2015 Thor four winds -Safe, modern, comfortable, kid-friendly!

The Host canceled the booking 0 days before departure. This is an automated posting.

Despite some difficulties and a minor incident on the road, we had a wonderful experience renting this RV. Our situation was a bit different—I needed to travel to northern Colorado from the Chicago area to pick up my 98-year-old Mother and bring her back to our home. Having her fly was not going to work for complicated reasons, so we alighted on this idea. On the trip were my wife, and two adult sons to help share in the driving. It was our first experience driving an RV of any kind, especially of this size. So it was an intense learning experience. We started off by taking easy roads at the outset to get used to handling the vehicle. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem at first blush that we could avoid having to use Interstate 80 as the most efficient route to and from Colorado. We had a “learning curve” in understanding what would or wouldn’t work of all the devices on board while in motion vs. when we were pulled up at a campsite and plugged in to the 30-amp feed. One thing that didn’t work in transit was the AC in the living quarters, while the normal one on the dashboard did (but it was a bit hard put to keep the whole 30-ft rig cool.) It started to make sense, though, when we got out the AC cord at our first campsite and saw how thick it was. I thought “well duh, you are not going to get the hundreds of amps needed to run a second, large AC unit off of a 12-volt battery, no matter how robust.” Same issue with the microwave. It is important to learn and work with the technology provided, not be naïve and think everything is going to work like it does at home while in motion. Our major crisis came from being sideswiped by a semi on a crowded stretch of Interstate 80 under construction in Western Iowa. Just to point out, the vehicles on that stretch of highway are about 65-75% large trucks. It was made more problematic because the road was narrowed, yet still traveling at speeds of up to 75 mph. It was crowded and there was limited ability to pull over. Also, there can be strong and gusting crosswinds along that route, capable of blowing the vehicle several feet sideways or having it veer the other direction to an equal extent when the gusts end. Driving turned into an exercise of white-knuckle vigilance to steer clear of all the semis passing you on your left). By the way, we soon realized we had to have a driver and a co-pilot at all times given how quickly the wind could knock you sideways. The driver had to watch the road and conditions, the copilot review the map, anticipate the next place to get gas, where the best exits were, etc. The driver needed to focus on the road and the speedometer. In Western Iowa, when my son (in the Army Reserve Transportation Corp) was driving, a semi passing on our left hit one of those gusts and came over into our lane. Our driver’s side mirror was slammed into its safety breakaway position close up to the vehicle, rendering us unable to see anything happening in the lane next to us. (Because the cab is lower than the living part of the RV, the normal rear-view mirror is only of use for seeing helicopters to your rear, or when you reach the bottom of a downhill section of highway to look back up the hill.) For a brief moment, my son was driving totally blind. Any thought of grabbing the license plate of the truck that caused the offense was superseded by the desperate need to get the mirror back out in its position so we could see the traffic behind and to the left of us. By the time we accomplished that action the perpetrator was too far down the road (we were going 60 or less while he was traveling at 70+ mph.) And because it was a construction zone, the lanes were narrow, traffic was compacted, and it was not advisable to pull off the road onto the shoulder. After about 15 minutes we were able to pull off the road and determine what if any damage the vehicle had sustained. (Needless to say, we didn’t find the offending semi waiting for us at that location. And to be fair, maybe he didn’t realize what had happened, although you’d think he heard the sound of our mirror thwapping closed or some sharp point on his side scoring a nice clean line down the driver’s side of the RV.) At any rate, it was now late in the afternoon, we desperately needed to communicate with the RV park we were spending the night at to advise we were running late, so it was not possible to get word to Russel or anyone about what had happened until later. We sent pictures the next day. We had tentatively planned to return to the Midwest using Interstate 70 through Kansas, as long as we could figure out a way to avoid traffic in downtown Kansa City and St Louis. But this made up our minds that we would not come back on I-80. I would think that construction there will last all Summer. What is left to convey is that this RV experience was wonderful, despite the incident. My 98-year old Mother appreciated not having to be in a car, moving in and out of motels for a 3 day trip, able to provide our own meals on the route and save money, and only have to confront the challenge of stairs once while getting on in Colorado and the second time once we arrived at my home in the Chicago area. And the RV handled all of Mom’s possessions and limited furniture without any noticeable loss in power. Russel was available at all times to provide help as we were learning how to use all the features on the RV. I once expressed I was sorry we had to disturb him so often, but he immediately remarked something to the effect that this was what he was there for. All in all a 5-star experience, and this from someone with decades of experience driving from Chicago to Colorado or Kansas and back.

Camper was very clean and well stocked. Had everything we needed. Great communication with the host and he was very accommodating. Would definitely rent again!