The First Pull

The day after Thanksgiving (2012), my wife and I loaded our six year old and three year old sons in the pick-up and headed for Omaha; a drive of 560 miles.  Not an exceptionally long drive but a quite the push for two little ones.

The reward for their patience was a night of swimming at the Marriott in Omaha.  I don't know what it is with kids and water but they sure go together!  We ordered in Pizza and splashed for hours and then promptly went to bed.

The Marriott was only a few miles from the dealership so the drive that morning was short.  The pre-sale walk through was uneventful and the paperwork was a breeze.  We were hooked up and back on I-80 headed west by 11:00 that morning.

When we left Omaha that morning it was around 28 degrees with a stiff wind blowing around 20 miles per hour from the Southeast.  A quartering headwind if you will.  My first impression was just as I expected it to be. Given the single axle, porpoising was quite noticeable over bridges and heaves in the road but it was nothing too alarming.  Just a few good bounces and everything settled back down.

Even with teh wind,  tt pulled straight and true with very little side to side wobble.  That said, anything over 60 MPH in anything less than a 3/4 ton tow vehicle would be asking for trouble.  There is just not much back there to keep it all straight should a wind gust take the trailer or a rapid lane change be required.  My tow vehicle is a 1/2 ton F-150.  I don't use a tow bar or stabilizer and don't feel a need for one.  On anything smaller though, I think it would be a must.

At 60 MPH we averaged 11.2 MPG at our first fuel stop.  By Lincoln, NE we had ran out of the wind and drove the remainder of the afternoon to North Platte, NE in calm winds and a crystal clear fall day.

We stopped for the evening in North Platte and decided to forgo a campground in lieu of a fine dinner of Kentucky Fried Chicken and a night in the Walmart parking lot.  After extending the slide out for room and eating our first dinner in the camper we and popped the tent out and made the boy's bed and ours.  I fired up the furnace, read a few storied to each of my boys and crawled into bed with my lovely bride.

It was a mild night in North Platte with the temperature never quite getting below freezing.  That said, even with the tent portion being out, the furnace did a fine job of keeping us all toasty warm.  I had it set at 70 degrees and it seemed to cycle on and off a few times an hour.

All in all- the first night was a great night.  The kids loved it and even my wife seemed to enjoy herself.  The only issues were my six year old promptly rolled himself out of the top bunk as there is no railing to keep a little one in the bed and our mattress was none too comfortable.  I am glad to my wife and I only had sore backs and he wasn't hurt.  In fact he did not even remember it happening when I asked him about the next morning.  A modification or two maybe?  Other than that all went incredibly well.

Set-up and take down of the tent portion took all of about five minutes combined.  It is an easy task that can easily be accomplished by one fit adult.  Dropping or picking up the base of the tent could be tricky for older/ smaller framed people as the spare tire is attached to the underside but I found the task to be completely doable by myself.

The only other thing I know that has to be changed is the tongue jack that comes with the Rpod.  It is mounted directly behind the hitch and sticks up about 20".  That means the top of the jack is about five inches taller than my tailgate is when it is in the down position.  Guess what happens to the tailgate if someone has a handful of whatever and just drops the tailgate?  That someone was me with my last pick-up so I know I will be changing the tongue jack to a movable/removable side mounted jack.  It is welded on the left or right side of the trailer frame in about the same lateral position as the center mounted tongue jack.  The big difference is the jack has a pin that allows it to be pivoted to be parallel with the trailer frame or you can pull the pin and completely remove the jack.  A third modification for sure.

The rest of the trip back to Denver was uneventful and I am pretty sure we were all glad to be out of the truck and back home.

What did I learn most from my first pull with our new Rpod?  I don't think any long trips are in our future.  My wife and I both agreed that for the first couple of years we are going to stick within a three or four radius of Denver for our outings.  Lucky for us though; that leaves a lot of spectacular camping within our sites.