3368 days since our wedding!
* Zero K, thanks to Hurricane Joaquin!

Traveling with Roxy

Roxycover

Trip notes of Molly and Rick with Roxy, our Kodiak Express 172E travel trailer.

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Rick's Rookie Roky Lessons

Thursday March 30, 2017
Now that we've had Roxy for several months and have been on a few trips, I (Rick) thought I'd start writing in this journal and recording what I've learned (and all the mistakes I've made).


After all, I can't let Molly have all the fun!

Always chock first. Always.
We learned this one the hard way. Always chock the wheels before raising the tongue and un-hitching. It only takes a moment. On our maiden trip, we had to raise one side of Roxy to be level. I used Lynx Leveling Blocks, which worked perfectly. :-) However, I didn't chock the wheels and, as I raised and lowered the tongue jack to get level, Roxy began to roll off the blocks. :-(

Remove the safety chains before un-hitching
The typical setup procedure should be:

  1. Pull into the site and get level sideways.
  2. Raise the tongue and unhitch the trailer.
  3. Drive the truck forward a few feet to move it out of the way.
  4. Lower the tongue and get level front-to-back.

It is very important to unhook the safety chains and electrical connection before step 3.
I'm sure you can figure out why.
It is also important to unhook the chains before step 2 — the chains aren't very long and as you raise the tongue there is less and less slack, until finally there's not enough slack to remove them. :-(

Use the tongue jack to relieve WDH pressure
The tension bars on our weight distribution hitch (WDH) are under A LOT of pressure. That's how they work. Connecting (and disconnecting) the bars while they're under pressure is dangerous and damn near impossible (believe me, I tried).

And the instructions for the WDH clearly state:
Supporting the trailer tongue weight with the trailer jack eases the tension and allows easier unlatching.
But who reads the instructions, right?

Close the awning in the rain
I love Roxy's awning... so does Molly. It's automatic and lights up! However, it does not have much of a tilt. In fact, is is nearly flat.* Normally, this isn't a problem. But when it rains, it tends to catch and collect the water. Unless you like poking the awning from underneath every few minutes (which we've done), it is best to close the awning when it rains!


I'm sure there are more Rookie Lessons we'll learn!

* About 3 months after writing this, I learned how to tilt the awning to avoid the problem.