How to control trailer sway – by Mark Polk, RV Education 101

Yaw, more commonly known as sway in the RV industry, is a bad word for trailer owners. The definition of yaw or trailer sway is a side-to-side fishtailing movement. Nothing will ruin the way you feel about camping faster than the first time you encounter this unpleasant situation.

Sway becomes an automatic factor with travel trailers and pop-ups simply because of how the trailer is hitched to the tow vehicle. It creates a pendulum affect. Some of the causes for trailer sway are:

–First and foremost poor trailer design contributes to trailer sway. When there is too much weight behind the trailers axles causing the tongue weight to be less than 10% of the trailers weight it has a natural tendency to sway.
–Incorrect tire inflation.
–Improper weight distribution hitch adjustments.
–No sway control on the trailer.
–Crosswinds
–A transfer truck passing from the rear of the trailer.
–Descending inclines.
–Towing speeds and hitch weight.
–Tow vehicle not properly matched for the trailer.
–Improper loading, overloading and poor weight distribution.
Knowing how to react when a trailer begins to sway can be the difference between your safety and disaster.

Mark Polk, owner of RV Education 101, produces professional RV how-to instruction training videos and DVD’s, books and e-books on using and maintaining your Recreation Vehicle (RV).

RVers share ownership of an RV with others

by Chuck Woodbury, RV Travel
Some RV enthusiasts who can’t afford to own a luxury RV in these tough economic times are choosing to own one through fractional ownership. The concept is simple, multiple families each own a share in an RV and divide the use and costs associated with it. CoachShare (Coachshare.com) is an industry leader in fractional ownership, by bringing that same concept to the high end RV industry.

“I have limited number vacation days each year. It doesn’t make financial sense for me to purchase a $250,000 luxury motorcoach and let sit idle for 48 weeks of each year” says Tai Quan, a high tech executive and a CoachShare customer from San Jose, California. “Fractional ownership not only saves me money, it also saves me time. CoachShare takes care of both the pre-trip delivery and the post-trip pickup. I don’t have to be bothered with the time consuming chores that full time RV owners have to deal with.”

According to the University of Michigan, most traditional owners only use their recreational vehicle 21 days a year. “Consumers are realizing that it doesn’t make sense anymore to buy an RV and use it a few weeks a year, especially in this economy” says James Palmer, President and CEO of CoachShare.

Where’s your favorite camping spot?

Spring is upon us, the flowers are blooming, and RVers from all over are hitting the road to find that next great spot to camp. Oh, speaking of great spots, please tell us (and show us by uploading the pictures!) about your favorite places to camp. We’ve set up a forum discussion at MyRVer.com just for this purpose. Once the RV community responds, this should be a great place to get inspiration about where to travel next. And, while we’re on the subject, click here to see a great spot at De Gray Lake Resort in Arkansas – thanks Lyle & Alta for sharing this great photo! MyRVer.com is really starting to reap the fruits of our labor, we appreciate all of you who’ve joined and ask you to invite your friends.

BBQ Festivals anyone?

Who doesn’t enjoy the sizzle of the BBQ grill – the savor of mouth watering smells and sights of smoking meats? It’s the time of year when crowds gather around the BBQ pits at many of the country’s BBQ festivals. These festivals are ideal entertainment for the whole family. Besides the main attraction — delicious BBQ — these festivals feature a variety of amusements (musical entertainment, off-beat competitions, arts and crafts, car shows, children’s activities, and much more).

According to the friendly folks at the Kansas City Barbeque Society, one of the largest events, The American Royal, takes place in Kansas City each October – so there’s plenty of time to plan and point your RV in that direction. Spread over 20 acres in Kansas City’s Historic Stockyards District, nearly 500 teams compete for the top prize. This BBQ festival is just one of many, click here for a listing of events happening all around the country. There’s bound to be one in your neck of the woods.

RVs can be rented directly from owners

We found this insightful article posted in The Wichita Eagle…..

Every time I’ve read or written about the rental of recreational vehicles (like a Winnebago), the resulting article has been about the several nationwide companies that rent them. Frankly, the possibility of renting one directly from a private owner had never occurred to me.

And yet the reasons for doing so are often identical to the advantages of renting a vacation home or apartment directly from an owner: eliminating a middleman, saving the cost of commissions and receiving a vacation product that can sometimes be better furnished or maintained than one rented out by a broker.

Recently, my daughter Pauline and her family (her husband and two daughters, 6 and 10), returned from a successful one-week trip to the Grand Canyon and other parts of Arizona, which was accomplished by flying to Phoenix and there picking up a 32-foot Winnebago rented directly from a local resident. Like numerous other Arizonans, the owner had a Winnebago that she uses for several weeks in the summer only. Therefore, she was delighted to rent it to people, making use of the same vehicle in autumn, winter and spring — at charges much lower than a standard rental company for recreational vehicles would charge. For that Arizonan, the rental charge was found money.

She offered her Winnebago for rental on Owner’s Rental (www.ownersrental.com), a Web site devoted solely to RV rentals in Arizona. If you go to Google and enter the words “rental of recreational vehicles,” you’ll discover many such Web sites for other states as well, all offering rentals of RVs owned by individuals living in those particular states, most of them in the West. The ownersrental.com Web site consists, in part, of dozens of one-paragraph ads placed by residents of different cities in Arizona. Make the choice, fly to that city, pick up your RV, and off you go.

In addition to paying less than the charges of a major, nationwide RV rental firm, Pauline and her husband figured they would be receiving an RV equipped with far more useful accessories than normally would be provided on a standard rental. In actual fact, the 32-foot Winnebago had a grill that they could place outside the vehicle for evening barbecues, a TV and VCR, a number of fine folding chairs, and lots of pots and pans as well as all the other utensils they’d need for a week of preparing meals. The vehicle was beautifully maintained and yet exceedingly reasonable in rental cost.

The owner met them with the vehicle at the Phoenix airport and instructed them in its use. The total cost of the RV for a week of touring Arizona (Grand Canyon, Sedona, Jerome and Phoenix) –the vehicle itself, all gasoline, all charges of the RV parks at which they stayed at night, all groceries for their meals, insurance for the week (independently purchased by them), two restaurant dinners, rentals of DVDs for the kids and ingredients for several campfires, at which s’mores were prepared for their own and visiting children — was $253 per day, total, for the four of them.

They could have spent much less, had they rented a smaller Winnebago or other brand of RV, or if they had bargained more fiercely over the price.

For the same reason so many smart vacationers go to Vacation Rental by Owner (www.vrbo.com) to rent a vacation home or apartment, it might be wise to go directly to an RV owner in renting a vacation vehicle.

Vintage RV enthusiasts party like it’s 1960

Do you dream of restoring a RV? Amy Bentley of the Ventura County Star reports on the second annual Vintage Travel Trailer Rendezvous at Lake Casitas in Ventura, California. Click here to read her story.

Renting RV from private owner may be good deal

Arthur Frommer of the San Francisco Chronicle shares with us some insight on renting an RV from a private owner. Click here to read this helpful information.

Earth-friendly recreational vehicles and accessories on the rise

Erin Simpson of the Santa Cruz Sentinel reports on Earth-friendly RVs and accessories. Click here to read this interesting article.

RV water system; time to sanitize

Keith Bennett of the Denver RV Travel Examiner provides this helpful information on sanitizing your RV’s water system.

Each spring many RVers take their units out of storage and waken them up for another season of fun and camping. This ritual should include sanitizing and freshening the water system. It is best to do this twice a year to insure clean smelling water and I suggest in the spring and midsummer, depending on how much you use your RV’s water system. This is a very simple, yet important, procedure and is covered below.

Add a solution of bleach and water to your fresh water holding tank. Always dilute bleach with water, about ¼ cup of household bleach for each 15 gallons of tank capacity and mix with 1 to 2 gallons of water, then add into your fresh water holding tank. Fill up your holding tank with fresh water. Using your RV’s water pump, turn on each water outlet until you smell the bleach, don’t forget your outside shower and water drain tubes.

After you have rinsed any antifreeze out and have the bleach smell from all water outlets, top off your fresh water tank and let sit overnight. If sitting overnight is not possible, you need a minimum of 4 hours for the bleach solution to do its work.

Next step is to drain the water solution from the holding tank and refill ½ with fresh water. Run fresh water from each water outlet until the smell of bleach has dissipated and remember the outside shower and drain tubes. Next fill the fresh water tank back to ½ full and no more. Now it’s time to take your RV on a short drive (15 minutes) to allow the water to slosh around in the tank. When you return from your drive, run water through each water outlet until the water tank has been drained. Make sure you are using your onboard 12v water pump and not the city hook up.

If you are still getting some smell, drop a little baking soda in the tank and rinse the system again until there is no odor left. Your tank is now ready for another season of fun.

Happy Camping

Yellowstone sees drop in summer bookings

This article was published in USA Today.

CODY, Wyo. (AP) — Fewer tourists compared to last year have booked advance reservations to visit the greater Yellowstone region this summer, but industry leaders hope low gas prices will lure people to drive to national parks and other attractions in Montana and Wyoming.
Lee Haines, a spokesman for the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, told the Billings Gazette that museum planners are expecting flat visitor numbers this year with a slight rise possible in recreational vehicle traffic compared to last year. He said because many RV owners are retired, they have more flexible travel schedules that allow them to drive when gas prices are lower.

Rick Hoeninghausen, director of sales and marketing for Xanterra Parks and Resorts, the main lodging company in Yellowstone, told the Gazette that advance reservations so far this year are down 13% from last year. He noted that bookings are good for July and August, but group tours and early season stays are down.