 When traveling the interstate system across this great country, we sometimes encounter toll roads. Google Maps lets us easily avoid them to save money if we desire, but we’ve learned there can be great benefits to driving an RV on a toll road. What is a toll road? If you’ve spent most of your life in Arizona, the Great Plains, or the Northwestern U.S. outside the Pacific Northwest, you may not have encountered toll roads. As the name implies, a toll road is a route that requires a fee to drive on it. You can think of it as paying the troll under the bridge from “Three Billy Goats Gruff.” What does the money go to? It’s intended to cover the costs of road construction, operations, and maintenance. Toll roads have been in existence since the 1920s, according to the Federal Highway Administration. They were created to help pay for the expansion of highways, tunnels, and bridges. Today, all but 13 of the United States include toll roads, according to the World Population Review. Let’s look at some of the benefits of driving an RV on a toll road. Routes and road conditions When hauling a 42-foot fifth wheel across any part of the country, we like to avoid traffic congestion whenever possible. That typically means skirting big cities. Although most toll roads are found in cities, they tend to route travelers outside the downtown area. This is a significant perk when towing a big rig. Staying outside the city can also help prevent clearance issues. Although driving the New York State Thruway from one end of the state to the other can cost upward of $50 with our four axles, it keeps us free from low-clearance overpasses and provides a lot of convenience. Because toll roads collect money for upkeep, they’re typically — but not always — in better condition than highways that don’t. This makes for better driving with an RV. Every time we move our fifth wheel from one location to another, all the contents inside effectively experience an earthquake. Smoother roads mean fewer mishaps inside the rig during travel. Toll roads also include convenient travel plazas. If we need to make a pit stop or pick up some food or fuel, we can pull off the road and easily get right back on when we’re ready without having to worry about paying another toll. Each travel plaza usually includes clean restrooms, a handful of eateries, and other shops for snacks and vehicle needs. Payment procedures In the early days of toll roads, drivers had to have exact change to throw into a basket as they passed a toll booth. Digital technology has revolutionized that. No longer do you need to collect quarters, dimes, and nickels to enter these for-fee roads; you just need a registered license plate. Overhead cameras read license plates, which are linked to a person’s name and address. Toll bills are then sent in the mail to the address on file. Alternatively, drivers can proactively pay the fee online based on a website advertised as they pass a toll station.  Transponder options Another thing that can streamline toll payments is a transponder that suctions to the inside of a vehicle’s windshield. Instead of the toll booth cameras reading a license plate, they can read a transponder, which is also linked to a name and address. In 2022, we traveled to Florida and all the way up the East Coast to Maine. Our route included a number of toll roads. Before setting out that year, we obtained an E-ZPass transponder to adhere to our windshield. It worked from North Carolina up to Maine and even in Illinois when we visited there.  For our time in Florida, we had to secure SunPass. Since then, however, E-ZPass has expanded to cover the state of Florida as well. As of this writing, E-ZPass is available in 18 states.
That leaves 19 states with toll roads that aren’t covered by E-ZPass. We wanted a more comprehensive solution and found that the trucker fleet we belong to, TSD, which allows access for RVers under the Open Roads name, has a partnership with Innovative Toll Solution. For a transponder setup fee, which includes a small account on the transponder itself, and an annual fee, we get coverage of all toll roads across the country. For us, toll roads are well worth the cost to keep us outside busy cities on better roads with easy payments and decent food options. You might also like Our favorite phone apps for RVing.
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 The RV life has a lot of appeal: adventure, new sights, amazing scenery. After five years as full-time RVers, we certainly enjoy those perks. But what about the day to day? I still work full time. Here’s how I balance work and life in 400 square feet. Work in a designated space When we were looking for our RV home, one of my stipulations was that it have a separate room with a door that I could use as my office. I wanted to be able to close the door at the end of my workday and be home. We found a few fifth-wheel models that fit that requirement — most with the inclusion of what’s called a mid-bunk room. We narrowed down our choices to two Jayco models: Pinnacle 37MDQS and North Point 377RLBH. After inspecting both RVs, we opted for the Pinnacle because it offered more desk space and a slightly wider body. The mid-bunk room, measuring about 80 square feet, quickly became my office. Bob replaced the TV above the desk with a large computer monitor, and then we added another vertical monitor to give me two screens. I open the main desk drawer and place a removable shelf on top of it to create a keyboard tray. This helps me work ergonomically, as does a comfy, height-adjustable office chair. Forget about work after hours While raising our five kids, I worked from home as a freelance writer. During that time, I found it extremely difficult to separate work from life. With an unpredictable workload, I always had to be “on” in case a job came through. I couldn’t afford to miss an income opportunity. It took me some time to get past that mindset. The fact that my current office door is mirrored on both sides made it easier.  Now when I close the door at the end of my workday and transition to being home, I’m able to forget about work. With the door shut, I can’t see into the office. As the saying goes, “Out of sight, out of mind.” Move on the weekends Because I work all week, we do our best to relocate only on the weekends, when I’m off. That way, I can focus on my job responsibilities during the week without having to worry about packing up and moving my things to close the office slideout.  There have been times when we’ve had to move on a weekday for some reason or other and I had to work in the truck. It’s doable, but I prefer to look out the window at the sights going by. Plus, in RV life, things often don’t go as planned, like the weekday we moved and got a flat tire between stops. As a result, I was forced to sit outside in the sweltering South Carolina humidity to conduct a business meeting. Make time for fun Another key to my success in balancing work and life is prioritizing time for adventure. Part of the reason we embraced RV life was to explore what this great country has to offer. When we’re in a location, we take advantage of my free time on evenings and weekends to check out points of interest.  This has led to some unique experiences, such as touring Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico, hiking to waterfalls in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, enjoying a sunset dinner cruise on the Mississippi River in New Orleans, taking a dog sled ride in Alaska, and eating fresh-off-the-boat lobster on a pier in Maine.
I work hard so that I can play hard. Full-time RVing makes it possible for me to do both for a balanced and fulfilling life. You might also like Confessions of a full-time RVer.  Whether you live in a sticks-and-bricks house, an RV, a mud hut, or something else, inevitably things break or need attention over time. As full-time RVers, our livelihood is literally riding on the structure and integrity of our fifth-wheel home. That means we have to take RV repairs and maintenance extremely seriously. Replacing a Ram 3500 turbo After Gulliver, our Dodge Ram 3500 dually, experienced difficulties climbing in the Black Hills of South Dakota — while towing our RV — we rerouted our planned course to Arizona for the winter to avoid mountainous areas. But we knew we had to address the issue before hitting the road again in the spring. The truck even had trouble accelerating to get onto a freeway, sans Tagalong. Wanting time to work out any kinks before committing to our travel season, we decided to change the turbo in December. Since Bob is handy, he chose to do the work himself. Taking the truck to a dealer to replace the turbo posed a large expense and threatened to affect the performance of our diesel exhaust fluid since a recall was due. Bob ordered the necessary parts for the repair, to the tune of nearly $3,500. Then he got busy watching YouTube videos to see exactly how to tackle the job. It looked to be a full-day commitment of six to eight hours — if everything went according to plan. (How often does that happen?) Wanting a second opinion, Bob reached out to Roy, our diesel mechanic friend. Roy confirmed the two of them could complete the job successfully, but he told Bob it would likely take three days. Not willing to risk that much time investment, Bob searched for a diesel expert in the Mesa, Arizona, area and found Copperhead Diesel Performance in Chandler. Chatting with an employee over the phone gave Bob great confidence that the organization could better handle the job, so he made an appointment to drop off Gulliver, along with the purchased parts.  The techs at the shop were unable to replicate the error we had encountered, so they took us at our word that the turbo was the issue. In addition to replacing it and the air filter, the fix involved changing the oil and coolant, since both of those had to be drained. Three days bled into five business days before the truck was ready to be picked up — for another $3,100. Cha-ching! The costly investment was worth it for the assurance it gave us that Gulliver will have no trouble towing Tagalong on our next travel season and beyond. Patching a tire After setting up the RV for the winter, I went to cover the fifth-wheel tires to protect them from the harsh Arizona sun. Something shiny in one of the tires caught my eye. Closer inspection revealed it to be a screw. Had we picked it up on the side of the freeway after our fire mishap?  Since we were situated for a long-term stay and the tire wasn’t losing any air, it appeared to be a non-issue. We certainly didn’t want to close the trailer and connect it to the truck to take it to a tire shop. Nor did we want to jack up the rig to put on the spare tire and take the problem tire to be fixed. Bob remembered that the G-rated tires we had purchased were designed to be regrooved after being worn down. In theory, that meant they had plenty of tread depth to absorb a screw or nail without puncturing the tire itself. With this in mind, Bob took a pair of needle-nose pliers to test his suspicion that the screw was bent over. He succeeded in prying the screw up and confirmed his hypothesis. The screw didn’t go very deep into the tire. After removing the screw completely, he filled the hole with tire repair glue* (paid link) to seal it from dirt and debris. And voila! No tire issue and no trip to a tire shop. Letting off steam As the Arizona temperatures started to warm, we took advantage of the moderate weather and opened our RV windows to let in some fresh air. We also opened our roof vent in the main living area, which operates electronically.  Normally when activating the switch, the vent would reach a certain point and stop. Instead, the motor continued whirring. We couldn’t let that go on, so we closed the vent. Thankfully, it had no trouble finding the closing stop point.
A day or so later, I ascended the fifth-wheel ladder to investigate the unit while Bob opened the vent. The whirring continued once again, and I couldn’t identify anything clearly wrong. Bob put his excellent research skills to use and discovered that a piece on these units was prone to failure after about five years. It looked like that’s what had happened to ours, so he ordered a replacement part. When the part arrived, Bob took his turn climbing the ladder to address the unit while I activated the switch. Replacing the part didn’t immediately fix the issue. He had to retrain the vent where to stop. This took a lot of opening and closing — and a small crack — before getting it right. But we succeeded and are happy to have a working roof vent once again. You might also like Hole in the roof. * As Amazon associates, we earn from qualifying purchases. |
AuthorThis is the travel blog of full-time RVers Bob and Lana Gates and our truck, Gulliver, and fifth wheel, Tagalong. Categories
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