Brand New to RVing and GD - Purchased 2020 5th Wheel Solitude 310GK

[SueGDS]

My husband and I are total "Newbies" to RV ownership. We recently had our orientation but due to where we live (Northern Canada) and the COVID-19 situation, we left the unit with the dealership to put into storage for a month or two. In the meantime, we are going over the Owner's Manual, appliance manuals, etc. to familiarize ourselves with our unit. A question I have for the experienced 5th Wheel owners, and if there happens to be another Solitude 310GK owner out there is, do you have a checklist that you use for both an inside and outside walk around before you move your unit? If so, would you be willing to share it or direct me where I can get one?

Thanks so much!

Sue

[Cate&Rob]

Hi Sue,

Welcome to our owners technical forum . . . from another Canadian .

You will find lots of assistance on this forum including several owners of Solitudes and particularly the 310. I am sure that these folks will be along shortly.
We were all "Newbies" (some of us not too long ago) so don't hesitate to ask any question!
Use the search tool in the upper right corner on any key words to look for what you are interested in.

If you Google "RV pre trip checklist", you will find many examples that may work for you. We used to use a written checklist, but now my wife has a mental check list and sequence for inside stuff and I have one for outside stuff. One recommendation . . . if you get interrupted in your sequence, start over or at least go back a few steps and start over. The times that I have missed something occurred when I go interrupted.

Rob

[howson]

My husband and I are total "Newbies" to RV ownership. We recently had our orientation but due to where we live (Northern Canada) and the COVID-19 situation, we left the unit with the dealership to put into storage for a month or two. In the meantime, we are going over the Owner's Manual, appliance manuals, etc. to familiarize ourselves with our unit. A question I have for the experienced 5th Wheel owners, and if there happens to be another Solitude 310GK owner out there is, do you have a checklist that you use for both an inside and outside walk around before you move your unit? If so, would you be willing to share it or direct me where I can get one?

Thanks so much!

Sue

Second Chance (Rob) just bought a 2020 310GK. He's an experienced GD owner and is active on this forum, so he should be a great resource to help you with your questions. I'm sure there's others here, too, that will chime in as many of the systems are common across the GD lineup.

Welcome!

[Second Chance]

Thanks for tagging me, howson .

Sue,

Back in the old days, I used to fly. There was a short, laminated checklist we used with the flight instructors, but I don't ever remember using it after flight school. (Of course, these were light singles and not the 737s like our son-in-law flies). That said, here's what we go through in our head as we pack up and/or set up. After a few times, it becomes second nature.

Getting ready for travel:

1. Disconnect and pack up fresh water equipment, making sure not to leave behind anything attached to the water standpipe.
2. Depressurize fresh water system and switch to "Dry Camping" (water pump/tank).
3. Disconnect and pack up sewer equipment ("stinky slinky"). (I sometimes do 1 - 3 the evening before traveling.)
4. Inside, put away anything that won't travel safely where it is and make sure all cabinet doors and drawers are firmly closed.
5. Lock the refrigerator doors (if a residential frig - the RV friges do it on their own). Make sure you have snacks and lunch fixings available, as you won't be able to access the pantry with the slides in.
6. Retract TV antenna (if it's that type - the new ones aren't) and awnings.
7. Clear the floor areas for slides (make sure that the extension leaf on the dinette table is down).
8. Retract the slides.
9. STOW THE MORryde STEPS BEFORE CONTINUING! Failure to do so could damage your steps or main door as you change the level of the trailer.
10. Turn on leveling system and retract rear levelers (will pull up both middle and rear sets and leave the front landing gear down).
11. Drop the truck tailgate.
12. Back up truck, set trailer height to that needed for your hitch (many hitches need to be hitched and unhitched with the trailer pinbox a bit low and a little weight still on the truck).
13. Back under the trailer and ensure that the pin lock is firmly latched and secured.
14. Complete retraction of the front landing gear.
15. Plug in the trailer wiring to the truck and attach the breakaway cable to a suitable point on the hitch or truck.
16. Close the truck tailgate.
17. Disconnect and stow the 50 amp main electrical cable. You can do this earlier if you have good, strong batteries to operate the slides and leveling system.
18. Do a pull test on the hitch and check trailer brake and running lights. (Search for different ways people do the pull test.)
19. Remove any wheel chocks or other ground tackle.
20. Walk through your campsite before you pull out to make sure you're not leaving anything behind. We've left behind a good outside door mat and one of my favorite chocks...

When setting up (pretty much the reverse of the above - except I always handle the fresh water equipment before the sewer equipment).

1. After getting the trailer positioned where you want it, chock the trailer wheels.
2. Turn on the leveling system and lower the front landing gear. Raise the front of the trailer to where there there's still a little weight left on the truck but the trailer is firmly supported.
3. Disconnect the trailer wiring and breakaway cable.
4. Lower the truck tailgate.
5. Release the hitch pin lock (you may have to relieve fore-and-aft stress on the pin by putting the truck in neutral and releasing the parking brake - be sure to reset the parking brake and put the truck in park before you get back out). Do not put the truck in gear during this phase so as not to put stress on the landing gear which could/would cause damage.
6. Pull the truck forward until the back of the truck completely clears the front of the trailer (the trailer nose will dip during the auto-level process).
7. If the auto-level system has gone to sleep, turn it back on and press the "Auto Level" button. Stand back and marvel at modern technology! (We did not have auto-level on our Reflection.)
8. Once the trailer has finished leveling itself, it is safe to deploy the MORryde steps. Be careful to adjust the bottom feet so that the steps are low enough that the bottom of the door won't hit them but high enough that the pivot system is not being forced down to meet the ground.
9. Make sure there are no outside obstructions to opening the slides (utility stanchions, trees, picnic tables, another vehicle, etc.). We always deploy the main slides just enough to squeeze by them inside to make sure a cabinet door or drawer has not come open during travel. Complete extension of the main and bed slides.
10. Get out the 50 amp electric cable and connect it to shore power.
11. For me, it works best that I next pull out the fresh water gear and connect to "city" water. Turn off the pump and depressurize the water system before moving the valves to use city water.
12. Connect the sewer hose.
13. Set up housekeeping inside.

It's highly likely that I left something out, here. If anyone thinks of something else, chime in and I'll edit the list. A couple of points that aren't part of the general checklist:

1. I recommend ALWAYS using a good water pressure regulator. It's cheap insurance for your water system. If we leave the rig for more than just a day's outing, I turn off the water at the standpipe.
2. I'm also ad advocate for a TPMS or tire pressure monitoring system. These aren't particularly cheap, but they can alert you to a tire problem before the tire comes completely apart and does several thousands of dollars (US or Canadian...) to the underside of your rig.
3. Awnings: we never leave the rig with an awning out. It's a sure way to loose an awning and sustain damage to the RV. The full-timers mantra is "The awning is only out when we're under it." An exception is in situations like where we're stuck during the pandemic. Georgia is not known for being cool and dry during the warm months. The door side of our rig faces east on our current site and we're putting the awnings out in the morning to shade that side of the trailer from the sun - but only if the wind is below 10 MPH and, of course, we're home.

Stay safe and healthy until you can take your new rig out - and then, happy camping!

Rob

[swmurray]

1) Verify the dinette table dropdown is in the travel position . We had a covering on our dinette table and forgot to drop. Results were a tilted island and dent in the fridge (!)

2) That was on our checklist, but we were just pulling out to dump and were rushed - so we didn't pull out the checklist (!!!)

[Canyonlight]

Second Chance - Rob, that's a very good list.....I do not recall you sharing that before over the years, I may have missed it.......thank you ! Carol and I have one addition when this is all done.....get the chairs out and have a beverage !

Dan

[SueGDS]

Hi Everyone:

Thank you, everyone, for all the great feedback. It is very helpful. I am impressed with this group already! Second Chance (Rob)...I had to laugh when I started reading your response and you mentioned flying. I had my private pilot licence many many years ago (only flew a very short time) and I remember my flight instructor drilling into me that you ALWAYS, use your checklist; hence, wanting to find a list that I can laminate and faithfully use to prevent missing anything inside or out. Otherwise, it is so easy to overlook something from habit or become complacent and miss something that can do considerable damage...even if it is only a cosmetic scar...if we can avoid these mistakes, it would be delightful. Once I have made my checklists, I will share the Word Files or pdfs (it may not be for a while and I am sure I will miss items too so there will be versions).

swmurray ~ thanks for sharing your "oops" too and Canyonlight ~ thanks for the reminder that there is a reward after the work is done

Thanks again everyone for your help.

Sue