In March 2021 we decided to take our 2021 Interstate 24 GL across the country on what was our 1st time overnighting (other than the driveway). I wrote about
the lessons learned here. This post is “part 2”, experiences & lessons learned (and our favorite campsites) in the 2nd half of our trip, which ended up being 4 months on the road (not the entire time living in the Interstate). While I’d still consider ourselves newbies, and welcome any advice of what we can do better/differently, I wanted to share this with the community in the hopes that some of it is interesting/helpful.
1/
OUR UPDATED “SO GLAD WE HAD IT”, “WISHED YOU WERE HERE”, “I CAN'T GO FOR THAT” LIST In our first post I mentioned some of the gadgets/gear that I was glad we had. Here's our updated summary.
SO GLAD WE HAD IT- Baskets & Clamps (for extra storage)
- Suction Cup Caddy for bathroom
- Mr Heater Buddy (boondocking)
- Ceramic Plug In Heater
- Small Vacuum
- OPower USB 3 Speed 360 Degree Fan
- Small Garbage Can that fit in slot next to toilet
WISHED WE HAD IT- Anti-Kink Water Hose (subsequently bought this)
- Telescoping Broom
- 1 Regular Coffee Mug (to microwave when coffee gets cold)
- Regular Tire Pressure Gauge
- Tablecloth for Picnic Tables
- Large Tupperware for Storing Power & Water Cables (separately)
I CAN'T GO FOR THAT / DIDN'T WORK AS WE HOPED- Reolink Security Camera (trouble connecting to smartphone; didn't seem like we needed this where we went)
- Berkey Water Filter (I like the Berkey > seems to do a good job filtering water... but it seems like something to use when you stay put in 1 site for multiple days vs. just 1 night. Curious whether people travel with the Berkey still partially filled up and where they put it while traveling?)
- Dehumidifier (we got a small one but didn't travel to locations that were humid so didn't need it. probalby smart in deep south)
- Command Hooks (frequently "unstuck" to our walls; jury's still out)
2/
THE KUAT PIVOT 2 AND NVS BIKE RACK IS AMAZING ADDITION TO THE INTERSTATE
We are a family of 3 and after doing a bunch of research, we decided to purchase the
KUAT Pivot 2.0 and
Kuat NV 2 with the additional +1 bike rack. The Pivot was hard to find (took me months) but makes all the difference in the world b/c you can swing the bike rack to the side (we chose the passenger side swing version) and then open the large rear sprinter doors. Bringing our bikes to each campsite makes for a great experience.
3/
NEW “MODS” WE’VE DONE IN THE 2ND HALF OF OUR JOURNEY
- MORE STORAGE: We bought
2 Command hooks (silver to try to match some of the interior of the interstate decor) and the sticky tape that was provided with the purchase almost IMMEDIATELY didn’t work. I pressed hard, held it for about a minute to the wall, and didn’t hang anything heavy from it. The hooks just fell down. Attempt #2 used 3M VHB double sided tape and I left it on the walls for 24 hours (after pressing hard for about 2 min to have them stick to the wall). My goal was to hang a hanging shoe rack so we could put misc items in it like garbage bags, vitamins, etc. We previously had this shoe rack bungeed to the back of the rear passenger side captain’s chair but it went down into the Marianna trench chasm that holds the fire extinguisher and it was mildly hard to see/reach down and access whatever we wanted to store there.
-
EVEN MORE STORAGE: I sound like JetBlue
We also bought
THIS cargo net to free up some of the storage in the rear central above bed cabinet. We now put lightweight items (ie blankets, jackets) in it. We attached the clips to the 2 clothes hanger pull down handles and then used two of these 3M command hooks in the area right below the far back left/right overhead cabinets. My advice would be to get a slightly larger cargo net than the one we purchased. That said, this one works, doesn’t protrude out past the underneath of the rear central upper storage closet and holds a few blankets, jackets to free up some of the closet space above. I also liked that it came with 2 hooks that go on the back of the front passenger seat + some super velcro mesh pocket that I put above the driver side door to hold things like maps of national parks.
-
OXYLED MOTION SENSOR LEDS: at first the stickiness of the 3M tape didn’t adhere well to the interior “wood-esque” paneling above the central control panel. I put one of these above the touchscreen central control panel and in some of the overhead cabinets.
4/
PROBLEMS WE FACED & HOW WE FIXED THEM
Overall, we didn’t run into any
major problems. During some really hot weather in New England (100 degree+), our A/C stopped working but it likely was due the local power company reducing the electricity levels to avoid brownouts + using a really long shore power extension cord. That said, here are the issues we did face and what we did to fix them.
- DE-LAMINATION OF DECORATIVE “STRIP” BELOW THE PASSENGER SIDE SLIDING DOOR: The decorative strip below the sliding door delaminated and started peeling off. Maine’s Prime Airstream recommended a 3M Tack Adhesive spray and let it sit for a few hours before driving. We did that (with mask, gloves on) and sprayed it on the inside of the decorative element and then put painters tape to hold it in place. Worked great. Hasn’t come off since then.
- LIPPERT SIDE STEP BROKE: right at the tail end of our trip, the retracting side door step broke. Fortunately we travel with a
Yeti Tundra 65 cooler and we’d set that down next to the side door and step on that to get in and out of the rig. It took about 6 weeks from the time I notified our local Airstream service shop to get the part shipped to them and now (at the time of this writing) it’s another 6 weeks before they can even schedule a time to service our rig.
- MERCEDES KEY FOB PROBLEMS: Our key fob would make great friends with Dory from Finding Nemo because 50% of the time it seems to forget how to unlock our doors when you press the unlock button. We’ll be inside the rig, lock the doors (ie for bedtime) and then press unlock on the key fob and nothing happens. Mercedes says it needs to be reprogrammed but they have already done that once and it still doesn’t work consistently.
- WINDSHIELD CRACKED > SUN SCREEN MADE IT WORSE: note to self, maybe have a lower than $1000 deductible on your car insurance because the Sprinter 3500 170” windshield with integrated rain sensor on the Interstates cost between $1600-1800 to get it fixed. I asked 2 different Mercedes service shops in totally different parts of the country and these were the quotes. If you get a tiny crack in your windshield, DO NOT use the sunscreen during the day. The reflective heat from the sun screen in the windshield will cause the crack to grow. Learned that in Idaho and drove all the way back to CA with a cracked windshield.
- DEF ALERT WENT OFF 3 TIMES AFTER ABOUT 10K MILES OF DRIVING. Roughly every 3500 miles the DEF sensor alert would go off requiring us to buy new DEF fluid and pour the entire 2.5 gallons into the DEF tank.
- BATHROOM OVERHEAD VENT FOAM GASKET SEPARATED AND GOT CAUGHT IN FAN BLADE: don’t know how this happened. local airstream service shop fixed this.
- SOLAR / BATTERY CONFIGURATION OEM WAS INCORRECT: See next post
- WILDFIRE SMOKE CAUSED US TO RE-ROUTE OUR TRAVEL: we arrived in Bozeman, MT to very smoky weather. Living in Northern California for the last 5 years has unfortunately conditioned us to dealing with wildfire smoke but this was the first experience we ran into while RVing with the AQI registering north of 150. We purchased one of these
Levoit Air Purifiers and the supplemental “wildfire smoke”
green filter to purify the interior of the Interstate but also to have once we get home. I also ordered 2 of the OEM cabin air filters,
in case I needed to change the air filters due to smoke.
5/
OUR VICTRON BLUE SOLAR 150/35 MPPT WAS CONFIGURED INCORRECTLY FOR LITHIUM BATTERIES (THAT CAME OEM)
We purchased the
Victron Bluetooth Dongle in order to have a better understanding as to our solar power settings & output. In the 2021 Interstate model, this requires you to remove the Firefly touchscreen control panel and plug the bluetooth dongle into the Victron Blue Solar Charge Controller and unplug the cable that goes to the circular
MPPT Control device (which renders it inoperable). When we set this up (and after multiple phone calls), we realized THE FACTORY DEFAULT SETTINGS WERE WRONG: mine were set to this (see screen shots below) but per the
Victron Energy website I updated the settings for Lithium Batteries as we have 2 100-amp hour lithium batteries.
* I spoke to Magnum, Battleborn and our local Airstream Service shop. Ultimately this is what Airstream recommended as to the lithium battery configuration settings within the Magnum Energy (ME-RC) converter/inverter control panel. We have the MMS-1012 converter/inverter.
Search Watts : 5 Watts
Low batt cut : 11.5
Absorb Time : 1.0
Battery type : Lfp. Note: if older controller where Lfp is not present set to custom with following parameters.
Absorb : 14.5
Float : 13.5
Equalize : 14.5
Charge rate : 50%
Vac drop out : 80Vac
Power save : On
Screen set up : Contrast 100%, Bright : 50%
Final charge : Lfp controlled. Note: again if older merc controller use this setting.
Final charge : Silent
Set rebulk : 13.4 Note: only if older controller is present and asks for setting.
Bulk always : Off
Press the Shore button and verify 30A is set.
Lots of
good posts here on this topic.
6/
RVS CARRYING PROPANE ARE NOT ALLOWED THROUGH BOSTON TUNNELS
Per this
https://www.mass.gov/doc/700-cmr-7-u...ystem/download , RVs carrying propane aren’t allowed in any of the Boston tunnels. We had our Interstate serviced in Maine and coming from the south shore of Massachusetts, knowing rules like this helped me map my route via route 128/95 north. This forces you to drive around Boston (slightly longer) if you’re going from Cape Cod to points north of Boston (NH, ME, VT). On a related note, Maine’s Prime Motors (one of 2-3 Airstream + Mercedes combo dealers/service shops in the U.S. was a great experience. And the
Holy Donut store in Scarbourgh, ME is worth the stop (especially for those with celiac!)
7/
STILL HAVEN’T FIGURED OUT THE OPTIMAL INTERNET SETUP: I really like our PEPWAVE BR1 MAX MINI with the dual SIM cards (we use Verizon in one of them) but I haven’t figured out which internet plans are the best for “episodic” uses vs. “multi-month journey”. We signed up for the pre-paid Verizon 15GB plan which was something like $70/month (outrageous) but I’m still struggling to figure out what are the two best “plans” (either pre-paid or post-paid) to use in the Airstream. For long weekend trips, we can do without internet but we are likely planning a 2022 cross country trip, staying on the road for a few months and I’d love to find a better configuration than what I did last summer. It FEELS like the combo of AT&T and Verizon is the best setup. I also paid ($100/yr) for the PEPWAVE Load Balancing, WAN Smoothing,PepVPN hot failover which gives you the WIFI-as-WAN functionality (ex. The ability to connect to a WIFI network at campsite and then share that wifi connection as a wireless router AND have the cellular connection as a backup…or vice versa). Welcome any guidance on the best internet setup (using a PEPWAVE) for a multi-month journey.
8/
USING GOOGLE EARTH WAS HELPFUL TO RESEARCH SITES + GAUGE AIRBNB/VRBO DRIVEWAY LENGTHS: when researching campsites or the occasional VRBO/AIRBNB stay to break up the trip, I found using Google Earth's measurement tool and satellite imagery helpful to get a better feel for the different campsites and rental places to stay (in addition to of course asking the owners!). Maybe a little overkill but it helped us a few times.
9/
RESERVE SITES WELL IN ADVANCE: I booked the sites I wanted to stay at during our return trip about 2 months prior to us leaving. Certain places were really hard to reserve (ex. Gros Ventre & Signal Mountain Campground in Grand Tetons, Tumalo State Park in Bend) and required a lot of persistence to secure. Perhaps it was the huge boom in new RVers + pandemic rules easing. I'm finding the trifecta of 1/ RV Trip Wizard 2/ Campendium and 3/ Harvest Hosts are helpful for doing research & booking the types of sites we want.
10/
OUR FAVORITE CAMPSITES: While it’s hard to pick a favorite (we did a mix of Harvest Hosts, State Parks and RV Parks), our favorite was probably Site #2 at
Neshonoc Lakeside Camping Resort in West Salem, WI. We booked this last minute and were not only fortunate to score one of the two sites directly on the lake (many of the other ones are tiered up the hill and have views of the lake) but the stay was made even better by the incredibly nice neighbors who live on either side of Site #2. Neshonoc had a huge pool (which was a big hit for our 9 year old).
Starr Hill Vineyards in Curwensville, PA (Harvest Host - 1 site, max rig size 45 feet, electrical hookup only but there is a water spigot nearby..you just can't hook your rig up to it) had not only great views high up on the hill but also amazingly private experience. We were also lucky to get a site at
Gros Ventre Campground in Grand Teton National Park (great views of the mountains; not much activity for kids).
Hope some of this is helpful. Thanks to those of you in the forums who helped me troubleshoot some of the solar and A/C issues I was having on the road. Really appreciated it.
APPENDIX: next summer we’re going to likely take the CA > NV > Utah (maybe Bryce or Zion) > Colorado path to get up to route 80 for some variety. We’ve never taken the Interstate through Utah / Colorado so if anyone has any favorite campsites (we oscillate between fun places/RV parks for kids and the more private/spacious/near some body of water State Parks which is my preference), I welcome any recommendations!
NOTE: These Amazon links are not affiliate links (ie I don’t receive any % of the purchase); if you chose to click on them and then order anything referenced in this post, Amazon donates a portion of the sale to a charity that does good work for kids suffering from gastrointestinal disorders, a cause important to me.
Top 10 Things We Learned on Our 1st X-Country Trip in 2021 Interstate - Part 2
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