Newbie in need... of so many things!

[RODavis]

Hello all, we are 1st timers in the world of the 5th wheel, 1st trailer ever, first TV purchase. Done a little rental RV-ing, though a far cry from what we are embarking upon. So, the learning curve is steep! Located in Portland, Oregon
We have a GD Solitude 374th in our grasp, though located in VA. We have a Ford F-450 ordered, being built now with an early Sept delivery. House sale pending, with the prospect of loading up a big U-haul with all that remains after disassembling 25 years of home ownership, driving across the continent to start probably the biggest adventure of our lives. Standard reply these days, ain't movin', leavin'!
Looking forward to tapping the combined wisdom of this Forum, an invaluable resource. Hope we don't embarrass ourselves with small questions. Thanks in advance.
By the way, anyone have something like a Glossary of RV slang terms and abbreviations? Might save some head scratching.
Gonna be riding many waves of amazement for a while...
Roy & Mel(linda)

[Bradnailer]

Welcome to the forum and the world of RV'ing. I know you will enjoy it. It will take several trips but you will figure out all you need in the RV to adequately support your camping lifestyle.

[BreakfastinAmerica]

Nice to know your ready for fun and adventure. Glad to see you get a good truck to match your GD. That is the first part of comfort on the road. Good luck with your home sale and keep your new home as light as you can. Memories don’t weigh anything, clutter does.

[Steven@147]

Hello all, we are 1st timers in the world of the 5th wheel, 1st trailer ever, first TV purchase. Done a little rental RV-ing, though a far cry from what we are embarking upon. So, the learning curve is steep! Located in Portland, Oregon
We have a GD Solitude 374th in our grasp, though located in VA. We have a Ford F-450 ordered, being built now with an early Sept delivery. House sale pending, with the prospect of loading up a big U-haul with all that remains after disassembling 25 years of home ownership, driving across the continent to start probably the biggest adventure of our lives. Standard reply these days, ain't movin', leavin'!
Looking forward to tapping the combined wisdom of this Forum, an invaluable resource. Hope we don't embarrass ourselves with small questions. Thanks in advance.
By the way, anyone have something like a Glossary of RV slang terms and abbreviations? Might save some head scratching.
Gonna be riding many waves of amazement for a while...
Roy & Mel(linda)

Welcome to the world of RVing. Jumping in with both feet auh? Yup for a first time owner with a unit that big you'll have to start out slow. Maybe think about an RV driving course unless you are experienced in towing something that big, long and heavy. I am sure you have done some research, an indication of your new F450.
Yup the abbreviations and slang takes some getting use to but you'll catch on quickly if you hang around here.

Ask all the questions you need, there is no dumb question. We all started somewhere ourselves. Good luck to you and your travels. We too are going the same route you are by selling out, we just have to wait till spring.

[WhittleBurner]

You have already gotten good advice above...I'll just say Welocome and enjoy your new life!

[D2Reid]

Welcome to the life, we where were you are 8 years ago, haven't looked back once. There is no such thing as a question to small, I learned early in life that if I had a question then there are probably 10 other people that have the same question, so if I ask the question, then all of us get smarter.

Some things to know.

In moving out of the house you HAVE to get real about stuff. If you haven't used it in a year you don't need it. Ask the kids if they want the junk you have been saving for them, don't get your feelings hurt if they say no thank you. Mostly we save stuff because it has such great sentimental value to us. It's hard to let go of that stuff.

You will need basic tools to make minor rv repairs. Being a homeowner you probably have a whole bunch of them, get back to basics. Get Fredericks #2 bit screwdrivers and drill bits.

If offered a longer power cord get it. Plan on getting at least a 25' sewer hose, I use that as a main an have a 10' extension that will get used about 3 times a year. Get a 30' water hose, or keep the 25' one that comes with the rv and get a second 50' water hose. Get a gray or black 25' hose to use exclusively on the blank tank wash. (Not really necessary but I have minor germaphobea).

Get chocks for the wheels for parking. I carry about 8 4x4 one foot long pressure treated blocks. The fancy plastic ones they sell work good also.

Get a twist on wast valve for the sewer exit port.

Practice parking in a big empty lot, remember that when it starts to turn to far you need to pull forward a foot or two to correct. Study up on tail swing, good u tube videos available, but it can be fun to set up cones/sticks/rocks and study the effects of turning.

Schedule a warranty repair appointment with the RV dealer for a month or two after you pick it up. They will ask what needs to be fixed, you will tell them your not sure but you will keep in touch as things are found, if nothing is found you will cancel the appointment well in advance so they don't lose shop time. Then as you do find things, call the service manager and let him know, they can pre-order parts and have what they need when you come back. This can be really successful if there is good communication. It can totally fail if the service manager is non-cooperative.

Be sure you have more than one credit card company. And it doesn't hurt to have two different banks. New anti-terrorist policies at financial institutes may pose a problem for opening new accounts when you don't have a fixed address.

Sign up for the Goodsam/Pilot gas card. Take a look at Passport America, we finally just bought the lifetime membership.

TPMS - Tire Pressure Monitor System. This is one of my pet projects. I had bad tire and axle problems when I first started out in my SOB (some other brand). These devices allow you to monitor you tire pressure on your 5th wheel while driving down the road. IMHO (in my humble opinion) this is very important.

TV - dual meaning, good ole television, or tow vehicle.

DW, DH - Depending on the context it can mean darling wife, darling husband, or damn wife damn husband. In most parking stories it's usually the latter.

EMS - Electonic Monitor System, can be external or internal, Look at buying one for the power post, brown outs and power surges damage our RV's.

Speaking of parking. You will be challenged. Try never to park at night until you are really comfortable with it. You may have to seek out marriage counseling to work out the particulars of who does what and why. I neglected to do this, so as the years have passed DW has only one responsibility while I park the 5th wheel, yell stop at the top of her lungs should she see me 2' feet away from hitting something. Why 2'? She doesn't want to embarrass herself so she hesitates, then it takes me a second to react. We tried 6" and 1', but I crunched some stuff before I got stopped, then she would ask me why I hit it... That's just us having fun being married, but the point is that parking can be a point of stress, take it slow and easy, communicate as best you can. Never feel bad about holding up traffic while you park, it's part of what we do.

Figure out early how you are going to manage all the pictures you take. After trying several services and blog thingy's I finally just set up sub-directories on my hard drive by year, month, and then put a date and descriptor of the location in sub-folders that hold the pictures. I then back those up to external hard drives, one I leave with the kids and rotate them out as we visit. Those hard drives also have scanned copies of important documents should they be needed.

Now that you have decided on what clothes to bring throw out all the work clothes. (unless you are still working of course)

Now just go have fun.

[Keebler]

As Steve mentioned above, a good driving course could prove very helpful, especially if you've never towed a trailer. I pulled a TT, and before that a pop-up for years before getting a fifth-wheel. Honestly the much larger fifth-wheel pulls with more stability than the TT.

To me, the biggest difference is the fact that the 5'er has about 15 feet rear of the tires; this results in tail swing. Not an intimidating thing, just an awareness thing. Also, measure your height from ground to the top of the AC unit. These things are tall as well as long; again, all about awareness.


A large, empty parking lot, and some orange cones make for great practice.

[MN-Mark]

Great write up Dallas. We are a couple of years away from retirement and will travel ALOT, but I don’t know if we will ever full time.

Enjoy your new adventures Roy and Mel!

Mark

[RODavis]

You should see the grin on my face...Thanks, lowers the pressure around here.

[JCZhome]

Welcome to the board. We are full timers for two years now. There's a week long course in Athens, Tex. for basic RV Maint. Tech. training that I found very, very helpful...... https://nrvta.com/

As another resource, there's a facebook group for your particular model..... https://www.facebook.com/groups/531138453932686/

We have the Momentum 376TH which is the same floor plan as the 374TH and have been coast to coast. Your second year will be much easier than your first year.......you'll be over the hump of that learning curve.

I would suggest that you look at getting the disc brakes put on by Performance Trailer Braking. They're located in Norman, Oklahoma but they have installers all over the nation and they will come to you.

I also suggest attending some of the Grand Design Rallies around the nation. You'll learn a lot about maintenance and upkeep of your RV and meet many, many other owners.