Minnesota is one of the country’s top winter destinations if you’re more into embracing the snow than escaping it. From skiing and sledding to snowshoeing and ice climbing, Minnesota’s got it all. And if you’ve got a snowmobile, you’re in luck: Minnesota caters to you every winter as well.
All told, there are about 22,000 miles of maintained, groomed, and marked snowmobile trails that are spread throughout Minnesota and her wilderness spaces. While riding your snowmobile, you’ll enjoy seeing Minnesota’s rolling terrain, hundreds of lakes, and sprawling forests.
Brainerd Lakes
The Brainerd area is popular in the summer for its lakes and those same lakes make it a great winter destination as well. There’s an intricate web of snowmobile trails that spread out between the frozen lakes, such as Pelican Lake, Gull Lake, Crosslake, and more. The area is interspersed with villages and towns that are more than happy to have snowmobilers stop in for a bite to eat and to rest. If you don’t own your own snowmobile, you can also rent one from a number of local businesses.
Voyageurs National Park
The park and the land surrounding it are more than welcoming to snowmobilers. There’s that great mix of established trails and a support network from local communities that make riding in the region a joy. As you move through the park and the surrounding wilderness, you’ll not only enjoy the natural beauty and solitude, but you’ll also encounter small towns that offer shopping, dining, and more. The best part is that the area has few roads that you’ll encounter between stops, so it feels like one continuous journey.
Visit PleasureLand RV Center
Stop by PleasureLand RV Center to tour a motorhome or travel trailer and find an RV that’s right for you and your family. Stay out longer on your snowmobiling adventures by traveling in an RV. With the warmth of an RV to return to at the end of the day, you can stay out as long as you want and not have to worry about a trek back home.
If you’re looking for a toy hauler that has everything, check out the 12 floor plans of the 2014 Dutchmen Voltage Toy Hauler, which start at just under 36 feet and go up to just under 43 feet in length. Among fifth wheel toy haulers, the Voltage is the fastest growing, and it’s easy to see why. You will be hard-pressed to find a better-constructed toy hauler, as the Voltage uses high-quality materials inside and out.
Interior
You probably know that with this class of RVs, the interior is going to be luxurious, and the 2014 Voltage will not disappoint you with its beautiful décor surrounded by solid cherry wood cabinets throughout. These toy haulers come with all the accommodations of home, and as you get to the lengthier floor plans, they also come with an extra bathroom in the back.
With the Voltage, you get quartz granite countertops, a 8 cubic foot refrigerator, and stainless steel sink in the kitchen. Next to the kitchen, you’ll have a comfortable sofa and dinette with a Samsung HD TV with 5.1 surround sound nearby. The bedroom is elevated from the rest of the Voltage and has luxurious carpet and a large mirrored wardrobe. And let’s not forget about the garage in the back, where you’ll have an LCD TV and custom embroidered chairs.
Exterior
Voltage toy haulers are 102” wide and are constructed with twin I-Beam Chassis. The welded aluminum floor joists are covered with 5/8” floor decking, and the welded aluminum-framed walls are laminated and covered in a high-gloss gel coat for a sleek look. Features on the outside include large electric awning, 16″ aluminum wheels, and safety glass tinted windows.
Options
You can add carpet as well as an electric bed and rollover sofa with bench inserts in the garage. You can also add a 2nd and 3rd AC, heat pump, Onan generator, and 26″ exterior LCD TV.
Floor Plans
12 to choose from, including the following…
V3105
V3200
V3800
V3950
*All images courtesy of voltagehaulers.com
Why not see all that the Land of 10,000 Lakes has to offer in the luxurious 2014 Voltage Toy Hauler? If you stop by an RV dealership like PleasureLand RV, you’ll be impressed by how great these units look.
This travel trailer is a great way to take your next vacation. With all the amenities of home you won’t have to worry about where you are going to sleep or take a shower. You can go just about anywhere in the brand new 2013 Keystone Raptor Travel Trailer Toy Hauler.
This travel trailer has plenty of room for the whole family. There is plenty of seating, including bench seating in the dinette area. You and your family can enjoy full, quality home cooked meals in the dinning area when you use the full kitchen to prepare you meals. The kitchen comes complete with a stovetop range, oven, refrigerator and freezer and microwave. There is also plenty of pantry space for all your kitchen appliances and extra food.
The kitchen and dining room are roomy enough t
hat you can entertain friends while you are on vacation. Everyone can gather for a big meal, filling your home away from home with laughter and love.
The Travel Trailer also has a full bathroom so you don’t have to worry about using gross stinky gas station bathrooms while traveling down the highway, or weird community bathrooms at a campground. If you have spent any time camping you know how much nicer it is to not have plan your trip around when you can take your next shower. And for parents with young children, its definitely a relief not to have to worry about finding the next gas station, or pulling over on the side of the road because your little one has to ” go right now”.
There’s also plenty of room for sleeping in this luxurious travel trailer. The toy trailer includes a king sized bed, which is a unique feature that no other travel trailers in its size and class have. The bedroom also has a TV Hook up.
Why not check out one of these great models today from Pleasureland RVand bring something home for the whole family.
I ran into a friend of mine who purchased his first RV, a 2002 Forest River Georgetown, at the beginning of the summer. I hadn’t seen him since he made the purchase, and I was dying to know how his first few RV trips had gone. Come to find out… he hadn’t taken his new RV out once! I couldn’t believe it! When I asked him why, he was a little bit reluctant to tell me, but I finally got it out of him. He didn’t know how to back-up and park the RV. At first, I was shocked that this had kept him from using his beautiful, new home-away-from-home. But the more I thought about it, I realized that he was probably not alone with this fear.
If you’re a first-time RV owner, getting out on the road can seem a little scary. After all, RVs drive a lot differently than your average four-door sedan. Whether it’s a motorhome, fifth wheel or travel trailer, there are several things you should know about backing up and parking. I found seven excellent and helpful tips from the Fun Times Guide that I shared with him and would now like to share with you.
7 Tips For Parking & Backing Up RVs
#1 Stop right where you are, when you reach the point where you no longer have clear vision of where you want to go. Never attempt to move into tight quarters, if you can’t see all possible hazards. That is, unless you have someone positioned where they can see the obstructions and they can warn you. Your assistant must be positioned so they can see both you and the possible dangerous situation
#2 Avoid places that are impossible to get into, or nearly so. Don’t blindly pull into an unfamiliar driveway, dead end street, or parking lot that doesn’t have a second exit.
When you pull into shopping areas, stay out near the perimeter and chose your parking spot so that you can simply pull ahead to leave. Don’t go down the aisles of parked cars — because you’re likely to be making a sharp corner in a confined spot, when you get to the end of the aisle.
#3 Learn to rely on your mirrors. An RV isn’t like the family sedan. Looking over your right shoulder and down through the center of your motorhome or tow vehicle to back up won’t work. You have to rely on the image in your side mirrors.
Straight vehicles, without trailers, are pretty easy to back up — because a properly adjusted mirror should give you a view of the side all the way back to the rear bumper. As long as you can see daylight between your RV and the obstruction, you’re good.
#4 Set up temporary parking & driving patterns, using safety cones or milk jugs. Head out to a closed supermarket parking lot and set up your cones like a driveway or camping spot. Practice backing into those spots until you can do it without hitting any cones.
#5 Practice blind side parking. If your luck is like mine, more often than not you’ll end up backing into a campsite from the blind side with your trailer.
The blind side is the right (passenger) side of your vehicle. It’s known as the blind side because at some point, as you’re turning, your tow vehicle will no longer be in a straight line with your trailer. You will no longer be able to see what’s happening on at least one side of your RV. This is where an outside helper is essential to keep you posted on your progress.
A trick I’ve used to increase my range of vision when backing around corners is to readjust my side mirrors at a different angle as I start making my turn. Most motorhomes, and many trucks, have electrically adjustable mirrors that you can control with a switch from the driver’s seat. Adjusting the mirrors, as you proceed through the corner, will give you a clear view most of the way.
#6 Never rely on rear vision cameras, because they’re pointed down toward the ground behind you and don’t give you a broad enough picture. There are overhead obstacles to be concerned about too. Low-hanging branches, building overhangs, even sagging power lines can hook your RV. By far the best way to back into a tight spot is to have a person (or even 2) outside watching all the angles. Maneuver with your windows down, and instruct your helper to talk loud enough so you can clearly hear them. A set of inexpensive walkie talkies can be very handy for just this purpose.
#7 Use extreme caution when backing a motorhome with a tow vehicle attached. In fact, backing up with a toad (car) on a tow bar more than a foot or so is impossible. Since the steering axle of the car being towed is free to track wherever it wants, as soon as you start backwards it will immediately turn the wheels, causing extreme pressure to be applied to the front end components of your vehicle in tow.
Damage can occur, because you will be skidding the car sideways, with the front wheels turned all the way to the stops. If you need to back up when towing a car, just unhook the car first. After you’re situated where you can go forward again, re-hook the tow bar. It’s the only safe way to do it.
Something else that can seem tricky at first is backing into a camping spot (especially if the two spots next to you are both occupied). There is a little trick, though, that some of us RV vets use called The Scoop. Once you nail this technique down, you’ll be pulling into camp spots like a pro. Check out this little illustration video showing exactly how it’s done. If you need any help at all with anything RV-related, don’t hesitate to give us a call or swing by.
For those of you new RV owners who may be unfamiliar with the term, boondocking, also known as dry camping or primitive camping is basically camping without the electic, sewer or water hookups. There are generally two types of boondocking – blacktop and boonies – and there is a certain code of ethics associated with each one that we should follow. The general rule of thumb is to always leave the place nicer than it was when you got there. Let’s check out some other rules we should follow.
Blacktop boondocking is when you pos up in a parking lot (Wal-Mart, Casinos, etc.). The main appeal of this type of camping is the convenience and budget. Some places have actually passed bans on this type of boondocking. To make sure bans aren’t passed, RV clubs like The Escapees, have come up with their own code of ethics for blacktop boondocking. They have even gone far enough to post a print out of these rules that you can leave on offender’s vehicles.
Blacktop Boondocking Rules
1. DO obtain permission from a qualified individual. This way you’ll never have to worry if you are violating any sort of code or law.
2. DO try and park out of the way. Most of these parking lots are huge, and most likely there are spots way in the back that will be vacant.
3. DON’T use your awnings, chairs, or barbecue grill. These things tend to send the message that you are here to stay.
4. DON’T use slide-outs if at all possible for the same reason as mentioned above.
5. DON’T use your leveling jacks on asphalt.
6. DO try and limit your stay – one night is best, and two is the absolute maximum. We recommend staying two night only if you must.
7. DO purchase gas, food, or supplies as a way of saying “thank you”.
8. DO leave the area cleaner than you found it. This one is sometimes dificult for people to folllow, but think of it this way… you’re only helping blacktoppers reputation climb by cleaning up. Even if it’s after other’s.
9. DO practice safety precautions. This is important in any situation.
You can print out of these rules and then leave them on offender’s vehicles. Everyone should know proper boondocking etiquette.
[The Escapees]
Now let’s switch gears and take a look at the guidelines we should follow for boondocking in the boonies. As you can probably guess from its name, this type of boondocking is done out in the wilderness. A lot of campers do this purely for the wilderness experience and enjoy the peace and quiet they wouldn’t necessisarily have at a slotted campground. The more serious boondockers even modify their vehicles with solar panels and an inverter to charge their batteries so they can freely camp in the beautiful wilderness.
Rules for Boondocking in the Boonies
Park in previously used areas. Do not create a new road or parking spot or run over vegetation.
Park away from other RVs so each can enjoy the peace and quiet. If you do have a generator you plan to run, park far away from other RVs and limit your use to an hour or so in the morning and another in early evening. Generator noise carries and is not part of the wilderness experience.
Respect quiet hours. Do not run generators or play TVs or radios loudly after 10 p.m. or before 7 a.m. (Some areas may have different quiet hours so check with the agency.)
In some areas dumping grey water on the ground is permissible. Always check with the agency first. Dumping black water on the ground is never permitted.
Leave the area cleaner than you found it. Dispose of trash in a trash container after you leave.
Read and follow the agency’s rules regarding fires, collecting firewood, and quiet hours. Respect time limits, which are typically 14 days.
Boondocking is one of my favorite aspects of owning an RV, but we have to remember to always follow that golden rule in order to continue boondocking for years and years to come. Leave the place nicer than it was before you arrived.
Unless you’re a full-timer, there’s going to come a time when you’ll need to store your RV. Whether its for a few weeks or few months, proper storing techniques must be applied in order to protect one of the biggest investments you’ve made. If you’re planning on storing your RV on your own, here are a few things you should keep in mind and consider.
RV Storage Tips
Get rid of the gas. If you’re planning on parking your RV for longer than a month, you may want to consider emptying the gas tank. Gasoline begins to deteriorate over time and can end up causing your engine some problems and causing you a chunk of change. This is especially true in the hotter months. If you’re unable to empty the tank, you can use a gas stabilizer.Stabilizers can preserve your gasoline for up to a couple of years but they can’t fix what has already started to deteriorate. Once your tank is nearly empty, measure out enough stabilizer to treat a tank of gas; pour it in your tank; then fill your tank with gas to about 95% capacity. Filling your tank to 95% capacity minimizes the possibility of condensation and still leaves a bit of room for expansion and contraction. [ViringiaWind.com]
Custom-fitted RV covers. The best thing you could possibly do for your RV is buy a custom-fitted RV cover. Look for one that blocks sun damage, is water resistant, and fits your unit. Do not use a regular, old dark blue tarp. This will attract the sun’s heat and allows many areas for moisture to accumulate.
Tires. You’d be surprised at how many people don’t take tire care into consideration when storing their RV. It’s good to use tire covers to protect the rubber and prevent cracks and dry decaying from the sun. It’s even better to remove the tires all together and store them in a cool, dry place away from gasoline and oil.
It may sound like a lot of work, but it really doesn’t have to be… you could leave it up to the experts. Storage services offer all sorts of cleaning and maintenance, and is probably your best bet if you are unsure of how to properly store your RV on your own. If you need any advice or more information about properly storing your RV, don’t hesitate to give us a call or visit one of our four locations!
You don’t have to be in the middle of a hurricane or F3 tornado to experience high winds while on the road. The skies may be clear and the sun brightly shining, but we should never forget about that unseen force of nature that can so easily leave you’re fifth wheel or travel trailer overturned on the side of highway 90. I’m pretty sure this RV driver did not see this coming…
Crosswinds pose the greatest threat to fifth wheels and travel trailers because they can push the vehicle into another lane, or as we saw above, they can cause the vehicle to turnover.
So how can we avoid this situation, Minnesota RV enthusiasts? You can do one of two things: slow down to a speed where you feel comfortable or pull over and wait for conditions to clear. Unfortunately, these are really your only two options. If you have any questions or need some more tips on how to handle your RV in high winds, you can always give us a call or stop by one of our locations.
As the years have passed, it has become overwhelming apparent that technology is going to make its way into our life. We have social networks, seach engines, You-Tube, and informational blogs like this one! And while all these different mediums have helped RV users out in some way, some of the newer technology has been lacking when it comes to getting quick information on your phone.
In comes a new iPhone application called Camping Finder made by CampingRoadTrip.com. This handy app allows for a bunch of features to help an RVer or camper plan and execute a great trip.
“Camp Finder puts 14,000 U.S. campgrounds and RV parks in your pocket,” says Julian Fenn founder of CampingRoadTrip.com. “We want to help people have a great time in the outdoors and also save a few trees by getting rid of the big paper based camping directories. Camp Finder app is all about giving campers and RVers the freedom and spontaneity to have a great time on the road.”
The reality of being on the road means that plans do change. RVers and campers can now use the Camp Finder iPhone app to access the most up to date information and search for campgrounds and RV parks by name, city and state or current location. With just one touch campers and RVers can check out rates, amenities, camping discounts, contact details and even photos and reviews posted by others. “Camp Finder is even smart enough to give you directions to your destination. The only thing it won’t do is drive your RV or car there!”
Check out a video demonstration below:
httpv://www.youtube.com/campingroadtrip
So if you do have an iPhone, make sure you spend the $1.99 to purchase this very helpful and informative application. And when you do download the app, make sure you put in Pleasureland RV first!!
If you are driving your RV with too heavy of a load, under inflated tires, or old and damaged tires, then you are putting yourself at risk for a massive tire failure while driving down the road. If this has never happened to you, then you should consider yourself lucky. For those of us who have gone through this, then you know that it can be a bit frightening as well as confusing. What should you do if this happens? Well I found an excellent video produced by Michelin Tires about handling your RV in case a blow out occurs.
While the video is a little long, coming in at around 10 minutes, I do highly recommend watching the whole thing if you are not sure what you should do while experiencing a blow out.
We hope you found this information useful during such a stressful situation. If you need for information, leave a comment or visit us at Pleasureland RV!
The internet has always provided a forum for people to review different things. When someone wants to go on a vacation, they might look at Trip Advisor. If someone has a bad experience at a restaurant they might visit Google Places or Yelp. But until recently, a quality site that allows people to review and share their tales from campgrounds has not had one solidified place to go. That is until now.
Camping.com has developed an all-encompassing site that will allow RVers and campers to share their thoughts and feelings with other potential campers. Check out this excerpt from an article announcing this new site:
“Camping.com & the LI Partner Network is thrilled to offer our consumers quality reviews and ratings with the introduction of GuestRated”, said Kelly O’Bryan, EVP, Marketing, Camping.com. “Campers and RVers will now have access to more useful reviews written by people who camp and RV. Plus, our consumers can now easily rate and review their favorite RV Parks and Campgrounds from any of our web properties”.
Campers and Rvers will now be able to quickly and easily find reviews and ratings from other like-minded travelers CAMPING.COM and other sites on the LI Partner Network.
“Mainstream travelers have long had access to reviews and ratings for vacation lodging but campers and RVers have had a much more difficult time finding information about campgrounds and RV parks, GuestRated changes that. “, said Kelly O’Bryan, EVP, Marketing, Camping.com, “The tagline for CAMPING.COM has always been ‘everything camping’ and this is one more step in delivering that promise. We are encouraging campers and RVers to visit CAMPING.COM to add reviews of their favorite RV Parks and Campgrounds.
CAMPING.COM, LLC, is a leading one-stop provider of camping and RV travel information and trip planning tools. Camping.com is the leading provider of online reservations for commercial campgrounds and offers the most complete private campground directory. The site features tips on everything from camping with kids, recipes for camp cuisine, RV travel information along with trip ideas to “must-see” destinations for both weekend and longer trips.
Is this new site something that you would use, either to comment on a previous trip or when planning out your next RV trip?
Hi, my name is Dan Pearson and I am the Owner of PleasureLand RV Centers based out of St. Cloud, MN. We have three other Minnesota locations to serve all of you RV needs. I look forward to providing you with all your RV information from buying an RV to tips and maintenance. If you would like to contact me, be sure to leave a comment.
V3105
V3200
V3800
V3950