Advice needed - USA Road Trip

meelz17

I'm quite new to boards but my boyfriend swears by it for info and advice and a few friends and I are looking for advice on doing a Road Trip across the states.

We've booked our flights (12th July - 15th August 09) and intend on renting an RV and driving from San Fran to New York.

We have looked round a load of websites and have found www.motorhomebookers.com to be the one we're most likely to use, the 2 RV'S being either a Road Bear C25 or a Cruise America C23-25.

Firstly wondering if anyone has experience doing any kind of Road Trip from West to East as were aware its advised to to East to West. Also wondering if anyone has used this site before or travelled the states in an RV and could offer any advice?

Also we prefer the Road Bear RV, to the Cruise America RV but we were wondering if anyone has experience driving and staying in a Road Bear because Cruise America are one of the leading rental companies and we dont want to make the wrong choice!

Also we wanted to know if anyone has travelled the states in an RV but felt like a break from being crammed into a tin can and stayed a few nights in motels. We were told motels very rarely allow for RVs to be parked in their car parks but is this still the case if you intend on sleeping in the motel?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!:)

Vegeta

Did this in 2005, we went from New Mexico though as opposed to San Fran.

We spent every night in the RV no problem.

We stayed in RV parks every night bar one (thanks to hurricane katrina)

If you get caught between RV parks stay in the car park of a wall mart.

We used cruise america and a c30 I think. How many people are going and how many drivers you got?

It was an amazing trip in fairness, great laugh

meelz17

yeah we can't wait really looking forward to it, theres 5 of us going with 2 drivers, myself included. Is it difficult to get used to as ive only ever driven small hatchbacks!Heard about the Walmart carparks too sounds very handy!

Vegeta

I personally didn't drive as I didn't have a full license but from what the others experienced here's some advice.

Well they are huge automatics so the control of them is no problem at all but you will need everyone outside to help park it. The roads over there are well capable of handling them, its not that bad at all. The quoted fuel economy is a complete farce though. We got an average of 9-10 miles per gallon and that was motorway driving. Budget accordingly. The RV did have one of those parking radar things that went beep beep beep as you got close to other things.

The big things to watch for are low speed manoeuvres such as cornering at traffic lights. They are very long so take it slow, don't cut corners and use your mirrors to make sure the side and back are making it around the bend too. That's the main thing really, keep it in mind always of just how long it is.

My advice would be to avoid city centres though as they are certainly not designed for RVs. Drive to the RV park, set up the RV and then taxi into the cities or get public transport.

On the trip we had 3 little accidents, a guy in a car reversed into the RV (no damage) We mounted a kerb in Orlando (no damage) and we hit a tree knocked by the hurricane. Tiny damage which was not noticeable unless pointed out. So be very careful over there.

Driving over there seemed pretty easy, staying awake will be much harder. If you have to drive for 5-8 hours it will take it out of you.

meelz17

Thanks so much, yeah were gna get bikes in walmart for transport to and from RV parks. Did the insurance provided by the RV company cover everything or did the drivers need to get additional insurance?did they need to get in touch with their irish insurance companies do you know?

Vegeta

Am I think insurance was covered by the RV company, same as car hire, didn't contact Irish Insurers at all.