Our Maiden Voyage - Part 2 Setting Out On The Open Road! Please put your seat belt on and keep your tray in it's up right position...........

I have never wanted Christmas to be over so quickly.  Our new camper was sitting in our driveway.  It was packed and ready to roll.  Our first camping trip was scheduled at Inks Lake State Park in Burnet, Texas over the New Year weekend.  I had ZERO desire to mess with Christmas.  All I wanted was New Year's Day to arrive so we could test this baby out!  I wanted to sleep in it!

I couldn't wait to see the 10 day forecast.  My fingers were crossed for sunny 60 degree days that are fairly common during a Texas winter.  To my dismay, New Year's Day (our travel day) was forecasted to be rainy with the possibility of freezing rains and temperatures that barely got above freezing.  This was not a good forecast for driving on any Texas road! But 10 days out allows for a lot of change here in Texas and I kept my hopes up that the rain would move out on our big day.

Christmas came and went.  The forecast only continued to worsen.  NOOOOOO!!!

I knew we couldn't pull the trailer in those conditions.  Even though Rusty and I are both very experienced drivers and have both pulled bumper pull and gooseneck trailers the majority of our lives, the predicted conditions were not safe. Based on the forecast, we had 2 choices to make.

1)We could push our trip back a day.  

2)We could leave a day early.  

Canceling the trip was not an option! A quick meeting of the minds, a phone call to our neighbor who watches our farm, and a phone call to Texas Parks and Wildlife and we added a day to our reservation! We would be camping for 4 full days in our brand new trailer!

 I was STOKED (thank you ugly weather for an extra day)! There's always a silver lining if you look hard enough.

The night before, we finished loading our groceries for the weekend and finished packing for some very wet and cold weather.  Rusty hooked up the trailer and we were set! Going to bed was like waiting for Christmas morning! The next morning we were up and on the road by 7:30am with the hopes that traffic would be light.  The front was blowing in so the wind was blowing around 15mph hour.  It wasn't ideal but hopefully it wouldn't be too bad.

Now, like I've said before, Rusty and I are used to pulling trailers.  I have personally driven through some really ugly storms where I was unable to get off of the road so had to continue moving forward.  These types of trips are never any kind of fun. It takes all of your energy to keep that rig between the lines. I am sure my truck has a few finger indentations due to conditions I couldn't get out of fast enough.  And now Rusty's truck has a few of it's own.

Don't be this guy.

Get these!

 A swaying trailer is dangerous so when your dealership or friend recommends that you get sway bars for your trailer, DO IT! Seriously, don't be cheap. It is never a bad idea to have more safety equipment on your trailer than you think you need.  It can only help prevent deaths in the event of an accident.  It was a no brainer that we would get sway bars. The trailer is at least a foot wider than the truck on both sides and at least 12 feet tall.  At 30 feet long, she catches wind no matter how aerodynamic she may be.

Heading north on Hwy 6 was our first taste of how badly she could dance.  18 wheelers pushed us around as they flew by. It was a bit a nerve wrecking to steal a side eye glance to the passenger mirror and see us cross the line.  Folks would pull up next to the trailer and just sit there causing Rusty to exhibit some restrained road rage behavior yelling at these people to either get behind or get in front for fear the trailer would swing.  All in all, the movement of the trailer wasn't that bad for the windy conditions we were in.  In our years of traveling, we have definitely seen other RVer's with far worse sway issues in far better weather conditions than us. 18 wheelers and cross winds were not our friends but braking and accelerating when needed kept us mostly between the lines....I mean seriously, we didn't die!

To be safe, we did swing into the dealership and had them check everything out to make sure there wasn't something we had forgotten (LOVE their customer service).  We had it set perfect so we just had to deal with the conditions until we got to our destination.

The swaying we were experiencing with our trailer made us notice other rigs on the road (and there were a lot!).  Most were similar in size to us with truck and trailer.  The 5th wheels definitely looked like they were having a smoother ride (larger trucks and trailers hooked to the bed are far safer than  bumper pulls but that's a lot of trailer).  However, we did see some folks that either didn't have far to go or were very much uninformed in trailer safety.  One "rig" in particular caused Rusty and I to both exclaim "Hell NO!" when we passed it.  A similar in length but heavier camper was being pulled by what looked to be a Ford Explorer.  I pray they didn't have far to go.

I'm no expert on TXDOT requirements but I'm pretty sure this ain't safe.

Over all, the trip was non-eventful and we made it to Inks Lake in good time (even with a refueling stop).  Normally, it takes 3.5 hours to get to Burnet but with the trailer we only added 30 minutes driving at 60-65mph.  I am very pleased with the time and am already booking several more camping trips this year! (husband is trying to rein me in so I don't burn ALL of his vacation time)


***Now, I didn't write this post to scare anyone off of RVing.  I wrote it to remind folks that just because you can pull your trailer down the road doesn't mean you can control it in bad weather or stop it.  We LOVE our trailer.  And our first trip was WINDY (headed home we had 20 mph winds to deal with). Had we been inexperienced drivers, I shudder to think of the mess we could have been in.  Make sure your trailer and truck MATCH.  Not color (though ours happens to), but in weight and the ability to safely control the trailer.  The bigger the tow vehicle the more control you'll have.  And don't forget to have an electric brake controller! This is just as important as sway bars as it allows you to engage your trailer brakes first while you slow to a stop.

Our first voyage (details on Inks Lake and our first camping trip to follow) was educational to say the least! We'll be looking into adding another sway bar on the driver's side to help with cross winds.  Had we had blue clear skys and no wind, I wouldn't have had anything to write about so I hope this post is informative and educational if you're looking at adding a travel trailer or 5th wheel to your life (I highly recommend it).