summit. But....What a difference between the Nevada and California road surfaces! California uses a pebbled surface at the higher elevations of I-80. It nearly shakes your teeth out, especially when driving in the right lane used by the semis. This can't be good for the TM. But it seems we arrived in good shape. Everything inside seems to have ridden well.

We're at a very large bluegrass festival. The first three days are a music camp - instruction by some of the festival performers for wanna bees like me. Later in the week the performances begin and it will draw around 3000 people most of whom come with RVs or tents. We were unable to get one of the full service spots (they are handed out by lottery) but we did get an electric only spot. The festival sponsors bring in a large generator and string lines all over a big meadow. Sites are about 20 x 40 marked in white chalk lines. Every six spaces share a connector box. Electricity won't come on until tomorrow so we're dry camping tonight. We used 12v for the refrigerator but switched over to propane once we got here and it seems to keep things quite cold. My Haggen Daz bars are still in good shape!

This will be a good test to see how long our water holds out and how long it takes to fill the holding tank. We're good at Navy showers and will be frugal with what goes into the tank. I'd love to make it to next Sunday but have an 18 gallon Barker Blue Tote just in case. From what I've read here, 7 days is about time and a half as long as I should expect.

Our camping neighbor has a Honda 3000 watt genset and offered to let me tap into it for today. I ran a 20 amp cord over to my TM and plugged it in with the refrigerator and hot water heater on. Popped the overload right away. So I turned off the water heater figuring it was a big draw and still couldn't keep it from cutting out. Found out that his wife had the A/C, a hair dryer, and sundry other high draw items running all at the same time. So I gave up and just switched the Refrigerator back to propane. I'm finding that the TM is quite well suited to dry camping. Low tonight should be in the mid 50s. High tomorrow will be 82 with a nice breeze. So no real need for A/C or for the heater that I can see.

It's about 10 p.m. and the jamming is just getting started. Not much sleep at these events! More to follow if there is interest.

[B_and_D]

Glad you got to your destination safely. Sounds like a great time, plus a great camping trip! Having electricity will make things easier.

We dry camp for 10+ days during the summer. One thing we do that helps a lot with the water is to use a plastic tub in the sink for washing the dishes (plus we wipe all the dishes, etc. off with used paper towels & napkins first). If you have a legal place you can dump this water without putting it into your tank, this will help. Using paper plates & cups helps too. I keep an empty 2 liter plastic soda bottle in the TM to fill up the water tank, it takes a few trips back and forth to the spigot, but it's not as heavy as our 5 gallon collapsible container. Neither take up a lot of room to pack. We also use the public facilities during the day instead of the TM bathroom.

Keep us posted on your trip and have lots of fun!

Dee

Originally Posted by B_and_D

We dry camp for 10+ days during the summer. One thing we do that helps a lot with the water is to use a plastic tub in the sink for washing the dishes (plus we wipe all the dishes, etc. off with used paper towels & napkins first). If you have a legal place you can dump this water without putting it into your tank, this will help. Using paper plates & cups helps too. I keep an empty 2 liter plastic soda bottle in the TM to fill up the water tank, it takes a few trips back and forth to the spigot, but it's not as heavy as our 5 gallon collapsible container. Neither take up a lot of room to pack. We also use the public facilities during the day instead of the TM bathroom.

Keep us posted on your trip and have lots of fun!

Dee

Great suggestions. DW hit Walmart today and got a small tub for dishes.

We're three days into this and thus far using FAR less grey water tank capacity than I expected. We'll make it to Sunday with no problem.

Wind came up today and I thought I ought to pull down the awning. 10-15 mph with 30 mph gusts. The gusts worried me. One of these days I'll read a manual before trying to do something. Had a bit of a problem getting the awning to close the final couple of inches then found out that I didn't straighten the support arms. So I opened it up again, undid the knobs on the arms, straightened them out so they locked in place, then rolled it all up again. Worked fine.

More RVs came in today for the festival that starts on Thursday. Saw another Hi-Lo. But most are large RVs or good sized fifth wheels. I can't imagine the fuel bills. Love my new TM!!!!!!

Is there any problem leaving the electric water heater on all the time? I'm assuming that there is a thermostat that turns it on and off as long as the switch is in the "ON" position.

The awning scares me, as we had one broken on our previous pop-up by a rogue gust of wind. I take ours down when it gets breezy, and never leave it up all night. Other experiences or recommendations by anyone?

Also, you might check your mileage at lower speeds. I try never to tow at above 55-60 mph. I just got a ScanGuage (which someone on this forum suggested and is very cool) and will be interested to check mileage at various speeds on our next adventure.

[ShrimpBurrito]

To diverge for a moment, is there any advantage to using a ScanGauge vs. the factory digital fuel gauge that measures instantaneous fuel consumption?

Dave

[Leslie & Nick]

Originally Posted by Scott O

The awning scares me, as we had one broken on our previous pop-up by a rogue gust of wind. I take ours down when it gets breezy, and never leave it up all night. Other experiences or recommendations by anyone?.

We don't leave the awning 'unfurled' if we're going to be away from the TM. It only takes one strong gust of wind to cause a lot of $$$ damage, to both the awning and/or the trailer itself. If there's even a chance of gusty winds, I'll retract it if I have it set up.

Nick