Consider these questions:
If your combined vehicle length is 45', what is the minimum diameter needed for the convex mirrors located on each side of the RV or towing vehicle?
Do you know the pivot point on your RV for purposes of turning and backing?
What can you do to ensure that you are always properly centered in the lane you're driving in?
Tom & Stephanie
During one of the Life on Wheels RV Conference at the University of Idaho, Stephanie and I had occasion to sit in on a portion of the professional driving course offered by The RV Driving School, which is headquartered in Applegate, CA. We both consider ourselves "veteran" drivers, with several hundred thousand accident-free miles safely behind us. But we were surprised to find just how much more there was for us to learn from this course. And it there was much for us to learn, we can only speculate how much more this course is needed for the growing numbers of first time RVers who are joining us on the roadways. This is truly a case of "what you don't know CAN hurt you"!
In times past the case may not have been quite so compelling. Many "old time" RVers had some professional driving experience on their "resume". And the RVs of yesterday were in many cases much, much smaller and lighter than some of the super heavy, longer and wider rigs that are often prized even by those who have never driven an RV before. And let's face it: the demographics of RVers is changing rapidly. Many of our RV colleagues on the road today were somewhere in middle management of Corporate America only a year or two ago. Then came downsizing -- which meant early retirement for hundreds of thousands of folks. Many of these received a large lump sum as an inducement to take early retirement; and in many cases these funds are what triggered a rash of RV buying all over the country. So now we have John and Suzy Jones -- whose prior driving experience had been in nothing bigger than a BMW -- suddenly driving out of the RV dealer's showroom in a 40 foot motorhome.
RVers need no special driving license to jump in and begin driving rigs which are 5 or 10 times bigger, heavier, and longer than anything they've ever driven before. When they first find a need to come to a quick stop, they find the rules have all changed -- and they need to drive quite differently. The same conclusion is reached when they arrive at the RV park, and attempt their first backing maneuver; or when they find themselves suddenly in an urban area, where the heavy traffic and narrow lanes seem to make driving a rig that size all but impossible.
Some spouses will be so intimidated by the challenge that they'll never want to leave the copilot's chair. But that's creating an undue burden on the other spouse. Besides, what if there's an emergency and he or she really must take over the wheel?
Sure, there are a lot of tips and tricks we can all learn from reading various books and magazines. But in our view nothing does the job that a professional driving school course can offer. In some ways, it's not unlike the training you'd receive if you were going to fly an airplane. There's the "ground school" -- in this case the classroom time used to explain the various techniques needed for safe and confident driving; and then there's the "flight school", where the students have ample opportunity to have hands on "real life" driving experiences in the type of rig they'll be enjoying. The instructors are true professionals. They're patient, competent, and they inspire confidence. In fact the confidence is contagious -- and before long you can have it too. Terrified of having to back up that monster? Once you learn precisely how to do it, you'll do it with ease and confidence in the future.
Driving an RV is a privilege -- not a right. If we're going to maintain our privilege, we need to ensure that we take every reasonable precaution to learn how to drive our rigs safely. If we don't, you can bet that its only a matter of time before special licensing requirements will be required of us. We don't want that. And if we take the time to ensure we really know how to handle our rigs competently and safely, that time will never come.
But we think this makes a powerful case for seeking out and taking advantage of professional RV driving courses. Certainly we can recommend the one that we had the opportunity to take.