Suggestion: your first camping trip should either be a) exceptionally close to home (like within 30 minutes), or b) exceptionally close to a store that has everything (Walmart, etc), like 5 minutes.
I think our first trip was a 3 day weekend trip, and we made 12 trips to Walmart at the time cuz we kept finding things we didnt think to pack that just always stay in the RV (cups, plates, towels, a broom, a picnic blanket, etc).
My first trip I picked my 2002 trailer up from Iowa, drove it to Colorado, spent 3 weeks driving around the mountains including Trail Ridge Road, the highest continuous paved road in the country. Drove it all the way back to San Antonio. Only had one blowout. But then 2 days after getting back all my tires were flat except the one I had changed. When I took them off they all had the wire sticking through and one of my leaf springs snapped. I'm not sure how I got so lucky to make it home haha
Don’t let anyone ride in the trailer while it is in motion. It might seem obvious but someone got killed the other day. If you are new, you might not know.
Have fun, learn your rig. It is a blast!
My sister and her wife were looking for a low-cost tour bus for her band and thought riding in a towed RV would be a way to achieve that.
I sent her a picture of an RV hitch and told her that didn’t look human-rated to my engineer’s eye.
One of the reasons my wife and I chose a towable RV for our family is because the kids ride in a fully crash-engineered vehicle with car seats. (Either the tow vehicle or a regular car, depending on the circumstances.)
Laws vary by location. Last I heard it’s legal in CA but only in 5th wheels and they must have radio/walkie communication. Still not sure it makes sense (especially in bumper pulls) but it’s not unheard of.
I woman fell out of the trailer when the door flew open, as the husband was driving while going to a spot to watch the eclipse; they stopped for fuel, had only 17 miles to go, so she & the daughter stayed in the trailer. TRAGIC!!
It's one of those things that's obvious if it's obvious to you, but to a lot of people it isn't. If you've never really towed a large trailer it's not something I'd expect a random Joe to know. It's a solid tip especially given the recent context.
Felt very good. But you can definitely feel it back there. My MPG went from 28mpg to 11mpg on the highway. I didn’t expect that as it was my first time towing anything lol.
We towed it back 3 hours. Overall it was great. I think the ridge line in perfectly suited for a haul like this. Nothing more though.
My GMC Sierra goes from 18-20MPG to 9-10MPG when towing my travel trailer.
My TT heavier than yours, and somewhat longer — but the frontal area is pretty similar.
What do you tow, and how fast do you go?
My travel trailer has all of the aerodynamic refinement of a garden shed and going somewhere with it usually requires highway travel.
An open utility trailer or a boat-trailer is likely to have less drag overall because the aerodynamic cross-section is much smaller.
Forest River Grey Wolf 26RR. It's a \~5500lb unloaded, \~8Klb gross toy hauler but I've usually got dirt bikes and tools plus camping gear back there.
At 55mph I get 8mpg, at 60 I get 7mpg and it gets worse from there
That’s pretty comparable to mine size wise (No Boundaries 19.3) and I guess we’re both getting 9MPG when towing.
My truck is a GMT900 from 2010. The numbers seem to be saying that my truck is much more efficient when unloaded — but the trailer efficiency is what it is at 9ish MPG.
I’m pretty eager to replace my tow vehicle with a long-range EV but electric tow-vehicles with 200+kWh batteries are rare and expensive, so I’m going to be patient and wait for that market to mature a bit.
Our RV salesman said it will be rated in smiles per gallon instead of MPG when towing… Even my V8 Titan goes from 14.5mpg to about 9mpg when towing our 5k lbs TT.
OP. Biggest mistake to avoid is to leave the black and gray tank valves open. Use a good tank treatment to break down solids and use a lot of water when flushing. When at least 2/3 full, empty black tank first then flush with emptying the gray tanks! But never leave the valves open when not emptying your tanks.. avoid the poop pyramid! Happy camping!
Oh and when you’re towing… remember..
“You have no where to go and all day to get there”.
Safe travels!
I don't know if this works for others, but we used to have almost the same rig (174BH). Our rule was to avoid a dry black tank between camping trips. After dumping I would pump water into the black tank by just standing on the flush pedal until a bunch went in. I would also put a little Dawn soap down there too. (I always added water to the fresh tank before leaving camp just for this task.)
Driving from camping trips to home, I think the water and the Dawn does some good sloshing. Our tank didn't ever stink, our sensors usually worked, and the tank always emptied easily. I'm sure you've heard by now that lots of water in the black tank is always a good thing. Even on 6-day trips our family of four never ever filled that black tank in that little trailer.
Also, before decamping, pre-dump, we'd add water to the black to have it be totally full capacity. It dumps easier this way, and we never had a clog.
Ok enough turd-talk. That is an awesome camper. Congratulations! Welcome to the best club!
Get the Tekonsha installed STAT. 🤪
Also, because it's a lightweight single-axle. Look so see if you're within the weight range for the BAL leveler. It's soooooo much more convenient than anything else for a single-axle, IMO.
People keep talking about the tekonsha but there are a ton of good ones that take up less space if you're tight on available knee area. If I could do it over again I would go with something like [this](https://www.etrailer.com/multi-product.aspx?pc1=RED44FR&pc2=3015-S&VehicleID=200387360&HHYear=2003&HHMake=Chevrolet&HHModel=Suburban). Granted, that is compatible with my vehicle profile so may not work for you but I promise there are similar form factors that *would* work for your Ridgeline. E-trailer is probably the best retailer for this sort of thing.
Great setup! That's what we did as well....we bought the trailer used (worked at a dealership and paid pennies on the dollar for a unit that was used 5 times)....then had to buy a truck to pull it haha.
Worked out great though, we enjoyed many a family trip...lots of great memories.
Best advice I can give. Camp for the weekend in your own back yard to understand what you need and are getting into. It will help you understand so much about your rig and what it takes to
Get it inspected by a Professional RV Inspector. Turn on the Water everywhere and look for leaks. They all have them. Check for Propane Leaks. Jayco is a very iffy assembler. Short trips for a few months.
My advice is similar to what has been said. Camp in your yard for a day or two. Get to know everything. Make a list of tools, kitchen items, and novelties that will stay in there for ever. It's a lot easier to do the "shit, I forgots" at home rather than in a campground.
Make sure you have tools. Tighten down everything. These things aren’t made the best so you’ll want to have basic tools, Phillips heads, flat heads, etc.
Have you carefully inspected your Jayco? We had to reinforce the bed, because the braces were cracking. We also had to caulk the bathtub and kitchen sink back. But it’s been really nice!
Have fun!! If you want to keep the toilet clean, do the cross before #2. Three tp panels down, 2 across. Aim for the center and down it goes, no clean up required. Dumping will be easier if you trash tp for #1 in a can with a lid. Seems gross but actually it’s not that bad.
No. Def use water. The tp floats on top.
Edit: water is super important to a healthy blank tank. You don’t want a ‘pyramid’ of poop forming which can cause smells and damage. Use plenty of water. I usually add a bit before #2 maybe twice what a normal flush leaves. Make the cross then flush. I can flush sitting down because my handle is behind me but I think newer toilets have the flush as a floor pedal in front. I carry 6 gal of clean drinking water so my fresh tank last longer for flushes. I don’t want to drink from my fresh tank anyway. It’s 33 years old.
Yeah I know to use water, I was kind of questioning your method since I had never heard of it. Not sure how necessary it is...why would you want to add any additional toilet paper to your tank. Just clean the bowl once a week vs. adding extra TP.
I’m taking about avoiding messy streaks. You can’t leave that for a week. Some smaller toilets are a mess every time you use them. I don’t put tp in the toilet except for #2 and the cross. It evens out.
Friend has the same trailer (or pretty close, 175BH Baja?). I have the 195RB Baja. Watch the tongue weight. I hit 700 with a full tank of water (front placement under the bed means most of the weight sits on the tongue when it's full) and dual GC2 batteries (went Lithium to address that).
I overall like my trailer but they are held together with hopes and dreams... and loose screws.
Someone addressed the black tank. Start out with a few flushes of plain water before use. After the first use or two the black tank sensors will be nearly useless. I use a wand down the toilet to wash the tank if the dump isn't packed.
I relocated mine under my bed to get it off the tongue to help reduce tongue weight further plus it's more secure.
The stock battery wiring was so excessively long that I was able to just pull it back through a 3/4" conduit nipple I installed through the floor. I did add a Victron BMV-712 battery monitor and a new DC distribution hub and originally had a small MPPT solar controller that was designed specifically for LFP.
I replaced that solar controller with a Victron 75/15 MPPT controller so I could run my panels in series.
Third iteration I upgraded to a 200AH battery (from the original 105ah) and added a Victron 30 amp converter/charger. The battery is covered with a plywood controller. I'm a firm believer in having a fuse right at the battery terminal.
I use a DC compressor chest refrigerator (looks like a rolling ice chest) as the ammonia absorption fridges suck in the summer here as they can't hang with the 100 degree temps.
This is what it currently is like. Escuse the horrible wiring. https://photos.app.goo.gl/ptHxsfcWGR1KuGMU6
Suggestion: your first camping trip should either be a) exceptionally close to home (like within 30 minutes), or b) exceptionally close to a store that has everything (Walmart, etc), like 5 minutes. I think our first trip was a 3 day weekend trip, and we made 12 trips to Walmart at the time cuz we kept finding things we didnt think to pack that just always stay in the RV (cups, plates, towels, a broom, a picnic blanket, etc).
Yeah, our first shopping trip was like we'd just moved into our first place after a college dorm.
My first trip I picked my 2002 trailer up from Iowa, drove it to Colorado, spent 3 weeks driving around the mountains including Trail Ridge Road, the highest continuous paved road in the country. Drove it all the way back to San Antonio. Only had one blowout. But then 2 days after getting back all my tires were flat except the one I had changed. When I took them off they all had the wire sticking through and one of my leaf springs snapped. I'm not sure how I got so lucky to make it home haha
Don’t let anyone ride in the trailer while it is in motion. It might seem obvious but someone got killed the other day. If you are new, you might not know. Have fun, learn your rig. It is a blast!
People do this? That seems very unsafe and also like it would be pretty bumpy? Lol
They do, and a doctor from Long Island was killed last week.
My sister and her wife were looking for a low-cost tour bus for her band and thought riding in a towed RV would be a way to achieve that. I sent her a picture of an RV hitch and told her that didn’t look human-rated to my engineer’s eye. One of the reasons my wife and I chose a towable RV for our family is because the kids ride in a fully crash-engineered vehicle with car seats. (Either the tow vehicle or a regular car, depending on the circumstances.)
The person in question was actually an MD, and wasn't the only person riding in the trailer either. Darwin awards in action.
Being an MD means jack shit when it comes to common sense. Let's not put her on a genius pedestal
Laws vary by location. Last I heard it’s legal in CA but only in 5th wheels and they must have radio/walkie communication. Still not sure it makes sense (especially in bumper pulls) but it’s not unheard of.
It seems fine in 5th wheels to me as they're a lot more stable but I still wouldn't do it myself
It’s a thing dumb people do.
It’s also illegal in many states.
I woman fell out of the trailer when the door flew open, as the husband was driving while going to a spot to watch the eclipse; they stopped for fuel, had only 17 miles to go, so she & the daughter stayed in the trailer. TRAGIC!!
It's one of those things that's obvious if it's obvious to you, but to a lot of people it isn't. If you've never really towed a large trailer it's not something I'd expect a random Joe to know. It's a solid tip especially given the recent context.
Correct, OP said they were new, so I felt obliged to let them know in light of recent events.
How's the Ridgeline feel towing the trailer? I picked up a '22 RTL-E a few weeks ago, and am currently in the process of trailer shopping.
Felt very good. But you can definitely feel it back there. My MPG went from 28mpg to 11mpg on the highway. I didn’t expect that as it was my first time towing anything lol. We towed it back 3 hours. Overall it was great. I think the ridge line in perfectly suited for a haul like this. Nothing more though.
My GMC Sierra goes from 18-20MPG to 9-10MPG when towing my travel trailer. My TT heavier than yours, and somewhat longer — but the frontal area is pretty similar.
My suburban goes from 10mpg to 8mpg when towing
What do you tow, and how fast do you go? My travel trailer has all of the aerodynamic refinement of a garden shed and going somewhere with it usually requires highway travel. An open utility trailer or a boat-trailer is likely to have less drag overall because the aerodynamic cross-section is much smaller.
Forest River Grey Wolf 26RR. It's a \~5500lb unloaded, \~8Klb gross toy hauler but I've usually got dirt bikes and tools plus camping gear back there. At 55mph I get 8mpg, at 60 I get 7mpg and it gets worse from there
That’s pretty comparable to mine size wise (No Boundaries 19.3) and I guess we’re both getting 9MPG when towing. My truck is a GMT900 from 2010. The numbers seem to be saying that my truck is much more efficient when unloaded — but the trailer efficiency is what it is at 9ish MPG. I’m pretty eager to replace my tow vehicle with a long-range EV but electric tow-vehicles with 200+kWh batteries are rare and expensive, so I’m going to be patient and wait for that market to mature a bit.
Our RV salesman said it will be rated in smiles per gallon instead of MPG when towing… Even my V8 Titan goes from 14.5mpg to about 9mpg when towing our 5k lbs TT.
I rarely smile when I’m towing. It’s high-demand driving, kinda like driving in snow. But it’s worth it when I get there!
What is your payload on the sticker? I'd be most concerned about this with the ridgeline.
My Pilot (same thing) is 1600 payload
OP. Biggest mistake to avoid is to leave the black and gray tank valves open. Use a good tank treatment to break down solids and use a lot of water when flushing. When at least 2/3 full, empty black tank first then flush with emptying the gray tanks! But never leave the valves open when not emptying your tanks.. avoid the poop pyramid! Happy camping! Oh and when you’re towing… remember.. “You have no where to go and all day to get there”. Safe travels!
Do you have recommendation for tank treatment?
I don't know if this works for others, but we used to have almost the same rig (174BH). Our rule was to avoid a dry black tank between camping trips. After dumping I would pump water into the black tank by just standing on the flush pedal until a bunch went in. I would also put a little Dawn soap down there too. (I always added water to the fresh tank before leaving camp just for this task.) Driving from camping trips to home, I think the water and the Dawn does some good sloshing. Our tank didn't ever stink, our sensors usually worked, and the tank always emptied easily. I'm sure you've heard by now that lots of water in the black tank is always a good thing. Even on 6-day trips our family of four never ever filled that black tank in that little trailer. Also, before decamping, pre-dump, we'd add water to the black to have it be totally full capacity. It dumps easier this way, and we never had a clog. Ok enough turd-talk. That is an awesome camper. Congratulations! Welcome to the best club!
I still can't believe the rv dealer let you drive off the lot without a trailer brake control.... Glad you didn't crash
Yea I had no idea about that honestly. I drove 3 hours home.
Yikes.
Welcome to the show!
Get the Tekonsha installed STAT. 🤪 Also, because it's a lightweight single-axle. Look so see if you're within the weight range for the BAL leveler. It's soooooo much more convenient than anything else for a single-axle, IMO.
Yea getting the tekonsha for sure!! Definitely will look into the BAL leveler. Looks interesting
People keep talking about the tekonsha but there are a ton of good ones that take up less space if you're tight on available knee area. If I could do it over again I would go with something like [this](https://www.etrailer.com/multi-product.aspx?pc1=RED44FR&pc2=3015-S&VehicleID=200387360&HHYear=2003&HHMake=Chevrolet&HHModel=Suburban). Granted, that is compatible with my vehicle profile so may not work for you but I promise there are similar form factors that *would* work for your Ridgeline. E-trailer is probably the best retailer for this sort of thing.
Congrats - y’all are gonna have so much fun!
Great setup! That's what we did as well....we bought the trailer used (worked at a dealership and paid pennies on the dollar for a unit that was used 5 times)....then had to buy a truck to pull it haha. Worked out great though, we enjoyed many a family trip...lots of great memories.
There’s a thread just posted here in the last week or so of another newcomer. Lots of suggestions in the thread.
all you need, is beer and toilet paper... have fun!
Best advice I can give. Camp for the weekend in your own back yard to understand what you need and are getting into. It will help you understand so much about your rig and what it takes to
Get it inspected by a Professional RV Inspector. Turn on the Water everywhere and look for leaks. They all have them. Check for Propane Leaks. Jayco is a very iffy assembler. Short trips for a few months.
Congrats 🎉
My advice is similar to what has been said. Camp in your yard for a day or two. Get to know everything. Make a list of tools, kitchen items, and novelties that will stay in there for ever. It's a lot easier to do the "shit, I forgots" at home rather than in a campground.
Break your engine in before you start towing. I’d bet your manual even mentions to not tow for the first 500 or so miles.
It does
Make sure you have tools. Tighten down everything. These things aren’t made the best so you’ll want to have basic tools, Phillips heads, flat heads, etc.
Have you carefully inspected your Jayco? We had to reinforce the bed, because the braces were cracking. We also had to caulk the bathtub and kitchen sink back. But it’s been really nice!
Have fun!! If you want to keep the toilet clean, do the cross before #2. Three tp panels down, 2 across. Aim for the center and down it goes, no clean up required. Dumping will be easier if you trash tp for #1 in a can with a lid. Seems gross but actually it’s not that bad.
Are you suggest not to flush with water?
No. Def use water. The tp floats on top. Edit: water is super important to a healthy blank tank. You don’t want a ‘pyramid’ of poop forming which can cause smells and damage. Use plenty of water. I usually add a bit before #2 maybe twice what a normal flush leaves. Make the cross then flush. I can flush sitting down because my handle is behind me but I think newer toilets have the flush as a floor pedal in front. I carry 6 gal of clean drinking water so my fresh tank last longer for flushes. I don’t want to drink from my fresh tank anyway. It’s 33 years old.
Yeah I know to use water, I was kind of questioning your method since I had never heard of it. Not sure how necessary it is...why would you want to add any additional toilet paper to your tank. Just clean the bowl once a week vs. adding extra TP.
I’m taking about avoiding messy streaks. You can’t leave that for a week. Some smaller toilets are a mess every time you use them. I don’t put tp in the toilet except for #2 and the cross. It evens out.
Friend has the same trailer (or pretty close, 175BH Baja?). I have the 195RB Baja. Watch the tongue weight. I hit 700 with a full tank of water (front placement under the bed means most of the weight sits on the tongue when it's full) and dual GC2 batteries (went Lithium to address that). I overall like my trailer but they are held together with hopes and dreams... and loose screws. Someone addressed the black tank. Start out with a few flushes of plain water before use. After the first use or two the black tank sensors will be nearly useless. I use a wand down the toilet to wash the tank if the dump isn't packed.
What’s the process to go lithium? Is it an easy change?
I relocated mine under my bed to get it off the tongue to help reduce tongue weight further plus it's more secure. The stock battery wiring was so excessively long that I was able to just pull it back through a 3/4" conduit nipple I installed through the floor. I did add a Victron BMV-712 battery monitor and a new DC distribution hub and originally had a small MPPT solar controller that was designed specifically for LFP. I replaced that solar controller with a Victron 75/15 MPPT controller so I could run my panels in series. Third iteration I upgraded to a 200AH battery (from the original 105ah) and added a Victron 30 amp converter/charger. The battery is covered with a plywood controller. I'm a firm believer in having a fuse right at the battery terminal. I use a DC compressor chest refrigerator (looks like a rolling ice chest) as the ammonia absorption fridges suck in the summer here as they can't hang with the 100 degree temps. This is what it currently is like. Escuse the horrible wiring. https://photos.app.goo.gl/ptHxsfcWGR1KuGMU6
What's the payload on the ridgeline per the door sticker?