We have been living full time in our 2015 Redwood 38RL and love it. We have just under 2 years before I retire and we can "hit the road." While our size is great for full time living, we are getting very anxious/nervous about hitting the road and traveling the country in such a big rig.
Our questions to the folks who actually travel in their Redwood:
How hard is it to find big enough RV sites and fuel (truck stops?) while pulling a large rig?
We just pulled it from B Young RV near Portland to Bonney Lake WA, about a 4 hr drive.
Our Ram 3500 dually did great, couldn't even tell we were pulling it. Very white knuckled in heavy Seattle traffic and backing into our RV site.
Will traveling in the Redwood get to be routine, or should we downsize to a smaller trailer to travel the country?
Thanks for any input!
Warren and Tara

If you are not used to hauling something this large around it will take a while to get used to. Just take your time. As far as backing up get some small traffic cones and whenever you get a chance pull into an empty parking lot and practise for 1/2hour or so.youll get the hang of it. Just remember when turning that you need to give yourself a wider turn than with just the truck.
When planning your route call ahead to the campgrounds you are looking to stay at and ask. Also Good sams campground book has a lot of good info on larger sites hookups etc. Truck stops are everywhere along the main highways so acsessible them is easy. It's when you get off on secondary highways they are not as abundant. If you see tractor trailers fuelling up your good to go

Just take your time and do plan ahead where you want to go. Goodsams has a great trip planner and you can route your trip from that. You can also get their Magellan GPS that will route you for big rigs. Double check your height for bridges to make sure you are not going in to an area that has a low bridge. As far as fuel Truck stops are great and you go to the truck fuel island to get fuel. The only state that I know of that you can't is Indiana as they have a law that states for ICC permitted trucks only. Take your time in backing and as Shane said get some cones and practice in a big parking lot. You can also add a backup camera which can be a big help as well.

Our RW is 42' and we are comfortable pulling it. Before this I never pulled anything so it took some time to learn how to do it. My wife and I tag team driving and she can say the same thing.

I had to be real patient with myself learning how to back into spots but it is getting much easier the more I do it.

Regarding finding spots to stay, yes there are some places we can't get into, but overall we can find places to stay. I really like the AllStays app/website. It lists the max length in most campgrounds. So far I have been fine anywhere that says the max length is 40' or Accepts Big Rigs.

Regarding fueling, if I need fuel while underway I will use the truck stops. No issues with Loves, Pilot, Flying J, TAs etc etc. Many times I will also make sure the night before I have full fuel when I know we are pulling the next morning or wait until we get into our overnight spot, drop the camper and then run out and fuel before dinner.

Welcome to the RW family and safe travels!

Thanks to all who replied!
We just need to get out on the road and build up our confidence, I guess.

Taran,

Welcome to the group and congrats on your choice of RW. We have a '13 34 SK (37 feet) and love it.

Lots of good advice about driving and backing above. Not much for me to add except that the first time I took our first 5er (a 30 foot Wildcat) on a long cross country trip I was very anxious about how it would go. This was in-spite of having grown up on a farm and operated farm equipment for twelve years or more and having towed a smaller RV for five years and towed the WC on a number of short trips near our home. This passed after the first day and I've never looked back since. Practice and experience will work for your as well.

Glen

Mid-west and south have ample spaces for larger rigs. Same for the Southeast.

Questions come up about the mountain regions. Many are older campgrounds. State and Federal Parks can be a pain as their web-sites are so 1940's. I guess they can't find anyone with any organizational skills or web skills to sufficiently promote a website.

ROADS will be the issue...I guess the government can't afford to fix them anymore. The only way we get a decent road is to bring in foreign investment companies and build toll roads. Soon, that will be the only way to get around.

Gas stations are everywhere. We prefer to get off the interstate and look for back woods. The gas prices are less.

LOVE THAT RAM 3500 DRW Long Bed!!!!! :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: Pulls like a dream!

Consider (if you don't have them) investing in Disc brakes and H tires if you can afford it. There is nothing like a little piece of mind. Same for the Tough Roof systems. Water leaks can be a nightmare. The Tri-Glide pin set is AWESOME!

Watch out for trees! Especially low hanging limbs...They can do a number...

Get a Rand Mcnally Bridge Map (hard copy - about $30). It might save you a roof and A/C replacement.

PLAN, PLAN, PLAN! Unless you're like us and just like to go. We're not afraid to boondock or Walmart it for the night! Where is the adventure?

Got "Protection"? Ok, now that your mind is out of the gutter, if you're packin' heat, know the LAW's of the Land or Big Brother and Uncle Sam might teach you in a way you're not familiar with!

Get a tire monitor system and back up camera. Those 2 items might also save you a few bucks.

Did you set up your mail service? Find a "Home Base" yet? How about cell service? Got a good one? (I need a recommendation)... 😆

Don't forget the bug spray!

Maybe we'll see ya down the road!

We are not full time but have traveled approximately 55K miles in our 2012 36FL Redwood since we purchased it. We wore out our 2008 Dodge Ram 3500 dually and purchased a 2015 Ram Laramie this past Sep. We had no problems finding campgrounds or fuel stops. We had a Rand McNaly RV GPS which worked extremely well especially routing us safely across this great land of ours with respect to overhead clearances.

Welcome to the forum. We have pulled our 2013 36 FL over 20,000 miles. While we now have a 2016 F350 DRW, all previous towing was with a F350 SRW without any issues.

In BC we have to pass a driving test before pulling a trailer over 10,000 lbs, so I got a couple of days training from a truck driver and fellow RV'er. This was invaluable, as the first place he took me was a Costco parking lot at Noon on a Saturday.

For towing I use standard voyage planning principles from my working days, with each day planned. We tend to plan our trips, with reservations made well in advance. This eliminates spontaneity, but satisfies my experience as a navigator. At the commencement of the planning phase I use RV park reviews, Good Sam, All Stays and Tripadvisor. Once I find a potential park I research it using Google Maps/Google Earth and Strretview.

We can comfortably get 450 miles from a tank of fuel, so rarely have to refuel when towing. If a refuel is required I again research truck stops on all the aforementioned google sites.

For navigation we use a Good Sam/Rand McNally RV GPS and a quality road atlas, as back-up.

We have been through Seattle many times and plan the journey, so we hit Everett before 05:30 or after 09:00 when Southbound and when Northbound we plan to be in Everett, stopping at Tulalip by 14:00. We find these metrics provide a fairly relaxed passage. In Seattle we use 405 and Portland the 205.

We have been fulltime a little over 4 years now and move / change locations about every 2 to 3 weeks year round.
Our previous SOB 5th Wheel was 41 Feet long, our current Redwood (that we have been in a little over a year and 1/2) is 42 Feet long.
We have never had a issue with roads / highways, campgrounds or getting fuel.
We stop at truck stops and get fuel all the time, never had a problem.
As far as campgrounds, yes with a 42 Foot Rig you have to do your research and make sure they can accommodate you.
We use RV Park Reviews as our primary research tool and a number of other review sites if we need more information.
Since a lot of our travels are to the same general area / location, we have found campgrounds in some of those areas that we really like and always try to stay there again, some areas we are still searching for the right campground for us.
For example when working in the Atlanta GA area, we always stay at Stone Mountain CG, it is close to Atlanta but large enough so you do not feel you are in the city. (The Redwood pictured on the Redwood Website home page is our RW taken at Stone Mountain CG)

I'll give you some of our experiences and comments.

Over the years we have moved up in length from 24 ft. 5ers to our current 36RL (which is actually about 40 ft. nose to tail!). We have had to modify our campground choices, most of the Canadian provincial parks are now off limits because of potential damage caused by trees and short sites. We also find some of the older ("pre-slides")RV parks are just long enough/wide enough to accommodate our RW with some hassle backing in. I'm thinking about places like Yuma.

As a result we generally go "plug to plug" and plan ahead and use parks familiar to us.

On the issue of fueling, we have used some of the freeway places mentioned in other posts but we sometimes find them busy with line ups. What I prefer to do is fuel up after we set up in a campground, I go unhitched to local stations off the interstates, it's easier to get in and the prices are much better. As an example, we recently went shopping and topped up with diesel, the prices varied considerably, from $2.69 to $1.99 per gallon, I couldn't have gotten into the $1.99 place with the RW. The other alternative would be to have an auxiliary fuel tank, it would pay back with some of the price variations we've seen.