What`s your most boneheaded RV moment?

[Scott]

First time out with the new PUP it was really hot and a storm was coming. In a rush I got the trailer chocked, disconnected, jacks, power, raised the roof, brought out the beds and slide and got everything buttoned down. The storm was not there yet so I decied to hook up the water. Then I realized the hose was in the front compartment under the bed and I couldn't open it without bring the bed back in and couldn't reach the hose from the inside access door. Well, the next morning, the slides and bed went back in so I could finally hook up water.

The third time out we decided to bring to stove outside to cook. Hooked it up to the side of the trailer, made sure the gas was on at the tanks, turned on the stove, no flame. Checked the tanks again, no flame. Took about a hour to remember the little valved next to the quick connect on the outside of the trailer.

[nettech]

Just picked up my TT get it to house all excited about unhooking getting it all set up do a overnight infront of the house with the kids. The first thing I do wrong and took me about a hour of cranking up and down was the didn't unlock the ball hitch correctly. the tab wasn't pulled all the way back needless to say cranking the trailer up to the point the bed of my TV was over my head. I finally figured out what i did unhooked the trailer removed all the chains at least what i thought I did . We did'didn't stay in TT first night but the next day decided to level the TT and hook everything back up try to pull forward would 'nt budge tried backwards wouldn't budge floor the gas a bit heered a pop and trailer was moving but wheels weren't, stopped got out of truck walked around tried to figure out what went wrong noticed a thin cable hanging from my truck picked it up had a plastic t shape end on it didnt know where it went then bent down look under my TV and then under TT noticed the Brake saftey switch box and said hmm plug the plastic stick into it and could hear my brakes unlock. Then to add to the frustration got TT level and set opened the door and had no power dealer said he put 2 new bat in the TT needless to say I figured out the brakes drew all the power

[John LLRV]

1. Tilt awning for rain runoff..... braces snapped, pole bent.. went through one on my PUP.. 1 on my 30'TT..

2. Bring awning in for winds.. was camping in the PUP when we had micro-bursts of 75MPH.. found awning in pieces around a 50 foot area

3. Refer to #2.. PUP camping in South Dakota.. went out sight seeing.. calm.. came back to the awning braces being bent, awning on top of the PUP, and vent-lid shattered.

So, for you at home keeping score.. PUP.. 3 awnings.. TT 1 awning. And the DW wonders why I am gun-shy about leaving the awning out...

[bigbird]

Sorry Johnllrv but I'm bursting at the seems after reading your post. I'm also gun-shy about leaving the awning out after hearing of so many mishaps. I hope that's your last score.

[John LLRV]

Heh.. me too!

[Crabman]

Wow John, you have quite a history with awnings!

[Camper_bob]

I'm gun shy about my awning too, and never even had a real incident. I'm hoping being this way will ensure nothing ever DOES happen.

One night I had decided to toss the dice and leave the awning out. Well, at about 0530 I was awoken by the tell-tale "kathump" of the awning getting blown around. I violently stirred and breathlessly asked DW "did you hear that?" She says, "yeah, what the hell was that?" As my head is clearing, I identified the sound and said "$h!t, that's the awning!" Bolt outta bed and run for the switch. Turned out it was just a little gust coming in with a cold front, and the awning did exactly what it was designed to do by collapsing on the strut and flexing back into place. But it sure did get my heart going that morning!

Lesson learned: bring the awning in at night, no matter what. And I didn't even have to learn that one the hard way!

[John LLRV]

I am known at the campground as either "Bald-ing Eagle" (kids gave that one to me..) or "Awning Man". Not the best one, especially now that "Trojan" has the "Trojan Man" commercials... gets a lot of laughs when I walk into the office for coffee..

[Camper_bob]

LOL!! I just heard the jingle in my head: "Awning MAN!!"

[Dirtfan]

Haven't really pulled a bone head move yet but i'll find out next spring when I dewinterize my camper

[Djherb]

My bonehead move, many years ago I had pulled my TT into the side yard where I kept it & unhitched it from my truck. As I pulled the truck away to park it I felt a jerk & heard a sickening tearing sound. I stopped & got out to find I had left the light cord hooked to my truck. Cut it completely in half !!
Now the first thing I unhook is the light cord & the safety chains are always last !!

[Jayco Jacqui]

Gosh, where to start.

#1. On our last trip out I hooked up the trailer and didn't get the power cord door latched properly. The cord came out and dragged on the ground. By the time we noticed, it was half gone.

#2. Biggest bonehead move was pulling into this beautiful campsite on the river that was a little too small for our trailer. We got in with no problem but when we pulled out to leave the trailer hit a tree root and lurched to the side and just about tore the awning off.

#3. Pulling into the gas station and not turning wide enough to clear the big yellow post protecting the fuel pump. Luckily noticed before too much damage. Just a little paint transfer

I've got a few more but I'll save some space for someone else

Jacqui

[Redhorse 823]

Camping in Florida we never needed heat.
We don't cook inside or use propane for the fridge
Had no idea the tanks were not/never filled. Temp dropped to high 30s and, well the wife was not happy we did not have any heat that night
She went out and bought an electric heater for back up on the next trip...
Still never filled the tanks on the old unit--Our new Jayco came with filled tanks

[Camper_bob]

Originally Posted by Redhorse 823

She went out and bought an electric heater for back up on the next trip...

We don't often use heat here in S. Texas either, but this was one of the first things to go in the trailer when we brought it home last October.

[Taurus2415]

We took a trip last year in November and I emptied the tanks and winterized the camper for the season. We took our next trip last week. We got to the site just before sundown and so we quickly set up and had dinner and settled in for the night. The next morning I finished setting up and when I took the cap off the holding tank, I discovered that I had forgotten to close the black tank valve from the previous trip. Fortunately there was only minor spillage (I am still pretty quick) and no apparent witnesses. I muttered a few unmentionables and then made a mental note to close the !&$!)&@ valve BEFORE disconnecting the dump hose. Sigh.

[Brownie]

Haven't even taken the Eagle out of the storage lot, so haven't broken anything on it yet. Have done a few bone-head things over the years, but one, in particular, comes to mind. I was headed out of Grand Rapids on a hunting trip to Nebraska, hauling my first trailer - A Road Runner 180 - and decided to make a quick phone call. Heck, I can drive and talk on the cell phone at the same time. NOT! As I reached for the cell phone on the seat next to me, I let the truck wander off the road a tad. I jerked the wheel to bring the truck back onto the road, and the trailer started to fishtail. Well, I knew enough to accelerate a little, then ease my foot off the gas, and that straightened things out OK. Pulled into a rest stop an hour later and noticed water under the trailer. Didn't think much about it until I got all the way to the Nebraska campground, hooked up, turned on the water pump and no water. I had filled the tank before leaving, because I knew the state parks turn off their fill stations at the end of September. The water tank was under the bed, and (being a "value line" trailer) the Road Runner didn't have struts to lift the bed. I finally wrestled it out of the way to find the water tank had slid to the opposite end of the bed during my little fishtail episode. The hose was pulled out of the pump, and the entire 20 gal. contents of the tank had leaked out, through the floor, and onto I-196, I-94- and I-80. Put everything back together and got through the night with some bottled water I had brought. Ran to Wal-Mart the next morning, purchased some 2.5 Gal. bottles of drinking water, filled the tank, but still no water . . . for the next three days. Hunting was miserable, so we decided to pull the trailer to another part of the state, and spend a night at a motel, so we could take much-needed showers. Set up camp the next day, and lo-and-behold we had water. Evidently, an air bubble had developed in the water line, and moving the trailer worked it loose.

I Haven't talked on a cell phone while driving since!

[sprale]

A couple of summers ago, we travelled from Texas through the New Mexico fires, then to southern California, slept on the slopes of Mt St Helens, looped around Mount Olympia, then to Yellowstone before heading home through the Colorado fires. It was a great trip, almost a month on the road with our two kids. We all really enjoyed the trip, really saddened when it came to an end and we realized we just couldn't stay on the road forever. Our kids got along great and we all enjoyed almost a month of peaceful adventure before returning to a somewhat unfamiliar life.

Our trip was nearly without incident, though we took my wife's Land Rover LR3, which is not the best vehicle for extended trips with a large travel trailer. The independent suspension is just not up to the task, and we ended up having to replace most of the front suspension along with the front differential and many other parts after it was all said and done. We knew we were pushing the limits of the vehicle, which was on the edge of the range for our trailer, and we paid the price. A year later, we picked up our F250 and wish we'd gone that route in the first place. Once I became used to it, I found that the short wheelbase of the Rover made it easy to park the trailer nearly anywhere we wanted, including a nice little campground among the Redwoods in northern California.

We took a few wrong turns along our trip, but the two most memorable ended up being around San Francisco. First, we crossed the Golden Gate bridge and headed up to the national park overlooking the bridge and bay. We managed to find space to park, and I was often surprised by the maneuverability of the combination of the short wheelbase of the Rover with the big camper. When we left the park and headed back to the highway, I had to turn around in a parking lot, very tight. I ended up grazing the side of a car with the trailer bumper. Or, I though so. A passerby helped guide me in reverse to clear some vehicles, then he said he thought I hit one of the cars, but the vehicle in question looked like it had escaped a crusher in a scrapyard, and we couldn't tell if I had damaged it, but it was too damaged to tell one way or another. Heading out of the park and back to the highway, there is a tight parking area that leads to a tunnel, with a very tight intersection. We ended up forcing a city bus to reverse to give us room, because we were unable to reverse ourselves at that point. Once out of the parking area, on our way to the highway, I took a wrong turn a headed back to San Francisco, had to pay the toll and then turn around on the other side and go North again.

That wasn't quite the end, though. We had seen pictures along Highway One and wanted to take it in ourselves, so after crossing the bridge again, we got onto Highway One. We tend to play it by ear when traveling, but sometimes it pays to plan ahead. Immediately, we saw a sign that said no trailers. "How bad could it be?" we thought. Well, it wasn't that bad, but it was the longest stretch of constant tight turns we'd ever driven, and we clogged traffic for hours. That stretch out of San Francisco is not for large RV and travel trailers. I definitely recommend the drive, but in a smaller vehicle. Take the 101, save yourself time and frustration.

[mcfarmall]

One time I almost pulled away from the trailer with the safety chains still hooked up.

[sprale]

Originally Posted by mcfarmall

One time I almost pulled away from the trailer with the safety chains still hooked up.

I have an old flatbed trailer I bought after high school when I bought my first truck. I had it loaded, more toward the rear than I should have. When I disconnected the hitch from the ball, the trailer jumped, and the hitch scraped down the tailgate, landing back on the ball again. I shifted the load and disconnected, but the gouge down the tailgate was a reminder to check everything before disconnecting and load the trailer safely.

[bigbird]

Originally Posted by mcfarmall

One time I almost pulled away from the trailer with the safety chains still hooked up.

Almost doesn't count......Just kidding.