Maiden Voyage

Road stories, questions about driving the B190, lessons learned
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seawolf
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Posts: 9
Joined: Thu Oct 01, 2009 12:00 am
B190 Year: 1998
WBCCI: 0

Maiden Voyage

Post by seawolf »

Recently took our original trial trip in our December acquired 1998 190 from Phoenix to Austin and return. Took 6 or 7 days, cruised at speed controlled 65, averaged 13.4 mpg. Love the Triton V10 -- smooth, quiet, hardly notices the hills. Some strong and gusty cross winds took some of the pleasure out of driving.

First night dry camped in New Mexico, never told my wife that it got down to 35 degrees in the van. Flipped on the furnace early and when we got up an hour or so later it was quite tolerable. The couple of nights we spent in State Parks we had electric and though it got down to about 20, a small ceramic heater at less than full output supplemented our adequate sleeping bags.

Appliances worked as expected. The reefer performed well on 110v, 12v and propane altho the cool temps didn't put it to much test. I missed the automatic switching back and forth between electric and propane that I get in my 1995 Excella, particularly when one needs a light to see the low controls. Switch position memory will come with a few more trips, I guess. A leaking toilet valve was not much of a joy to one's feet at night in cold weather. Replaced it as soon as we returned home. The furnace puts warm air in a metal baffle which surrounds the water tank (and perhaps the holding tanks, I don't know) but I don't think it was cold enough for freezing to be a problem.

All in all we were very pleased with the performance. We never filled all the storage spaces. And we kept the meals simple. Obviously the occupants don't do a lot of moving around but it provided comfortable sleeping, eating, and sitting , and a personal toilet and hot water makes everyone happy.

The wife says "Keep it !" so away we go. See you down the road.
Seawolf
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skater
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Posts: 2569
Joined: Thu Mar 08, 2007 1:00 am
B190 Year: 1991
WBCCI: 13270
Location: Annapolis, MD

Post by skater »

Sounds like you had a good time! Congratulations!
1991 Airstream B190 - bought, 2005; sold, 2011; bought 2017
1995 Airstream Excella 30' trailer

WBCCI #13270, Washington, DC Unit
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