RV Driving Tips: Navigating Curves
RV Lifestyle & Repair EditorsDue to limited field of vision, navigating curves in an RV can be a bit tricky. Most new drivers tend to start turning too early, which causes them to either veer into oncoming traffic on a left-hand curve or slip off the shoulder on a right-hand curve. This is understandable. The art of navigating curves in an RV can only be improved through practice. So in this quick lesson, RV expert Dave Solberg teaches you the basic RV driving tips you need to safely get through any curve, whether it be on flat land or hilly/mountainous terrain.
How to approach a curve in your RV
To show the correct technique for getting through a curve on flat, hilly and even the narrowest of roads, Dave takes his diesel pusher motorhome for a test spin along tight roads in the Iowa countryside. He demonstrates all of the RV driving tips you’ll need to approach the curve with confidence and stay centered in your lane from the start of the curve to the finish, explaining the proper way to utilize your mirrors and what you see through the windshield.
Other driving tips to ease your mind
Dave also talks about the importance of using downshift to your advantage when traveling along hilly terrain, particularly on tiny mountain passes where it doesn’t seem your RV has room to squeeze. The key is going down the hill in the same gear you used to go up. And remember to practice on easier curves that you’re familiar with prior to venturing out into terrain where you know there will be tricky turns.
Be sure to browse our full catalog of driving tips, which expands every week. With these and other handy RV driving tips, you should be a master of the curve in no time!
One of the challenges in driving, whether it's a truck and trailer or a fifth wheel motor home, is that field of vision we have in the front, because we're up so high here we can't see. And with that we have a tendency to start our curves too soon, because we see the road disappear on the front of it. So it takes a little bit of practice just to kinda watch your mirrors, make sure that when you're making those turns that you kind of understand where that white line is. And I start getting a sense of it being right towards the middle of my windshield, to the right side here where I know I'm in the right position. When you make a left hand turn, it's common to cut into the left hand side and oncoming traffic.
When you make a right hand turn such as this one, you know and we're on a pretty tight road, this road here is gonna be about 12 feet wide versus our 14 foot. So we wanna make sure we don't cut in too early to get into the shoulder. Now in mountain driving, you're gonna have a lot of curves that come up as well. And you're gonna need to understand that and be aware of traffic coming in. So you don't cut into that.
The other thing is, is when you're maneuvering hills, especially in mountains, big hills, 6% grades. Go down the hill, the same gear you went up the hill. And what that means is when you go up a hill your transmission automatically shifts down into lower gears because of the RPM and the torque that you need to get up that hill. When you get up over the hill and come back down you're starting to free wheel. And a lot of times it'll go into an overdrive and you'll get that speed going up.
And then all of a sudden you're coming down the hill and you you're relying on your brakes to stop you. And it's gonna put a lot of heat on those brakes and it's gonna tax them. So you might need to manually shift down, get it outta overdrive. If you have a Diesel Pusher like this one with a six-speed Allison transmission I can literally use the transmission to help slow me down as I come down that hill. So again, we come around a right hand curve here.
We're watching that light white line. We can notice exactly where it's at in my windshield, my dash, that helps keep me centered around that curve so that I don't take that plunge off the front. On the left hand side, the same thing. So we're driving today in Iowa. So we don't have a lot of hills, but you still can get some really good 6% grades when you get towards the Bluffs and areas like that.
So just keep that in mind, use the downshift know where your white line is and above all practice.
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