My RoadTrek Adventure
We've never been camping before but we bought an RV! This should be a fun adventure. Come along with us to experience our journey to and on a 6-week cross-country RV trip from NH to CA and back (and as many national parks as we can cram in)!
So here's what we bought... a 2018 ROADTREK ADVENTUROUS RS XL built on the 2017 Mercedes Benz Sprinter chassis. We researched and reviewed the heck out of all the Class B units we could find and settled on Roadtrek for its reputation, 6 year warranty, and fierce loyalty from its customers. The CEO of the company even shows up on the message boards to give advice and guidance to existing and prospective customers. Additionally, they offered a completely propane-free experience with 400 watts of lithium ion battery power and solar panels to keep them charged. When needed, there's also the "volt start" system which engages the diesel engine to top off the batteries up to 5 times for 30 minutes each. There's a lot of technology on board and we decided to buy it 1 year before our trip so we could get familiar with its operation and make sure we understood what we were going to experience on the road.
The purchase process took some time - we kicked tires and researched on the Internet for months. We ordered our unit at the Hershey Park RV Show in September, 2017 - with a promised delivery date of December, 2017. We thought December would be great - usually before lots of snow in our parts. We made a plan to drive it to Washington D.C. during the February school break. Production was slower than expected, and when it hadn't been delivered by the end of December, we decided to see Frozen Niagara Falls in January (without the RV) instead of our D.C. trip. We drove through a crazy snowstorm - but that's largely irrelevant. It was while we were driving to Niagara that we were informed that the RV would be delivered to the dealer in PA. by the end of the month - and they wanted their money ASAP. They wanted us to pay in full before we took delivery. We finally agreed that they could wait until we picked the unit up in March - after we'd had a chance to clean up several feet of snow and make a space for the van. Attempts at getting it delivered to a dealer closer to us or delivered directly to our house were unsuccessful.
Mid-March we picked up the RV after it had been "thoroughly inspected and prepped for delivery". Quoting coach Labue "there's no way in a month of Mondays" that the dealer performed any of the checks they claimed to have done. Suffice it to say, we had some initial delivery quality issues. The dealer was 100% ineffective in helping with these issues, even reiterating how they had checked all the systems before delivery.
No problem - we have a full warranty and a certified Roadtrek dealer less than an hour from our house so we'll drive it home and get it in to the dealer for some quick remediation. Long story short, that didn't work out and we opted to have the unit delivered on a flat-bed back to the factory. Roadtrek was awesome in this regard - they happily paid to have it transported and gave us the option to flat-bed it back to our house or to pick up the travel expenses for us to fly to the factory and drive it home.
Truth be told this process took some time - several weeks of anxiety, in fact. We began to question our choice. But in the end they stood behind their word and took care of the issues and reimbursed us for all expenses. They even extended the warranty for 3 months.
We drove the unit back home on a Thursday night and Saturday morning we packed it up and spent a weekend in Augusta, ME. Everything worked properly and fun was had by all. The batteries lasted all night with the TV, overhead fan, and refrigerator running.
Over the spring and summer of 2018 we went to Mt. Ascutney State Park in VT, Acadia National Park in ME, Long Lake in ME and Cape Cod, MA. As luck would have it, we cracked the windshield in Acadia which led to another whole fiasco resulting from a leak after the glass was replaced. This kept the RV out of commission for another couple of weeks as we dealt with that situation, effectively ending our 2018 camping season.
The purchase process took some time - we kicked tires and researched on the Internet for months. We ordered our unit at the Hershey Park RV Show in September, 2017 - with a promised delivery date of December, 2017. We thought December would be great - usually before lots of snow in our parts. We made a plan to drive it to Washington D.C. during the February school break. Production was slower than expected, and when it hadn't been delivered by the end of December, we decided to see Frozen Niagara Falls in January (without the RV) instead of our D.C. trip. We drove through a crazy snowstorm - but that's largely irrelevant. It was while we were driving to Niagara that we were informed that the RV would be delivered to the dealer in PA. by the end of the month - and they wanted their money ASAP. They wanted us to pay in full before we took delivery. We finally agreed that they could wait until we picked the unit up in March - after we'd had a chance to clean up several feet of snow and make a space for the van. Attempts at getting it delivered to a dealer closer to us or delivered directly to our house were unsuccessful.
Mid-March we picked up the RV after it had been "thoroughly inspected and prepped for delivery". Quoting coach Labue "there's no way in a month of Mondays" that the dealer performed any of the checks they claimed to have done. Suffice it to say, we had some initial delivery quality issues. The dealer was 100% ineffective in helping with these issues, even reiterating how they had checked all the systems before delivery.
No problem - we have a full warranty and a certified Roadtrek dealer less than an hour from our house so we'll drive it home and get it in to the dealer for some quick remediation. Long story short, that didn't work out and we opted to have the unit delivered on a flat-bed back to the factory. Roadtrek was awesome in this regard - they happily paid to have it transported and gave us the option to flat-bed it back to our house or to pick up the travel expenses for us to fly to the factory and drive it home.
Truth be told this process took some time - several weeks of anxiety, in fact. We began to question our choice. But in the end they stood behind their word and took care of the issues and reimbursed us for all expenses. They even extended the warranty for 3 months.
We drove the unit back home on a Thursday night and Saturday morning we packed it up and spent a weekend in Augusta, ME. Everything worked properly and fun was had by all. The batteries lasted all night with the TV, overhead fan, and refrigerator running.
Over the spring and summer of 2018 we went to Mt. Ascutney State Park in VT, Acadia National Park in ME, Long Lake in ME and Cape Cod, MA. As luck would have it, we cracked the windshield in Acadia which led to another whole fiasco resulting from a leak after the glass was replaced. This kept the RV out of commission for another couple of weeks as we dealt with that situation, effectively ending our 2018 camping season.
We also discovered while in Acadia that 4 nights in the RV was about the limit before we started getting on each others' nerves. Honestly, we probably should have opted for a B+ van for our family of four, but none of them were as sturdy as the Roadtrek. It was very important to us that we have no slideouts (too many issues), and we did not want a fiberglass body. Also, Roadtrek offered the best tech and, by far, the best warranty.
Another discovery in Acadia, then confirmed on the Cape, that our bike rack, while awesome and sturdy, is kind of a pain in the neck. We started looking at better storage and sleeping options. The bike rack is serviceable, if inconvenient, and a small tent for one of the kids works OK, but we wanted something a little more rugged and secure to solve both problems. Lo and behold we stumbled upon the Hitch Hotel. It's a locking storage box that holds 3 full-sized bikes and other gear, but it also opens up and has a large fold-up mattress inside. Perfect! Like it was made for us! We got in on the ground floor with Hitch Hotel - investing in their Kickstarter campaign. We are one of their first 30 investors, and got some perks as such. They have customized our hitch to not interfere with the Sprinter doors, and there are some other upgrades we're excited about.
Clark W. Griswold's got nothin' on us - we're loadin' up the van and heading to a cross-country Roadtrek adventure. Stay tuned for more details, pictures, videos, and commentary on how the Roadtrek Adventurous holds up.
Wish us luck and keep track of the trip by reading our blog!
Another discovery in Acadia, then confirmed on the Cape, that our bike rack, while awesome and sturdy, is kind of a pain in the neck. We started looking at better storage and sleeping options. The bike rack is serviceable, if inconvenient, and a small tent for one of the kids works OK, but we wanted something a little more rugged and secure to solve both problems. Lo and behold we stumbled upon the Hitch Hotel. It's a locking storage box that holds 3 full-sized bikes and other gear, but it also opens up and has a large fold-up mattress inside. Perfect! Like it was made for us! We got in on the ground floor with Hitch Hotel - investing in their Kickstarter campaign. We are one of their first 30 investors, and got some perks as such. They have customized our hitch to not interfere with the Sprinter doors, and there are some other upgrades we're excited about.
Clark W. Griswold's got nothin' on us - we're loadin' up the van and heading to a cross-country Roadtrek adventure. Stay tuned for more details, pictures, videos, and commentary on how the Roadtrek Adventurous holds up.
Wish us luck and keep track of the trip by reading our blog!
Oh, and here's what we have on the agenda:
- Niagara Falls (it's in Canada, eh!)
- Chicago (and see the Cubs in Wrigley!)
- Mt. Rushmore
- Badlands
- Devil's Tower
- Yellowstone
- Craters of the Moon
- Redwood
- San Francisco
- Yosemite
- Sequoia
- Disneyland
- Hoover Dam
- Las Vegas
- Zion
- Bryce Canyon
- Arches
- Moab
- Rocky Mountain National Park
- St. Louis (What's that... the Cubs are in town?! 4 of your finest tickets, please!)
- 4 days to meander home - where should we stop?
