What`s your most boneheaded RV moment?

[Duke4857]

On our last trip I pulled the truck and trailer to a stop in front of my mom's house. (She moved there about 3 years ago. I have never been there to visit.) The house is in a cul de sac. It comes time to leave. The cul de sac is too small to turn the truck and trailer around in with the car that was parked on the street. I had to back out of the cul de sac onto the semi-busy 3 lane road. I asked my wife to tell me when it is clear enough than block traffic. I backed out with no trouble just a little red faced about not being able to turn around. All is well except the bonehead.

[Bookemdanno]

I’ve got one to add for my buddy last night. He drove his class C about 22 miles to camp ground last night for inaugural trip. I met him at his site as he’s backing in and he tells me he has no breaks and I can smell the pads/rotors and feel the heat coming off them. I couldn’t even put my hand on the hub, it was that hot. He gets out with the engine running and asks me what I think. I asked him if he drive to the park with the emergency brake on? He says no. I look inside and see the brake is set and ask him if he set it before he got out....hummm is his response! He drove the whole way with the brake on. The brake fluid even boiled over a bit.

I’ll head back over this morning to see if he damaged anything too bad.

[Camper_bob]

Originally Posted by Bookemdanno

I’ve got one to add for my buddy last night. He drove his class C about 22 miles to camp ground last night for inaugural trip. I met him at his site as he’s backing in and he tells me he has no breaks and I can smell the pads/rotors and feel the heat coming off them. I couldn’t even put my hand on the hub, it was that hot. He gets out with the engine running and asks me what I think. I asked him if he drive to the park with the emergency brake on? He says no. I look inside and see the brake is set and ask him if he set it before he got out....hummm is his response! He drove the whole way with the brake on. The brake fluid even boiled over a bit.

I’ll head back over this morning to see if he damaged anything too bad.

See?! I'm not the only one!!

Thankfully I didn't get that far!

[harryjr]

Originally Posted by Bookemdanno

I’ve got one to add for my buddy last night. He drove his class C about 22 miles to camp ground last night for inaugural trip. I met him at his site as he’s backing in and he tells me he has no breaks and I can smell the pads/rotors and feel the heat coming off them. I couldn’t even put my hand on the hub, it was that hot. He gets out with the engine running and asks me what I think. I asked him if he drive to the park with the emergency brake on? He says no. I look inside and see the brake is set and ask him if he set it before he got out....hummm is his response! He drove the whole way with the brake on. The brake fluid even boiled over a bit.



I’ll head back over this morning to see if he damaged anything too bad.

The mileage on this new camper SUCKS!"

[HabibaNola]

[*]Forgot to attach breakaway cord to truck. Then drove for about 150 miles with it dangling on the road.

Well, I'm a newby - every trip I learn something.

This time, it was that the breakaway cord has a little white plastic pin attached to the TT side of the cord. If you can actually SEE that little white plastic thing (yours might vary in appearance), that is Not Good! I was towing my tt in to have the brackets for the WDH adjusted and completely burned out my brakes because that pin was disconnected from the switch that is mounted to the trailer frame - so the trailer was trying desperately to stop what it believed was a run-away trailer situation. $$$ one more lesson. Hope this spares someone else!

[Jacotim]

Originally Posted by HabibaNola

[*]Forgot to attach breakaway cord to truck. Then drove for about 150 miles with it dangling on the road.

Well, I'm a newby - every trip I learn something.

This time, it was that the breakaway cord has a little white plastic pin attached to the TT side of the cord. If you can actually SEE that little white plastic thing (yours might vary in appearance), that is Not Good! I was towing my tt in to have the brackets for the WDH adjusted and completely burned out my brakes because that pin was disconnected from the switch that is mounted to the trailer frame - so the trailer was trying desperately to stop what it believed was a run-away trailer situation. $$$ one more lesson. Hope this spares someone else!

I'm sorry, but that made me laugh. Did you notice that it was pulling harder than usual? There is some good you tube videos on how to properly connect that break away cable.

Good luck!

[2naEagle]

Maybe bonehead maybe not (sometimes trouble just seems to follow some people). I saw this yesterday. I noticed no chock blocks and a block and boards built up on the front. So I got to looking and was very surprised at how many people do not have chocks on their wheels.
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[Camper_bob]

Originally Posted by 2naEagle

Maybe bonehead maybe not (sometimes trouble just seems to follow some people). I saw this yesterday. I noticed no chock blocks and a block and boards built up on the front. So I got to looking and was very surprised at how many people do not have chocks on their wheels.
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Could just be the angle of the image, but I think that's a little nose down. Fridge probably won't run right at that angle...



That was one of my worst fears when I had my trailer, so I NEVER forgot the chocks.

[rickemo]

We spent a great week in Chincoteague VA and it was also the first time towing our Jeep Wrangler behind our Jayco Melbourne. When leaving we went through our normal checklists and started to pull out. It seems like something was dragging so I put the transmission into tow mode and still no change. Suddenly two golf carts were coming toward us with hands waving. We neglected to take off the parking brake on the Jeep. The site and roads were all sand and pine needles and we dug two 6” deep troughs about 100 feet long. It was easy to cover up our tracks and there was no harm no foul. So now the wife watches the shells of the Jeep roll as park of our signal and brake light check.

[Kinggartk]

Was pulling away from campsite with my Trailer...checked my side view mirror and noticed I was still hooked up to shore power. 5 more feet and I would done a ton of damage...to my trailer and the power pole.

I'll not make that mistake again.

[AmericanBiker]

Brand new trailer on a maiden voyage and spent a weekend camping without septic hookup. When leaving, I pulled up to the dump station and popped the cap off only to discover that BOTH dump valves had been left open during the pdi the week before. Never leaked a drop.... until I popped that cap off.

[RVermont]

Originally Posted by AmericanBiker

Brand new trailer on a maiden voyage and spent a weekend camping without septic hookup. When leaving, I pulled up to the dump station and popped the cap off only to discover that BOTH dump valves had been left open during the pdi the week before. Never leaked a drop.... until I popped that cap off.

Takes a strong person to admit to that one, I have a picture in my mind.... hope it was not as bad as I envision it.

[AmericanBiker]

Originally Posted by RVermont

Takes a strong person to admit to that one, I have a picture in my mind.... hope it was not as bad as I envision it.

The worst part was the witnesses that were present.

[RVermont]

Hopefully strangers and not family or worse friends. Neither of whom will cut you any slack and will bring it up at the worst times. LOL.

[DocBrown]

I keep up with this thread now and again. I've a few goofy things have happened, nothing too dramatic though.

But then I just remembered something I did with our previous hybrid trailer. It was a 2003 and it was made before Jayco started using the cables to hold the bunk ends up. We were with friends and got to our site a little later than we wanted to. I was trying to hurry to go out to dinner. I pulled the back bed open and realized I didn't have the prop bars to hold up the bed. Instead of re-latching the bed I pushed it up and it seemed to stay. I ran to the pass through in the front where I kept the bars. Then I heard the bed wall drop, and also heard the tail lights shatter. Yikes! The next morning was spent looking for new tail lights instead of being out doing fun stuff.

[North of 49°]

Things you say to yourself: “Don’t grab the end that’s burning, you idiot.”

[Camper_bob]

Originally Posted by North of 49°

Things you say to yourself: “Don’t grab the end that’s burning, you idiot.”

And then sometimes you go and act a fool and grab the hot end anyway!!

Or is that just me?!

[GABob]

Been at this about a year now, and feel pretty good about having things under control when I set up and tear down to leave. So, was out about two months ago for a few days in Gatlinburg. Beautiful weather, not too windy where we were so it was the first time I had the awning extended overnight.



Everything unhooked and set to go in short order as we prepared to leave! Started to pull out, only to have my neighbor across the way start to wave frantically at me. He came up to the drivers window with a smile after I stopped, and recommended that I retract the awning before I pulled out completely. Would've gotten a few interesting looks a I hit the highway.

[HabibaNola]

Originally Posted by Jacotim

I'm sorry, but that made me laugh. Did you notice that it was pulling harder than usual? There is some good you tube videos on how to properly connect that break away cable.

Good luck!

Unfortunately I really didn't notice it was pulling harder - more than the first minute of getting it over the parking space mulch. Either the brakes weren't all that great to begin with (bought the 2018 trailer used a month or two before) or my Rav4 is WAY more capable than I was giving it credit for. I wasn't even in low gear! But as soon as I got out, the smell was readily noticeable...

I was staying off the highway, as I was headed in to get the weight distribution hitch realigned. Whatever felt different, I attributed to not having that hitch hooked up.

[wags999]

Originally Posted by HabibaNola

[*]Forgot to attach breakaway cord to truck. Then drove for about 150 miles with it dangling on the road.

Well, I'm a newby - every trip I learn something.

This time, it was that the breakaway cord has a little white plastic pin attached to the TT side of the cord. If you can actually SEE that little white plastic thing (yours might vary in appearance), that is Not Good! I was towing my tt in to have the brackets for the WDH adjusted and completely burned out my brakes because that pin was disconnected from the switch that is mounted to the trailer frame - so the trailer was trying desperately to stop what it believed was a run-away trailer situation. $$$ one more lesson. Hope this spares someone else!

When that is pulled the electric brakes come on, if it had been detached for awhile when parked you may of killed the battery, hence it may not of had enough power to actually fully activate the brakes...

Bet that doesn't happen again ! LOL

Happy Camping !