RV Moving Day Checklist
Having a Travel Day checklist of your routines really helps in your first couple months of owning an RV. We've kept our campsites pretty simple in order to make Travel Days less of a hassle.
Checklist
1. Start by collecting all of the loose items around your campsite like chairs, tables, grills or stoves, dog tie-outs and toys, and anything else that may have rolled or been stored under your camper/coach.
2. Determine if you'll need water between here and your next camping spot and how much. If you plan on boondocking for a week at a time in the summer like we do, you may need to fill your tank. If you are jumping to another full hookup campground, you might not need any. This is also when you'll dump your black, then grey tanks, clean your hoses and store any accessories you may have for your water/electrical system.
3. Stowe, disconnect and store your Starlink satellite.
4. I typically take a quick walk around the coach, testing each door for closures, and looking both above and below for any obstructions I may need to avoid on the drive out.
5. Head inside and repeat step 1 for the interior of the coach. Sara normally does this while I'm working on the outside. This is also a good point to check your trash and use the appropriate canister if you are nearing full.
6. Drive off of leveling blocks (in our case, you may have jacks...fancy ass!) and store below.
7. Make a final look around the interior of. your coach and slowly...slowly...slowly pull away from your site.
Addition Considerations
You may also need to check with the park manager/hosts to find out what checkout time is and if you need to boogie by that time or if you can leave a little later on. If they have a reservation coming in directly after you, they’ll need the time to prepare your site. If it’s open for a day or two, they may allow you a later checkout time to help you out.
If you are staying at a park that charges additionally for electric or other utilities, you’ll need to settle your balance before you leave. These are most often with longer rentals like weeks or months.
It’s always a good idea to discuss where you are headed and put any destinations/stops in your GPS before you pull away. Driving an RV is not like driving a Car, it requires 110% concentration and both hands at all times, looking for the cheapest gas, on a little screen, while driving down a busy street, is not a good idea.
If you are driving separated from your tow vehicle or partner, have a communication plan in case you become distant from one another in mountain passes with little or no cell phone service. Each of you should know where you are headed, and about how long it should take to arrive.
If you need to get gas, or propane along the way, you’ll want to research those stops ahead of time and make sure the parking lots, and turn arounds will accommodate your rig, this is especially important if you are towing, making tight turns, more difficult.
Finally, have an idea of the elevation changes on your route. If you’ll be making any big passes or large inclines or declines, you may want to drive un-coupled with your tow vehicle, to reduce the stress on your rig and brakes. We use a combination of google maps, google earth, topo maps and an iOS app called elevation to look at this information.
