Travel Trailer Road Safety Tips
A travel trailer is a pretty big vehicle and when it’s being towed behind another vehicle, you’re dealing with a pretty big unit. To ensure your own safety and the safety of other motorists on the road, there are some basic road safety rules you must follow. If you’re new to travel trailers, you’ll want to practice driving in an empty parking lot and master turning, braking, reversing and parking before you hit the road.
At Sumner RV we love to help people make the most of their vehicles so we’ve compiled the following information to keep you safer on the roads. We have a wide selection of RVs for sale, including Coachmen RVs, at our dealership locations in Sumner and Bremerton, WA. Get in touch with us and we’ll show you what we have in stock.
Trailer Brake Control
When your travel trailer is hitched up, it relies on your tow vehicle’s brakes to bring the entire rig to a complete halt. Needless to say, this places a lot of stress on your tow vehicle’s brakes. To relieve some of that strain, as well as make the trailer easier to control, get a trailer brake control. With this, you can connect your RV’s trailer brakes to the tow vehicles brakes. They will work in tandem to slow and stop your rig.
Tire Pressure Monitoring System
A key factor in road safety is proper tire inflation. When tires are not inflated correctly, you can end up with a blowout. Poorly inflated tires also wreak havoc on the tread, which can seriously hamper their ability to maintain proper traction with the road. Manually checking the tires is tedious (and only possible when you are fully stopped at your destination).
A great way to stay on top of your tire needs is to get a tire pressure monitoring system. With this, you can receive regular updates that can be as fast as minute by minute on the quality of the tires. You will get tire pressure information (and sometimes other pieces of data, like tire temperature) of your Coachmen RV. The data is stored, so you can look at changes over time. It’s an easy way to catch any irregularities that could signal a problem.
Roadside Toolkit
When you’re on the road, anything can happen and a sudden situation can find your camper in need of some emergency DIY repairs. To stay prepared for such situations, carry roadside emergency tools, such as jacks, a spare tire and a tool kit. Serious repairs will require professional service when you return to town, but you can spare yourself the expense of towing if you can patch up your rig enough to get you to the nearest technician.
Check the Weather
Before you get into your RV and head off, you’ll want to check the weather forecast for where you are and where you’re heading. This will help you decide what to carry and how to go about things, so you can plan accordingly. The extra weight of a travel trailer attached to your vehicle can be a bit challenging to manage in difficult weather so if there are predictions of high winds or a storm in any part of your route, you might want to postpone your departure or find another route. And never be afraid to pull off if sour weather surprises you. Your safety should come first, so don’t try to power through.
We hope these tips will keep you safe on the road! If you’re looking for Coachmen RVs for sale in Sumner and Bremerton, WA, get in touch with our sales department for further assistance. We’re proud to be the chosen Coachmen RV dealer for our clients from Seattle and Silverdale!