Packing and Preparing for the First Trip
The attic has plenty of things that we packed away in case the kids wanted anything when they moved out on their own but they did not want, or need, them. We can go through and determine what would be good to put in the trailer, what goes to charity, and what stays packed away for …. ??
I am retired from the US Air Force so I have a lot off experience packing. I was also in a combat unit for a while and I had to pack for military exercises regularly so, needless to say, I learned a lot about ‘better packing” and streamlined my packing abilities. This should help a lot now.
I knew this would be a long a tedious step and it is proving to be just that.
First, we leveled the trailer and dropped the support jacks to stabilize it.
Since the wiring on the car’s 7 pin plug is bad, I used a jumper wire and the 12VDC source on the trailer plug to check the turn signals, running lights and the power to the rear backup camera I installed and all are good. I studied where the backup camera for the passenger’s side of the trailer needs to be located and decided it should be at the top edge of the door. It was an easy fix (see my Hack #1).
We ordered an adapter to connect a regular heavy duty extension cord to the 30amp plug on the trailer but I wanted power NOW so I cut the plug end off one of my (many) heavy duty extension cords and replaced it with a twist on 30amp plug. I can always put a regular household plug back later (I have plenty of parts around my shop).
(RVGUARD 3 Prong 15 Amp to 30 Amp RV Adapter Plug)
Next we went through and took measurements of all of the supplied storage and I looked at all of the unused (wasted) storage areas. I already see many places I can turn wasted space into usable storage and improvements I will be making to some existing storage. I see a lot of shelving from Home Depot / Lowes in our future.
Having NOT been able to do a real walk through at pick-up, I got out all the appliance manuals. I turned on the gas and, using the manuals (because even an experienced person does not know all the specific details of every appliance), I checked the stove, oven, AC, water heater and microwave to be sure they all work well. I went around to every knob/control/lever and such on the outside and placed labels on anything that was not perfectly clear as to what it is and what it’s for.
An outside cooking grill is a must so I went to mount the swing mount for my grill to the rear bumper and got another surprise. The bracket for mounting the grill to the swing arm does NOT come with the arm even though every picture shows it ! ! ! No problem : My second Hack (See my Hacks Post).
Setting up and packing revealed many area I saw could use improvements. I made numerous modifications (hacks) before we managed to make our first trip. I’m sure more will come as we make trips along the way.
Be sure to check them out on my post called 22MLE Hacks.
Next: Our first trips out.
