First Multi Day Trip - Available Power

[savedin2007]

Ok, I have always lived by the belief that an unasked question is an unanswered question.
History: My wife and I purchased a 34-foot Keystone Avalanche 5er in 2021. Because of her work (I am retired) we could only go weekend RVing. We live in Houston and have gone on 19 short trips leaving and arriving on the same day. So, we hook up on Friday and break camp on Sunday. The farthest we have gone is to Tyler State Park, about 3.5 hours including stops. We have 3 dogs.
The Question: My wife's last day working will be Friday, May 30th. The next day we want to tow our 5er to Estes Park, CO to attend a Thursday, June 5th wedding. This would be our first long, multi-day destination trip and I am concerned that we might be under the gun to get to EP by the day before the wedding. I would like to drive our rig 60 to 65 mph and not farther than 300 miles at a time. EP is 1200 miles from our Home so that would be 5 days. We are planning on overnight stays at RV campgrounds but not sure I can count on all of them having electrical hookups. My RV has 2 wet batteries, but I have not needed them to provide all (or some) of the electrical requirements listed below.
1. Running the residential style refrigerator
2. Lights and slides
3. AC (if required)
4. Heater (if required)
5. Hydraulic landing gear
6. Cooking a meal or two on the way
I am a planner who doesn’t like surprises and I know if we were fortunate enough to plug in each night no problem with any of the above electrical loads but………..I know better than to count on either the campgrounds and/or the electrical hook ups each night until we get to EP. Again, this would be our first long multi-day trip.
Any thoughts or advice from our vast sea of 5th wheel warriors would be welcome.

[Tony Ramirez]

Although we arem't a 5th wheel, we have travelled. Here a a couple thoughts:

1) By June 1st, days are longer, so if you get going an hr after sun up, you can still go more than 6 hrs & more than 300 miles, still being stopped @ at decent time. That puts you in EP w time to spare(Weather, breakdown, tourist stop.)

2) Since you have a res fridge & only 2 wet cells, I would definitely get a hook up site. You can kinda plan your stops, but you don't necessarily have to prebook. Most of the time we can find a campground as we're going, seeing where we are around noonish, & how much farther we want to go that day. It's just for 1 night, so the CG doesn't have to be PERFECT. Some place to hook up & relax for the night.

Just my thoughts, good luck!

[Donskiman]

300 miles/day x 4 = 1200. Four days to travel, not 5.

We're retired. Never owned an RV before. We bought our Tiffin in Houston and drove home to Colorado Springs in 3 days. Stayed at full hookup RV parks each night. We went from Houston to Abilene, then to Amarillo, then home. The last day going home ended up being longer than originally planned because we had to alter our route due to a bad storm. Even though we had never driven a Class A other than a short test drive, the trip was fairly easy except around Fort Worth.

So, four days of travel should get you into Estes Park around 2-3 pm on the 4th.

[TruckinRound]

No generator to run the air conditioner in June? That could be a problem, which you can easily avoid by reserving your electrical hook up sites in advance. For 6 nights the cost difference between FHU or electric & water only, and no hookups is negligible, maybe $40 per night. But if you wait too long they’ll be gone.

Most rv parks accommodate late arrivals, but always inquire before booking. The standard operating procedure is to leave your packet outside by the office, but if you are running late some may ask that you call to let them know.

[traveldawg]

Originally Posted by savedin2007

Ok, I have always lived by the belief that an unasked question is an unanswered question.
History: My wife and I purchased a 34-foot Keystone Avalanche 5er in 2021. Because of her work (I am retired) we could only go weekend RVing. We live in Houston and have gone on 19 short trips leaving and arriving on the same day. So, we hook up on Friday and break camp on Sunday. The farthest we have gone is to Tyler State Park, about 3.5 hours including stops. We have 3 dogs.
The Question: My wife's last day working will be Friday, May 30th. The next day we want to tow our 5er to Estes Park, CO to attend a Thursday, June 5th wedding. This would be our first long, multi-day destination trip and I am concerned that we might be under the gun to get to EP by the day before the wedding. I would like to drive our rig 60 to 65 mph and not farther than 300 miles at a time. EP is 1200 miles from our Home so that would be 5 days. We are planning on overnight stays at RV campgrounds but not sure I can count on all of them having electrical hookups. My RV has 2 wet batteries, but I have not needed them to provide all (or some) of the electrical requirements listed below.
1. Running the residential style refrigerator
2. Lights and slides
3. AC (if required)
4. Heater (if required)
5. Hydraulic landing gear
6. Cooking a meal or two on the way
I am a planner who doesn’t like surprises and I know if we were fortunate enough to plug in each night no problem with any of the above electrical loads but………..I know better than to count on either the campgrounds and/or the electrical hook ups each night until we get to EP. Again, this would be our first long multi-day trip.
Any thoughts or advice from our vast sea of 5th wheel warriors would be welcome.

You can rest assured that there are full hookup campgrounds all along the route from Porter, TX, through Falls, onward to Amarillo, and up US87 to I-25 and on toward Estes Park.

RV Trip Wizard can lay all this out for you. You can choose the duration of you days in time and/or miles, and select from many campgrounds to choose one of you liking. And you can make a reservation at each stop ahead of time and drive with assurance you have a place for each night.

As you are getting into longer travels RVTW would be a good investment.

I've been along the route above and have always have full hookups.

[jimfishes]

Quick math will give you your risk without shore power. Expect your residential fridge to use as much as 15ah VDC per hour that time of year, likely the main power hog. What is the capacity of your two wet cells?