How to Do a Safety Check Before Leaving with Your RV
Jason & Lisa McEwenDescription
When you pull out of your driveway, do you do a safety check? (It’s also known as a circle check.) The idea behind it is to walk around your rig and check for things that might be out of place or need attention.
Here is a rundown of what a safety check is.
Check tire pressure
Start on the driver’s side and check on the tires. Check the air pressure while the tires are cold. If you don’t know what the air pressure should be, look for a label on your driver’s side door or on the bottom panel.
Check Camper Tires
Next, check the tires on the camper. You’ll do a closer visual check here. Camper tires are notorious for blowing, so check the tread and look for uneven wear. Give the lugs a hand check too, to make sure they’re tight to the touch. And check the air pressure on the RV tires.
Lock Door
Take a second to make sure your camper door is closed and locked.
Check Lights
Head to the back and check all of the lights next. Go through each indicator and make sure each is working.
Look at Storage Doors
Check the storage doors and make sure they’re closed and that nothing is dragging underneath.
Review Connection
Head to the trailer connection. Make sure the coupler is secure, the pins are in place, the safety chain isn’t dragging, and the plug is securely seated.
Roof Check
Check the rooftop. See if there’s anything on the roof that shouldn’t be.
It takes just a few minutes to do the circle check.
There are things you can add to the list too. You can inspect the inside and make sure that the cabinets are closed and everything is put away. You can take a quick drive around the block to make sure your tow vehicle is working well and doesn’t have any indicator lights on.
You can tailor the list to your rig and your vehicle, but it’s a good habit to get into everytime you leave for a trip.
To learn more RV tips, check out this video that shows you how to back your RV up and this one that explains how to get set up at the campground.
Hey RV-ers, I'm Lisa McEwen. I hope all of your trips have been going well. We are actually on our way out as well but before we go we're gonna do a safety check or a circle check where we walk around the camper and the RV just to make sure everything is in working order. Do you do a safety check before you leave? You should, it's a good habit to get into. You can come along with us and see how we do ours. We'll start on the driver's side and check the tires. We'll check the air pressure in the tire is cold. If you don't know what the air pressure should be, look at the label on your driver's side door or on the bottom panel. Next we'll check the tires in a camper. I'll do a closer visual check here. Camper tires are notorious for blowing so I'm checking the tread, looking for uneven wear. I'll even give the lugs a little bit of a hand check too just to make sure they're tight to the touch. We'll check the air pressure in these tires as well. I'll take a second to make sure our camper door is locked and then I'll head to the back where we'll check the lights. With Jason in the driver's seat, we'll go through and make sure each indicator is working. As I come around, I need to check the storage doors and make sure they are closed. I'll glance under the camper to make sure nothing is dragging, particularly near the waist tanks where a cap could be dangling. Next I'll head to the trailer connection. I'm looking to make sure the coupler is secure, the pins are in place, the safety chains aren't dragging and I'm gonna make sure that this plug is securely seated. I'm going to check the roof too. Our high, low fold's down, so it's pretty easy to see if anything's on the roof that shouldn't be, in this case it looks good. As you can see, it takes just a few minutes to do a safety check and it really does give you a lot of peace of mind once you're on the road. Now, of course you can customize this safety list as well. You might go inside the camper, shut all the cabinet doors, make sure they're locked and secure so nothing comes falling out. If you haven't driven your truck or your SUV in a little while you might take it around the block before you hitch up just to make sure it's in working order. Make sure no surprising indicator lights come on, things like that. You can certainly customize this list to make sure that it fits your needs but whatever you add or subtract from the list, just make sure that you do it. A safety check is a good habit to get into before you leave on every trip. Until next time.
Didja catch that one of your bumper caps was missing? Nothing more fun than getting to your campground and finding out your sewer hose is sayonara!