Our first tow: bringing it home

Our factory authorized Lance Dealer was Parkview RV in Smyrna, Delaware, and they were an absolute pleasure to work with. Whether it was answering our initial questions over the phone, setting up an appointment to see their inventory, working through the sales process, doing our pre-delivery inspection (PDI) and schooling, getting all of the title and warranty paperwork in order, and even riding with us around the block to make sure we were comfortable towing it home... bottom line, we would do business with them again. We found Parkview RV through Lance's website, but Heather soon realized that she had a friend who had "liked" their Facebook page. After consulting her friend and getting the inside scoop (family-owned business that has been in the RV industry for years, and other good news), we got the ball rolling. A great first-time buying experience all around.

Fast-forward to delivery day. I had towed trailers working a summer as a landscaper, but that was years ago. This being our first travel trailer, I was reading a lot "For Dummies" and "Complete Idiot's Guide to" towing books. I was also asking all the towing veterans I knew for advice. Everybody was telling me that with my F-150, I'd "barely know my trailer was there." This is both a good thing and a bad thing, and I was admittedly nervous about our first tow.

Our delivery tech at Parkview RV was patient with all of our questions, and after we'd completed our schooling session he made doubly sure we understood how to couple and uncouple the trailer. He first showed us how to hitch and unhitch, and then he watched me to do everything myself. He even let us video tape the entire PDI and schooling session, because it was just a ton of information to absorb at once. He rode around the block with us before we left: helping me to adjust my mirrors, take the turns wide, and get a feel for the trailer braking behind the truck. He recommended the truck route out of town (which Heather had already scoped out), and we were off.

My first concern getting out of town was staying in my lane, negotiating narrow turn-lanes, and braking at stoplights. After we got out of town without jumping any curbs (which as I understand it will always be a concern when towing), I started focusing on my speed. The truck did great, and I now fully appreciate what a tow/haul transmission mode does for towing. Could I tell the trailer was behind me? Absolutely. It's like having a gigantic parachute on the back of the truck, so there's no way not to notice it. At highways speeds (I cruised at 60 per the owner's manual, and only touched 65 a couple of time changing lanes) you can get comfortable, but I was constantly checking my mirrors to make sure the trailer was in the lane. The trailer is wider than the truck, so I discovered it was much more important to stay in the sweet spot between the lines on the road.

Then we got to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, which in case you're not familiar with it is a really long, really high bridge. Really, really high. Did I say high?  It's high.  Even when I'm not towing, this bridge gives me the heebie-geebies. I have to do the tunnel-vision trick of focusing on the lane and only the lane, because the moment I glance down at the water (which is quite easy from the cab of a F-150) I'll get a bit of vertigo going.

With our RV dealer in Delaware and us living in Virginia, we had to cross the Chesapeake Bay somehow. The Baltimore tunnels to the north prohibit any vehicles carrying propane tanks, and I didn't really want to have to drive the long way around the Baltimore beltway when I was already going to have to deal with the DC beltway on the cusp of a weekday rush-hour. So we made for the bridge, having spent an entire week obsessing over the wind forecasts and having already rescheduled our pick-up date once due to high winds.

We made it over without incident (if you don't count the pucker factor), and I was feeling pretty good. Maryland Route 50 led us onto the inner loop of the DC beltway, which got a bit crowded near the Woodrow Wilson Bridge into Virginia, as it tends to do. We hit the Springfield "mixing bowl" and left the beltway for 95 south, and soon enough we were upon our exit in Woodbridge, where we store our trailer.

Rookie towing mistake #1 (as I am sure there will be more): we took an exit that required us to immediately cut across three lanes of traffic to squeeze into a very popular left-hand turn lane, right as the evening rush-hour was starting.

Oops.

In retrospect, we should have gone down another exit to make right hand turns back north to our lot, but instead we were at the mercy of my turn signals and the good people of Woodbridge. I don't know whether my sheer size scared the hell of out them or they just took one look at the temporary tags on my trailer and took pity on me, but I made it across. We sat through some stop and go traffic while Heather was cross-checking the lanes I needed to be in between my Garmin GPS and Google Maps, but we made it to our storage lot without incident.

Now, I just had to back it into our parking space.  Heather and I spent most of the trip discussing hand signals and safety rules. I told her if it took an hour to back it into our spot, I'd call that a success.

To the best of my recollection, it took about 5 minutes to get it into the spot and about 20 more minutes for me "to stop fussing with it," according to Heather. I used the "hold the bottom of the wheel and look out the rear window" technique, and I rolled all the windows down so I could hear directions from Heather. I also climbed in and out of the cab about ten times checking to see how I was lining up. Overall I think we did great, though I probably was trying to be too much of a perfectionist.