Mission Accomplished

[landsteward]

Just returned from our first long road trip in our 06 AS LY 30'. We traveled from Central Texas to Traverse City Michigan. No major problems, and for two women traveling with a 7 year old and golden retriever pup in heat, it was hard not to anticipate problems........Our LY is 30 amp, so the two AC units cycle on and off. That is fine up North, but when we arrived in Dallas to overnight it, it was HOT!!!! Being that we are in a new coach, I was a little surprised that our new AS could not cut the Texas heat. Guess I should just be grateful that I wasn't passing thru Arizona or Las Vegas???...........Sewer hose and connections. Well, it was not like the movie RV when Robin got hosed, but we have tried two different brands, and can't seem to come up with one that is leak proof---is there such a thing??..............We pretty much could handle the Golden in heat. Just plenty of pads and diapers. Yes, we will plan the next trip around the dog's cycle!!.............The kid?? Well, just the usual " when are we gonna get there, how many minutes, how many seconds???"................Can you use Fantastic Fans as Ceiling Fan with the dome closed?? Otherwise, why call them Fantastic???.................Our coach swayed quite alot, even without a toad, so we had a steering stabilizer installed. MUCH improved.....................I guess we bought one of the last Airstream Land Yachts. I understand the company is going to focus on trailers. I think the trailers are awesome. With two women traveling, we just feel safer in the Motorhome. Can lock ourselves up in the unit, use the potty at will. Did have to make a couple of stops for the Golden tho..............Does anyone recommend an RV driving school? My partner and I are ready to go on a vacation to get over our vacation, kid and dog free. We would like to become more confident drivers for future road trips. Thanks to all!

[TIMEMACHINE]

You did the most important thing right......you made it back home in one piece. Good job.

John

[normandgrace]

my wife and i just took our first road trip in our 33" land yacht at the end of june. we did 2 weeks and 3600 miles. as we headed north from miami, we hit a lot of cross wind in cocoa beach area. we had 50 miles of white knuckle driving, but then we got past it and everything was fine. drove around 200 miles of the blue ridge parkway. that was an adventure. motorhomes are not necessarily designed for 2 lane mountain roads, but ours handled it fine. i did all the driving, and by the time we were 3 days into our road trip, my wife was napping on the couch behind me. i found that there is quite a learning curve to driving my landyacht, and once i found my groove on the highway, i just set the cruise control and away we went. large flat nosed semi's tended to push me around, but the newer aerodynamic semi's did little to disrupt me. i set the cruise at around 63 mph and all went well. i got better than expected milage (just over 10) than expected and encountered little problems. we did not have to use the a/c at all as the nights were all gorgeous, but we have found that in florida, 1 a/c unit is not enough to keep the coach cool enough for us. but it is not too big an issue as i would avoid camping too much here in the summer anyway due to the heat, and most campgrounds are in central fla. the worst thing in the world is orlando in august. what a furnace. for my wife and i, it was love at first sight, both with each other, and the motorhome. airstreams are built so well, and we could not be happier. we slept like babies knowing we had our own bed with us, and our own bathroom. what a relief from staying in hotels where you never know what the last guest did, or what they left behind. knowing that we got the last of the breed only makes the experience that much more memorable, and hopefully i will cherish mine as long as so many of the people on this site have kept their classics.

[overlander63]

It is good you made it home safely. A couple of things you asked about, I can answer.
1- Fantastic Fans shut off when the dome is closed, you can't use them as ceiling fans.
2-Most Motor Homes with two air conditioners will either be set up for 50 amp service, or one of the air conditioners (usually the rear one) will be set up so it can use the output from the generator. Something that may help, is next time you are out trying to run both A/C's, run the fans on them on "low", the air coming out of them will be cooler, and they will draw less power.

[GlenCoombe]

Landsteward, I've not actually heard of an RV driving school. I would suggest that we learn by doing.... If I may suggest, use the LY for local driving for the next few weeks. Take it everywhere! You'll be using it around town and be learning things at slower speeds. Obviously start with trips to Wal-Mart or the local mall. Lots of room to move around and get used to the size of the rig and the turning circle.
The more you do the more comfortable you'll become. Soon you'll be backing up where you once thought you'd never go. Just have a good look around before committing to a direction of travel. "Look ahead and drive there."

[tx-lawman]

RV Driving School: If you live in an area served by a volunteer fire department, talk to their training officer about the next vehicle operations class. They may let you join in if you ask nicely, and who knows, you may find a new hobby. The class we put on at my volunteer department here in Houston includes a full Saturday of driving, turning, backing, etc in a huge parking lot full of traffic cones. It is amazing how much you will learn in one day. - They may even let you take your own motorhome through their course - I know we would love to have someone new to laugh at on our course.

[blkmagikca]

Originally Posted by landsteward

Our LY is 30 amp, so the two AC units cycle on and off. That is fine up North, but when we arrived in Dallas to overnight it, it was HOT!!!! Being that we are in a new coach, I was a little surprised that our new AS could not cut the Texas heat. Guess I should just be grateful that I wasn't passing thru Arizona or Las Vegas???

My '94 LY came with 30 amp shore power. I had a knowledgeable tech friend convert this to "50 amp" service - actually it is 30-amp 230volt, with the second leg breakered at 20 amps and providing power to just the rear a/c. He also built a small box that allows me to still plug into 30-amp service.

The modification works fine, and the plans have been turned over to RV Canada (our local AS dealer - their shop foreman is a trained electrician and has gone over the circuit diagrams). Because the modification rewired the ATS (automatic transfer switches), it MUST be done by a competent electrical technician. I should point out that the electrical setup on my '94LY is likely different from your unit - however if you contact me privately I can email you the block diagram of my rewiring - no guarantees that this will work for your unit.