Talkback Tuesday: Turn It Around

Every Tuesday is "Talkback" day, where I share what other people have to say.

Turning around an RV is an acquired skill. Personally, I haven't had much experience, so I'm glad that Sean is good at it. Really, really good at it.

Full-time RVers get more practice than most, I think, because we are often someplace we've never been before. A new town, a new road, a new parking lot. Sure, you can get in there. But can you get OUT?

Our GPS has a setting for Type of Vehicle." "RV" isn't one of the choices, but "Truck" is. Selecting it keeps the GPS from routing us down goat tracks or forcing U-turns in downtown areas. Usually. Sometimes we get far enough off the beaten track that the GPS just gives up. She'll repeat, "When possible, make a U-turn," 8 or 9 times until I turn off the sound. She just gets desperate.

We've been forced to back out of situations by things the GPS just can't predict: low trees, steep driveways, low clearances, low weight-limit bridges. While riding along in 13 ft. tall, 47,000 lb. Odyssey, nothing gives me an adrenaline rush like a "5 ton limit" or "12 ft. 6 in. ahead" sign.

Sean gets a good upper-body work-out doing what we call "57-point turns." You know, when you have to turn a x-feet-long vehicle around in x plus 2 feet? Forward, back, forward, back, curse, grunt, forward, back. Having power steering problems? Great for the biceps!

I take some comfort knowing that other RVers have also faced the prospect of not being able to move forward. From a recent thread on RV.net:

...We ended up unhitching the trailer and, with the aid of a chainsaw, got the truck around...

...Now I'm stuck sorta sidewise between two guard rails leading into the toll booth, of course, blocking traffic...


...my wife said something like, 'Did you see that sign?' 'No!' 'It said something about no vehicles over 25 feet.' I asked, 'Are you sure?'...

...By now, we had drawn quite an audience, with inmates standing staring, mouths hanging open, like our fiver had dropped in from outer space....

To read more of this RV.net thread, visit You turned around where???

Time to go practice 57-point turns.