An arrival checklist helps make setting up camp a quick and easy task
An arrival checklist is usually a lot shorter. It's a lot harder to forget anything when you're setting up camp. When you need it, you just pull it out! Even a wore out ol' geezer like me can handle that deal! And without using much of an arrival checklist at all!
But there are still a few things that it won't hurt to remind yourself about. Like walking a site BEFORE you just blindly pull in. Sometimes things look differant on foot.
Like the time I pulled around a blind corner in a Forest SVC campground, saw a pull through site hard on my right, and rolled right on in without stopping.
Turned out there was no way to back out, and only a two seater roadster could .....pull through .......without a lot of gymnastics! And let me tell you, gymnastics with a 30' fifth wheel is a really special thing!
Stopping, before I committed to pulling in, and walking the site would have revealed the jackpot I was going to find myself in when I tried to pull on through! RV Boondocking can sure be an adventure! If I had just found that arrival checklist in that stack of RV checklists!
Looked pretty funny to everybody else I suppose.......(when we tried to leave).......My wife hanging on the end of a rope tied around the top of a pine sapling, pulling it over to clear the awning on the side of the rig, as I pulled into the ditch on the other side of the little road trying to miss the tree there, as I hunted for enough space to turn! Whew! That was a mouthful! And this after a half hour of jockeying into the best of a bad position!
And forgetting to pull out your slide transport security bars (if you use them) while not fatal can sure make a heart rending noise! And a lot of screeching from that lovely creature accompanying you! This one I can honestly say I haven't done yet, but I have confidence in my rapidly advancing early old timers syndrome!
Review an arrival checklist now and again and save yourself the indignity of your better half regaling your adventures around a community campfire somewhere down the road!
How come her poor memory only remembers the times you forgot?
Arrival checklist
USE A GROUND GUIDE WHERE NEEDED, WITH A RADIO IF AVAILABLE, SAVES SHOUTING! oops.....saves shouting! and preserves marital bliss!
- ___Scout a potential site on foot first! Avoid potential obstacles unseen from the cab.
- ___Upon arrival pull/back into chosen site.(use a ground guide!)
- ___Level the rig with the "traditional" stack of boards if that is your system of choice! (use a torpedo level if you don't have "installed" levels)
- ___Unhitch. Chock the wheels of the Fifth wheel/trailer.
- ___Driver, personally, visually verify that the landing gear is down, the umbilical is disconnected, and the hitch is clear.
- ___Carefully pull the tow vehicle away and park in its selected spot.
- ___Level the rig (if equipped with a leveling system) and reset chocks as necessary.
- ___Remove slide security bars if used and deploy your slide(s). I just love saying retract, secure, deploy, engage etc.....sounds so NASA don't it?.
- ___Turn on the LP/Gas valves if OFF for transport. Waiting a couple minutes before trying to light any appliances often helps.
- ___It is a good idea to verify proper voltage with a good meter before hooking up at a FHU site.
- ___Hook up umbilical (w/power former if you have one), sewer and water lines if you are in a FHU site!
- ___Set out what camp equipment you are going to use in this camp.
- ___Put the arrival checklist away, Pop a top, stick a CD in the stereo and Kick Back!
For stops along the way..........short term stops.
- ___Chock your wheels. Don't trust the parking brake. I carry heavy duty rubber wheel chocks and stick (2) quickly in between, and behind the trailer wheels on the driver/road side, to prevent movement in either direction if the parking brake of the truck should slip/fail. I also always put the stick in first gear. (Simple common sense but people often overlook such things in the excitement of a great trip. Take a few seconds and save a lot of heartache.
- ___Umm............don't forget to pick the chocks back up before you try to leave..............in our house we call that "pulling a Brian"
Following this Campsite Arrival Checklist link will download a PDF file to make printing out this list a simple deal.
Return from Arrival Checklist to Goin' RV Boondocking
