Getting Started

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Welcome to the RV LIFE Trip Wizard User Guide. 

RV LIFE Trip Wizard is designed to help make RV trip planning as intuitive as possible. RV LIFE Trip Wizard keeps into account your vehicle’s measurements, your route preferences, any road restrictions, and a whole lot more to ensure you have the most seamless RVing experience.

Trips planned in Trip Wizard automatically sync to Our RV Life Pro Mobile GPS app and are easily available to use on the road for live navigation.

Compatibility

RV LIFE Trip Wizard runs on PCs, Macs, iPads, iPhones and Android devices and requires Internet access and a modern browser. 

We back up your data each time you log in, update preferences, and make changes to existing trips, so you'll never have to worry about losing data in the event your device freezes or crashes.

Logging In To Trip Wizard

To start your journey with RV LIFE Trip Wizard:

  • Go to the Trip Wizard website.
  • Select “Member Login”. This is the screen you will see next:

  • Enter the email address and password you used to sign up with RV LIFE and click “Log In”. In case you have not set up an RV LIFE account yet, visit this page.
  • If you don’t remember your account details, click on “Forgot Your Password?” to reset your password.

First Time Login

When you first log in to RV LIFE Trip Wizard, you will be asked to set up your Default Settings, which includes your RV Info, road and mileage preferences, and your estimated expenses.

 

 

Note: The Default Settings are applied across all trips on Trip Wizard. However, members have the flexibility to modify settings for specific trips via the Trip Settings feature without altering the established defaults. Any adjustments made within Trip Settings affect only the current trip.

The Default Settings form consists of four sections- General, RV Info, Routing & Driving, and Expenses. Trip Wizard will calculate your routes on the basis of the information that you have provided in each section. 

Let’s have a detailed look into each section.

General

The General User Settings tab lets you set up some of your site behavior and appearance. 

  • Checking the Autoload my last trip checkbox ensures that every time you load RV LIFE Trip Wizard, your last trip loads automatically.
  • The Stop Details Display Preference gives you an option to either hover over a stop for stop details or to click on a stop to view details.
  • Map Resolution can be set to either High Resolution or Low Resolution.
  • You can set the Unit of measurement to either be Imperial or Metric.

RV Info 

The RV Info tab lets you add important information pertaining to your RV, including the height, length and weight of your RV. 

You can Manually Input RV Info, or  Look up RV Info from our database, which will source key RV details based on vehicle type, year, manufacturer, model, and trim. 

Under the RV/Truck Fuel Information, you will be able to input values that will be used in calculations for the fuel feature.

  • Select your Fuel Type from the drop down menu. This will be helpful when you're looking for gas stations near trip stops. We'll cover this in greater detail in Planning Your Trip.
  • Toggle whether or not you will be Carrying Propane on your trip. If Carrying Propane is toggled on AND you choose RV Friendly Routing (in the Routing & Driving tab), you will automatically be routed around tunnels that prohibit propane.
  • Fuel Capacity corresponds to the number of gallons your fuel tank can hold.
  • Fuel Economy is the amount of miles per gallon you can get in your RV.
  • Fuel Reserve is the amount of gas you want to have in reserve during the trip building process. RV LIFE Trip Wizard keeps track of your mileage and will place a refueling icon on the map once this threshold has been reached.

Routing & Driving

Routing: 

The Routing tab lets you set up your routing preferences to include or exclude highway, tolls, unpaved roads, and more.

Toggle “Yes” on the selected option to avoid tolls, highways, ferries, etc. The Trip Wizard will provide you with a route according to your preferences. 

RV LIFE Trip Wizard also aligns your travel dates with essential information regarding mountain passes, and seasonal road closures. Should your trip coincide with typical closure periods for these routes, the system will automatically select an alternate path to avoid disruptions.

Note: Some passes or roads close earlier/later than planned dates due to unforeseen circumstances like storms or flooding. It is always your responsibility to check with local authorities for any special announcements.

Driving Time Estimates

Driving Time Estimate allows you to set estimation preferences for distance traveled or number of hours traveled. These can be calculated either way to help you have a better understanding of your travel day.

  • If Use Routing Engine Estimate is selected, the Turn by Turn directions function will calculate drive time based on posted speed limits.
  • If Use My Average Driving Speed is selected, RV LIFE Trip Wizard will use the number you entered in the Average Driving Speed box above to determine travel time. 

Driving Radius

Driving Radius lets you calculate the amount of time/distance you wish to drive each day.

You can select from three different options:

  • Show Advanced Driving Radius shows you a radius based on either average driving hours per day or based on the maximum and minimum distances. This radius is set on the actual road you might travel to in any direction.
  • Show Classic Driving Radius shows you the radius in the form of a circle or circles based on your preferred Driving Distance option. It displays a circular area on the map indicating a specific driving distance or time from a central point. 
  • Don’t Show A Radius will not show any radius

Driving Distance

Driving distance lets you decide how you’d like your driving distance calculated. 

  • The first option will give you a single radius based on how many hours a day on average you would like to drive.
  • The second option will give you three radii showing the minimum distance, the middle distance and the maximum distance you would like to drive,

Expenses

The Expenses tab helps you estimate the cost of each trip you create by adding a rough estimate of expenses for things like Camping, Meals, Miscellaneous Expenses as well as the Average Cost per Gallon of fuel.

For each stop RV LIFE Trip Wizard will default to these estimates. You can manually override these defaults as desired by using the trip tools wrench icon from within an individual open trip.

After entering data in each tabbed section, simply click the 'Save Default Settings' button. This will ensure that your last edited trip is automatically loaded whenever you access the Trip Planner. For first-time users of Trip Wizard, it will default to the main trip screen.