Advice to newbie for first long drive in RV

[Capt Steve]

Do not {as recommend earlier}, blindly inflate your tires to the door sticker numbers. These numbers are absurd as they cannot begin to account for how the coach is loaded. Hopefully your tires are not the originals and any tire that is 5 years old or more should be replaced regardless of how it looks.

Take the coach to a scale, loaded for how you will be traveling and get it weighed. Then based upon that weight, refer to the inflation load tables from the tire manufacturer and air up to what weight each tire is actually carrying.

Over inflating the front tires will reduce your contact patch and contribute to horrible handling. It is crucial to have your tires properly inflated and without weighing the rig you have very little chance of getting it right.

Good luck.

[LarryinID]

Originally Posted by THenne1713

Turn OFF all propane while traveling, esp. no fire/ sparks at gas pumps.. (contrary to those that say otherwise)

If you do that your refrigerator won't work.

I have never seen a claim of a fire at a fuel station caused by an RV fridge operating. And obviously never had it happen myself with hundreds or thousands of gas stops over 40 plus years. EDIT: I found some with a Google search. Rare, though, and usually another problem involved.

Generally the refrigerator and hot water heater (which I never use travelling) are far from your gas fill connection.

This is a matter of some controversy on the web. If you are of the worrying type it would be a bit more practical to just turn off the fridge before you fill up. Then you'll only ruin your food when you forget to turn it on again. Usually the frozen stuff is good for a few hours.

[twinboat]

There is more of a chance if a fire starting from the cars coming or going at the other pumps then from your fridge.

Even when you start up to leave, is your starter and alternator explosion proof, not likely.

[Cebuano54]

Thanks for all the tips. We're on our second day heading home and so far, it has been a great experience. Love the RV and the drive.

[eddndee]

Originally Posted by hilgert

On what information is this based?

From experience... driving through the mountains from Montana to Puget Sound, wind, hills & load at max. Our friend stopped his Ford powered Class A on a mountain pass and promptly turned off his motor. The cool mountain air rapidly cooled his exhaust manifold resulting in a stud penetration crack.
If I have been pushing it, I just give a few minutes to cool before shutting down.