Tips for a "One Night Stand"

[ykcamom]

In the past, we've either stayed at a place within one day's drive, or stayed at least two nights in one spot when our final destination is further away.

This time, we are travelling for 5 nights to our final destination, with no plans to stop and smell the roses along the way. (Will probably take more time coming back)

We are booked into RV parks for all 5 nights and the thought of disconnecting the trailer and the set up (water, sewer, etc) every night and morning could be a bit of a pain.

Got me to wondering if anyone has some tips on how they deal with "one-night-stands". Do you disconnect from the truck? Hook up the sewer hose, etc?

[Grumpy]

I don't disconnect unless it's impossible to level. As to the sewer I drain the grey water every other day and as soon as we arrive. That way I can put the sewer hose away that evening.

[Camper_bob]

I wouldn't.

In fact, now that we've done "parking lot boondocking", that's what I would do. It was a bit intimidating at first, but now that I've done it, it's no big deal.

Anyway, if you're just stopping to sleep, and getting an early start in the morning, I'd just try to get as level as possible and leave everything hooked up. The most we do (and only sometimes) is put the slide out so we can use the dinette to eat a meal. If there are picnic tables near by, we'll use those instead.

The only reason I would bust out any "utilities" is if I needed to dump tanks or fill water for the remainder of the journey. Or I would plug in if we needed to run the AC. Actually, I might plug in anyway because I don't trust my current battery (it was abused outside my custody). But once I get a new battery, I probably wouldn't even do that unless I really needed to.

[bansai]

Originally Posted by ykcamom

In the past, we've either stayed at a place within one day's drive, or stayed at least two nights in one spot when our final destination is further away.

This time, we are travelling for 5 nights to our final destination, with no plans to stop and smell the roses along the way. (Will probably take more time coming back)

We are booked into RV parks for all 5 nights and the thought of disconnecting the trailer and the set up (water, sewer, etc) every night and morning could be a bit of a pain.

Got me to wondering if anyone has some tips on how they deal with "one-night-stands". Do you disconnect from the truck? Hook up the sewer hose, etc?

If I'm in a big hurry, I don't unhitch from the truck unless the spot I'm in requires it due to length. I don't setup anything outside. I will use the stabilizer jacks, but since I use a cordless drill with the special bit for that, I can drop the stabilizers in less than a minute. A lot of the sites we use when travelling won't support a trailer much longer than ours, so sometimes unhooking the truck is mandatory and if the site isn't level, I don't want to mess up my fridge by running it for too long, so I'll unhook as well if I can't get my setup reasonably level while on the truck. I will use the hookups for sewer unless I've barely used any water...I keep my tanks as light as possible and it takes such a small amount of time. The main area we save time is by limiting our setup as much as possible. We keep it pretty close to what we do when we overnight at a Walmart. Kitchen stays 'packed', antenna(s) stay down. We try to minimize our use of the kitchen so we aren't doing dishes.

[ykcamom]

"I don't want to mess up my fridge by running it for too long, so I'll unhook as well if I can't get my setup reasonably level while on the truck."

Thanks. But how does not being level impact the fridge?

[oldmanAZ]

What Grumpy and Camper bob said.

We've found that leveling side to side is usually easy. Front to rear has been tougher. We've used the tongue jack to raise the nose of the trailer and the rear of the truck. We haven't needed to put blocks under the truck's rear tires (yet). If you can't level the trailer, be sure to keep the head of your bed higher than the foot and you'll sleep better. Trust Me!

[robkelly]

Originally Posted by oldmanAZ

What Grumpy and Camper bob said.

We've found that leveling side to side is usually easy. Front to rear has been tougher. We've used the tongue jack to raise the nose of the trailer and the rear of the truck. We haven't needed to put blocks under the truck's rear tires (yet). If you can't level the trailer, be sure to keep the head of your bed higher than the foot and you'll sleep better. Trust Me!

X2

[bansai]

Originally Posted by ykcamom

"I don't want to mess up my fridge by running it for too long, so I'll unhook as well if I can't get my setup reasonably level while on the truck."

Thanks. But how does not being level impact the fridge?

The norcold fridge, by design, needs to be level to work properly. Here's some more information than I can type out.. There are a dozen or so threads on here about it too. I'd encourage anyone not familiar with this to also hit up google and do some research.

How Level Is Level Enough For Your RV Refrigerator?

You risk permanently damaging the refrigerator if you run it for extended periods on either gas, or electric, out of level. The system that circulates the ammonia solution can run dry, which will fry the heating element, and then the fridge is ruined. It used to be a bigger problem than it is now as the design has been upgraded a bit over time. It isn't a problem when you are driving because the ammonia solution that makes the fridge work is sloshing around instead of pooling at the bottom at an odd angle. You can be off a few degrees any direction and be ok.. but more than that and you'll have problems.

[oldmanAZ]

IMO, the crux of the matter is '... if you run it for extended periods on either gas, or electric, out of level.' As far as I know, there are no specifics on how much time is "extended periods". It probably matters, too, by how far "out of level" it is.

We've run ours overnight when the trailer was level enough for a good nights sleep and the fridge seems to work just fine.

[bansai]

Originally Posted by oldmanAZ

IMO, the crux of the matter is '... if you run it for extended periods on either gas, or electric, out of level.' As far as I know, there are no specifics on how much time is "extended periods". It probably matters, too, by how far "out of level" it is.

We've run ours overnight when the trailer was level enough for a good nights sleep and the fridge seems to work just fine.

Yeah, we've done the same. There's no rule of thumb since every model is different. If someone were concerned enough about the issue, they can call Norcold, or whoever made their fridge. For what it's worth (free) I've heard 30 minutes is long enough to do damage if the system is out of level enough to suck air. No idea how many degrees off you have to be for that to happen, not going to find out The street in front of my house is on a 4% grade. I don't run the fridge when parked here.

[Jagiven]

If it is a one night stand, pull in late and leave early. I try not to unhook, level side to side, hope the tongue is a little low, drop the tongue jack to raise it up a bit to level, don't drop the stabilizers. If we are in a campsite, extend the side out, maybe or maybe not hook up electric. I never grab a full hook up spot. If needed, I'll dump on the way out.

We have stayed in parking lots overnight, being self contained makes it easy.

[Mustang65]

A level fridge.... everyone travels with the fridge on LP (which really does not matter as much as when running on electric) and a few of us run them on AC while traveling (inverter)... bouncing around while traveling... I would think that extended periods would be for those that spend weeks or months in one location (like seasonal). We have not had any issues since camping.

The overnight stays while traveling is like the others... leave the truck hooked up, if it is hot, will hook up electric and water if available, may or may not hook up to dump tanks, sometimes will put out the slide...

On the way home for the last leg... we hook everything up and in the morning before we leave for home, we clean out all the tanks (let the black tank sprayer run for about 30 minutes, drain the fresh water tanks, water heater and clean the slide top. When we get home all is done.

Don

[ROC-REQS]

Originally Posted by ykcamom

In the past, we've either stayed at a place within one day's drive, or stayed at least two nights in one spot when our final destination is further away.

This time, we are travelling for 5 nights to our final destination, with no plans to stop and smell the roses along the way. (Will probably take more time coming back)

We are booked into RV parks for all 5 nights and the thought of disconnecting the trailer and the set up (water, sewer, etc) every night and morning could be a bit of a pain.

Got me to wondering if anyone has some tips on how they deal with "one-night-stands". Do you disconnect from the truck? Hook up the sewer hose, etc?

A lot would depend on the length of time you're driving, what time you arrive at the campground and what time you hope to leave.

If you're arriving late and want to get on the road early then minimize what you do to only the essentials to make setup and brake down the most efficient.

Unhooking the TW from the trailer IMO would depend on how level the site is.
If you're leaving early or see no need to leave the campground and the site is fairly level, then leave it hooked up.

Though, for us, I would hook-up to electric and water for the one-night regardless if I'm hooked to the TV or not.

For us specifically, when we're traveling and doing one-night stops, we typically only drive for 4-5 hrs/day so we're getting into a campground mid to late afternoon.
We always hook-up electric and water.
Majority of the time we'll unhook, since we're in early it gives us the opportunity to do something in the area if we want.

I will drain the gray water before leaving, but only dump the black tank every 3rd day or so. And when on the road, I would dump the black tank when arriving at the campground, to save time in the morning when leaving.

There's only been a few times when we didn't unhook or that we stayed in rest area or parking lot for the night. But that's just a nature on how we travel.

That's what works for us.

[mike837go]

Back when SWMBO worked full time, we would head out after work and arrive near our campsite way too late to set up. We would just get off the road, do a rough leveling (the bubble can't cross a line) and unplug the TT from the TV.


Good enough for sleeping, running the fridge and using the toilet.

[Hohenwald48]

If you can't level enough to stop worrying about the refer, just turn it off for the night. Unopened it will keep everything frozen and cold over night with no problems at all.

I messed up and left mine off for 24 hours once and the ice in the ice bucket didn't even melt.