This may be a bit of an unusual article to post on an RV site, but I think it’s important, never the less. With us owning a motor home, it has become important for us to know the size of the bus when we are traveling.
This is actually pretty important for a number of reason. First, which seems obvious, will the driver be comfortable driving the bus in traffic? Because I’ve got previous trucking experience from years back, this isn’t an issue for me. I’ve learnt to watch my mirrors when making turns and I’ve learnt the size of the bus in a number of lane size scenarios.
The next is just a touch more sneaky and can jump you at the most inopportune time. When we went to some of the shopping plazas in a local city, we discovered that many would show their height restrictions even before you turned into the lot. That makes things pretty easy. But we entered on lot that didn’t have height restrictions stipulated.
I turned into the parking lot and immediately noticed that I could enter two sets of lots. Now the one definitely had height restrictions in place, after turning in. So I turned into the auxiliary lot and drove into it and discovered that there was height restrictions there too! I knew that my bus needed a height of 4 meters and the lot was just under 3 meters. I decided that attempting it was a very bad thing!
I immediately stopped and put my four way blinkers on. Well, I didn’t make the people behind me happy but I knew that things would turn very bad if I attempted this lot. I had to have my darling wife jump out and start to wave people back. Now, they were not happy with the situation, but well, live sucks. If I cannot go forward, I have to reverse.
With about 10 minutes of maneuvering I was able to reverse the bus and get it out of the lot, though it was challenging. But I did learn a few things with this challenge.
First, most front lots in plazas and malls will be height restricted, even if they don’t stipulate it. I’ve learnt to just head to the rear parking and even then, some malls will not offer the secondary rear parking. If that’s the cause, they don’t want your shopping business!
Next, don’t let other drivers force you into a bad situation. I know what I can and cannot do with the bus and if I feel compromised, then I will stop and not proceed. Others will simply have to make way, so to speak.
Knowing how wide and how high your RV is will save you a ton of grief! Be sure to know these measurements in metric as well as the imperial system! Don’t get caught with your pants down with this simple to resolve issue when travelling across the border. Post it on your dash, so you always know where you can and more importantly cannot fit!