Travel Trailer Camping Tips

While some people might be gawking at the rising temperatures, that’s no reason to abandon camping season. Drive northward for a few hundred miles and you’ll start to hit milder summers that will let you enjoy this season and explore new places. So make sure you’re prepping for your trip in your travel trailer the right way. Copley’s RV has provided some tips for getting ready for your next vacation to help you get started. If you need additional help, stop by our location near St. Lucie County, Palm Beach County, and Jupiter Farms, Florida.

How to Pack

We’ll start with what might be one of your more intimidating obstacles: trying to pack for an RV trip. Even if you’ve taken long road trips before, you probably didn’t have to pack what you’ll need to pack for your trip. Over time, you’ll start to figure out what you do and don’t want to bring, but for your first trip, consider starting right now to jot down all the items you use during any given task throughout the day. This should include cleaning supplies, linens, and cooking utensils.

Your list will probably be way too long, but at least it gives you a place to start. From there, you can simply cross out the things you don’t need. If this is still not giving you what you want, consider downloading an RVing app. These come with a number of helpful features, but many of them also come packing lists, both blank and pre-generated, to give you somewhere to start.

Before you Depart

As the day of the trip draws closer, or even the morning of, you’ll want to make sure you do a thorough inspection of your rig. Test all the appliances, look for any damaged parts, and search every nook and cranny for something that might need to be fixed before you hit the road. This will be especially true if you’ve just pulled your RV out of storage. Make sure you include a tire check so that some of your most important traveling features won’t give out on you when you’re miles from home.

Also before you leave, you’ll want to check your route one last time. Make sure you have an idea of where you’re going, considering many travel trailer destinations can take you to remote locations that may not get the best service (because of this, we also recommend bringing a paper map with you, just in case). Make sure there aren’t an detours on your route that have appeared overnight, like snowpass closures or construction, and that you can still access all points while towing a travel trailer. You’ll also want to check the weather one final time (and once a day before hitting the road) to see if that will affect when you drive.

Driving Skills

When it’s time to hit the road, you’ll want to make sure the day of the big trip is not your first time towing your travel trailer. Long before this day, you’ll want to spend some quality time practicing and relearning some of the most basic driving skills and how having an RV behind you can affect these skills. Find a big, empty parking lot and relearn essential driving challenges like turning, braking, parking, and reversing. Then pick a low traffic time of day and hit the highways to practice high speed driving and merging. Whatever you do, don’t try to figure things out as you go.

Hopefully this gets you started for your first trip, but over time, you’ll start to figure what’s going to work best for you and your family. And it’s all going to start with the perfect travel trailer. If you’re still struggling to make a final RV selection, stop by Copley’s RV and we’ll show you around what we have available right now, including one of our Starcraft trailers. We welcome all current and future RV owners from St. Lucie County, Palm Beach County, and Jupiter Farms, FL.