First Trip; new signature required

[rickst29]

Well, we FINALLY got a chance to arrange some vacation days (we were tangled up in changing to new jobs). I drove from Reno, down 395, to Crowley lake, a little bit past Mammoth.

My only TM complaint: the dang Winegard 12V wall plates (by the refer, and near the floor by the back bed) are TOO DANG SMALL for ANY of my 12V plugs to fit! (I added my voice to that long-standing Thread.)

Driving was like a dream: although 395 has considerable ups and downs, I was able to leave it on cruise, IN OVERDRIVE, most of the way. The bigger passes I shifted down to 3rd, never needed second. (These passes would be kinda lugging in 4th without the Trailer-- so my shifting choices were only slightly modified by the presence of the TM.) We were loaded heavily, but the 4Runner V8 seemed to be having an easy time.

Regular gas-- we were only going up to 8300 ft, not really much of an altitude issue there. As I drove past the intersection with CA-108, I smiled at my wife and said "Not this time." So Sonora pass didn't get my checkout trip, I'll have to change my signature . I think that my rig and hitch will have a pretty easy time going UP that pass, although going DOWN on the Nevada side would be a strain on the trailer brakes. (Probably come back on Hiway 4, Hiway 88, or US-50).

I do have the big axle, which I think was a REALLY SMART thing to do. You soften the ride back down by letting air out of the tires. At my speed and loading (up to 65 MPH in Nevada, a little lower in CA where the official speed limit is less with Trailers), I put the tires at 55 cold PSI-- a little bit higher than Goodyear specifies for the load we were carrying, because I was driving at 65MPH and didn't want too much tire squirm.

Coming back through the notorious Washoe Valley stretch between Carson City and Reno, where there's 5-10 big rig rollovers every year from the winds, the "High winds, trailers NOT advised" warning lights were ON, but the 4Runner - Cheapo 'Robin' WDH - 2619 combination rode almost like the TM wasn't even back there.

We were loaded with 8 gallons of reverse-osmosis drinking water under the bench on the door side, kinda balancing the fresh water tank on the street side, so the tongue didn't have so much of the infamous "torque caused by heavy fresh water tank weight cracks the swing hitch" issue. We have the Dinuba RV swing hitch, which is beefier than the factory hitch in some critical ways and probably immune to the problems which the factory hitch has.

Although we had reserved full-hookups at McGee Creek RV Park, we switched to an electrical-only site upon arriving at our destination, because the electric-only site was right on the creek, with no neighbors . The Park is functional, but not beautiful, and only 100 yards up from 395-- if we hadn't been right along the really loud Creek, we would have been hearing road noise-- and 395 is a busy road, even at night.

There ARE beautiful lakes nearby (Convict lake, the Mammoth lakes area), and Crowley is a big boating/fishing destination-- but the Park itself isn't especially nice, so I'm not going to list it in "recommended places": you would go there only because of the location. It is Dogs-OK.

[B_and_D]

So how did you like camping in the TM?

A friend of mine from the office stayed at Lake Mary a few weeks ago in their (new to them) popup (sort of where you went) and said it was great. They went to Bodie, the Salton Sea, and then on to Lake Tahoe. They went over Tioga Pass. Years ago we stayed at Twin Lakes. Someone told us that it was a great fishing spot, that if you couldn't catch fish there, you might as well shoot yourself. They were right. We both caught fish (my first trout!).

I broke our 12V outlet in the Winegard panel a while back, replaced it, and now have a splitter in it that stays there permanently. I scrunched down the outside contacts on the splitter so that it would fit in the outlet, and the twin outlets that it provides are large enough to fit anything that we have. No more problems!

You are very close to Lake Almanor. Have you ever camped there?
Last week, we stayed first at North Shore Campground, and then at the PG&E campground (I drove the trailer up and back, & park, usually let DH do the parking, but I was "practicing"). The PG&E campground, Rocky Point, is great for dogs. No hookups, lots of dirt (we're still cleaning out the TM), but it's a beautiful area. When you drive down the highway towards Chester you get a beautiful view of Mt. Lassen from the road. We've camped there almost every summer for the last 8 or 9 years.

Summer is over for us...my son is back in school, but we have our happy memories of our trip and pictures to last a lifetime!

Happy camping!

We have only used our plug for our cell phone charger. Works great!

Midwest Dave
Quad Cities USA

We have plugged in various cell phone chargers and an oscillating fan.

[rickst29]

Originally Posted by B_and_D

You are very close to Lake Almanor. Have you ever camped there?

I've driven past on the way through Lassen NP, but didn't stay on the Lake. We might in the future. FYI, Tom Stienstra's book says that fishing is MUCH better at Lassen View Resort than Northshore Campground, but it's likely to be fully booked by long-term rentals.

Our next trip up in that direction is likely to be one of the places around Blairsden, near Plumas-Eureka SP.

On the 12V sockets, TM points me at Winegard Support, 'washing their hands' of the problem. So I'm gonna do your thing, buy a couple of short splitters and grind 'em down until they fit. Not exactly what I wanted, but maybe better than breaking 'em first and fixing 'em afterwards. I'm glad to hear that at least SOME of us can use them as they are, but they aren't compatible with my machines.

Without trying to hijack the thread too much, I have always like Blue Lake, just east of Likely, CA as a nice quiet campground. From Reno it might be a little far for just 2 nights. I haven't been there in many years.