Kansas to mass. - RV-Dreams Community Forum

Bobc · RV-Dreams Family Member

Kansas to mass.

cejones4210 · RV-Dreams Family Member

Traveling through the Midwest at that time is still very dependent on weather. There is a KOA in Rock Island, Illinois where you can call ahead to make arrangements for water.

PrairieRV · RV-Dreams Family Member

That's in my town!! You must be buying from Horizons; they make beautiful 5ers! Locally, I'd suggest Owl's Nest, not far from Horizons. Then you can head east on I-70 and will probably find all sorts of campgrounds along that route.

Bobc · RV-Dreams Family Member

Thank You Guys, will i have a problem with places being open at that time of year. Yes it is a NH 5er. we are very excited to get started with our next chapter in our life. If all works as planned we retire the end of April. The house is sold, we just picked up our new truck and now the trailer in March.

Is 300 miles per day a good number to start with for this trip home ( that would take me 5-6 days to get home)

Neil and Connie · RV-Dreams Family Member

Bobc wrote:
we will be picking up our new trailer in Junction city KS, in mid to late March. Does anybody have any suggestion for camp grounds that time of year as we head home to Mass. I would like to plane on driving no more than 300 miles a day as I get use to driving our new 43' fifth wheel, have never had anything this big before, all help would be welcome. Not sure how many choices we will have that time of year, as I would guess most camp grounds are probably not be open yet.

Congratulations on your new Majestic…what are you pulling it with? We are in the middle of upgrading our tow vehicle (40 footer) from a Ford F450 to a RMA 5500HD with a hauler bed from Classy Chassis.

As long as you (a) pretty much stay on the interstate and (b) are willing to stop for a day or 3 if necessary due to snow…then heading east on 70 and then Columbus and Pittsburgh/PA Turnpike should be OK. Don't go into NYC…I would head north through Bethlehem and Jonestown and cross the Hudson up by Poughkeepsie someplace then across into CT and then MA.

Weatherwise…just watch the forecast and if necessary stay a day or two until they plow the freeways…although in March you should hopefully be past snow season…it still might happen but you'll be getting into Spring so it's less likely than a month earlier. You could always delay the pickup until April…NH will be more than happy to park your rig in their lot for a bit longer until the weather improves.

Campgrounds…take a look at rvparkreviews.com and find places every however often you need then check to verify they're open. That early in the season reservations shouldn't be a big problem as long as the CGs are open. Make sure you look at the reviews for big rig accessibility…we've found that we trust 5ver people reviews more than Class A people reviews as the latter are in our opinion more picky and they have more trouble leveling a Class A than a 5ver.

If you have solar and/or a generator…and have some experience RVing then there's always Wally docking…particularly if you're not planning to do much except travel…just observe all the normal courtesies for parking at Walmart. We've got a residential fridge and if the sun is out during our travel days we can pretty easily go 2 days without power hookup or running the genny…which means you only have to recharge or find a real RV park every other day.

We've been full time in our 2012 Majestic since summer of that year…wintering over in Fort Myers FL for the 4th year and planning our summer travels up to the Canadian Maritimes.

Just take it easy and mind the weather on the way home.

Bobc · RV-Dreams Family Member

Thanks Neil, we also went with the Dodge Ram 5500 crew cab with the CC hauler bed.
I picked it up the end of November
Have not towed with it yet but love it so far. Just does not like going by gas stations.
We are hoping that most of the bad weather is gone by the end of March.
Was hoping to avoid tornado a season in April out that way. I lack of camp grounds being that time of year has me a little concerned. We will be making it a quick trip, not sure how far in one day will be comfortable, as I have never towed anything this big before, that has me a little nervous
How has your experience with New Horizon been.?

JonRV · RV-Dreams Family Member

You might try going up through Canada and over from there. Weather might be a problem during that time of year but there are some great cities/camp sites along the way.

Bill and Linda · RV-Dreams Family Member

Bob:

The “winter” campground closures can be an issue. But do call them. Sometimes they will have sites available without water or sewer in the winter neither of which is necessary with your trailer’s water / fluids capacities. We find this many times as they have to drain the lines for the winter but power still works.

As I recall you did put in a generator so even Wally docking is not an issue nor is asking to stay overnight at a police station in smaller towns. (Old trick from my parents from back-in-the-day before Walmart.) Even without a generator you have plenty of battery for the night even with the residential fridge.

Naturally it is best to travel, IMO, on the Interstates as they will be cleared and the safest as to services. As much as we truly love Canada, I would not recommend going that way in the winter due to limited services in comparison to the interstates. Just really not a great idea, IMO.

Having traveled the mid-west, tornado alley, etc. many, many times – that is not a determining factor, IMO. Yes, the weather must be monitored and that is how you stay safe when you travel. But “weather” can happen at any time. We had a tornado in south Florida last week. Just saying.

We travel 300 miles / day all the time – others can’t do that much – which isn’t a lot to us – but nonetheless . . . However, I would plan the trip based on where you can stay, not the number of days. I think this is a 6 day trip planning wise even if the goal is just to get there.

A PM with a suggested route forth coming.

BTW, no truck with a GCVWR of 37,500+, regardless of brand, will pass a diesel pump without a “longing look.” That’s why the aux fuel tank. LOL

Bill

Neil and Connie · RV-Dreams Family Member

Bobc wrote:
Thanks Neil, we also went with the Dodge Ram 5500 crew cab with the CC hauler bed.
I picked it up the end of November
Have not towed with it yet but love it so far. Just does not like going by gas stations.
We are hoping that most of the bad weather is gone by the end of March.
Was hoping to avoid tornado a season in April out that way. I lack of camp grounds being that time of year has me a little concerned. We will be making it a quick trip, not sure how far in one day will be comfortable, as I have never towed anything this big before, that has me a little nervous
How has your experience with New Horizon been.?

I had never towed an RV before we started but we had our F450 for 4 months beforehand. The largest thing we ever had before the truck was a Mazda 6 and my only towing experience was with a 16 foot sailboat on a trailer behind our Toyota many years before.

We got the "how to drive your NH" delivery instruction from NH folks…which consisted of a 10 mile 6 turn trip and backed it twice into the delivery parking spot before we left.

Our first towing was to Kansas City where we had a back in site, luckily I could turn into the road as it went around a corner and then back straight in. Second night was 300ish miles to a pull through, third nite was another 300ish pull through and 4th we were back in the DC suburbs and backed into our narrow driveway.

Frankly…I was amazed how quickly I picked it up and how pretty much effortless it was. The only things I needed to learn were to make nice square turns instead of typical car curvy turns and the extra braking distance required.

So my guess is that if you've ever towed anything,…5ver, travel trailer, boat, whatever…you'll find it pretty easy.

Besides…it's all freeway for the first 3 days east from Junction City anyway and you'll be used to it by then.

Terry and Jo · RV-Dreams Family Member

With regards to towing and backing, the biggest thing to remember is to allow enough room for tight turns to the right. Especially if there happens to be anything right on the corner. But, if one pays attention to their maps and maybe even check out a right turn by looking on Google Maps, it can ease that problem a lot by allowing one to choose alternate routes.

As for backing, I've towed everything from 8-foot trailers to 40-foot semi-trailers. I hadn't thought of it much when we were towing a 26-foot RV, but when we went to our current 38-footer, when I went to backing the longer trailer into our RV pad at our last stix and brix, I realized that the longer trailer was easier to back because one could correct the positioning of the tow vehicle quick enough to get things right at the trailer without having to do a lot of forward and backwards movements to make corrections.

Terry

Bobc · RV-Dreams Family Member

Thanks for the support guys