Ever Evolving

We have been in our trailer for a month now and it's surprising how much there is to learn and do. The last time we hired an RV here for seven days, its pretty much you get what you get, use what you have and hand it back in, that's it, no real work or maintenance to be done from a personal point. For us now it's different we must learn to care and maintain our trailer to get the best out of it.

Fellow RVers are a great source of knowledge and ideas, remember some of these people have been traveling the country full time for years, and I mean years, one couple we met have been on the road for 12 years! After several discussions with people we realised we were missing a vital piece of equipment, that is a surge protector. This sits in line between your power pedestal at the park and your 30 amp lead to your trailer, this way the whole trailer is protected. Now I had read about these items but I just baulked at the cost, close to $300-00, however as someone put it, you get just one surge or brown out of your power from the park and you could burn out your, fridge, air conditioner, TV or any other electronic equipment. Ok, point taken its first stop Camping World the best one stop place for any, RVing equipment, not so much camping equipment as we know it but more like RV gear.
The surge protector is not small


Camping World is just like a Bunnings for handymen, you go in to get one thing and you come out with a trolley full, even Rose is getting into it! So where do we start. Ok Rose see's a dust pan, in the trolley it goes, next was some anti freeze, no not car stuff this is specially made for putting through your RV water pipes to stop them freezing. Next, oh look a small foot stool for Rose, why? So she can see in all the cupboards, yep they are that high. Next some spray on stuff for all the rubber seals on the slide outs this will keep them soft and pliable, and then came the big ticket item, the surge protector. We grabbed someone to explain the different types etc. Basically he said if you don't have one your mad! In the trolley it goes. So all in all another few hundred dollars lees a $90 discount for being Good Sam members and we are away. Oh I forgot, some 100% silicon to fix a small wound on the trailer I caused by catching the trailer on the truck tool box, ok not big, but don't want any water ingress problems. I reckon before we even left Australia we were one of Camping Worlds best customers, now we don't have to do it online we get to do it in person.

So I have installed the surge protector, I have been on the roof to apply the slide out rubber protectant. Rose has re stacked the cupboards now she can see in them.

Two things I forgot to add is, a tyre pressure gauge and some fuel stabiliser. Ok, tyre pressure gauge, its much easier to check the tyre pressure on the trailer here in the park than attempt to manoeuvre the trailer into a garage just to check the pressures, so a must have. Because they use ethanol in the fuel here it tends to go "off" after about 30 days so to counter this you add fuel stabiliser to it, not a problem for our truck it's diesel, but the generator fuel is unleaded so we need to add it.

So we are really building up our maintenance tools, we now have a tool box which keeps growing but it all helps us to be more self sufficient. Other things to do is run the generator regularly to keep the battery charged, yep we opted for the electric start generator, it's better than yanking on a pull start! We have also invested in a torque wrench and socket, it's vital to keep an eye on the wheel nuts on the trailer, why? Because its a four wheel trailer tight turns puts a lot of stress on the wheel hubs so for $20 cheap insurance, we don't want to be remembered as those dumb Aussie's that watched their wheel fly down the highway!

We have also been to a lumber yard to get wooden blocks, these make stabilising the trailer easier and saves you having to run out your jacks to their full extension.

We will learn much more as we go, that I am sure off.


- Posted by RnR on their IPad

Location:Oaks Mountain State Park, Alabama