When I was in the Army I was in charge of some very large maintenance operations. When you are put in charge of large maintenance operations you not only need to understand what it takes to maintain the equipment, but you need to understand how to operate the equipment too.
Driving and operating different types of vehicles always came kind of natural to me, but to learn the specifics about a particular vehicle required some type of formal driver’s training instruction. You attend the classroom training, do some hands on training and if you pass the final testing you were licensed to operate the equipment.
I have owned and operated just about every type of RV imaginable, and a large motorhome seemed no different to me. With my experience, driving everything from large recovery vehicles to Bradley Fighting Vehicles, driving a motorhome would be easy. And through the last two motorhomes we owned it did seem that way. I never had an accident or mishap, knock on wood, and I felt as though I was, in my opinion, an educated driver.
That was until I enlisted the expertise of Lorrin Walsh, professional driver & author of “Drive your Motorhome Like a Pro”, to team up with me and produce an RV driving DVD. When I began working on the script, based off of Lorrin’s book, I was immediately impressed with the techniques and educational value the training had to offer. I quickly realized how much I didn’t know about driving a motorhome. Lorrin explained it to me like this;
“When most people were taught to drive they were just taught the hows and not the whys. Teaching the whys, or the mechanics of driving gives you the tools and skills you can apply to any vehicle or any driving situation.”
I have always felt that driving a motorhome, especially for the first time, can be intimidating, but with power steering, automatic transmissions and great visibility almost any experienced driver can quickly adapt to driving a motorhome. But after producing, filming and editing the driving DVD the question was; are you driving it the right way? Lots of people have been driving motorhomes for lots of years without a real understanding of the dynamics and driving techniques of driving a large vehicle.
Should people be required to attend formal type training to drive a motorhome? I don’t know. What I do know is that there is a lot more to driving a large vehicle than there is to driving an automobile. I am a good case in point. When it came to driving a motorhome I felt that I was a well educated driver, but I soon realized there were a lot of things I did, but didn’t necessarily understand.
For example you might know how far to go into a turn before you actually start turning the wheel, but not understand what proper set-up and turn offset data means, or how it can help improve your driving.
View proper set-up procedures
Happy RV Learning,
Mark Polk
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Dawn Polk
For motorhomes:
The dvd is an excellent visual resource:
http://rveducation101.com/detailedinformation.asp?ID=4206
There is also a book:
http://rveducation101.com/detailedinformation.asp?ID=3307
Book and dvd together:
http://rveducation101.com/detailedinformation.asp?ID=4269
For Trailers:
http://rveducation101.com/detailedinformation.asp?ID=2901
Ed and Margaret Dougherty
PURCHASED A 2002 WINNEBAO CHEIFTAIN 39 AND TOW COBALT. THIS IS OUR FIRST RV. HAD 26 FT TRAVEL TRAILOR, PULLED BY A CHEVY EXPRESS. NEOPHITES AND VERY APPREHENSIVE. CAN YOU TELL US BEST WAY TO LEARN HOW TO DRIVE LIKE A PRO…IE DVD ETC. THANKS . ENJOY YOUR SITE.
Linda Meade
DO you have a guide book on how to drive and operate a rv. We have a 2006 encore rv.
Fred Hebb
I train people to drive busses which is much the same. A good rule of thumb is to set up for your turn approximately four to five feet away from the object you want to avoid, when your steer wheels are past the object start turning your wheels keeping in mind the tail swing to ensure you do not make contact with vehicles beside you. By doing this on a normal street you should never hit a curb or drop in a ditch.