New Pleasureway Excel TS Owner Seeking First RV Tips

[Elkhound30]

Howdy, new to me 2005 Pleasureway Excel TS 37,000 miles slowly learning how things operate and will surely appreciate helpful tips and wise advice as I have never owned an RV and hope to be traveling extensively soon.

 

[cptnjohn]

Buckle up and just go! (Do a few close to home trips and you’ll have it knocked)

 

[Hatteras Jim]

As CP said, do a few local trips until you get familiar with the van's operating characteristics. Put together a basic tool box. Have spare fuses for everything. Hook up to city water under pressure and check for leaks. Inspect your main electrical line and look for rusty contacts. Check to see if your batteries charge when hooked up to shore power. If the van has been sitting, you may want to sanitize the drinking water lines. If you saw the movie "RV" with Robin Williams, you know the reason to thoroughly check the septic. If you haven't seen the movie "RV", watch it before your first trip. Cheers

 

[TWX]

For my own suggestion, see if you can find a sewer line cleanout around your home.

I have a 4" cleanout next to my driveway, adjacent to my workshop. It's mildly inconvenient with the Roadtrek as I have to position the van just-so in order to dump into it, but it's still better than being stuck going somewhere in order to use their dump station.

Also, if your van uses a normal TT-30 travel trailer 30A electrical connection, look at what you can do to hook it up to charge or run appliances at home. I obtained adapters to use on my Jayco and my Roadtrek for both my 240V 50A NEMA 14-50 receptacles in my workshop and for the 120V 20A NEMA 5-20 receptacles on the house.

 

[booster]

Especially since you haven't had an RV before and it is an older wide body of unknown maintenance history, it probably would be wise to get on the two lane and freeway to see how it handles for you. You may need to adjust tire pressures or get practice to be comfortable driving it in the wind or busy traffic. Super low mileage on a 21 year old class B always makes me a bit questioning on if it has handling or other driveability thing going on.

 

[HKY BUS]

I'm a 4-Corners newbie too with about 35,000 on my Sprinter. So far I've learned the hard way:
- Check the forecast for high winds.
- Careful on the 80 mph 2 lane roads in Texas.
- Don't take it to Phoenix in the summer. AC won't keep up.
- You'll still need the heater in the San Juan mountains on summer nights.
See you out there!