Rocinante's Big Adventure - 2017

[Lily&Me]

What a wonderful trip you’ve had!

Maggie

[Rocinante]

Thanks, Maggie. It has indeed been an epic road trip. The last week or so has been more heavily concentrated on getting home than we would have liked, but given we’ve been away since Labor Day, we are antsy to get back and make sure everything is OK there. Sometimes the home you own, owns you.

Also, we are optimistic that we will have plenty of opportunities to visit awesome locations in WA, OR, CA, UT, etc. in the future. For now, however, we are done with road trips that stretch from WA to FL and require a similar return journey.

[slowmover]

While memory is fresh,

1). It’s a good time to analyze fuel consumption. Future reference. Especially if miles towing and miles solo can be separated. (Hopefully cruise control use and same travel speed). The length of the trip, the avoidance of extreme weather, etc, make it good as reference for the life of the TV.

2). Scale tickets, as well, before the house. All three, whether or not any WD changes. Relations change over time. Should be a good “set” to it at present. Hit before home. Half a link might be wanted. And do an axle split too. (Y’all have been tossing the same things in the same place for months. Take advantage).

Ton mile calculations are fun. My 3.97T TV and 3.94T TT as a 7.91T rig sees 123 ton-miles per gallon. On average. That’s a campfire spitter, ha!

3). Measuring tread depth before and after such a trip is usually revealing. The one time one can make something of small changes. Expectations about FF-RR and Port vs Starboard. Life expectancy. If you DIY, same for greaseable joints.

What doesn’t seem so long ago for me was determing oil consumption. For the first thirty years we were happy about 500+ miles/quart while towing. And did we hit a solid 8-mpg or was it 7.2, a 10% difference? A 7000-mile trip was pretty much one-half the life of a set of tires up into the 1970s. And the spare I started with wasn’t always the one at the end.

7000-Miles is about two weeks for me today. You can see why what appears a pain to an RV’er is just a matter of course for commercial service. Weights, tires, etc, all part of expectations. Predictions. The RV’er advantage is that such a trip is usually a reference for years to come.

It’s funny, but we start off “loving” the TT. True. But it’s the TV that gets a lot more regard (love) after a few such trips. As such, haven’t quite understood those changing every few years. A decade is about right. We don’t have many of those. It’s a distinct memory of parents and grandparents not only the sight of the TT coming up the street, but the particular TV as well.

Enjoyed riding along. Thx.
.

[Rocinante]

Well, I have to say that on this trip, between the TT and the TV, the TV was far more reliable.

Good suggestions above, though overall we are less detail oriented than that.

Having lived in Rocinante "full time" for over 3 months, we are thinking about the possibility of downsizing to a 23FB. We won't do anything before the 2018 models come out, but it is an interesting idea. One goal of that switch (not to start a TV thread, please please don't do that) would be to get longer life and better gas mileage out of our TV via a trailer that is considerably lighter on the tongue and that we feel would be better suited to our truck. Another goal would be to fit more easily into National Park campgrounds out west and elsewhere with mostly smaller campsites that do not easily accommodate a 28' trailer. Examples near us include Olympic National Park and Mt. Rainier National park.

[OTRA15]

Originally Posted by Rocinante

. . .
. . . we are thinking about the possibility of downsizing to a 23FB.
. . .

The 23FB looks good to us, as well, moving up from the FC20, and down from the 25' rear corner bed we had in the 90's. The 23FB thread is a good read:

http://www.airforums.com/forums/f142...um-166374.html

Have a good weekend, and enjoy the holidays back home!



Thanks again for letting us tag along on your trip.


Peter

[369goose]

Rocinante, Indeed it seems you had a wonderful trip! Certainly there've been angels all around you. Steinbeck must be smiling. Thank you for sharing your journey. Merry Christmas and continued safe travels in 2018 🎄

[Rocinante]

Thanks again. Yes, it's been a wonderful trip. Almost home, almost there. We'll arrive tonight. Already told our HOA president that Rocinante will be in our driveway a few days while we empty it out, clean it up and then take it to our dealer on Friday for official winterization and a move to storage until the next trip.

Yep, that 23FB has been preying on our minds since before Thanksgiving, when we saw a couple of them camped at Fort Wilderness in Disney World. They are so darn cute!

[Rocinante]

Home again, home again, jiggity jig!

Last night we camped near Eugene, OR, at Armitage Park Campground. Highly recommended, btw. It's a great place to camp! There is a Costco right down the road, but beware of that location as their parking lot is a disaster if you're towing a trailer.

It was super-cold last night, relatively speaking. Temps went down to 28 degrees F, but we were fine, as our propane heater was working great, and both propane tanks were full.

At the moment, Rocinante is resting temporarily in our driveway while we empty her out, clean everything and put some of the clean linens back in there before we take her to be winterized and then on to winter storage.

Thanks for following along, folks. We're home, safe and sound. Oh, man, it's cold here, too! No nights are supposed to be below freezing until we get her winterized, but we'll be running the propane heat at 50 degrees F with all the cabinets open inside, just to make sure we don't freeze anything.

[OTRA15]

Thanks for the update.

Home sweet home!

Happy Holidays.



Peter

[PKI]

Originally Posted by Rocinante

-- snip -- that 23FB has been preying on our minds -- snip -- so darn cute!

And functional too. The reduction of 6 inches in width gets you through spots that a width of 8'-6" hangs you up. Less to store off season, less to tow in season, and not much capability given up. Two closets, dual sinks, a microwave, an oven, a reasonable sized bathroom with privacy, and a full size queen if that trips your trigger all are packed into that cute and cozy coach.

The new ones have good design upgrades and the older ones are easy to upgrade, except for that quiet ducted AC.

Have a Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year, and a long think on your next move. Pat

[slowmover]

Yeah, I’m not attracted by shorter since it tows the same. But shorter and narrower is an obvious pairing. Just need to match other than a pickup to it.

[GettinAway]

Glad you made it home safe and sound. Enjoyed your travels. Thanks for sharing. We like our 23FB, and have no plans to change it, but I remember following along I think it was MooseTags, when they went from a 25FB to 23, and then back to 25. I don't think they liked the smaller configuration. I can't remember the specifics.
Looking forward to your next adventure.
Jeff

[Rocinante]

Thanks, it was fun to share the journey. Yes, I was thinking of Moosetags as well. Don't know whether they had a 23FB or a 23CB. We would not be happy with the CB version of the 23. Took a quick look at a 23FB International Signature today. I will have to revisit their threads on the subject.

23FB is definitely cute. Definitely small, except for the large bathroom. The pantry is little more than a spice rack. Fridge is pretty small. We fill our 27FB's pantry and fridge to the gills when we go on camping trips, so we'd have to re-think that.

We shall see. It may also depend on how much longer we want to keep RV'ing. Just again today we had a crisis repair - the sail switch on the propane furnace failed, and the trailer was so cold we feared the possibility of freeze damage. Had to drop everything, rush to our dealer who was kind enough to squeeze us in, get it winterized, and have them diagnose / repair the sail switch problem. We had no idea what was wrong, btw. The blower would start, the heater would never even try to light, and then it would shut down. The warning light on the motherboard indicated an airflow problem, which would have been true if the sail switch hadn't failed and started lying about the airflow. We had planned on an orderly shut down / clean out of the trailer until our winterization appt on Friday, but nooooo... <sigh>

So, unless we are truly disgusted, we may find it more rewarding to hang onto and continue upgrading Rocinante. Definitely not relishing starting all over again with all our warranty work and upgrades on a new trailer. In any case, the random list of things that break and must be repaired never ever ends.

[Lily&Me]

As to carrying provisions, remember there are groceries stores across the country when you travel, and extra non perishables for actual camping can be stashed in your TV if needed.

We tend toward wanting to carry everything we think we might need or want, when unless you are remote and away from everything, most things can be found elsewhere.

You will get better at this, and don’t rule out downsizing due to pantry and frig size.

Maggie

[Rocinante]

That is true, thanks. Based on our 3 months of non-stop experience we should be able to carry less of the "We might need that" and focus on "We definitely need that because we always use it." It should help reduce our load a bit.

[Hans627]

Originally Posted by Rocinante

That is true, thanks. Based on our 3 months of non-stop experience we should be able to carry less of the "We might need that" and focus on "We definitely need that because we always use it." It should help reduce our load a bit.

Again, thanks for sharing your adventure.

Have you thought of sharing a list of the things on the "We definitely need that because we always use it." list? I think many would appreciate such a list coming from someone who has made a trip as you have!

[PKI]

Spend some time in the coach and figure out how you would function with less space.

1) sit in the dinnette. If it does not work as the primary seating, you are going to have to modify. Part of the usable counter space is the table. If it goes away, you need another option.

2) give considerable thought to the interior style. The single sink configuration is less functional than the double.

3) review the East-West bed layout and who/how you will make and use it. Upgrade to a regular queen requires extension of the foot and the addition of stronger lifts. Not a big deal at all, but it does use up some walking around space.

4) the wolfer takes up space under the dinnette seat. Consider eliminating it or moving it to the area under the curb side closet. The area under the street side closet can be expanded a bit. The oven and space under it are good storage.

5) the space at the window in the dinnette is helpful space for storage, if the kids don't sit there. It does get consumed/lost in a dinnette modification.

The reality may well be that down sizing is more difficult once you have experienced a more extensive floorplan. Being comfortable is seductive. Also, in most areas it is not terribly difficult to find sites that are big enough. Given a really nice place with no access, the park and drive approach does work reasonably well. Also, the back of the truck sleeping for a couple of days can be a change worth trying if your flexibility allows.

Given a desire to down size, you can do it. You may want to shorten up your stays, if that helps you enjoy the smaller space. You said that part of the logic for going smaller was that you were considering the smaller parks in the West. That means you will have less travel distance and could make more shorter trips.

Look at the 22 Sport. It is only 7'6" wide. The bed is the challenge, but for some it works as well as the East-West queen. The even narrower profile might make your decision easier. Important to develop an understanding of what you want and will make you happy.

Look as well at a smaller vintage trailer. The 27s used to be 8'-0" wide. A custom renovation might be your solution. Smaller foot print and a layout specific to your needs might well be a better fit if it had a big frig and pantry.

And, have you looked at the Bollus? Pat