As a full-time RVer or even a weekend warrior, RV trip planning is highly recommended, at least to some extent.
There is nothing quite like hitting the open road in your RV without a care in the world. But just because you are heading out footloose and fancy-free, does not mean you should wander aimlessly without any plan whatsoever.
Flying by the seat of your pants unprepared, especially when you have a big rig often leads to extra stress and missing out on places or things to see along the way.
I do recommend that you have some idea of the route you plan to take when traveling in a Motorhome or pulling your RV behind you. It will decrease your chance of any major RV safety mistakes with low clearances and give you a better idea on how long to expect your travel day to take.
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For some, planning RV routes is a fun and exciting challenge. For others, planning an epic RV journey is complex and can leave you overwhelmed. Fortunately, there are ways to remove some of that stress and ease travel anxiety.
Most navigation apps, like Google Maps and Waze, were designed for standard cars and general navigation — not for your big rig. A route that may be perfectly fine for a car might not be the best option for your RV road trip and could put you and your family in serious danger.
So what’s the best way to stay safe, and find a path that will hopefully keep you out of harm’s way? In our opinion with the RV Life Pro suite, you get software tools designed to make planning a trip, enjoying that exciting journey, and taking care of your RV easier and more fun. You can enjoy all 3 handy tools in the RV LIFE Pro bundle for just $59.00 per year.
RV Life Pro
RV Life Pro provides the necessary resources all RVers need to find campgrounds, plan an RV-safe route, and navigate that route with an RV-safe GPS. Additionally, RV Life Pro will help you locate important resources like fuel locations, rest areas, and big box stores to stock up on groceries and supplies.
RV Life Pro does this with web-based tools and apps that work on all major platforms. Your data is stored in the cloud, so your all important information is accessible on any device. RV Life Pro tools consist of RV Trip Wizard, the RV Life Campground Reviews, Maintain My RV and RV Life App.
RV Trip Wizard
RV Trip Planning Made Simple! RV Trip Wizard is by far the best RV route planner we’ve found. Built specifically for RVers, the Visual RV Trip Planner has the most advanced features available. Using its unique Driving Radius, RV Trip Wizard can show you which campgrounds will be on your route at the end of the driving time or distance you specify. It customizes RV Safe Routes to the height & weight of your RV. Avoid low clearances, steep grades, weight limits, and propane restrictions.
It’s a web-based program that allows you to visually plan a route on a map. Add truck stops, campgrounds, and attractions in between, and even see the elevation at any given point.
We love that it’s possible to research campgrounds within the program and that users can narrow their campground search based on campground type. For instance, those who wish to see only Thousand Trails Parks can check that box. Meanwhile, people who prefer COE parks can ask to see only those.
The program also prompts you to create an RV road trip budget, allowing you to add campground costs and calculate gas costs for you based on the information you provide.
Some of the benefits you will find with RV Trip Wizard are that it:
- Works on all devices including computers, smartphones, and tablets
- Allows you to tailor your preferences such as prioritizing campgrounds where you have a membership
- Helps you access useful info like free overnight parking or recreational opportunities
- Is straightforward, easy to use, and up to date
- Downloads your trip onto your GPS or allows you to print out a summary
RV Life Campground Reviews
When it comes to campgrounds and RV parks, not all are created equal. RV Life Campground Reviews gives you insider info about over 20,000 RV campgrounds and parks spread across the United States. Trusted Campground Reviews by Real RVers.
This website is one of the oldest resources for trusted reviews, and it is still going strong today.
While not specifically a route planner, be sure to check out the opinions and RVer feedback found here before booking your stay. You will be glad you did when you enjoy these benefits:
- Displays info that speaks to the needs of RV’ers
- Gives you precise driving directions about navigating the surrounding roads of the campground
- Includes other tidbits of useful information like things to do in the area, places to eat, and more
Maintain My RV
Maintain My RV is an online service for RV owners that helps them build, schedule, track, and manage RV maintenance online, keeping their RV in top condition – saving them time and money so they can maximize their RV lifestyle. The online application works to make you the expert on what maintenance your RV needs and when.
It is not a service that tells you the “How To” of your maintenance and they always stress adherence to manufacturer’s guidelines, it strives to help RV owners with just about everything except the mechanic. Maintain My RV will help you track maintenance you do yourself, and those services you have done by others. You’ll even get email reminders when work needs to be done.
The site also includes maintenance tips to help keep your RV in tip-top shape.
A GPS Designed by RVers, for RVers
The RV Life App turns your phone into an RV Safe GPS. No more worrying about steep mountain passes, low clearances, bridge weight limits, or propane-restricted tunnels.
Get RV Safe GPS directions custom-tailored to the height & weight of your RV. Turn-by-turn navigation, including voice- and lane guidance, work even when you’re offline.
We haven’t used the RV Life App for GPS since we have a dedicated Garmin 780 GPS unit.
Conclusion
With the RV Life Pro suite, you get software tools designed to make planning a trip, enjoying that exciting journey, and taking care of your RV easier and more fun. The 7-day trial gives you a chance to try before you buy. You can enjoy all 3 handy tools in the RV LIFE Pro bundle for just $59.00 per year.
We’re always looking for neat out-of-the-way places to put on our list of must-sees. Thank you for reading our article. If you have any comments or questions we’d love to hear from you below.
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I feel overwhelmed when I am planning RV routes. But I agree with you that hitting the road with no preparation at all can lead to terrible outcomes. Or in less dramatic scenarios, we miss on great locations or things to do. There is nothing more disappointing than having been close to a cool location and not visiting it.
I really like this article on RV living. It’s very informative, with a lot of good information, advice, and tips; especially for someone that is planning to go on the road for the first time.
This is actually something I thought about doing, I think it would be a lot of fun, I never thought it entailed so much planning tho, which is great. You wanna definitely know what to expect. Thank you, really enjoyed it.
Virginia
Thank you for your comments Virginia. With Covid a lot of people started RVing which has made it a bit harder to find places to stay and make planning more required. Before Covid you could hit the road and just go by the seat of your pants. Now a lot of places are booked up so planning stops is a necessity.
The article is well written and clear and with appropriately placed images. However, one consideration for me would be how appropriate are the items mentioned/recommended outside America? For example how useful or indeed is it available in Australia? How accurate are the locations and directions? I have found that Mr Google gets it wrong on many occasions here in Australia and sometimes sends you down a dead-end street!
I think the idea of the article is sound and helpful as far as the information goes but I’m not sure of the software/gadgets it promotes. That does not takeaway the usefulness of the article – there is still a need to plan and prepare for any travelling.
There are many links to RV Living in Australia but the “RV Life” mentioned in this article only comes up as American based. But hey, it prompted me to look! I find navigation devices more of a hindrance anyway because roads change, bridges built where there weren’t any when the device was set up, that is why I rely on physical maps and information from people along the way.
Thanks for the chance to read this, it had a lot of the things I used to do when travelling alone through America all those years ago – reading a map of the city the night before and finding how to get from A to B with minimum of fuss.
Thank you for your comments Lola. RV Life Pro is a North American set of Apps. They do work well for the U.S. and Canada as that’s where they are designed for. The directions are very accurate and updated more often than a paper map would be. I’m not a fan of Google Maps for RV use. RV’s are taller and longer than your normal passenger vehicle. Google doesn’t take these heights and lengths into consideration and can route you into a low clearance bridge or other obstacle you wouldn’t want to run into.
The GPS in the RV Life Pro app is made for RV’s specifically and takes these heights and lengths into account and routes you appropriately.
Thank you again for your comments. Happy Travels!