Welcome to part 3 of me documenting what we are learning about owning a travel trailer. We are extremely new to this so I’m sure some of the things I mention will be wrong. Also, some of what I’m going to talk about is specific to our situation. So what works for our trailer may not make sense for yours. But my main goal is to give general advice that can help other first timers regardless of what type of travel trailer is in your future.
Finding Storage
In part 2 of this series I went over how we found our new travel trailer and the buying process. Now that it was ours we needed somewhere to store it since there’s not room for it at our house. I had already been looking for storage facilities around the area. I settled on one that was very close to our house and convenient to the major highway near us. In fact, it was across the street from the bank where we completed the sale.
I had called them several times before to be sure we had a space reserved. The day before the purchase I popped in for what I thought would be a simple signing of paperwork. That’s when I found out the person I had talked to multiple times had failed to tell me they wouldn’t let me do anything unless they had a copy of the registration proving I owned the travel trailer. Much like buying a car, you usually won’t receive the registration the same day you sign the loan paperwork. The bank mails a form to the DMV who takes forever to process it and a month or 2 later they get around to sending you the registration and license plate.
I had plenty of legal documents from the bank loan proving I now owned the trailer. But that wasn’t good enough for them. They also neglected to tell me that when I drop off or pick up the trailer, they won’t let me park it myself. It goes to a certain area and then they move it. So we could never just decide to go on a trip on a whim and go pick up the trailer. We would have to call 24 hours in advance and have them move it for us. I don’t know if there are other storage facilities that act the same way, but it’s definitely something to ask about far in advance.
In a way I was glad this deal fell apart at the last minute. But I still needed storage when the purchase was complete less than 24 hours from that time. That’s when I remembered the roof repair we needed. I had already contacted a local repair shop to get a quote for the roof work. So I gave them a call hoping they might let me go ahead and drop it off even though they couldn’t do the work for at least a week or more. Thankfully because it was a small trailer they were able to squeeze me in. Crisis averted! I still needed to find a new storage place, but at least I had a little more time to look.
My second favorite storage facility was really popular and rarely had an opening. I started checking to see if anything happened to open up, but it never did. So I did the most basic thing and started Googling “RV storage”. I came across another option that was a little farther from our house, but actually more convenient for the direction we would be traveling on most trips. They had a couple of open spots that were more than long enough for our trailer and they were quite a bit cheaper than most places. They also had 2 very important things, electric hookups and a dump station on-site.
I signed up for that spot and a couple of weeks later when the roof repair was complete, I brought the travel trailer to its new home. Being able to hook up to electric meant I could keep the batteries charged and ready for the next trip. It also meant if I was doing any work on the trailer I could turn on the air conditioner and stay cool inside. Another nice benefit is a day or 2 before a trip I can go turn the fridge on and let it start cooling down so it’s ready to put food in immediately. I’ve also run into my neighbor there several times and he’s a really nice guy who has been able to answer some of my beginner questions.
We were almost ready to take our first trip, but still needed to get one more repair done. Aside from the roof needing to be resealed, the other issue the inspection mentioned was that the tires needed to be replaced soon. I had already seen enough horror stories of what happens if you have a tire blowout while driving and I definitely didn’t want to risk that. So I checked the RV groups I’m a member of on Facebook for tire advice.
There are several options, but the one that I’ve seen recommended the most was Goodyear Endurance. It’s the most expensive, but our travel trailer is a single axle so I only had to buy 2 tires. I called ahead to my favorite tire shop, Discount Tire, to ask what the process is for travel trailers. Obviously they can’t pull it into the service bay like a normal vehicle. They told me where to park and quickly did the work without me even having to unhitch from the truck. I highly recommend setting an appointment online for a specific time to avoid waiting too long. You can also pay online at the same time making the actual tire install super fast.
First Trip
Now that we had brand new tires we were ready for our first trip. One piece of advice I’ve seen many times is to make your first trip somewhere close to home. That way if anything goes wrong it’s much easier to just go home and try again another day. One of the closest options to us was a state park in Oregon. We had taken the travel trailer we rented there a couple of years before. I was very familiar with the drive and the park, and knew that most of the drive involved roads with multiple lanes. Being new to towing and not knowing how the trailer might sway or what speed I would be driving made me nervous. But not as nervous as if we’d been driving on two lane roads with traffic backing up behind me.
The campground was booked solid so I used the site I created, CamperAlerts.com, to monitor for any cancellations. It didn’t take long for a site to open up, but it was just for a single night. We decided to go since the purpose of this trip wasn’t camping so much as getting familiar with our new travel trailer, learning how to tow, and making a list of all the things we needed that we hadn’t thought of yet. It happened to be a Saturday night which was also nice because it meant we weren’t rushing to get to the campground after work. We were able to sleep in and then take our time getting there. I highly recommend finding little things like that to make your first trip less stressful.
Overall the trip was a success and we came away with a list of things we wanted to get. Mostly they were just convenience items like dishes, tools, gadgets to help secure things inside the trailer, etc. Some are things we already had from tent camping that I decided to purchase again. That way I could keep one in our tent camping totes and the other with the trailer. Those included things like an instant temp thermometer for cooking, cooking utensils, and tumblers for drinks. This was also the trip where Erin came up with the name for our travel trailer, Shortstack.
Up Next..
In part 4 I will discuss some of the things I’ve learned about towing. I will include some of the gear I’ve bought to help make towing as safe and easy as possible.
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