Family RV Trip and Tips

The Trip

We were lucky enough to have a long break. We went on a 25-day RV trip to multiple national and state parks in Utah, Nevada, and California. We had originally planned to go across the US in 33 days. Looking back, it was a good decision not to do so. On this trip, we saw snow, deserts, the ocean, and mountains. It is as if we went through four seasons in 25 days. When we got home, for the last night we had the RV, my daughter and I boondocked right outside our home to close the book properly. In this blog post, I will go through different aspects of the RV we rented and the RV life we lived. It is not meant for the trip itself. I hope this blog post can be useful to people who are thinking about trying out an RV for the first time.

How to Get an RV

Rent

We rented the RV from Cruise America. I believe they are the largest RV rental chain in the world. The quality of the RV as well as the service you get seem to depend on how lucky you are. If an RV is new-ish, chances are you won't face any problems. I will break down the costs below. Usually, you spend about $100 per day on the rent itself. There are other fees on top of the daily rent. It is not inexpensive. I did some research before deciding on Cruise America. I didn't find a cheaper or more reliable option. Below is a list of alternatives known to me.

Road Bear - We learned about this company when we were on the road already. It's not cheaper but their RVs looked significantly newer to me, with side-outs.
El Monte RV - They have a smaller fleet and were not cheaper.
Outdoorsy - The daily prices were significantly higher, even for trailers.
RVShare - The daily prices were not better.

We didn't have a car or truck that can tow a trailer so we didn't consider renting a trailer at all. We ran into multiple issues with the RV we rented. We needed to call Cruise America's 24/7 support line many times. I have to say that the quality of the RV was unfortunate. However, the quality of their support line was superb. This is something to consider as well. When renting from a private owner, chances are you are on your own. As a newbie, I am not sure if that would be a good idea.

Buy

Buying an RV wouldn't be a good option for someone who hasn't gone on any RV trips. But, cost-wise, long-term, buying would probably be significantly cheaper. A four-year-old Cruise America RV that has 100k-200k miles and the wear and tear that come with the mileage still goes for $30k - $40k. Having talked to many folks on the road, I think the right starter combo would be a towing car + a smaller quality trailer. Both can and should probably be bought used. I was told that it's very easy to maintain a trailer as opposed to an RV. And as an engineer, separating the frontend and the backend always sounds like a good idea. For the trailer, I like Airstream Bambi. Buying it anew, it has a starting price tag of $50k. It sleeps 3-4 people. For the towing car, make sure it can tow the weight of the trailer. Fuel was very costly for us. I am hoping Tesla's Cyber Truck will change that. The campsites usually provide electricity. Maybe one day RVing will become significantly cheaper.

Just to be a bit far-fetched, depending on the location, you can buy an RV park for a million dollars, sometimes more, sometimes less. That will include a few buildings, trailers, a general store, etc.. Then you don't have to worry about renting or buying an RV.

Where to Stay

I rented an RV thinking we could just park it anywhere. Later I thought of dumping the RV and refilling the fresh water tank. It's easy to get fresh water where there are people. For example, you could get fresh water at a gas station. Just ask. However, to dump an RV properly, you need to have access to a dump station. That access alone usually costs $5-$10. So we ended up just parking our RV at RV parks. To find an RV park, we started with an app called RV Parky and we soon realized Google Maps was the best and the easiest option. Below we will go through different types of campsites we tried out. We started with full hook-up sites only to be on the safe side. Later we figured we could live with pretty much anything. So, I think the cheaper the better.

Warning: If you rent an RV, make sure you check and close the valves for the waste water tanks as one of the first things. The rental companies ask customers to dump the waste water tanks and leave the valves and the cap open. And they may not close them for you. We tripped on this. See the picture below that shows waste water leaks out. When this happens, be careful opening the cap. You know what's behind it.

Full Hook-up

A full hook-up site provides water, electricity, a dump station, sometimes also cable TV. I think these amenities are needed more for the full-timers. They connect to city water with a pressure regulator and water filter. They hook up to the dump station with an air-tight pipe with clear elbows. As a result, their gray water tank and black water tank are constantly empty, and their fresh water tank full. As an RV newbie with a rental, I found only the electricity was handy. Other things can be replaced with a shared dump station. The reason is that without a water regulator, the water pressure is usually too weak. So we still ended up using the water pump + the water in the fresh water tank. As to the dump station, rentals don't come with an air-tight, screw-in pipe, so you can't hold the pipe in place overnight. It's against the laws in some places if it's not air-tight. So we ended up dumping the waste-holding tanks once or twice a day, depending on the weather. We only needed to do it once a day in the morning with four people on board.

Takeaway: Bring a water pressure regulator, maybe a better waste-dumping pipe if you can store it on the RV you rent.

See the videos below on how to dump the RV, hook up the electricity and water, and refill the fresh water tank.

Be careful not to drink the fresh water in the fresh water tank.

Pull-through, Back-in, Back-out

As a newbie, we started with pull-through sites so we can just pull in and pull out easily. Later on, I found that backing an RV with the mirrors isn't too challenging, especially with a lookout person. As a result, I went with back-in sites if they were cheaper.

Do watch out for back-out sites though. There are back-out sites because nice views are in front. Backing out can be dangerous because fewer things will show up in the mirrors. Use a look-up person so you don't hit things on the sides by making a turn too early.

Water and Electricity

There are sites with only water and electricity whose prices are usually better by at least $10. I would go with these all day. I've never needed to wait for more than one car at a shared dump station even at very busy campsites such as Sunset at Death Valley. Surprisingly, camping people don't get going early in the morning.

Dry Camping

Dry camping means you have a campsite and there are some shared water stations and dump stations, but you don't get any on-site hook-ups. These sites are usually very inexpensive. We dry-camped at Death Valley for two consecutive days at $14 per day.

Boondocking

If I am not wrong, Boondocking means just camping somewhere that is not a campsite. We did this at Majove where we didn't get any hook-ups, water, or even shared dump stations. When you want to boondock somewhere, plan carefully where you stay before and after. We made sure we knew where we could find the next dump station. I wouldn't mind doing boondocking every other day. The cost of boondocking is $0. And the experience is priceless. A challenge is that it may not be easy to find interesting spots to boondock. Feel free to leave a comment below on your favorite place for boondocking.

First-Come-First-Served, Reservation-Only, Drive-in

There are a few ways to book a campsite. Usually, we booked the campsite for the night around 3-5 pm the same day. I know, it's last-minute. We did it that way for flexibility. With kids, we never knew how much progress we could make in a day. Our strategy was that in the afternoon, my wife would find a list of RV parks on Google Maps for me to call. I called them when we must stop for a break. I asked the following questions.

Is there still any vacancy for tonight?
Are there hook-ups?
Is there wi-fi?
Is there a shower room?
When would the office close for today?
How do we do night check-in?
Must I make a reservation?
Can I just drive in?
What's the nightly rate for today?
Does Good Sam membership do any good?

Usually, when we got to an RV park, it's 6-7 pm already. We almost always did night check-in. They usually have some envelopes outside for available sites. In the envelopes are a payment sheet and a site map. Sometimes they would say the office would close at, say, 4 pm, but in reality, the owner lived there and would help us when we got there. Some sites allowed us to pay the next day in the morning.

My personal preference is to not make a reservation, for maximum flexibility. I prefer making a phone call and driving in. Most RV sites allow that. In California, because of how Covid-19 was handled, a lot of campsites allowed only online reservations. I was able to book a spot last-minute online.

We loved first-come-first-served RV parks at popular destinations. It made it possible for us to be able to stay at Half-Moon Bay and Death Valley. A downside is that you never know whether you get a spot. So we needed to get to those campsites early in the day. I asked the owner of Pillar Point RV Park why he made the park first-come-first-served, he said "so you can have a spot, otherwise you would need to make a reservation three months ahead." I appreciated what he did.

Tents vs No Tents

Some RV parks allow guests to set up tents, some don't. If you intend to set up a tent, definitely ask beforehand. Sometimes it is desirable to set up a tent next to your RV. For example, kids would love it. Some people dry-camp this way at RV parks. They would drive their passenger cars to an RV park and set up a tent in which they sleep.

Driving

Driving an RV may sound daunting to many, including yours truly. When I just picked up the RV, I wasn't able to go over 59 MPH for a day. However, from the next day and on, I got used to it. The mirrors are way better than the ones our cars have. Use them. Another thing to get used to is you cannot see through the back window because there is none. Again, the side mirrors can see the traffic in the back. The car shakes a bit more but you will get used it. At night, the effectiveness of the mirrors drops dramatically. Plus, it is usually pitch dark at night around state and national parks. We in general tried to avoid driving at night to be on the safe side.

Backing

When backing, always use a lookout person. It is a piece of very good advice and I would recommend it. I walked around the RV twice before I drove it. You just never know what's around the RV. Waling around it gives you a sense of how long it is.

A friend of mine recommended walkie-talkies. I brought a pair with me. They were extremely useful. My wife and I communicated using walkie-talkies in tricky situations, or when it was pitch dark where the mirrors were of no use.

Turning

Don't cut into corners. I made sure I had enough headroom to make a wider turn and used the mirrors to make sure the tail of the RV didn't hit anything. Depending on the length of the RV, you may not be able to make a sharp turn or a tight U. For example, when going up to Dante's View at Death Valley, vehicles longer than 25 feet were not allowed.

When backing or driving out of a parking spot or a site, don't turn prematurely. Make sure the wheels won't go over any lines. That way you won't hit anything next to you. Imagining there are cars parked right next to your RV helps too.

No Snow Chains

Cruise America does NOT allow chains installed on their tires. If you know it may be freezing cold at your destinations, check the road conditions via phone or the Internet. In addition, we always asked about the weather and the road conditions when we called RV parks and our destinations. Some points of interests have social media pages. Check those for updates as well. The picture below was snapped at Bodie, CA. We checked everything and thought the state park was open. When we got back to the RV park, the owner said they posted on their Facebook page in the morning about them not being able to plow the snow for 2/3 of the road.

No Off-Roading

Off-Roading is prohibited by Cruise America. All these warnings are printed on the sun visor on the driver side. They require that we drive on paved highway only.

Height Clearance

According to the specs, the height clearance required by a standard Cruise America RV is 12 feet. When you are about to go through an overpass, make sure you have the required clearance. 11foot8.com has a lot of videos on RVs getting trapped.

Costs

Rent

The rent for an RV is usually around $100 per night. An RV trip is more expensive than a trip where you rent a car and use hotels. For us, it was $82 per night. I found that if I wait till the last minute, the cost came from $126 to $82. I gambled a bit. During my trip, I called Cruise America to see if I could extend my trip by a week at the same rate, they quickly agreed. If I rented a separate RV to cover the same week, it would have been $245 per night. You can use Cruise America's website and choose different start dates to see what the lowest possible price would be. It is important to rent from the largest Cruise America hub in your location. Both the prices and the availability would be better because the big hubs have pretty much an unlimited number of RVs for rent. Renting from them increases the chance for you to extend your trip as well. The smaller places usually do other businesses while having a few RVs for rent on the side. Renting from them, you will have less flexibility. For example, if you are not happy with the RV they give you, they might not have another one for you. I called Cruise America to find out where my local hub locates.

Zero Damage Plan

I think this is similar to the collision waiver for rental cars? It's $14.95 per day for my RV.

Miles and Other Fees

Usually, Cruise America charges 35 cents per mile. I applied a 25% off promo code so it was 26 cents per mile for me. I tried to find an unlimited-mileage plan to no avail. I wonder if people need to pay for miles when they rent from private owners.

There were also an environment fee of $9 and sales tax.

Gas

We drove a bit more than 3,700 miles and we spent a whopping $1,372 on gas. Assuming an average of $3.50 per gallon, the RV has an average MPG of 9.55.

Propane

Propane lasts a long time. I was told that the fridge on the RV could run two weeks straight on a full tank of propane. We only refilled the propane tank three times. Every time it's a bit more than $15. So in total, we spent about $50 on propane. The price was about $3.20 per gallon.

The video below shows how a refill is performed.

Generator

Cruise America charges $3.50 per hour for using the generator. We never needed to use the generator. When electricity wasn't available, we used propane-based appliances.

Campsite

Depending on what kind of campsite you choose, the price ranges from $0 - $70-ish. The higher end is not common. Usually, even with full hook-up, it's around $40, top. In popular places, prices can go up significantly. For example, it's very pricey at Santa Cruise and Half-Moon Bay. I think we averaged out at something like $40.

Good Sam

A campsite sold me Good Sam membership at $25 and I took it. I was told later the owner put a screw in me because no one sold the card I was given since two years ago. With Good Same membership, the participating campsites must provide a discount of 10%. No campsite found my membership number in their systems. So I might have gotten scammed. However, all participating campsites gave me the discount anyway so I think the $25 was worth it. Isn't that funny? Before I got the membership, the first campsite we used gave me the 10% Good Sam discount anyway. I am guessing the prices are very flexible.

Food

We spent about $200-$300 in total on food for four people. We mostly made simple dishes. For example, we bought a rotisserie chicken from Costco three times. And we ate the chicken with instant noodles and triple-washed salads. We also had hot dogs or cooked something as simple as follows. We always had some fruits. We ate out only one time where we spent $50 on fried foods.

Laundry

On the road, we did laundry only once. Usually, it takes a few quarters to use the washers and dryers at an RV park. It was six quarters for us. We spent $6.00 in total on laundry.

Summing It All Up

All in all, the 25-day trip cost us $5,923, including what we paid for the RV, gas, propane, campsites, state and national parks, that one time we bought fried food, etc. This number is directly from credit card records. It may include some unrelated charges. But it includes everything for the trip.

In terms of what we paid for the RV rental, it was $3,4xx after-tax, $3,1xx before-tax. I'll list the details below as a recap.

Rent: $82.00 * 25 = $2,050.00
Miles $0.26 * 3,7xx = $9xx.00
Environment Fee = $9.00
Zero Damage Plan = $14.95 * 25 = $373.75
Generator Hours = 0
Compensation for the problems we faced = $xxx.00

Kids

With kids, an RV trip can become tricky and even more tiring in many ways. We brought two car seats, one booster chair, and one bassinet on board.

Bassinet

We found with a Graco Pack n' Play, adults can still walk around, barely.

Car Seats

Car seats can be installed. We installed a front-facing car seat and a rear-facing car seat. See the video below. It was very difficult though. We wondered whether it's safe to install car seats on an RV and didn't find definitive answers. We ended up doing our best job to secure the car seats. However, we never knew whether the seat belts and anchors are bolted to the frame or chassis. The following blog posts have a lot of information on this, even some videos of crash tests. I, however, think you wouldn't be able to easily find out whether the specific model you are buying or renting meets the highest child safety standards.

If you are concerned about child safety, a safe route would be to tow a trailer with a vehicle that meets all the child safety requirements. For example, if you tow a trailer with a Toyota Highlander, you can install the car seats on the Highlander, which you know has to be safe. Just remember every vehicle has its own towing capacity. Do some research before choosing the trailer.

We went on a trip a year later and installed two convertible car seats, front-facing and rear-facing respectively.

Booster/High Chair

We installed the booster chair using a seat belt. There are five seat belts in total in the back. So theoretically, you can install five car seats/boosters.

The RV and Its Amenities

In general, there is a ton of storage space in an RV. It is pretty intuitive to operate an RV as well.

Exterior Walk-through

The video below shows the main components you can find on the exterior of an RV.

The In-Door Control Panel

Note that the indicator for the black water level will become inaccurate after a few days. The stuff in the black water tank will typically block the sensor to some degree. The level indicator for gas doesn't work well either. Use the meter on the gas tank instead.

Fridge

On the RV we rented, the fridge was pretty sizable. It runs either on propane or electricity depending on whether you are hooked up. See the intro video below. It does cool down.

Other Amenities

See the following videos for an interior walk-through, how to set up the table, and how to light the stove burners.

Freezing Weather

If it is consistently around or below 20 degrees Fahrenheit, the water in the water system, meaning pipes, tanks, etc., can freeze up, which can break the water system. In such weather conditions, we are supposed to winterize the RV. There are two ways to do so: the dry method, and the wet method. The dry method involves removing all the water from the RV's water system and the wet method involves adding special antifreeze into the water system. The video below demonstrates how to perform the dry method.

If you know it is going to be freezing cold overnight, dump the RV before you go to bed. This is because overnight, the moisture around the valves can freeze up. As a result, you wouldn't be able to open the valves in the morning. Even if you manage to open the valves, you may not be able to close them fully.

When the weather forecast indicated it would be cold, I always talked to the people at the RV park we stayed to see if they thought winterization would be needed or not. There are always some RVers who stay at an RV park long-term. They know when they must winterize their RVs.

Problems We Ran Into

The RV we rented had quite a few problems during the trips. By enumerating them here, I don't mean to cast shades on Cruise America. It's for education purposes, helping others to learn and prepare for their trips.

Low Tire Pressure

It was very hard to pump and measure the pressure of one of the tires. When we measured it, it was at 20 PSI. We slowly pumped it up to the recommended 80 PSI and it didn't leak again as we measured it again a week later. Check the tire pressure early on. And check the tire pressure once every now and then. Every gas station has a pump free to use. And the pumps usually come with a gauge for the tire pressure.

Leaky Sink

The bathroom sink leaked from day one. I guess this is something we could check when we got the rental if we knew better.

Leaky Water Heater

During our first night, we found something was leaking. When we called Cruise America's support line, they guided us to troubleshoot the problem. We witnessed the water heater leak water. The support person was extremely helpful. We didn't shower for the night and drove the RV to a Cruise America hub a couple of days later where they replaced the water heater for us.

Key takeaway: bring screwdrivers and other tools with you. We got lucky that I somehow decided to bring a small toolbox on board.

Flooding Toilet

The toilet can get stuck and overflow. Be sure the water stops flowing before you turn around and leave the bathroom.

Loose Screws

There were quite a few loose screws inside and outside of the RV. See the below video for a demonstration. Again, bring some tools with you.

Cracked Hose

We went on an RV trip a year later with a friend who also rented an RV from Cruise America. The hose that came with their RV had a small hole in it. In such case, you can use the water from the fresh water tank and refill the tank when needed. Alternatively, you can buy a new hose and ask Cruise America to reimburse you when you return your RV. I am not sure if it's guaranteed that they will buy the hose back. However, our experience is that when you tell them the inconveniences you faced during your trip, they will in general try to compensate you.

My Thoughts on Cruise America

The RV we rented was two years new and it had had already more than 100k miles on it. The wear and tear were showing. It is easy to imagine how hard it is to run a rental business as such. It is difficult to make sure every RV is in perfect condition. I do however think Cruise America can maintain a checklist that they run through before they hand an RV over to its customer. Maybe they do.

I think I can give Cruise America's support team a 10/10. Once I reported the water heater issue, they followed up actively via phone daily. They answered generic questions as well, such as how and when to winterize an RV. They allowed me to send them pictures over text messages, which helped illustrate the problems that I faced.

It's worth mentioning that Cruise America promised compensation and they delivered on that front.

Other Thoughts

In general, I feel RVing is good for deep exploration of a region. The fact that you can camp right in many parks allows submerged experiences you can't easily get otherwise. I do not think it would be fun to travel a great distance in a rather short period of time with an RV. That would be too much driving. I would also recommend that for the last two days of the trip or so, stay somewhere beautiful and just chill and let things wind down. RV trips are very involving, especially with kids. Keeping the last couple of days for a "vacation vacation" helps greatly. For the last couple of days, we stayed somewhere very close to home on a beach and invited some friends over to play on the beach and do BBQ.

I found that I loved RVing because of the simplicity of the RV life we lived. We cared for the family, drove around, toured and hiked around, and we went to bed when it's dark. Although we faced many challenges along the way, overall, it was a very relaxing experience.