|
First thoughts on our 25' GT
Been a hectic week. Managed to get our GT on Wednesday, sold our Jayco the same day. Drove the Jayco to it's new owner and took the GT out on it's initial trip. Thought it would be worth mentioning 1st impressions as I go (we will be out for 2 more days). Really just rambling, maybe this would be helpful for people considering a similar unit.
The GT tows behind my RAM 2500 and ProPride hitch very nicely. Almost got it in my driveway in 3 tries, It was good enough on try 4. The campsite was fairly easy to get in even though we had a tree and parked car directly across from us.
ProPride hitch: while it does drive nicely attaching and un attaching have been a challenge. My driveway has a very slight incline and while I could get the stinger into the hitch, it resulted in a very unsettling bang when I backed in. I thought I'd hit the house, but I think it was the tongue jack slipping back on the 4X6 I had under it. No apparent danger. When I backed into my campsite the hitch had slid to one side and I knew I would not be able to get the jack down because the weight bar was in the way. So I had to pull forward until it straightened out and then back it in going left/right/left/right to keep it centered. We'll see how reconnecting goes.
As far as the GT itself, storage space is more of a challenge than we figured. It appeared as though there was more space in the cabinets than our Jayco, and while that may be true, the under bed is taken up by spare cushions (some of which we'll probably leave home next time) and all the other spaces seem to be meticulously designed to be just a smidge smaller than anything we try to fit in there. We'll spend the rest of the weekend playing around. Losing the underbed/passthru storage from the Jayco means more stuff in the truck. The truck bed was stuffed. Definitely going to have to re evaluate what we want to bring in future.
The mattress was surprisingly comfortable. We've thrown a new memory foam mattress or topper on every RV we've bought, but this one seemed very nice. No complaints. Not having a nightstand on my side of the bed is going to require some thinking. I usually leave my phone there with a clock app running, a place to drop my glasses and a water bottle.
The curtains are surprisingly difficult to pull. Kind of a pain actually. Of course most if not all of the windows won't open (not a huge problem right now since it's so hot and humid). The shower toilet arrangement is interesting. You can get a bit of privacy just by leaving the toilet door open and not bother with the curtains. The shower itself is fine. I like the shower head and seat. The on-demand water heater seems pretty good. Of course you have to let the water run a bit before it comes up to temp. I can see why boondockers may not like it. This particular site does not have sewer hook up, but we won't be there long enough to fill the tank. Even if we do its a short trip to the dump station with the cart.
The TVs and entertainment system are nice. Fusion AV component and a Sony Blu Ray player (we got rid of all our disks years ago). Need to figure out how to access the satellite connection. I believe I need to take the 4 screws out where the AV stuff is and there is a connection in there). The Fusion player is unnecessarily difficult to figure out how to pair blutooth too, but I found an on-line manual.
We are in a 30 amp site so we can't take advantage of our coveted 2-AC units. It's hot as all get out this week and humid, but the site is very shaded. We kept the bedroom nice and frosty last night on one AC.
The electric fridge is nice. Got cold fast. Fridge is about 30 deg and freezer is around 6. Big enough for our needs.
So far, that's it. Need to master the ProPride, pack more efficiently, get used to some of the Airstream "it's not a bug, it's a feature" idiosyncrasies. I like that there are no slides to break, but frankly I'd be happier with a manual awning and gas/electric tanked water heater. Some of the power management stuff and other tech wonders look like they may be prone to break at a bad time. As long as we have AC we can work around most of those (use campground showers if the WH goes out, get a cooler if the fridge dies etc).
|
Linear Mode
