Picked up my new Winnebago Travato on Friday (23rd). The delivery experience was less than I expected, as they weren't really ready to do it even thought they had a week's notice. Oh well. Other than the coach being filthy and the gas tank empty, everything worked. The only hiccup was a sensor on the passenger seat needed to be re-set so the alarm would shut off. Lucky I caught it still at the dealership and not down the road! If both seats aren't facing forward and clicked in position, a very loud alarm will sound and not shut off.
I spent that afternoon trying to shoe-horn all the equipment & supplies from my tag-along into the new van. I had to pare it down a lot and still have some more to go after this first trip.
On Saturday, I headed out to Mile High Campground, which is off the Blue Ridge Parkway near Maggie Valley, NC. The grade to get up there is 9% and rises to 5400 feet elevation, so that is about as tough as it gets east of the Mississippi. I thought the Promaster handled it very well. This drivetrain is very well matched to this vehicle and RV service. I got 16 mpg on this trip.
Once you get to the camp, you get views like this as well as temps in the 60's:
Here was my setup at the camp:
I had put the extender in my bike rack so I could open the doors. It also made a nice place to hook the hose to so I had water at my camp kitchen. You can also see the screen package you can get for the rear doorway:
I also got the screen door option for the main sliding door. One of my favorite features is that the TV, power antenna and the audio system are all 12 volt. The TV is in a good position for viewing outside, which is what I did to watch the Indy 500. I don't know how many B vans have outside speakers, but this one does, which was a plus watching the race:
All my gear fit easily in the back, but I need to go thru and reduce some. I think I get get the essentials down to one bin:
Organizing the cabinets is a challenge. Here is what you get for dishes (over the sink). Luckily I found some nesting cookware that saved me a lot of room:
This is the cabinet over the bed - I store some linen items, window coverings and the screens, and some dry goods:
The clothes locker seems big enough. It's tall enough to hang shirts, jackets, etc. I also stand some trays and cutting board behind the clothes. My dirty clothes bag is also in there:
The fridge is certainly big enough for weekend trips. This new model is narrow, tall and deep compared to the regular cube fridge's you see in other B's. It's a 3-way. I ran it on LP. The mid point setting froze most of my sodas, so I reduced it further.
This coach definitely has some quirks. The Tom-Tom navigation is not quite as intuitive as a Garmin or the other makes.
The tankage seems to be adequate for my usage. I had about 1/3 fresh water left on my return home today.
The kitchen will take a bit to get used to. It's quite small, so you are juggling things on what little counter top there is. It really could use a counter extender, but that would block the door way and the switches where they mounted them. Thankfully, I do most of my cooking outside. Might pre-prepare some items before the next trip to make cooking easier if I'm forced to do it inside.
The 2.8kw Onan is appallingly loud. Other folks in the camp had your cheap contractor grade genets that were a lot quieter than mine. I suppose in a parking lot or at a rest stop it doesn't matter, but for dry camping it really is unacceptable. I may carry my small yamaha if I go dry camping in a campground again.
The water heater seems to heat up rather quick- 20 mins with the generator running. It does stay hot a long time. I ended up doing dishes with water I heated in a kettle. I didn't want to make all that racket during the dinner hour.
So overall, I'm very happy with this coach. The navigator sure likes it:
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