The Scene: Mt. Magazine in Paris, Arkansas (will do a feature on this gorgeous park in a future post).
The Player: Brenda, the not-very-experienced-mountain-road-RV-driver in the pilot seat of her 28′ Class C Forest River Sunseeker.
The Victim: The Sunseeker’s poor little brake pads and fluid.
Let’s see how this turns out, shall we?
Just keeping it real everybody….you, too, can learn from my mistakes! I hope that this is not a painfully long series, LOL. And, although episode one was from several years back, I promise, I still have recent boo-boos. Listen and learn, my people!
What happened: I knew that shifting into low was something I could/would need to do, but to be honest, I can’t remember if I did it at all. My Co-pilot in the passenger seat was really nervous so I was simply trying to take it slow and stay between the lines of the winding roads on very steep grades.
After about 30 minutes of slowly traversing the mountain back down to the town of Paris, I could smell the fresh scent of burning rubber when I reached the first stop light. I am not kidding when I admit this: my first thought? “Wow, they must have a tire factory or something in Paris and those folks are working hard on a Sunday morning!” Then, the smoke started billowing up from under the rig–yikes! We quickly pulled into a parking lot and some nice local man stopped to give me the news: I had burned those brakes by riding them the whole way down the mountain.
$800 later and a lecture from Mr. Queen Bee, I decided to get serious and learn more about how to be a mountain RV driver!
Here are some tools that I researched and steps that I took:
- Took an online RV Safe Driving course – This one was $49 and they state that the program is endorsed by The National Safety Council / RVIA / RVDA. Many insurance companies offer a discount for completion of this program. I learned a ton and took lots of notes!
- Watched YouTube videos – I researched and sat through several videos about how to use your mirrors and also how to come down a mountain. I keep those notes in my camping folder and read through them before I head out. This one is from RV Geeks and they have a huge library of awesome videos on loads of subjects! Here is one that I liked for driving on mountain passes from Marc and Julie Bennett with RV Love.
- RV Driving School – This has been on my to-do list and if I get to acquire a second rig soon, it will be a trailer and I will be taking lessons! The private lesson is two days and costs $595. They have instructors all over the country, some of whom are full-timers and are moving around so their locations change. They cover topics like how to use your mirrors, backing, braking, mountains, gas stations, lane management. You tow or drive your own rig for the training.
This episode does have a happy ending in that I went back to Mt. Magazine the next year with total confidence and made my way down the mountain on the way home with zero issues. Success! Have you taken any RV driver or RV safety courses? Have you had any mountain driving experiences that I need to learn from? Please share below!
