Читать книгу RVs & Campers For Dummies - Christopher Hodapp - Страница 70

Full-timers on the road or snowbirds who live in an RV for months are the ones who want washers and dryers the most, and it’s understandable. They’re becoming increasingly common in large rigs, including fifth wheels, Class As, Super Cs, and certainly in “destination” trailers built for long-term use.

The overwhelming majority of campgrounds have washers and dryers (you pay with coins or sometimes credit cards), as do most of the larger truck stops. Let’s be frank here: Many people find the thought of hauling tons of laundry in and out dreary and weary, and they may find the thought of using a public laundry distasteful, imagining the worst. We’re not exactly wealthy, but we hadn’t used a public laundry, or even a private apartment one, since we were in our early twenties. Having our own washer and dryer was a convenience we were used to, and this makes the idea of having your own built-in washer/dryer very appealing on the road.

But RV washer/dryer units are generally small, and there are lots of things they can’t handle, like bedspreads and heavy loads of bath towels or bathrobes, even jeans in some cases, which means you may find yourself having to use the occasional campground laundry anyway, as well as having to hang-dry some items. Ventless dryer systems, for those who don’t want to cut a hole in the side of the trailer for an installation, take a good deal longer to dry clothes.

Leaks in RV washing machines are fairly common. Remember, the plumbing lines for that machine are being subjected to the stresses of bouncing down the road, and it’s hard not to have any problems eventually. You need to be alert to them. However, it’s arguable that, even including a service call, the money it costs you will be well spent, because you’re not pumping cash into a public laundry.

Using a public laundry has its advantages. The job goes far more quickly than you’d think, because you’ll probably have access to multiple machines at once, if it’s not crowded. We pack enough clothing that we can get by at least two weeks without having to cope with the laundry, and we also keep a small collapsible laundry tub, where it’s just as easy to hand-launder little things and clip-hang them to dry. For us, investing two or three hours every two or three weeks isn’t a trial. Pack your special little laundry kit, with detergent pods and Woolite, bleach wipes, hanger clips, and collapsible clothes bags — it’s kind of fun! Be sure to check the campground’s store for small, convenient sizes of laundry detergent and dryer sheets so you don’t have to haul around the 2-gallon super-saver sizes on the road. When you get the hang of it, it’s not much more of a pain than laundry day at home.

Believe it or not, there are portable washing machines available that are no larger than a kitchen wastebasket. A couple of them use old-fashioned foot power to agitate your clothes, but others have an electric motor. Typically, even the better ones have few features beyond agitating and spinning, and they can’t handle much more than a couple of bath towels at a time. We tried one for a while, but it just wasn’t worth the space it took up in the back of our tow vehicle, as well as all the folderol of setting it up and taking it down. But if you have enough space to keep one in your RV, they could be an inexpensive compromise, as long as you only want to wash a few things at once, no more than you can find space to hang-dry.