Making RV Trip Planning Easy

45 thoughts on “Making RV Trip Planning Easy”

• Thank you, wonderful video and so many useful tips. How do you check for height, weight and propane limits? New subbie!

• Fantastic advice

• Thank you, great info, I will be doing my very first RV travel (no prior experience) with family, biggest concern I have is safety, any tips? Is it safe to assume staying at RV parks alleviates that concern, what tips could you share? Thanks again!

• This video is wonderful. I saved it so I can practice planning my routes.
  Thank you so much, what a great help you have been.

• Loved your easy planning RV trip video! I’ve been wanting to do this for years! So this encourages me to start planning!! Your video was easy to follow, and at good pace. Not too fast, but not too slow. Great job!

• Do you take into account bridges?

• I wish I had seen your video several days ago. It would have saved me hours trying to put together my first RV trip from CA to CT. Thank you!!

• Years ago I used Delorme Street Atlas GPS. A tremendous feature was the ability to enter your preferred milage and/or time limit for the day. It allowed you to divide a long trip up into 300 mile legs, or 5 hour legs, etc. Is there an online site or program that does that? Planning a 4000 mile trip next year and would like to have a planner that automates some choices for daily destinations. Thanks!

• Excellent video and very helpful information. This will sure help my wife and I plan some trips.

• Jerry, great video, thanks for publishing it. Question: How do you insure that google maps doesn't take you down an impassable road for your RV, or on too steep a grade or too twisty section of road? I used it last summer and it routed me on a very windy, steep downhill section of backroads crossing the Shenandoah mountains. It also took me on some small country roads with low hanging tree branches once. Ive been considering a RV GPS device or app, but hear mixed reviews. Your idea of using a tablet in place of an in-dash GPS is a good one that we use, and love it. My wife and I always have at least two map sources, usually Google Maps and one other, in use while driving to back up each other. And any time estimates in Google Maps we add about 20% to allow for stops and because we aren't the fastest vehicle on the highway…'cuz we don't need to be.

• Thanks Jerry, I’m planning my first trip for my family and was planning to rent a Class A as we plan to spend allot of time in it for the 3-4 weeks. I’m wondering how you recommend getting around the destinations once you arrive? I assume it’s difficult to find parking for the rv’s outside of the campgrounds themselves. Thanks

• Hi Jerry, my wife and I just bought a new Class C last summer and I'm actually taking a trip to Michigan to have some electric hydraulic levelers installed by the manufacturer (Bigfoot Leveling Systems). Saving about $1500 after expenses going this route. This trip (from NC) will be our longest trip we've taken. I've been looking at different apps to make planning easier and your video has "really" been a big help. I love that you show the steps….I had no idea Google Maps could be used like this. Great video, have a fantastic day😁!

• Thanks Jerry, I was trying to plan my first big trip from Atlanta to Colorado Springs and I remembered this video. This was a great help! Off to trip plan!!

• Great info

• Very helpful! Thank you!

• So Helpful! Can you please explain how you deal with route planning and low bridges, bad grades, or other RV towing/driving issues when you route plan?

• I meant to say on previous message I just needed the info on how to link the apps for planning which you gave me already.

• Thanks this is genius! I will be using all the apps you are talking about including our new purchase Allstays Pro. I just need the info on how to link them for planning. Question: are you concerned about the size of your rig and clearances? I was going to use the Copilot app which I'm sure we could copy and paste the GPS into as you did with Google maps. What are your thoughts and the reason you just use Google maps?

• Great informative video. How you used the Allstays web version which gave you the capability of copy paste into Google calendar. I have not made a decision on RV trip wizard or Allstays pro but after seeing your video I'm sort of leaning towards Allstays! I like using Google calendar to record each days iteniery because it gives you a history of where, when, etc that I can look back up 2 years later and see where we stayed, what route we took, all the details. I find my memory is not an accurate source for archiving trip information any more. 🙂

• I am new to RVing (34' fifth wheel) and I decided to get a Garmin RV GPS for routing for the length and height of my RV which Google maps can't do. But I am curious if you ever find yourself getting into any uncomfortable situations like low bridges, or rough roads using Google maps? Google maps is generally more up to date and useful so I wish I could use it but it does lack the height and length feature.

• Right click on the Google map to get a menu. Select measure distance. Drag it out to 330 or desired daily distance in the direction you're heading to get yourself really close very quickly.

• Good tips. Have been using Google for a few years now, even before we began camping again. Even with it and a GPS I still like to have a paper map backup. Redundancy is the name of the game.

• When do the majority of these RV parks kick you out with a one night stay and when do they stop checking folks in at night

• See if you can find an old copy of Microsoft streets & trips. It hasn’t been updated recently, but not many major roads have been built.

• Thanks for your insight. RV Parky is so much easier to use.

• have you ever tried RV trip wizard? if so, how does it compare to your current method?

• Hey there. Saw Art of RVings flattery of ya and came over to check you out. So hello new friend!
  Love allstays and campendium.

• We are weekenders right now. The longest we have been gone so far is 10 days. But once the house sells, we will be full time. Thanks so much for making this fear a bit less. Alice

• Thanks very much for this information as I believe I will be purchasing that all stays app. When you make your reservation and they require deposit we've lost lots of deposits. I like to plan my trips like you do sometimes we end up staying an extra day at a nice location or the interstate shuts down and you just can't make it there. Your reservation money go bye-bye usually it's around 40 bucks. Sometimes they will let you trade for another time that doesn't work when you're heading home. Just something to keep in mind. We live in South Carolina with a love for the West don't want to live there just love it.

• Skip FT Smith…stop in Russellville! Lake Dardanelle State Park is awesome and very affordable

• Only thing I would add to your calendar is the name of the campground.

• Thanks for the video. You mentioned using google maps for routes. Are you concerned google maps does not take the size of your rig into account and directs you down a road not suitable for your rig?

• I use Google maps but have had issues so I never leave home without an old fashioned paper map. Maybe I am old school but it has saved us a few times!

• Excellent!! Thank you for sharing!!

• Okay, Mr. Jerry, this is great to use the next time that I plan out a trip for us coming from Washington going to Las Vegas. Okay question, in planning my trip, and say my trip is 1,500 miles but I just wanted to drive say 400 miles of the 1,500 miles trip how can I figure out on what State or City would put me at, do you just pick and city or state and put in the distance in google maps? I don't know if I explain that right but thank you for this. Okay after looking at the whole video I see what you did now, I am retired military so most of our trip we would end up and some military base, I do use the Good Sam website and it has been working for me.

• Another great video. Already using All Stays but now I will use Google Calendar to capture my info so I have it on my phone. I use Excel to capture trip planning and information but the addition of Google Calendar will make it much easier to access while on the road.

• Thanks for the tips Jerry! We appreciate your videos and what you do for us newbies. If I could offer a tip to you… Open 2 sessions of your web browser (instead of multiple tabs) (simply hold the shift key while clicking the icon) and then browse Allstays on one session and Google maps / calendar on the other session. Then, instead of flipping between tabs, HOLD the "ALT" key and TAP the "TAB" key to swap browser sessions. For me, it cleans up the browser and makes navigation a tiny bit easier.

  Thanks Again!
  Richard

• This us a great video. We just purchased our first motorhome. I did purchase Allstays Pro and use the web for access. Now, with your help, I can do a little pain free planning. Thanks so much.

• Good video. I did mostly the same thing but I use RV Parkey, since AllStays does not run on Android. I also use Tripit. I send my confirmation emails to Tripit and it will hold everything and organize it by date. It also syncs it to your google calendar. Tripit is also what i use for my business travel and flights. I use a RV GPS since google maps is less than ideal without a cell signal and does not take in account my max speed (65) and my height. Yes you can save the maps etc.. but then it is more difficult fly by the seat of your pants.

• Jerry I over plan but using google maps to get a satellite view of the RV Park I want to stay to see how it looks. I also try to use flying j for fuel but make a itenary with all my info for it

• Brilliant idea of 3:30. Thank you !

• Jerry like the video. I bought my camper in September of 2018. Your video help me a lot. Have you been to Missouri? Where is the best place to camp in Missouri. I been to Brandon Mo.

• Jerry, Do you have any issue using google map with your big RV?

• Jerry, thank you for the great information.

• Thank you so much for the easy to understand directions. As always I love your videos.

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