The Shake Down
My shakedown trip was about 2 weeks long. Just enough time to figure out the kinks with the van and make some adjustments before heading to St. Louis for Thanksgiving. After making my first stop in Knoxville, I kept heading east toward the Smoky Mountains. If you want to put a new van to the test, take it through some windy mountain roads.
I very quickly found out which cabinet doors were not secure and how items would shift on certain turns. The most pressing issue identified on the shakedown was the huge 4 foot sliding shelf unit in the garage of the van. Every time I accelerated, even just a tiny bit, it would slam into the back doors of the van. The shelves are made out of upcycled steel angle and the entire unit is very heavy on its own, let alone when it is packed down with stuff. I kept imagining the shelves breaking through the doors, hitting another car, and leaving all my things scattered across the road. I found a hardware shop in Cherokee, NC, a small town nestled in the valley of the Smokies. I bought two ratchet straps and locked the unit in place. This was a temporary solution until I could figure out how to best fix this issue.
That night, I also decided to sleep at an overlook spot in the Smokies (one of the highest points in the East). It was freezing up there and the temperature got down to 28 degrees that night.
My van does not have a heating and cooling unit outside of the normal AC in the cab. I did, however, have a MrBuddy small propane heater. This type of heater uses propane to create an open flame and heats a space. You cannot use this in a closed space so I had to crack a window and then turn it off before going to sleep. That night I slept with three blankets and a hat on because I was so cold.
Next I went on to Asheville and again found a lot on iOverlander that was in the middle of District Arts. I again was so nervous about getting in trouble for parking in this area that I kept all of my lights off. And again, it was freezing in Asheville so I moved further south to South Carolina. In South Carolina, I finally found a spot that I was comfortable parking in for a few days. It was down on a small boat ramp near a river and had a large grassy field where I could throw the ball for my dog and tire him out without taking myself on a five mile walk with him (which is what I had been doing when we were in cities and he could not be off leash). Then, it was time to head back to STL.
Overall, the shakedown was successful and I was happy with how the van handled the trip. I also had a list of things I wanted to fix and items I wanted to pack (more blankets) before hitting the road again.
