In Brief

After a brief vacation in Florida, visiting friends, we collected the trailer in Dallas and then headed North to Guthrie, OK, from there we followed Route 66 West. We spent time seeing many of the natural wonders of the South West as well as finding out more about the Native American culture of the area. We flew back from Los Angeles on May 24th.

Our Rig

Our rig is made up of two vehicles
2006 Chevrolet 3500 Express Pasenger Van
2007 Starcraft Aruba 298RKS Travel Trailer.

The Chevy

244" overall (20ft 4in)
Height 82"
177" wheelbase
54ft turning circle

15 seat
Overal Weight 65000lb
Load 2500lbs
Tow capacity 10000lbs
Fuel tank 31 Galls (U.S.) 125 lt

6 litre v8 Petrol engine
3.73:1 rear axle

4 wheel ABS
4 wheel disk brakes
A/C
Cruise Control
Passenger side sliding door

Modifications:
Hitch Receiver fitted
Uprated radiator (twin Core)
Full length running boards
Rear Seat removed.
Load equaliser 

The Aruba
31ft 5" shipping length
29ft trailer
8ft wide
Glassfiber walls with Aluminuim framing
Steel Chassis
single slide out 12ft x 2ft
Total weight 7500lbs
twin axles - bearing 6500lbs
Tongue (nose) weight 975lbs
 Features
15000 BTU A/C
Queen size bed
Seperate Shower and toilet
Kitchen with fridge, mocrowave, sink, cooker and oven
2 sofas
Dinette area
  Outside:
13ft Awning
External shower unit and gas BBQ
Electric tongue jack
Rear Ladder
  On board tanks

LP Gas (gal)                             14gall               (28lt)
Water Heater (U.S.gal)              6gall                (25lt)
Fresh Water (U.S.gal)              38gall                (150lt)
Gray Water (U.S.gal)               52gall (2 x 26)   (200lt
Black Water (U.S.gal)              37gall               (150lt)


With the Aruba hitched up our Chevy Express manages about 8 miles to the U.S. gallon, which gives us a range of about 230 miles on a tank, though the light comes on when there is about 3 gallons left, so we usually fill up after about 200 miles. A tank of gas will cost us about $75 - which works out at about 40p a litre. So we make about 8 miles per gallon, or 2 miles per litre. That sounds bad, but with the cheaper fuel we get about 5 miles/£.