What Is an RV Rally Like? Our First Open Roads Rally

An RV rally is a few days of camping with a big group of RVers, plus vendor booths, talks, group outings and plenty of time to make new friends. Most rallies also bring in service pros, so you can get real work done on your rig while you’re already parked. That’s exactly what we found at the very first Open Roads RV rally at The Ridge Outdoor Resort in Sevierville, Tennessee.

Village Welcome! We’re Jimmy and Lisa with FindUsCamping, and we just rolled from that rally all the way down to the Florida Keys. So here’s what the rally was really like, plus what we learned on the long travel days after it.

What actually happens at an RV rally?

It’s part campout, part trade show and part reunion. You park, set up, and then the schedule fills your days with talks, booths and group activities.

At this one, vendors had booths and also took turns speaking to the group. Rivet Supply was there with their adventure boards and map boards. Big Beard Batteries, Roamly insurance, Fantasy Tours and Performance Trailer Braking all showed up too. It was a good mix of people selling things and people teaching things.

Then there was the fun stuff. A little bus picked everybody up for leaf tours, so nobody had to drive. Plus, a mama bear and three cubs wandered through the campground, and folks got pictures. Mostly, though, it was time to hang out with fellow RVers and talk about cool new stuff. For a first-time event, we think they knocked it out of the park.

Where was the first Open Roads RV rally?

It was at The Ridge Outdoor Resort in Sevierville, right in that Pigeon Forge area of the Smokies. This was our second stay there, but our first time staying more than a couple of nights.

Lisa loves it because you get the quiet, away from the crazy, but you’re only a couple of minutes from it. Everything sits up on a ridge, so you get that mountain feel too. We can’t name a single complaint about the resort itself.

We also showed up a day early, right on Halloween weekend. People decorated their sites, kids went trick-or-treating, and there was a spooky trail set up in a cleared area out back. We didn’t have trick-or-treaters with us, so we rode around in the golf cart and checked out everybody’s costumes. There was pumpkin carving and a golf cart parade, too. Everybody there was locked into Halloween!

Is it worth getting RV service done at an RV rally?

Yes, if a vendor you trust is there. It’s convenient, and rally vendors often offer discounts or special pricing while you’re on site.

For example, we had Performance Trailer Braking repack our wheel bearings during the rally. Jimmy can normally do that himself. But on the road, without all the right tools, it’s way easier to let a pro handle it. Jimmy kept doing rally stuff while the work got finished. They also install disc brakes, and they work with MORryde, a company we work closely with. If you don’t have disc brakes yet, Jimmy says they’re a must.

How far should you drive on an RV travel day?

There’s no single right answer. It comes down to the driver, the weather and how badly someone wants to get where they’re going.

Lisa plans our stops, so she always gives Jimmy options. This time he picked one stop, because everybody knows Jimmy wants to get to the Keys. An eight-hour travel day isn’t hard for him. Still, he’ll tell you he loves the two-and-a-half-hour days.

First, though, we had to get out of the mountains. The drive through Asheville was rough, because the clouds sat right on the road. In spots you could barely see the hood of the truck. Then the sky cleared as we headed southeast.

Our overnight at a Love’s RV stop

We stopped halfway at the Love’s RV stop in Jacksonville, Florida, right off I-295. It had four full hookup sites, and we grabbed the very last one. You reserve online, then check in from the app, and it turns your power on.

With the Open Roads VIP discount, our night came to about $65. We grabbed dinner at the Bojangles inside, never unhooked, and we were rolling with fuel by 6:00 a.m. The only downside was the music at the fuel pumps playing all night. Oh, and a car alarm went off. We jumped up to check, but this time it was not us!

Should you travel with water in your RV tank?

We do, every time, everywhere we go. But you have to know your weight first, because water is heavy.

Here’s why we carry it. Many rest areas on our way down were under construction, so a full tank means Lisa can use our own bathroom instead of a porta-john. Also, we’ve arrived at campgrounds after two days of driving and found the water shut off for repairs. In the Keys, a king tide can even cause flooding and shut things down.

For reference, our RV is 42 feet long and weighs roughly 17,000 to 18,000 pounds. We tow it with a Ford F-450 dually. On flat roads we get about 9 miles per gallon, but in the mountains that drops to around 6.5 or 7.

How do you save on fuel after an RV rally?

We use the free Open Roads fuel card. At the RaceTrac on Marathon Key, the pump said $5.89, but we paid about $5.70 a gallon. That’s 19 cents a gallon on a big tank.

Here’s the whole “grueling” process:

1. Pull into the truck fueling lane, which is easy in an RV because it’s made for big rigs.
2. Swipe your Open Roads card.
3. Enter your code and choose fuel.
4. Pump your fuel and save.

Yes, it took Jimmy a couple of tries on camera. Lisa promises it wasn’t his first time. You can learn more on the Open Roads website, and we shared more ways to save in our post on RV fuel prices.

What we’d do again after our first RV rally

• Arrive a day early to settle in and enjoy the campground.
• Book service with a rally vendor while you’re parked anyway.
• Ask vendors about rally-only discounts.
• Plan travel days around the driver, not the map.
• Carry fresh water, as long as your weight allows it.
• Use a fuel card on the long drive home.

If you love being around a crowd of RVers, you’ll like our take on group RV travel too. And now we’re settled in at Sugarloaf Key RV Resort for November, a Blue Water property, for our end-of-season campout and Friendsgiving with the village.

Quick answers

What is an RV rally? It’s a gathering of RVers at one campground for several days, with vendors, talks, activities and social time.

Do you need to be an expert to go to an RV rally? Not at all. Rallies are a great place for new RVers to learn and make friends.

Can you get RV repairs done at a rally? Often, yes. Service vendors like brake and bearing pros may work on rigs right at your site.

How much does a Love’s RV stop cost? Our full hookup night in Jacksonville was about $65 with the Open Roads VIP discount.

What’s the best part of full-time RV life? For us, it’s going to see the places and meet the people.

Come camp with the village

We’d love to see you at one of our gatherings. Check out our FindUsCamping campouts, join the FindUsCamping Villagers group on Facebook, and subscribe on YouTube to ride along. Then tell us: where’s your favorite place to RV in the summer, and where do you go in the winter? Find us where the memories are!