Driving Tips for Motorhome Owners
If you’ve recently purchased your first motorhome, you’re likely eager to hit the road and take a lengthy vacation in your new rig. However, before you can drive off into the sunset, you’ll first need to take some time to get the hang of driving your new motorhome. Because these RVs are so large, it can take quite a bit of time to learn how to safely pilot them, and we recommend reading through our helpful driving tips below before you start up your engine.
Practice
While all of the controls in a motorhome will be pretty similar to that of a car, driving these two vehicles is actually very different. Because they are so large, learning to drive a motorhome will take quite a bit of practice, and we recommend staying off large roads and highways till you’ve gotten the basics down.
If possible, try to find a large empty parking lot to practice accelerating, stopping, and turning in your new motorhome. You’ll find that all three actions can be much slower with a motorhome than they would be with a car, and will require more careful and precise driving.
As you practice, remember to avoid stopping and starting your rig suddenly, and to take wide turns to avoid hitting or tipping your RV.
Reversing
Reversing is one of the hardest skills you’ll need to master in a motorhome. Unfortunately, many drivers assume they’ll rarely need to reverse in their rig and, as a result, end up crashing their model when they finally need to back up into a spot or tight area.
To keep this from happening to you, try to practice reversing every so often to keep it fresh in your mind. We also advise using the helpful steering wheel trick. When you need to reverse, place your hand on the bottom of the steering wheel—rather than the top or sides— and use this as a reference guide. If you pull your wheel to the left the end of your rig will also move left while the front will pull right. In case you forget which way the end of your rig is turning as you drive, you can look down at your hands to remind you.
Struggling to find a motorhome that meets all of your requirements? Then consider visiting us here at Pete’s RV PA. We carry a variety of motorhomes for sale at our Mountville, Pennsylvania, location. We also proudly serve those in Hershey, Philadelphia, Harrisburg, and York, Pennsylvania.