We Thought We Were Ready to Go!

It never fails, the RV is packed, the storage bays are neat everything is battened down so the coach is ready to roll and then something happens! It can be anything, it can be major, minor or something in between, but it's going to happen.

On our last trip, we actually got a quarter of a mile down the road and the sensor in the jeep started going off alerting us that a tire was low. Of course, it was the tire we had just had repaired. We had to stop, put on the emergency flashers and start unpacking bays. The new air compressor was fairly easy to get to, it only had the water hose and sewer hose on top of it!

We pulled both hoses out, laid them on the ground. I will note here that we do screw the ends of each hose together to prevent leaks. We don't want water or something worse leaking into our bays. After getting the air compressor set up, we realized that the extension cord was on the other side of the coach in the electric storage box next to the wall socket. That box sits right at the bay opening so at least we didn't have a small mountain of mess on that side. The cord gets plugged in and drug all the way around to the compressor and finally, we are ready to start inflating the tire.

Tire pressure is where it needs to be, 35 pounds, the sensor is happy and quiet. Now we have to reverse the process and put everything away again. Roughly, 20 minutes from start to finish and we are again ready to continue our trip. I've learned to be patient and just accept things as they happen. I'm not as good at doing that as my hubby, but I'm getting better.

We have learned the hard way, that a compressor that is small and compact isn't going to pump up RV tires. We burned up our small unit that was rated for 90 lbs pressure maximum. It took a few tires to do it, but I guarantee if it isn't rated for the right pressure, a compressor will not last you very long. We ended up buying a PORTER-CABLE Pancake Compressor and a good Tire Gauge that reads up to 120 lbs pressure. This compressor works well and has already proven to be worth its price and storage space requirement.

Our work camping assignments are frequently in places that are far from a town center. If a tire decides to go flat or just lose enough pressure to be unsafe, we can take care of it and at least limp into a tire repair shop.