Excited to join the ranks of the TM family!

We pick up our new 2003 3124Kb in 2 days ;D. Any helpful tips in getting ready for our first camping trip (scheduled for his weekend) would be greatly appreciated. We have always been tent campers, but with 4 children our set up and take down was getting to much.With our youngest two recently potty-trained I especially look forward to the bathroom for those mad dashes. Soooo excited!

We are really excited! (Kelly is my wife.) We have been pouring over this site for the last week. I feel inundated with information, so much new stuff to learn and know. The part I am most anxious about is backing up and putting the TM into our garage-- I have no experience with towing a trailer and we live on a fairly busy street. I am looking forward to getting past the coming newbie experiences!

Welcome and Enjoy, Enjoy, Enjoy. I'm sure you will find some small items that will pop up : during your vacation. Remember to write them down so you can research them when you get back or at least be able to ask the bigger family of TM owners. Again, congratulations.

ColoradoCop 8)

First thing to do is take it to a pretty deserted parking lot, and practice backing into a parking space over and over, and over, till you get it down pat! This will help you most being new to a trailer. The biggest thing you'll find is the communication between the two of you as you practice backing it up, once ya get your system down, you'll be good to go!

[glow=red,2,300]Happytrails.......[/glow]

Congrats on your new purchase and welcome to the Trailmanor family.

When I bought my first TM ;D, I had had no previous camping experience except for Boy Scouts and I wouldn't want to reveal how long ago that was. I had never driven a pickup truck and had never towed anything. Putting the cart before the horse, I bought the TM and put it in an RV park for two months while I looked for a tow vehicle. After finding one, we took our first trip and it was over 2000 miles. I wasn't the worlds greatest backer upper, but I got the hang of it and you will too. We hit snow storms, winds of up to 60 mph, etc. It is the best way of learning.

Enjoy your new vehicle. One piece of advice though, while backing into a spot it is a good thing to have already worked out the hand signals you will be using. Otherwise, it can be come a comedy of errors that only turns into a few heated words. Believe me ;D. And, when in doubt, pull out, circle around and begin again.

Chris B.

Let me add a piece that Texas_Camper didn't include. He's right keep your hands on the BOTTOM of the steering wheel. (Now the part he forgot) -- turn the wheel in the direction you want the trailer to go. And practice in that parking lot is well worth the time.

My first experience in a camper was the first time we went camping. Of course I'm of the male mentality that says, "I don't need no stinking practice!" Well, it took at least 14 backup attempts to get between the two trees on the site we were given. Of course, no one watching me was thinking, "Novice!!" And of course my wife wasn't saying, "You should have practiced."...

Not....

Good luck, and enjoy.

Welcome to our very exclusive club! I was much Chris B. in that I had never backed up towed anything, though as a teenager, my parents purchased the first of four RVs. Fast forward many years later, and Ellen, who thinks roughing it is staying in a Holiday Inn instead of a Marriott, and she pushes us to buy the Trailmanor so our kids can have the kind of memories I had from RVing in Yellowstone, Glacier Park, New England, etc. We just took it slow and got into a routine, and it has become easier each time. Our vacation this year was the first time we took the trailer to multiple locations over the two weeks, and I was really impressed with how much the kids were able to help out.

I too was worried about backing, and I can't emphasize enough three things: first the practice that has already been recommended is great. Second, I always take the backing process very slowly with input from Ellen, and sometimes getting out of the vehicle to look myself. Finally, there's nothing wrong with deciding that you need to try backing from scratch, and pulling around to the site or driveway again. While I've only had to do that a couple of time, when I did so, other campers came over later to tell me how they were impressed that I figured out the better way and didn't feel embarassed to try again.

You're going to have a blast!

I second the pratice part. Sue and I use walkie talkies to talk to each other and it works well, that way others don't hear us cussing each other. ;D

Make sure your directions giver uses terms you can understand, like driver's side not left and right there is great confusion there and not just between men and women. I had another guy giving me directions once and the poor man didn't know his left from his right.

Use the empty parking lot it pays big in the long run.

Well, we picked it up today. The dealer took the van to a shop and got it set for towing while they showed us the TM. Both Kelly and I practiced setting up and taking down. Our van and TM is about 45 feet from bumper to bumper. It was commute time when we left the dealer. Only difficulty was turning left onto a busy street. I kind of inconvenienced some other drivers when I made that turn. Oops. Sorry.

The trailer was bouncier than I expected on the bumpy levy roads we had to go on. I tried to keep the rig at about 60 on the freeway. It does pull pretty easy with our van; the speed kept wanting to creep up.

When we got to our area, we went to the Baptist church in our neighborhood and practiced backing up as you all suggested. Kelly was pretty impressed with my first effort. Only problem was that I had intended to back to the right and instead backed to the left--other than that it was perfect. Your suggestions about the hands at the bottom of the steering wheel were very helpful. Backing into the garage went well. The practice really helped. The air conditioner cleared the top of the garage door by a couple of inches and the pinned tongue allowed the 24 foot trailer to fit within our available 23 feet.

Our next adventure will be trying to get the pinned tongue and hitch all set up properly. The driveway is at an angle and the garage floor is level. I guess you have to just hook things up and pull the trailer out onto the level street to adjust the hitch and get things set properly.

Anyway, we are all excited for Sunday when we go on our first short trip and see how things go.

Don't forget to let us know how your weekend excursion went. Happy Camping.

ColoradoCop 8)