Hitting the road in style

When I told my wife I was going to write about our recently completed RV shakedown trip to Homer, she immediately asked why, since nothing of any consequence happened on the trip. The fact that nothing bad happened is exactly why I am writing about our journey. Sometimes it’s nice to tell a normal story instead of the disaster stories usually written (or which are depicted in movies, e.g., Robin Williams in RV)!

The RV was used when we got it, but only 2 years old. We got a good deal on it when a big RV dealer/leaser in Anchorage decided to liquidate its “older” fleet last fall. The 22-footer had been well maintained and looked virtually new when we picked it up.

It has all the amenities an RV is supposed to have and probably then some. For a guy used to tent camping, sleeping in the back of my truck, or using a covered utility trailer as home base, this RV is akin to the Taj Mahal.

First off, there are three separate but interconnected power sources for the various appliances and equipment. Some stuff runs only off 12-volt DC power, like the interior lights, the color TV and DVD player, the stove exhaust fan and the on-demand water pump. Power for these appliances is supplied by two large, deep-cycle “house” batteries which are automatically recharged whenever either the generator or the main engine is run.

The furnace uses 12-volt power for the blower fan but burns propane for heat. Other appliances, like the refrigerator, can run off either 110-volt AC power supplied by the on-board generator and/or a connection to “shore” power or, by flipping the switch the other direction, propane. The built-in microwave is 110-volt AC only. The three-burner stove and oven is propane powered.

Secondly, there is a ton of storage space and three separate “furniture” pieces that can be converted into beds. The obvious one is the over-cab bed, which is somewhere between a “queen” and “full” size. The couch folds flat into a large “twin” size sleeper and the dinette table and bench seats also convert into a not-quite “full” size bed.

Thirdly, there are two sinks (kitchen and bath) both of which have hot and cold running water! The toilet actually flushes and the built-in shower is large enough to just barely accommodate a person of my “stature” after a hard day of fishing, hunting, or just sitting quietly under the large side awning sipping a “cold” one!

Fourthly, the in-dash radio is “satellite” ready and can do about anything except brush one’s teeth – as long as you know which buttons to push in what order. It even receives the NOAA weather channels for up-to-the-minute forecasts. The radio also has a CD player built in, but we forgot to bring any CDs with us, so I can’t say for sure if that system works (I expect it probably does!). And did I mention the color TV and DVD player?

Fifthly, go back to the first, second, third, and fourth items and reread the list of equipment and appliances. How many tents have hot and cold running water, a flush toilet, a thermostatically controlled furnace, color TV, a satellite-compatible stereo radio/CD player, an oven, a couch, and etcetera? Oh, and did I mention the built-in, roof-mounted air conditioning unit for those hot, sultry summer days? I trust you’re getting a sense of why my eyes are starry and how camping in the back of my truck pales in comparison!

The unit has a large gasoline engine which provides plenty of power to the five-speed automatic overdrive transmission for acceleration and cruising. The unit is rated to tow up to about an 8 to 10,000-pound trailer, so hauling the riverboat or the utility trailer with snowmachine or ATV should not be a problem.

The price we pay for this “palace on wheels” is fuel usage. In my earlier column about this RV, I mentioned that I expected it got somewhere between 6 and 8 mpg. I am very happy to report that those projections were low — not a lot, but they were low. For this Homer trip, we averaged right at 10 mpg, including a fairly long spurt of letting the cruise control maintain our highway speed.

The cruise control is a fabulous invention, as long as one runs on fairly flat countryside. If you travel anywhere with hills, the cruise control is either downshifting for power to maintain speed going up a hill or to use the engine for braking to maintain speed going down a hill. Either way, significantly more fuel is burned with the elevated engine rpm’s resulting from the downshifting maneuver. Once I figured that out and started just driving, the gas gauge needle didn’t drop nearly as rapidly!

The generator starts with the push of a button and there’s a control panel in the kitchen which lets one monitor the potable water levels, the charge condition of the house batteries, how much “gray” and “black” water has accumulated, and the amount of propane left in the tank, all by pushing one other button!

I know how I want to “rough it” from now on!

Howard Delo is a retired fisheries biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. You can leave him a message by e-mailing sports@frontiersman.com.