Stargazer's Garage

Debriefing Notes: The campground was much busier this time with neighbors all along the row with us. It was nice to have other children for our kids to play with. When we arrived the power tongue jack on our Keystone Premier 31BHPR was not working. I suspect that it might be a loose ground like it was before. I'll fiddle with it more our next trip. Didn't have the manual crank with me so I just left the trailer 1" nose up. It wasn't an issue sleeping inside. Overnight temperatures were around 5 C. Bought a couple of vent opening pillows to put up at night to reduce the amount of heat loss through the ceiling in the evenings. Tried it Saturday night and the furnace seemed to run less constantly. Need to find some way to warm the 16 oz propane bottle for our table-top patio heater. With these cold temperatures, the bottle ices up quite quickly and pressure drops so much that the heater turns off even when there's still propane left. Keeping the bottle warm would...

We averaged about two gas stops per day on our road trip in the GMC Yukon XL Denali and Keystone Premier 31BHPR. We did one stop in the morning and one in the afternoon. A full tank cost just under $70 depending on where we were in the country. I took this picture while we were in Montana because they don't have such low (85.5) octane fuel where I live. It's strange to me because no vehicle I've ever seen before required anything LESS than 87 octane for optimum performance.... Even with fuel in Blaine, WA now costing nearly a dollar MORE per gallon than it did last summer, it's still cheaper than it is in Canada so traveling in the US always saves us money.

Our stop for the night on day 3 of our 2010 Road Trip was Bozeman, MT. In the late afternoon, we could see dark clouds on the horizon and we followed the outskirts of a heavy thunderstorm eastward on the I-90. The timing couldn't have been better because when we arrived in Bozeman, the clouds parted and the sun came out. We stopped at the Walmart to pick up some food and supplies (including a disposable water filter for our Keystone Premier 31BHPR) and saw that the thunderstorm had left behind some flooded streets. We stayed at Bear Canyon Campground just outside of town. We had pull-through site #4 with water, electricity, and sewer. No fire pit. The campground was pretty and the location convenient (just off the I-90) but the pull-through sites, while long, were very narrow. With a playground for the kids and an inviting pool (which we arrived too late to use), it was good for passing through on a one night stay but not for anything longer because the neighbors were too clos...

Day 3 of our 2010 Road Trip in our GMC Yukon XL Denali and Keystone Premier 31BHPR travel trailer had us traveling from Spokane, WA to Bozeman, MT, and according to Google Maps, covering a total distance of 645 km (400 miles) with an estimated 6 hours of driving. To tell the truth, this leg of the trip was the one that I was most concerned about because we were passing through the Rockies and over the Continental Divide with an elevation of 6393 feet. I've driven this route several times already in a passenger vehicle but never while pulling a trailer. I didn't know how the Denali would handle pulling the Keystone's 7600 lb GVWR for extended climbs. Our 2007 GMC Yukon XL Denali has a 6.2L engine with 380 HP @ 5500 rpm and 417 lb-ft torque @ 4400 rpm. The transmission is a 6-speed automatic with full-time AWD and it's never had any problems keeping up with traffic when pulling a travel trailer. I'm happy to say that it was no different in the high mountain passes. ...

We arrived in Spokane, WA, the final destination after our first full day on the road, shortly after 16:00. At Trailer Inns RV Park, the sites were the shortest we encountered during our entire road trip. The total length of our GMC Yukon XL Denali and Keystone Premier 31BHPR travel trailer is about 55' long (the ProPride 3P hitch adds an extra foot), longer than the available pull-through sites, but the manager was friendly and helpful in guiding us into our spot. This is an urban RV park but there was a nice playground for the kids to play while we setup for the night. One item of RV gear we discovered that we needed was a water filter. Living in Metro Vancouver, we were not used to the hard water we found in Spokane and luckily we had enough fresh water in our tank to last the evening. I picked up a disposable water filter at our next Walmart stop and it worked well for the rest of the trip. When we pulled in to our site, our Keystone Premier attracted attention and questi...

This is a picture of our GMC Yukon XL Denali and Keystone Premier 31BHPR travel trailer parked at the Winchester Wasteway Rest Area near Moses Lake, WA. Its name notwithstanding, we stopped here for lunch on the second day of our 2010 Road Trip. Because it seemed to be in the middle of nowhere, this location was very quiet compared to the bustling Indian John Hill rest stop we made earlier in the morning. There were still people coming steadily through, but everyone seemed to be in passenger cars coming in only for a quick pit stop and zooming back on the road right away. There were not very many RVs and no tractor trailers at all. The wide open parking lot allowed us to put out the slides and have a very relaxing lunch. This is one of the great benefits of RVing and hauling around our own portable hotel room!

We pulled over for our first stop in the morning at Indian John Hill Rest Stop at about 10:00. It's was a very busy location with lots of people coming in and out but I was able to pull our 2007 GMC Yukon XL Denali and 35' Keystone Premier 31BHPR travel trailer into a nice central parking spot. This rest area was large with nice grassy areas, picnic tables, and plenty of tourist information. The view is very nice, too, with the Stuart mountain range in the distance. Unfortunately, there was one dog owner who didn't follow the signs and had their large dogs loose outside the designated dog area, so I couldn't let our 2-year-old play in the grass. It was too bad because he really needed to work off some energy. We're lucky all our 5 kids travel really well. We've done extended road trips in the past, including driving to... ...Washington, DC, (see Road Trip 2007 , Road Trip 2008 , Road Trip 2009 ) and we generally find that leaving not too early, having a ...

The first full day of our 2010 Road Trip opened with blue skies and we were happy to put the previous evening's border glitch behind us and get on the road in earnest. The goal for today was to reach Spokane, WA, and seeing the sun appear from the mountains behind us was energizing.... Since we had arrived at Camping World in Burlington pretty late, all the spots in the back lot were full. We ended up parking on the side lot and left around 07:00 hoping not to impact workers arriving in the morning too much.

In August 2010, our family of 7 went on a road trip in our 2007 GMC Yukon XL Denali and 35' Keystone Premier 31BHPR travel trailer. From Vancouver, Canada, we drove over 7500 km (4650 miles) through the United States taking the I-94 East to Thunder Bay, Ontario and the I-90 West back home from Minneapolis, MN. We spent nearly 30 days on the road living out of our trailer and had an incredibly great time. However, the journey was not without its bumps (including the first night when we found ourselves in the wrong lane at the border crossing and a flat tire in North Dakota), but every "wrong turn" we encountered happened at the "best" possible time to NOT ruin our trip. Even the bent axle that forced us to spend an extra 3-days in Deer Lodge, Montana, did not put a dark shadow on our vacation, because it allowed us to explore and make a special connection to a place we had no idea existed. As a result, we saw a very beautiful part of the country that we will alwa...

It's been a busy summer for us. It's been a GREAT summer for us. We completed our longest trip ever with our travel trailer going from Vancouver to Thunder Bay, Ontario via the USA with extra stops in Minneapolis and the SPAM Museum. The trip included over 8000 km of driving through 27 days and all sorts of wonderful sights and beautiful locations as well a flat tire, a worn out tire, a bent axle, and a wheel bearing failure. It all worked out well, though, and despite all that, we're really happy with our 2010 Keystone Premier 31BH and I'm quite impressed with the way our 2007 GMC Yukon XL Denali performed during the entire trip. Also, I can forget the ProPride 3P hitch : it was great and I was really, REALLY happy we had it especially when we hit the 50 mph wind gusts in the Dakotas. I'm uploading some of the pictures I took along the way to my Picasa album . I'll also post up some thoughts of our RV adventures here when I can.... Most of the pictures...

Thanks to other Keystone Premier 31BHPR owners at RV.net I knew to check out the stabilizer jacks on our travel trailer even before we went out on our first trip. The problem with the jacks from the factory was that the stop nut that prevented the rods from backing all the way out when you retracted the jacks was loose. Ours suffered from the same problem and all four stabilizer jacks were replaced after we returned from our maiden voyage.... The hardware on each of the new jacks definitely look beefier than the originals. It was interesting that all four were not replaced with the same brand. The ones in the rear were branded Husky (as shown in the picture). But even though the hardware looks the same, the ones in the front had no name. The only conclusion I can make is that they are NOT Husky stabilizer jacks.

We just completed the trip with our new 2010 Keystone Premier 31BHPR travel trailer. It was also my first experience towing with the ProPride hitch. However, because I couldn't complete the entire installation in one day, I have some doubts my own setup. I need to remove the hitch anyway so that our dealer can work on the trailer, so I'll be able to reinstall the hitch and make sure I do it right. Here are my initial impressions on towing with the ProPride hitch.... It's definitely easy to hook up with no effort--the Denali's backup camera makes it simple. But it's time consuming having to raise and lower the WD bars with a socket wrench whenever I want to hitch and unhitch. My cordless drill doesn't have enough torque to turn the adjustment screw, otherwise I would use it. After hooking up and adjusting the weight distribution bars, the trailer was nose-high. I wasn't able to fix it right away, but after we got to the KOA I was able lower the hitch bar one ...

We just completed the shakedown trip for our 2010 Keystone Premier 31BHPR. Because the 35' trailer doesn't fit on our driveway, we had to keep it at the storage lot. That made setting things up a lot harder. In fact, we didn't get all the final pieces into place until the morning that we left. Luckily, it didn't take us too long to get on the road and even with taking our time to stop at a weigh scale, Hagen's of Blaine to pick up a couple of items, and a rest stop to make some minor adjustments, we were able to get to the campsite by about 3pm. We decided to go to this KOA for our shakedown trip even though it's farther away from home because we came here lots last summer and are very familiar with the facilities. Getting a pull through site made things that much easier. We found that we actually like the pull through sites a little bit better because they back onto the very large open field where the kids can play while we watch them. Overall, it was a good we...

From Bullet Mods and Accessories I did a lot of research over the past year about different kinds of hitches and although we never had a problem with our Reese HP Dual Cam system, the thought of towing a 35' trailer very near our limits across the Prairies this summer made it easier for us to upgrade. We the same trip a couple of years ago on the tail of some severe thunderstorms and I know how strong the winds can get. After reading information and comments from owners and non-owners of variety of hitches including the Equal-i-zer, Dual Cam, PullRite, Hensley Arrow, and ProPride 3P, I decided the ProPride 3P Hitch was the best one for us. I'm really glad I did, too, because customer service has been top notch and beyond what can usually be expected from "average" companies. I completed the install of the ProPride myself. It was fairly straightforward. I didn't bother to take any pictures of my progress because I found that Restcure.ca is a great resource with a...

I'm really glad I found this series of tips from Keystone RV Company on YouTube. They are great because they help me understand our new Premier travel trailer much better. This video explains how to winterize the RV's water system.

This is another helpful video from Keystone RV. This information is explained in the Keystone Owner's Manual, but it's nice to have the pictures to correspond. This video explains the proper way to apply the proper lug nut torque on the travel trailer.

I just happened to find these very helpful videos from Keystone RV. These service tips are great because they are specific to Keystone RVs and will really help with our new Premier. This video shows you how to manually crank the slide outs in case of power failure. Good to know.

From Bullet Mods and Accessories Last year when we were shopping for our first RV, a Pacific Coachworks Tango , we noticed clothes pins clipped on each corner of the travel trailer. We had no idea what it was for until the dealer explained that it helped the water running from the gutters to fall away from the sides of the trailer. This would reduce the black streaks that occur when the trailer sits outside in the rain. We were skeptical at first, but.... ...when it rained, we could see that it really worked. It's cheap, too, so as homage to the little red-neck inside of me, I promptly placed four brand new bamboo clothes pins on our 2010 Keystone Premier 31BHPR .

From The Bullet We signed the papers for our 2010 Keystone Premier 31BHPR today and did the walk through. It was a little sad saying good bye to the Tango because we had such a good time with it last year. But seeing the new shiny Bullet right next to it made it easy to be excited. It's going to take some time to get used the new layout and figuring out exactly where we should put everything but there was one pleasant surprise: the laundry chute. At first, we didn't think it would be good for anything but when I put our laundry hampers in place, we realized that it would work out quite well. In the Tango we had to take up floor space for it. In the Bullet, it is conveniently out of the way. From The Bullet From The Bullet One thing I was disappointed in was the plastic toilet. The one in the Tango was porcelain. I suppose we have to make some sacrifices to reduce weight.

From Keystone Premier 31BHPR We finally got a chance to see our 2010 Keystone Premier 31BHPR on the weekend. It had arrived at the dealership earlier in the week. We had placed a deposit on it back in February when we saw it at the Earlybird RV show in Abbotsford but what was originally supposed to be a 2 week wait ended up being much longer. It was nice seeing it in person again and it reconfirmed that this was the right RV for us.