We finally did it — the first outing with the new truck and trailer. Last weekend was a marathon of prep work: loading the trailer with bedding, pots, pans, chairs, the fire pit, and all the other “essentials” that somehow multiply the moment you own an RV. Then came fitting the weight‑distribution hitch and getting the truck to officially recognize the trailer.
The truck has the full tow package, which means it can do the kind of things that make you feel like you’re cheating. It automatically backs itself up to the hitch, and once you’re hooked up, you can steer the trailer with a rotary dial on the dash instead of trying to remember which way to turn the wheel while reversing. It’s basically magic.
We’d booked a campsite in Drumheller, figuring it would be warmer than the mountains. The plan was simple: leave Friday at lunchtime and spend two nights out there. But Alberta had other ideas. A spring snowstorm rolled in on Wednesday and dumped a foot and a half of snow on us. The idea of our very first tow being on icy, snow‑covered roads didn’t exactly scream “fun weekend,” so Friday was out.
By Saturday, the roads had improved enough that we decided to go for it and make it a one‑night trip. We picked the trailer up from storage around midday, double checked the hitch setup, and hit the road by 1 p.m. Drumheller is an easy hour‑and‑a‑half drive — mostly straight, mostly uneventful — and the truck handled the trailer without breaking a sweat. Fuel economy, however, was less enthusiastic: 20 L/100 km compared to 14 L/100 km without the trailer. Not unexpected, but still a bit of a gulp moment. The trailer itself towed beautifully, steady even when big rigs blasted past.
We stopped in Beiseker for what we thought would be a quick breakfast at a little café. “Quick” turned out to be optimistic. It took over an hour and a half to get an all‑day breakfast and a drink. Lovely people, decent food, but quite possibly the slowest service I’ve ever experienced. By the time we left, I felt like we should’ve earned loyalty points.
With the cold we had to keep the trailer fully winterized — which meant no hot water and, more importantly, no water at all. So this first trip quickly turned into a dry‑camping special: popup toilet, bottled water for drinking and brushing teeth, and a general sense of “we’ll laugh about this later.”
The good news is everything else worked exactly as it should. The stove, oven, furnace, lights, and fridge all behaved perfectly, and the trailer stayed warm and cosy through the night. The only real complaint was the mattress, which turned out to be a bit firmer than expected. Nothing an IKEA topper can’t fix, but definitely something we noticed after a long day of towing, snow delays, and the world’s slowest breakfast stop.
Still — for a first outing with a brand‑new rig, winterized and all — it felt like a solid win.
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