Driving the Motorhome

September 20, 2007 by steve.

Well we finally made the first trip that was longer than two and half hours in the motorhome. I’ve become much more comfortable driving the coach that I was on the first couple of trips. Initially I had reached a comfort level by limiting my speed to 60 MPH. I’ve now become comforatable driving at around 65MPH. Because of the towing limitations of the Saturn 65MPH is the max speed I’ll run.

The motorhome is much more “loose” on the road than the truck/5th wheel combination. This is especially true when driving in tight traffic. I feel much more claustrophobic driving the motorhome in the middle of traffic that I did the truck/5th wheel. I also felt comfortable running about 70 MPH in the truck. The truck always felt solid on the road. The motorhome fees a bit more mushy.

Traveling through the city of Atlanta was an experience. We had made two round trips to north Georgia via I-75 while we owned the 5th wheel. On both trips, we drove through the middle of Atlanta, and used the HOV lane. This trip on the way north we went through the middle of Atlanta on I-75. We did not use the HOV lane. It is my opinion that the lanes on I-75 within Atlanta are smaller than the lanes outside of Altanta. We drove through on a Saturday, and it was fairly stressful driving through the middle. On the way home, we took I-285. It is only about six miles longer, but it is much less stressful. On I-285, I was able to establish a position in the middle lane, and not have to worry about as much merging and rushing traffic as I-75 through the middle of the city had. All in all, I’ll take the bypass next time.

As far the family traveling in the motorhome, it is a much superior experience to the truck/5th wheel. Little CurbCrusher is homeschooled. So when we left White Springs, FL on the way to Chattanooga, Mrs. CurbCrusher and Little CurbCrusher spent the first couple of hours doing school work. Then Mrs. CurbCrusher joined me in the co-pilot seat and Little CurbCrusher did some school work, read for a while, watched a movie. When I got hungry, Mrs. CurbCrusher was kind enough to get up make me a sandwich and get me a drink. We pretty much only stopped to get gas on the way up. On the way home, we stopped at a couple of rest stops and I got out and took a walk.

Another item to note is my mind set while driving. When I drive long distances in a car, I find myself constantly calculating how many miles per hour I’m averaging. My goal is to always average at least 65 miles an hour, so I’m looking at the distances to cities, figuring out what time I’ll get there and happy when I beat my calculations. The same thing with mile markers and counting down to state lines. In the motorhome I find myself just chugging along enjoying the drive. It is much more relaxing.

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