24 weeks, 30 states, 3 countries, 6 islands, 2 ferry rides, 15,012 miles
Pacific, Atlantic, Gulf, Great Lakes
North in the warm months, south in the cool ones
Max elevation: 11,210 feet
4 nights at RV campgrounds, 2 nights at Wal-Marts, 5 nights in hotels, a few nights in friends’ driveways, the rest of our nights were spent boondocking (~90%)
This is not well organized because I’m super busy, but here’s a bit more info for fellow Chinookers if interested…
I did a ton of preparatory work and I made many modifications prior to departure, so fortunately the mechanical problems on the road were limited. I had to replace the rear brakes in a hotel parking lot, I had to replace the house water pump, and I had to do some electrical work while camped in the Badlands of SD with wild bison closely observing
. There were a few other minor mechanical issues that popped up (mostly due to my meddling 
), but otherwise the Chinook was absolutely the perfect machine for the job. I can’t tell you how many fellow campers pointed at my Chinook and said, “I want to get something like that instead.” I’m not embarrassed to say that my number one favorite thing about having a small 21 ft rig is being able to turn around on a remote narrow dirt road after a navigational error 
. Explore in confidence! The Ford 460 averaged 11.8 mpg for the whole trip. I cruised at 63-65 mph, and I used the Fuelio app to calculate mpg and costs. I burned a quart of oil every 3000 miles (full synthetic), and I did two oil changes. The rig weighs 8000 lbs wet and loaded with all of our gear, lots of tools, inflatable kayak, lots of canned food, several gallons of drinking water, our 100 pound retriever, and 50 lbs of dog food (the gourmet stuff, of course). Oregon truck scales are the best, btw. I used a quarter tank of propane during the course of the entire trip; the cooktop and water heater are the only consumers. Random thought: I never once leveled the rig. 200 watts of rooftop solar and two golf batteries handled our power needs quite well, and I never combined. I’m running a 4.5 cubic foot compressor fridge, LED lights, water pump, occasional TV, and occasional marine fans. Phones, tablet, drill batteries, et cetera were all charged at 12V while driving. The weather was radically varied, from brutal humidity in Pennsylvania, to 19F nighttime lows in Utah, to torrential downpours in Wisconsin, to the sunbaked earth of the desert. On very rare occasion, I fired up my Honda generator to run a 6000 btu window air conditioner or a small electric space heater, and to run a soldering iron a couple times. I love this Chinook.And the most important part….. We live in a stunningly beautiful country!
). Still, I've never weighed in below around 9,500#. I can't imagine how I'd lose another 1,500#, even if I packed light. Maybe its those horizontal stripes - not supposed to be a slimming effect