We rounded the corner and entered the service bay through a glass door, and there she was: sleek and shiny, her black front cap glistening in the sun. Our new trailer looked like everything we had hoped for. We were seeing for the first time the trailer that will be our home for three or more years.
We had driven down to Sanger, Texas over the weekend, and on President’s Day showed up early to go through the trailer and learn how all the systems worked. Ashley walked us around the outside of the trailer, explaining the propane gas tank system, the battery, the power and water hooks, the black and gray water tanks—every major system on the RV—and how to use them. I took notes, while Mrs. 123 recorded the walk-thru on her phone.
We stepped inside and Ashley had us sit on the two reclining chairs as she continued the tour inside. Everybody Loves Raymond was playing on the TV. As we sat listening to her explain the control panel, Mrs. 123 noticed some water on the floor of the trailer. A week prior, we had an inspector go through the unit, and he noticed a slight shower leak. The service staff wasn’t able to recreate it, but the small puddle of water confirmed the inspector was right. At first, Ashley suggested it might be water from when they cleaned the floor in preparation for our arrival. But when we stepped over to the bathroom, we saw more water on the floor.
Ashley acknowledged there must be a leak and said she would have the service staff check it out again. This time, they found a loose fitting under the shower, and repaired it.
Once all the repairs were completed, we signed the paperwork to seal the deal. Our salesman pulled the trailer out of the service bay and we pulled up our truck to connect the trailer and take it with us.
I couldn’t install the hitch on the truck until I could measure the height of the coupler on the trailer. So I had to install everything on the spot as our salesman, Joe, watched. But I didn’t have the right size socket for the bolts that held the hitch in place. Joe borrowed a socket from the shop (don’t tell anyone!) and soon we were hitched up and ready to go.
The dealership owns a KOA next door, and they had given us a free night’s stay there. We decided to stay for two more days to work out all the kinks before moving on. Our site was a pull-thru, which made it easy for us to set up.
However, we knew we wanted to practice backing into the site. So after a quick lunch, we pulled out of our site and tried backing into it. What a fiasco!
We quickly learned how difficult it is to control a trailer connected by a ball hitch. It’s a single point of contact and in general, the trailer moves in the opposite direction of the truck. Steer to the left, and the trailer will go right.
We had learned the trick to place your hand at the bottom of the steering wheel and then move your hand the way you want the trailer to go. In principle, it sounds easy. But we found that if we didn’t straighten out the truck soon enough, we’d quickly get into a jackknife position.
I tried backing in with Mrs. 123 standing outside to give directions and guide me in. We tried having Mrs.123 back in with my directions. Neither worked. After an hour of mainly learning what not to do, we decided to give it a rest and go buy some groceries.
But first we needed to set up the trailer. The site was relatively flat and we probably could have left the trailer as is. But the right side of the trailer was somewhat higher than the left. We had purchased Anderson levelers, a nifty piece of engineering that allows you to fine tune the level of the trailer, without the trial and error approach needed with plastic blocks.
The Anderson levelers are a curved angle piece of plastic. You drive up onto the thin side of the leveler and as the tire rolls over it, it moves onto progressive thicker part. Once you reach the desired height, you insert a plastic wedge to hold the leveler in place.
On the first attempt, with Mrs. 123 watching the level placed on the trailer’s floor, I backed onto and completely over the entire leveler. On the second try, we got it right and fitted the wedge in to lock it in place.
We had some trouble disconnecting the coupler from the ball hitch, but eventually figured it out. We then opened up boxes and boxes of new products—a sewer hose, surge protector, water pressure gauge, drinking water hose, electrical adapters—to connect to the campground’s water, power and sewer.
We extended the slide and unloaded all our belongings out of the truck. And we were in. We bought some groceries and made dinner, eating on the picnic table outside our trailer.
Despite all of the hiccups, it had been a most excellent day. We got our first glimpse at what our life will be like once we hit the road full-time next year.
