New Owner and New Member

[SteveR]

We survived the night without mishap. No frozen pipes or tanks. Our preparations appeared to be adequate to prevent any damage. The BF was coated in ice and we had about 3 inches of snow by morning. The low was 16 degrees with 25 mph winds all night.

The road through WY was a mess! Cars, RVs and trucks overturned and really messed up. We saw some pretty bad roll-over wrecks and the ones with the RVs hit home pretty close to the dangers of driving beyond the conditions. We counted over 10 major wrecks in a 150 mile stretch from Cheyenne to Rock Springs, WY. Don't under estimate the effects of ice and wind on a moving mass of several tons.

The freeway was closed the last night so all the trucks were released to the roads at the same time and I never saw so many trucks in my life! The roads were still slick with snow and ice and the 25 mph crosswinds, passing trucks, slush on the windshield and road salt made for a real adventure. We made it intact and after a bath the BF is good as new!

Len, I don't know about the stability on this rig. This thing was all over the road and was a handful with the passing trucks and cross winds.

We have learned a ton about driving in some really nasty conditions and feel very confident of our future trips.

We do feel part of the club in so many ways.

Thanks for the help and support.

BTW, the furnace ran most of the night without incident and keeping the lower cabinet doors open to the plumbing and liberal use of RV Antifreeze made the difference. Disconnecting the outside shower head and opening the interior lines to drain them saved it from bursting the pipes. I will just keep it that way until we need it next spring.

[KTnLen]

Real glad you made it through.

Compared to Class A rigs, these are very stable. You will definitely notice a 25mph cross-wind, especially a gusty wind, and will feel semi-trailer bow waves during such conditions. But, you should have noticed hardly a whisper of a semi-trailer passing in much calmer conditions. In our 40mph experience in Kansas, we had to maintain a side force to keep it straight. In my former Class A, I would have pulled off the road and waited for fair weather.

Nonetheless, it does take some time to feel confident in the chassis and suspension, but it sounds like you have had your baptism in one trip.

[SteveR]

Real glad you made it through.

Compared to Class A rigs, these are very stable. You will definitely notice a 25mph cross-wind, especially a gusty wind, and will feel semi-trailer bow waves during such conditions. But, you should have noticed hardly a whisper of a semi-trailer passing in much calmer conditions. In our 40mph experience in Kansas, we had to maintain a side force to keep it straight. In my former Class A, I would have pulled off the road and waited for fair weather.

Nonetheless, it does take some time to feel confident in the chassis and suspension, but it sounds like you have had your baptism in one trip.

Thanks Len.
I never drove a Class A so I don't have much in the way of comparison. I think the tires are out of balance and that made for a lot of bouncing at freeway speeds. The airbags are still a mystery; even Kim at the factory did not offer much in the way of help other than "Don't touch the switches...ever". I am sure there is a happy medium somewhere between too much and too little air for a specific load weight. We traveled very light on this trip since we had only our clothes and bedding for this trip.

The suspension does take some getting used to due to the length, wheelbase (short) and balance to the rig. The shocks could use some higher pressure upgrades and maybe a better anti-sway bar. But that can wait for a while. Otherwise, we managed to not hit anything despite some close calls with tight streets and jammed parking lots.

It is good to have this trip behind us. I am going to do a full winterization tomorrow and put the rig in storage for a while since winter is coming here all too soon. I hate to use the RV Antifreeze but I don't feel confident I can get all the low-lying water out of the system and I don't want to risk damage from split pipes.

[SteveR]

Here is a photo the "morning after" the storm. Most of the snow had blown away but the temp at 8 am was 16 degrees.