Develop a "pack down list" of things to do
BEFORE you hit the road!
Every rig is different and you will need to make a RV Pack Down Checklist. This RV Tear Down Checklist will take a lot of the stress off you in the beginning of your RVing life. Making the list ahead of time while you are drinking coffee at the kitchen table is the way to go!
You don’t want to forget to do or pack away any important things before you get back on the road. Leaving behind your expensive pressure regulator on the water spigot of your previous campground is a bad way to start out your stay at the new one.
Another fun calamity for your RV neighbors to watch is: Forgetting to put down your bat wing TV antenna or better yet, unplugging from the power pedestal! Don’t be one of those folks! Use you personalized Motorhome RV Pack Down List until it becomes second nature.
Make a list that makes sense to both of you!
Most travelers quickly develop routines preparing to travel. Those traveling as a team divide up “who does what.” In the beginning, I think it is best for each person to become an expert at all of their jobs. Of course eventually, you need to teach eachother what the other has learned, and what the best techniques are that you have learned. You both need to do these jobs long enough that you can actually TEACH your travel partner effectively when the time comes! Take your time to get it right so you are passing on to your travel partner your best ideas.
In our particular situation, Sue prepares all of the inside items and the interior changes that need to be made for travel day. I (Mark) take care of all of the outside preparation that needs to happen.
Travel preparations INSIDE our 2014 Newmar Dutch Star model 4369 Motorhome.
RV Pack Down INSIDE our Motorhome.
The video episodes at the bottom of this page go into much greater detail in all the things that we do to get ready for traveling. Using the photo above, I will just hit a few of highlights, listed in no particular order.
1-Seat belt our “loose” swinging rocker recliners in place in case of an accident scenario.
2-Remove kitchen table “leaves” and fully retract for slide clearance.
3-Set travel day “snacks” on forward recliner for easy access. Position water & coffee in cup holders. Position sunglasses, iPods, iPhones, iPad, RV Garmin, TPMS, masks, sanitizer, etc. Finding this stuff and opening drawers becomes tough OR impossible once we close up!
4-Make sure all windows are shut and latched. Raise night & day shades. Lower the main front passenger entry door bug screen for much better driver visibility.
5-Push to snap shut all cabinet drawers throughout the coach. Flip shower seat down, hang the shower sprayer down, fill shower floor area with plants from house, shut the glass door and LOCK IT.
6-Roll up carpet runner section in front of refrigerator and bedroom.
7-Arrange food items and containers in refrigerator to be stable and add tension rod barriers. Make sure to “Lock” the refrigerator doors.
8-Stack a ton of items on the bed that prevent closing the slides. Store fire escape board on bed.
9-Lay down our 21″ iMac desktop computer face down on the desk rubber mat. Store the desk chair on the bed BEFORE closing any slides.
10-Sweep the tile floors to prevent the slide support rollers from crushing any debris and stones into the tile floor surface. Lay down on the tile the plastic roller protection sheets where the rollers run across the floor.
11-Put loose dishes and foodstuffs away. Store loose counter top items in each of the two sink wells. We leave our large major appliance items on the counter. This is NOT inherently safe or smart in an accident.
You will have to decide for yourself if you want to pack away all the similar counter stuff you might have. We would be doing this 30 or 40 times a year! We have chosen not to.
11A-Our Keurig Coffee Maker is actually MANDATORY EQUIPMENT while driving on the road, and cannot be stored!
11B-The other MUST STAY item would be our Breville Toaster Oven. It is used many times at a moments notice, and would be a pain to retrieve when needed.
11C-The only items we really could decide to pack away before each departure, are the Vitamix, Omega Juicer and Breville Toaster Oven. Believe it or not, these items are used daily!
11D-Our Instant Pot is stored behind the recliners because it is NOT used daily, and is heavy.
12-Make sure the A/C units, furnace, printer and water pump are OFF.
13-Make sure electric range is OFF, buttons are locked and the cover over the electric burners is on. (The switches can be switched on easily by mistake.)
14-Make a garbage run?
15-Obviously this list isn’t even remotely comprehensive. That’s why we made a few videos to show a lot more!
Travel preparations OUTSIDE our 2014 Newmar Dutch Star model 4369 Motorhome.
Even though Sue is in 2 of the above 3 pictures, trust me, I have plenty to do! Above you can see how nicely our 21″ desktop computer screen lays down. That photo shows how tight walking around is in the rig when the slides are brought in. Here is another incomplete list that will just give you some idea of the jobs at hand. The videos at the end of this article are much more comprehensive.
RV Pack Down OUTSIDE our Motorhome.
A-Turn on TPMS System. Tire sensors need about one half hour to get signals from all 12 tires. Adjust tire pressures if needed. (This step is actually best performed the day PRIOR to travel.)
B-Fresh water tank “MAY” need additional water depending on the travel agenda you are going to be doing. Plan ahead. It takes us 30 minutes or more to fill our empty 105 gallon water tank.
C-All fresh water hoses, filters, regulators and water softeners need to be disconnected, drained and stowed.
D-Black & Grey tanks need to be dumped. Black water hoses and equipment need to be disconnect and stowed.
E-Stray exposed hydraulic leveling jack cylinder exposed shafts with WD-40.
F-Remove tire covers, stow step extension and door mat stone sweeper.
G-Remove Magna Shades from all 4 front windows.
H-Start coach diesel engine to air up the suspension air bags. Retract hydraulic leveling jacks.
I-Bring in the coach slides. (NEWMAR full wall slide coaches need to be at ride height on the chassis airbags BEFORE you bring them in.) Bring in the awning. Make sure the TV antenna is cranked down flat.
J-Make sure barbeque grill, chairs, fire pit and clam screen shelter are all packed away.
K-DISCONNECT ELECTRIC FROM THE POWER PEDESTAL. Disconnect the cable TV connection.
L-Store Hughes Autoformer and Hughes PowereWatchdog (Your Surge Protection EMS). Watch our latest video on Ultimate RV Surge Protection Electrical Management System & Hughes Autoformer Voltage Boosting-EP277
M-Pull the Honda Odyssey around the back of rig and heat up the transmission fluid.
N-Hook up Blue Ox Tow bar.
O-Check out the video episodes shown below for a much more detailed look at this process!
P-Don’t forget the pets and your travel partner!
"BONUS" tip about the importance of a TPMS
(Tire Pressure Monitoring System.)
One time, our TPMS System told us we had a flat tire that we didn’t even know we had while stationary in a parking lot!
I shudder to think of the consequences of what would have happened if we had jumped onto the Atlanta Freeway during rush hour like that. We were only 1 mile away, and had ants in our pants to get to our Cypress Trail RV Resort stay in Fort Myers, FL.
Sue & I were in Atlanta at National Indoor RV Center. The coach was being moved every few days while it was being worked on. Sometime during our 21 day stay at this facility, our tire went flat, except we didn’t know that! I may have picked up a nail while on the way TO the facility.
The flat was on the drivers side INBOARD drive tire. There is so much support from the other 5 tires back there that everything looked fine. The coach DROVE fine at the low speeds in the shop parking lot!
The tires are SO big and SO heavy and SO hard, without a tire pressure reading, you literally can’t tell if its got air in it or not!
The night before we were finally done and getting ready to leave, I turned on the TPMS, and one of the sensors said it was zero pressure. I went out to look and feel the EXACT tire the monitor told me to look at. It was hard as a rock, and looked new.
Since it was raining and freezing while I was out inspecting it, I was prone to think the sensor was bogus & the tire was fine. I got out my trusty ViAir 450P-RV air compressor and low and behold I had ZERO psi!
That sensor saved us from a possible disaster. It also gave us a “heads up” to start calling roadside assistance, and to rearrange a campground reservation we were going to miss.
Now, we routinely check the tires in very early morning or late afternoon when the sun is OFF the tires a day or two prior to leaving. I suggest you adopt a similar program, and PLEASE get a TPMS system!
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3 Responses
Hello,
We truly enjoy your videos. We are renting a class A and planning to purchase one when we retire. As I think about building our checklist, I was hoping you might be willing to share yours to help me think through this.
Thank you,
Dave & Pat.
Hi Mark and Sue,
Absolutely love your videos and Sue… My husband and I have learned so much!
We just bought it first RV, a 2016 Tiffin Phaeton 36 GH. You mention plastic roller protection sheets for where the rollers run across the floor. Could you please share where to get these?
Thanks so much!
We bought them directly from the Newmar parts department. They are a thin, black, hard plastic. I did NOT see anything available on line that is similar. The Lippert Company ones are for Carpeting, and I am GUESSING would be too thick. We had to get a sticky backed rubberized tape for the bottoms to help keep them in place during installation. That DID NOT prove good enough, and we bent up and ruined (2) of the (7) we bought. There are (7) roller lanes. We have learned it is impossible to expect any more than (4) of the roller lanes to contact our plastic sheets. The best trick a subscriber (thank you Allen & Sheila) told us about using the plastic roller guides is this: Duct tape the leading end down every time you use them so they get set on correctly right from the beginning. That is the absolute ticket!