Parking And Hook-Up Tips For Rookie RVers

RVing takes some practice to master, but with a few tips and road trips, you can drive, park and set up your RV like the seasoned pros do. Below, you will find some tips that can help you avoid common parking and hook-up problems, which will make your learning experience much less dreadful.

Tips for Parking Your RV

Take a Walk – If you are setting up at an RV campground, take a walk to the campsite before driving your RV to it. This will give you a chance to see exactly where the site is, examine it for obstacles and be sure you like it.

Test the water connections, examine the electrical outlet, check that the ground is level and find out if the trees overhead are going to cause an issue.

Avoid Trees – If at all possible, try not to park underneath trees. Trees can be damaging during a strong storm, can cause excess bird droppings, break your awnings and damage the roof if the limbs are too low for your RV.

Get Help – Until you have mastered the art of backing your RV into campsites, get help! Have an adult stand behind you to guide you into the spot. You can probably get a campground employee to help you get backed in. These folks have done this more often than you might think and are quite experienced with assisting rookie RV drivers.

Tip: If you cannot get help, use orange traffic cones and streamers to mark the spot. This will give you a better idea of where you need to direct the rear-end of your RV and take some of the guess work out of it.

Tips for Hooking-Up Your RV

Start With the Connections – Don't get yourself settled in too much until you have connected your RV to the electrical, water and sewer connections. This means don't open your slide-outs or awnings until you have connected and tested everything. This is just one way to avoid having to undo everything that you have done if you find out that one of the connections is not working properly.

Check the Connections – As you are working to connect your hoses and electric, make sure that the hose connections and outlets are in perfect condition. If you notice a bad connection on the sewer line, go to the campground office and ask for a replacement. If it is on your end, they will more than likely have a replacement for you to purchase, if it is on their end, they will send someone out to replace it.

These tips can help you avoid damaging your RV or making more work for yourself than you need to experience during your outing. Talk to a company like Pettibone Resort On The River to learn more about using your RV.