He’s here! (Are cars allowed to be male?)
We made the trek to Fife to pick him up, and he’s a beaut! But, man, was it a long day. After working for half a day, we made the trek to take delivery, then had the “concierge” walk-through before signing all the paperwork. Then, unfortunately, due to length of day, hit rush hour traffic on the way home. But – most importantly – we have him, and just in time for a trip!
Waiting for delivery
We’ve bought our fair share of cars – in multiple states – but never an RV before. We didn’t fully know what to expect, so maybe this will help someone doing this for the first time. Our experience involved placing a deposit on a vehicle that the dealership had already ordered but had not yet received shipping confirmation. We were told we would be contacted when it shipped with a delivery date.
The phone call came, and it was like when your realtor calls you to tell you that the seller of the house you’ve been dreaming about has accepted your offer. “Good news!” And then – unbelievably – it wasn’t about the shipment date, it was about the fact that the vehicle was already ON THE LOT! The excitement is tempered by the fact that it takes 5-7 business days for the RV to be ready for delivery. Then, there has to be an available appointment. It’s a process. We shifted around a few things in order to take delivery as soon as everything would be available, but we made it work.
Delivery day
We show up at our appointed time and are taken to the vehicle – which is in the showroom, plugged in, with all the amenities on display. There’s even a literal red carpet laid out along the side. Then begins the walkthrough – here’s all the systems and how they work. We had studied and read ahead of time (of course) so came prepared with a checklist of things. We also recorded a bunch of the walkthrough and explanations. It was highly recommended and seemed to make sense at the time, but I’m not sure we’ll go back and watch them. Who knows?
We asked a lot of questions. Maybe too many? But then again, we didn’t ask every question we had. Something we found out about after the walkthrough is that Storyteller has a delivery checklist of its own where the dealer and the buyer are supposed to check each item off. Well, that was already checked off on our behalf. I wish I would have known about that sooner because it was a streamlined version of what we brought with us, and it would have made it a bit more straight forward.
The checklist(s)
The ever-so-helpful Storyteller owner community (Facebook private group) has resources available for new owners, including a delivery checklist. We reviewed it and then modified it a bit to update it and organize it differently. You can access our version of the delivery checklist, and we’ve reproduced the Storyteller Overland one below.
Our suggested highlights to prepare for and take delivery:
- Read through the checklist(s) to generally familiarize yourself with the systems and where you might have questions.
- Bring cords to test outlets: ideally, that would include USB-A, USB-C, and a 12V cord. Consider a small AC adapter as well to test the 110V outlets. Otherwise, you can use the induction burner.
- Test water pressure and function at each location: galley sink, outdoor shower, indoor shower.
- Test drains at galley sink and indoor shower.
- There is a hidden storage locker on the driver side of the garage cabinet. It is keyed. Confirm that the key is present.
Initial observations
Of course, once we got him home, we decided to play around inside a bit and start to familiarize ourselves with the ins and outs of camper van ownership and usage.
The bed
The bed is amazingly easy to setup and store, as well as to configure into a table.
The garage
The dogs are going to have a ton of space underneath the bed in the garage, and we’re hoping they make this space their “cave.”
Bug screens
The jury is still out on the built-in bug screens. We love the fact that we can have the back door or the sliding door open for fresh air but not worry about bugs getting in. However, even in this quick analysis, we did notice a few things: namely, the side door bug screen needs some help finding the magnets to stay shut, and the rear door screen has a huge design flaw – a gaping hole cut around each striker. I swear a humming bird could fit through that. We’ll see how much we use them and whether the cost to upgrade to the best-in-class Rolef screens is necessary.
The rest
After tinkering for a bit and taking a handful of pictures, it was time to call it a night. The rest will have to wait for our first night. This is all very exciting, and we can’t wait to get it out on the road!
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