A while back I posted here asking for guidance as a first time RVer before our trip to Yellowstone. Thought I'd report back with how it went. We traveled from Phoenix , Arizona to Yellowstone, rested at dispersed camping spots at Bryce Canyon (Utah) & Caribou-Targhee National Forest (Idaho) along the way. Drove through Grand Teton NP on the way home. Saw some great sights at both parks & stopped for lots of pics. My daughter got to see (from a distance) about 3 dozen bison for her first time. Overall, Yellowstone was underwhelming given the common hype. Visually, Grand Teton was much nicer, albeit significantly smaller.

So about the RV Nightmare. We don't own one yet & I thought renting one would give us a good idea on how well we liked it before we committed money to purchasing one. In a sense, I was right. When we got on site at our campground, we discovered they changed our reservation of one 40 foot lot to two 20 foot lots side-by-side. I'm out of practice backing up trailers & had a bit of a meltdown trying to back the RV into the spot we got. A kind camper helped & reminded me that everyone was new at trailering at one point. I felt more embarrassed than anything. I've hauled plenty of trainers but it's been about 10 years ago I was definitely very rusty. The RV we rented had so many problems: pull handle on the black water dump valve was missing, Grey water dump pipes were cracked (so it just leaked on the ground under the RV), both sinks leaked on the floor inside, fridge wouldn't run without the generator running (tongue battery was toast), roof sprung a leak one night during a rainstorm (right on my wife's head while we were sleeping.

On to lessons learned. Unfortunately, the site we camped at was a dry site & had generator quiet hours. As this was a first time doing more than tent camping, I didn't know generator quiet hours were a thing. We've been eyeballing solar generators for a while & this experience put another tally in the pro column for solar vs gas powered. We definitely overpacked both food & clothes. Ended up just getting in the way. Had way more than we needed. Not the worst problem. My propane camp stove came in handy & I was able to make a few really tasty camp dinners. Our best time I think was at the dispersed campsite in Idaho. We had a nice secluded spot with lots of space to setup a nice base camp & for my daughter & my dog to run around safely.

All things considered we really did enjoy our first time RVing. Just not fact that we got a lemon of an RV from the place we rented from. I made the point to my wife that when we buy our own, I'll learn the systems & be managing it's maintenence (as I do with our truck) so we won't have a many things breakdown & when they do, I'll be in charge of their repairs (or contracting repairs for things outside of my skill sets). This also gave us a good chance to see which features we did & didn't like in the RV.

Obviously not trying to blow up any spots so no specific location sharing. Just want to see some campers in beautiful places outside of campgrounds.

Here I am in a national forest just below 10K feet with panoramic views and no one around!

Looking for advice on places to take my 2019 Jayco Greyhawk for chassis service. I have a vibration when driving at highway speeds and having the tires rebalanced didn’t take care of it. Thanks.

I just sold my 92 Coleman pup to a young man and it seems he ran into some issues on his first run with opening and closing it. I feel bad and would like to help him but I’m at a loss. He cranked so hard that he sheared off the pin. Any options?

Has anyone had to replace the toilet in one of these Coleman’s? If so, what did you find that worked?