The weekend before Thanksgiving, Doug and I rented a car to drive up to Fretz RV in Pennsylvania and then drive back in our new Jayco Greyhawk 29MV! While there, we spent a couple hours receiving detailed instructions on operating all the systems. We had brought a digital camera with us to video the tour, as recommended by many RV blogs and sites, and had an extra battery - but no extra memory card. Alas - we were able to record only the first part of the tour. The instructions were great, but my memory - not so much!
We had a little scare when our "tour guide" talked about not using the RV in the winter - but then he corrected himself when he saw the optional tank heater pads, indicating the installed four-season package.
After the thorough tour, we spent another hour in the dealer's store, reviewing accessories. A wonderfully helpful salesperson worked with us on selecting the best options for our particular RV and desired use. We picked out a Teknor Apex Zero-G 25' water hose, a water pressure regulator, and a slip-on water connector; an Oxygenics shower head; a Thetford Titan 15' sewer hose kit; 50amp-to-30amp and 30amp-to-15amp "dogbone" adaptors and a 25' 12-gauge extension cord; and a set of curved levelers and tire chocks for each of the four rear wheels.
Picking up the RV in November did mean that the rig is "winterized", which I hadn't planned for. "Winterizing" means emptying the fresh, gray, and black water tanks (or, in the case of a new rig, not filling them) and then filling the water lines with pink RV anti-freeze solution. If we want to take our rig out for a weekend, and use the water system, we'll have to "de-winterize" (flush out all the lines) and then "re-winterize" afterwards. That seems a little daunting to us...
(The point of winterization is to keep water from freezing within the tanks or lines and damaging them. The greater size of the tanks means that emptying them gives them enough margin to safely contract and expand with changing temperatures; the lines' smaller size requires anti-freeze to protect them. Given the forecast for below-freezing nights over the next ten days, winterizing was a helpful choice on the manufacturer's/dealer's part.)
Once home, the Greyhawk's 32.5 feet of length was very apparent in our just-long-enough driveway (still leaving some sidewalk for pedestrians). The driveway slope was also very apparent! While we won't really need to run the RV refrigerator for the next several weeks (the gravity flow of an RV refrigerator's absorption technology, vs. the compression technology in a residential refrigerator, requires being close to 100% level), we didn't feel it would be good for the rig in general to be that tilted for two months.
We tried using the curved plastic levelers designed for use at an uneven campsite. Nope! Not nearly enough height! Doug and our older daughter began drawing up plans for a wooden step-ramp. At Home Depot, we purchased 62 feet of 2"x 10" boards (cut into four lengths each of 5', 4', 3', 2', and 1.5'), 12 feet of 2"x 6" board (cut into eight lengths of 1.5'), and a box of 2.5" exterior wood/deck screws (plus a matching drill bit). Doug descended into the basement for a couple of days of construction, then he and I lugged his creations up to the front yard, marked the driveway with colorful duct tape, backed the rig up a few feet, and wrestled the ramps into place. Doug gently drove the coach up the stepped ramps while I crouched down to watch the progress and relay reports to him. Success!
(All the yelling we've had to rely on for communicating rig placement really makes me want to try out one of the available cell phone walkie-talkie apps.)
Having our new RV in the driveway also has allowed me to create a three-page spreadsheet of the exterior and interior storage space dimensions, and to begin scouting out RV accessories. So far I've only purchased a hand-vac to clean out the manufacturing dust, but I've got my eye on non-slip liner for the cabinets and drawers, a collapsible dish drainer, and various storage bins.
We've also tested out the generator and furnace, and located all the light switches! (Another item from our delivery tour that I didn't retain fully in my memory...) The slides have to stay in due to the bushes next to our driveway, and the plumbing test will have to wait for de-winterization. We also haven't tested out the hydraulic stabilizers yet - I want to wait until both Doug and I are available during daylight hours to confirm that they will clear the wooden ramps and will reach the ground. Another newbie confession: it took us two days to figure out that the vehicle engine has to be running for the stabilizer control panel to power on.
Friends asked, of course, if I was planning to cook and/or serve Thanksgiving dinner in our new RV. Picking it up only five days before Thanksgiving made that answer "Not this year!" More to the point, I'm not sure our tiny oven will hold even a roast chicken, much less an 18-lb turkey.
This weekend we plan to take the RV back out on the road to exercise the engine and generator, get it weighed on highway/commercial truck scales, and find a place to park and open the slides. Stay tuned for those results!
(Oh, and I think I identified the mystery part after reading the documentation for the Truma AquaGo Comfort tankless water heater: I believe it is the water inlet filter that will be re-inserted during de-winterization of the water system.)
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