Welcome to our 2015 RV Travel Extravaganza Blog

Bill & Jeri

Why I created this blog:
I created this blog as a way for family and a few close friends to follow along on our RV trip  as we head west, taking the southern route to Colorado to see two of our boys and their families, then up to Grand Teton, Yellowstone, Cody, the Little Bighorn, Deadwood and down to Illinois to attend our granddaughter's wedding, before finally heading home.  Altogether our trip will extend to 30-31 days and cover well over 5,000 miles.   We hope you enjoy following our trip.  What an adventure this will be for us!! 

A bit about us and our RV:
This past May, 2015 my wife decided she wanted to buy a travel trailer, so she purchased a brand new 2016 Coleman 192RDS at the Camping World in St. Augustine, Florida.  It is 23' long from hitch to bumper and we currently pull it with our 2005 Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited with a 5.7 liter Hemi engine and full-time four-wheel drive, using a weight distribution hitch and friction anti-sway bar.  The Jeep seems to handle it just fine as long as we keep towing speeds down to 55-60 mph, although the gas mileage drops from around 17-18 mpg to 9 mpg!  We had to have a trailer brake controller installed, along with a seven wire receptacle to attach the trailer electrics, brakes, etc., to the GC (Grand Cherokee).

The trailer has a "short queen" bed up front that we added a pillow foam topper to so it would be comfortable. Moving toward the rear is a small, but full bathroom with a sink, toilet and tub/shower.  Across from that is the galley with a double sink, 3-burner stove with oven and a microwave.  Aft of the galley is the dining table with two bench seats.  This table can be dropped down to form another bed and both bench seats have storage space underneath.  There are cabinets running all across the left side upper wall and a stereo receiver, DVD player is mounted in the aft most cabinet.  We mounted a 27" LED TV on the upper section of the back wall.  Aft of the bathroom on the right is is a pantry and a 8 cubic feet reefer (refrigerator) with a freezer. Next to that is a sofa that also makes into a bed.  Again cabinets run all across the upper right side from the pantry to the back wall.

Some specifications:
Fresh Water Tank:                    60 gallons
Gray Tank (sinks, shower):       42 gallons
Black Tank (toilet):                    42 gallons
Propane:                                   2 X 20 lb tanks
Reefer:                                      8 cubic feet refrigerator/freezer.  Runs on 110 vac or 
                                                  propane
DC Power:                                1 X 80 Amp-Hour Deep Cycle Battery (I plan to add
                                                  an additional battery at some point after this trip.  I want
                                                  to see how this one does.
AC Power:                                30 Amp shore Power, soon to have 1100 Watt inverter    
                                                 running off the battery and ultimately 
Air Conditioning:                      Yes, ceiling/roof mounted unit (works well)
Furnace:                                   Yes, thermostat controlled automatic propane with 12v
                                                 blower
Pressurized Water System:      Yes, either by shore hookup or its own 12v water pump
Hot water:                                 Yes, 6 gallon propane hot water heater
TV:                                             Yes, we added a 27" LED on a swivel mount.  The trailer
                                                  has a crank up antenna with a signal amplifier for over-the-
                                                  air signals and is fully wired up for cable TV.  
Stereo Radio/DVD Player:        Yes, besides being a radio and music player it will also
                                                  play DVD movies to the TV.  Works great!
Self-defense capability:            Yes, including bear pepper spray and a vicious, man-killing
                                                  dog (well, she might lick you to death) ;-)

Some initial pictures of our portable cabin.  I will post some more up-to-date ones later.

Our new rig

Coleman 23' (hitch to bumper)

Short queen bed in front

Looking toward the rear (TV not mounted yet)

Galley

Bathroom

Dinette/Optional Bed

Upper Cabinets Left Side

Microwave & Range Venting Hood

Double Sink

Door to Bathroom, Reefer and Sofa (bed)

We have taken the trailer on five different short range trips to get used to it and get it set up the way we wanted.  Our first trip was 12 miles from home and our longest trip was around 300 miles.  These were fun trips and we learned a lot on each trip--continually adding more necessities to our rig.

In preparation for this trip we had the transmission serviced and a transmission cooler installed on the Jeep (the transmission cooler was recommended by our local Jeep dealer).  We also put a complete set of Bridgestone Dueler tires on the Jeep.  

Since we plan to do quite a bit of boondocking (dry camping) on this trip I have also ordered and received a Kriëger 1100 Watt inverter that I need to wire in before we leave on our great adventure in a few days. We also purchased a small 12 volt DC fan to move some air around in the trailer when boondocking and we can't have the AC on.  I am also going to replace some or all of the incandescent (power hungry) interior lighting bulbs with LEDs (I already have some to try) to save both battery power and heat (incandescents are hot).

I also need to double-check the operation of the furnace since we are expecting nighttime temperatures down in the 40s and maybe 30s while we are up in Wyoming and Montana, although as hot as the temps have been running here in Florida I might not be able to set the thermostat high enough to make it come on here.

Anyway, feel free to check back often for the frequent updates, along with pictures, while we travel forth on our great western RV travel extravaganza.  I will be posting updates as we complete our preparations and trailer modifications this coming week and will update along the road as I can while we are on our adventure.