The week before you leave — what to confirm, plan, and check so nothing derails departure day. Organized by how many days out each task should happen.
The smoothest camping departures share one characteristic: decisions that could have been made the night before were made the night before. Reservation confirmations, campground directions, grocery runs, packing, charging — any of these left to departure morning adds stress and creates conditions for something important to get forgotten. This checklist works backward from departure, assigning tasks to the week before, three days out, the night before, and departure morning.
Campground confirmations deserve more urgency than most travelers give them. Reservations do get cancelled, misbooked, or overridden by campground scheduling systems — sometimes without notification. A quick confirmation call or app check 48 hours before departure prevents the worst version of that surprise. While you're at it, confirm site access for your trailer's length, road conditions, and that your arrival date shows correctly.
Time-staged beats one big list. Most departure-day disasters were a T-2 task nobody did. Work through this week by week — the earlier tasks are confirmations and research; the later tasks are physical checks and loading.
Do these checks 2 days out, not the morning of. If the battery is dead or the propane tank is empty, you have time to fix it. On departure morning, you don't.
Starting the fridge 4–8 hours before departure is not optional. An RV absorption refrigerator takes that long to reach temperature. Packing warm food into a warm fridge is how you get sick on day 2.
These ride in the tow vehicle, not the trailer. You'll need them during the drive — don't bury them.
Reserve a dump station stop in advance if your destination doesn't have one. Some campgrounds charge heavily for dump-station-only visits. Know your options before you're full.
Charge everything the night before — power station, phones, kids' tablets, and the trailer battery if you're not on shore power. There's never enough time on departure morning.
Confirm your reservation 48 hours out. Campground reservations do get cancelled or overbooked. A quick call or app check prevents arriving to find your site occupied.
The week before: confirm reservation details and campground access for your trailer's length, inspect trailer tires for pressure and condition, top off propane, replace or flush the water filter if needed, check battery charge, and do your grocery run for non-perishables. Three days before: complete packing and load non-perishables. The night before: load the cooler, charge all devices, pre-fill the water tank if dry camping. Morning of: load final items, hitch up, and run the hitch safety checklist before driving.
Fill your fresh water tank before trips where you won't have hookup access (dry camping or boondocking) or where your destination has uncertain water quality. For campgrounds with full hookups, connecting directly to city water keeps your tank fresh and avoids carrying the extra weight. If you fill the tank more than 48 hours before the trip, add a small amount of water tank treatment to maintain freshness.
The week before departure: check tire pressure and look for sidewall cracking or uneven wear, verify all running lights and brake lights work, test trailer brakes with the in-cab controller, confirm battery is charged, and inspect the roof and exterior seals for winter damage if it's the first trip of the season. On departure day, run the full hitch safety checklist before driving.
All 10 checklists, works without cell signal, installs to your home screen in one tap.