Breaking in the Grand Design Reflection

If you are a first-time reader, welcome to Lora and Erics RV Adventure Blog. You can read about us at http://www.LoraandEricsRVAdventure.com. We started our Full time adventure with the purchase of our 2018 Grand Design Reflection 315RLTS, basically a do over from April in 2017 when we purchased a 2017 Kodiak Ultimate.

We pickup up our new camper from Campers Inn, Myrtle Beach on December 27, 2017. With the help of Nick and a few technicians we transferred everything from the Kodiak Ultimate into the Grand Design Reflection in the parking lot. After signing all the final paperwork and going though the checklist with the technician we hooked up the camper. We are pulling the camper with a Dodge Ram 1500 5.7L Hemi with an Air Lift LoadLifter 5000 Ultimate™. We are just at the limit of the trucks capability. With 50lbs in the Air Lift we dropped a little bit even with our golf cart in the truck bed.

We headed to Briarcliffe RV Resort in Myrtle Beach. Our reservation is through January 12th. Myrtle Beach is experiencing some of its coldest weather of the season. Normal temperatures for Myrtle Beach between December and February is 57 to 61°F and nighttime lows are in the 36 to 38°F. We were expected to be in the 30’s °F during the day and 20’s °F in the evening. We have a tower infrared heater and the fireplace heater in the camper so we were comfortable. I wrapped the hose line with an electric heat strip. I did not have enough length to wrap the two hoses to reach the faucet and camper but thought we were good. Lora wanted me to drip the faucet. I thought we would be safe so declined.

Lesson Learned, the hose portion not wrapped froze. I ran down to Home Deport and bought another heat strip, hose insulation, and another water hose. I replaced the hose and was able to have water back flowing. The next night we dripped the faucet. This time the hot water froze up at the heater. Another Lesson Learned, drip both the hot and cold water. We had to drip the faucets every night while at Myrtle Beach. We did not go sight seeing much. It snowed lightly one day.

We are booked at North Shore Landing in Greensboro, Georgia on the 12th of January. The drive from Briarcliffe RV Resort to North Shore Land is 4 hrs 30 minutes (302 miles). We decided to cut the time by finding a mid-point. We chose Lake Aire Campground in Charleston, South Carolina. Time from Briarcliffe RV Resort to Lake Aire Campground is 2 h 44 min (126.7 mi) via US-17 N. The first major drive with the Refection was uncomfortable. The wind was blowing and trucks going by made us sway easily.

We did not unload the golf cart because we were here for only 2 nights. The ground was very wet and muddy from the 6 inches of snow Charleston received earlier in the week. First major snow in over 20 years. The next day we headed to The South Carolina Aquarium. The aquarium is not the greatest. The best part was the sea turtle recovery center.

We had lunch at Shi Ki. It is a small elegant restaurant off the beaten path.

We took a walk around Charleston old town using an app called Uniguide. We discovered the app the first time visiting Beaufort, North Carolina. The app has multiple cities and tour loaded for free. The Ghost of the Holy City tour took us from the old jail to 12 other sites giving us details and stories of the places.

On the way back to the camper we stopped by Rick Hendrix Dodge to look at a larger vehicle. We talked about doing things right if we are serious about taking this trip. We checked out the Ram 3500. We test drove the Ram. The truck was a monster, the 8 foot bed was perfect for the golf cart. Now we would not have to worry about the trailer and golf cart. We purchased a 2017 Ram 3500 Cummins 6.7L Dually Big Horn on the spot. We traded in the Ram 1500 that night. Now were set.

Pulling the camper to the new truck was a night and day experience. There was absolutely no sway from wind or trucks. We did not an trouble with speed up hills. We were now very comfortable and satisfied with our purchase of the truck and camper.

We traveled to Greensboro, Georgia on January 12th. Our reservation is through January 29th. We are flexible with the end date because Campers Inn is supposed to upgrade our stabilizer jacks with an auto-level system. We created a video of our Georgia trip. Our video of Georgia can be found on YouTube, link here. While in Greensboro we visited Atlanta, Eatonton, Athens, Macon, and Madison.

From Georgia we traveled between Briarcliffe RV Resort in South Carolina, then Sycamore Lodge in North Carolina, back to Briarcliffe RV Resort. February 8th we dropped the camper off at Camping Connection, associated with Campers Inn, to install the new Auto-Level system. We booked a room at the Hampton Inn and waited till the afternoon the next day to pickup the camper. In March we said our goodbyes to the children and grand children and started our journey....

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