How I damaged my RV

[Zambolie]

As I was patting myself on the back for being responsible and checking for weight at a CAT scale, I parked between two semis to go in to get the slip. When I left; I pulled out too sharply and gashed (not scraped) gashed the entire length of the slide out.

$500 repair bill for new window, side wall, decals and cargo hatch.
Total loss of dignity as I pulled in to a full campground with grey tape on the side of our camper.

[heavynlori]

Originally Posted by Zambolie

As I was patting myself on the back for being responsible and checking for weight at a CAT scale, I parked between two semis to go in to get the slip. When I left; I pulled out too sharply and gashed (not scraped) gashed the entire length of the slide out.



$500 repair bill for new window, side wall, decals and cargo hatch.

Total loss of dignity as I pulled in to a full campground with grey tape on the side of our camper.

We had a similar incident on way to Disney World - it involved one of those u shaped things on end of gas pump island....did more damage getting away from it - ended up at Tropical Palms RV Resort first year they opened and they put us in the nicest section but unfortunately located on the end of the main road so EVERYONE could see our "boo-boo" - lots of stares and pointing 😉. It was right where the slide comes out on the driver side - looked like we were attacked by a giant can opener !!


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[asquared]

These were to my old tt, most were in our first year of ownership. Some were me, some were DH. I haven't had the new sabre long enough to be stupid yet.

1. Dh hooked the battery up backwards. We were leaving for myrtle beach in the summer and couldn't figure out why the fridge wouldn't run on propane. Got to myrtle and oops fridge wouldn't work on propane either. AC was out and half of my outlets didn't work. Several panicked hours later we learned our mistake thanks to the folks on rv.net forums. We were fortunate that we only blew 3 fuses. Oops we didn't have any extra fuses. After running all over myrtle beach we learned autozone carried the right fuses (camping world and all the other rv places were out of the size we needed). Note to self black is positive, white is negative. Other note to self always carry extra fuses of every size in your trailer.

2. dewinterizing at the campground for the first time, completely unsure of what to do, we had enlisted a neighboring camper to help us. We weren't sure the water heater was filling. Dh got the brilliant idea to loosen the drain plug a touch to see if water leaked out. Bad idea. The drain plug went flying across the campsite, the water sent chairs flying and soaked dh. The city water was hooked up and running. The neighbor sprinted to turn it off. It was all we could do to convince the neighbors wife it wasn't his idea. Ok no damage done but a good lesson learned, use the overflow valve to check the water heater.

3. This one was all me. I decided I was tired of the black tank odors so I decided to switch from drop ins to the geo method. Ordinarily this shouldn't be an issue. However, I decided to do this at 9 pm on a week night at a storage lot in the middle of nowhere 30 min from home. Of course I read up on the geo method and it said you can use bleach on occasion to help clean the tank. Sounded great to me. I read my drop ins and they had no mention of formaldehyde in them. Great. I poured in my tide detergent and my calgon water softener followed by bleach. Suddenly a must arose from my toilet. Ok, wth? Panic time. Nowhere to dump the tank. No water source to dilute. What did I do? Opened trailer Windows. Petrified of having made chlorine gas or maybe I was gonna have an explosion. Who knew? I made the 30 min drive home in 15 min... I dared cops to find me that night. Filled every bucket I could find with water and put them in the back of my armada uncovered. I flew back to the tt without spilling water (even with stepping on the brakes for deer). Poured a bunch of water in and came back the next day. Everything was ok. Took it to dump the tank. No issues. Lesson learned, do NOT play amateur chemist with the tanks. I stayed with the geo method and no more issues.

4. Our final insult before selling the tt was our awning. We were in Hershey this spring for the northeast crossroads rally. We left the awning out in beautiful weather while we went to the hershey museum. Came home to people telling us to check our awning as it had flipped up a few times. DH hadn't anchored the awning so it caught a wind and set sail over the roof. Luckily, DH hadn't tightened the awning arms (it was a manual awning) so the poles had separated when it flipped up. The awning had a small tear in it and had popped off the track. Also the foot where it attached to the trailer wall was cracked. We put the awning away for the rest of the trip. When we got home we found a dealership that fixed it for less than $70.

Ok now let's see if we have learned our lesson for the new 5er.... by the way how do you tilt the power awning?

[mlangdn]

I forgot to retract the TV antenna for the trip home. As i was going through an overpass, I remembered the antenna.......too late - I did some minor damage to the two aluminum rods, but nothing more. That was not on the checklist then.

[Kaadk]

Originally Posted by asquared

... by the way how do you tilt the power awning?

Pull on the arms.



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[asquared]

Originally Posted by Kaadk

Pull on the arms.



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DH does not believe me that these can be tilted. He is afraid he'll break it.

[dcheatwood]

Where do I start?
Didn't notice the extended eve on a 4x6' booth while checking into campground at canton, tx. The slide topper caught the cornet of the tin roof as I drove away and lifted the booth onto one corner and spun it completely around. The poor boy working in it was hanging out the window when it stopped spinning. No injury but ripped awning. Could have been worse.

[dcheatwood]

My father in law left out with his awning completely extended and tore it and all metal parts completely off the side of his fifth wheel on a utility pole. The park attendant chased him down with a golf cart to tell him about it. He just loaded it all in the 5er and brought it all home. We laughed for weeks.

[grayfox]

Pulled out from under the 5vr in Gettysburg PA with the tailgate closed...

and you know the rest of the story and $$$$ $ 1000.00

[jwedell]

Originally Posted by dcheatwood

My father in law left out with his awning completely extended and tore it and all metal parts completely off the side of his fifth wheel on a utility pole. The park attendant chased him down with a golf cart to tell him about it. He just loaded it all in the 5er and brought it all home. We laughed for weeks.

Reminds me of the movie RV


Started Out With Nothing,
Still Have Most Of It Left!

[Kaadk]

Originally Posted by asquared

DH does not believe me that these can be tilted. He is afraid he'll break it.

Hmm, maybe I jumped the gun. So, do you have:

a:

or

b:

If a, then yeah, pull down on the arm (gently) and then tighten the screw.

If b, I'm not sure. I thought they pulled, but I haven't tried one out yet and if he's worried, then maybe I'm wrong.

[Taranwanderer]

Originally Posted by Fun Box

Forgot to untie the emergency brake cable off the hitch, drove away, noticed the cable with the little plastic thingy and thought... "OMG, the emergency brakes are on, what am i gonna do, can't move the RV like this...." untill a neighboor told me i could just put the pin back in and it would be ok ..... lol

Yeah, i thought it was a "one time use" thingy. lol..

The e-brake breakaway also comes in handy if you have to change a trailer tire when you're disconnected from the TV. Found this out recently with my car trailer, I had my jeep parked in front of it but not connected to anything, and even with two wheels chocked, it kept wanting to roll when I'd jack it up. Pulled the e-brake pin, all 4 wheels locked up, and good to go.

I'm still trying to wrap my head around why the video guy feels the need to chock his wheels if he parks his rig at a restaurant or truck stop? Like he didn't trust his truck's transmission and parking brake? Someone please enlighten me here...?

Only major oops that I had was with the Salem, first day I had it. Came home from dealer, made a right turn into my driveway, and the drivers side rear overhang clipped my mailbox. Put a nice scrape down the last 3 feet or so of the body. From then on, I made the nearly 2 mile loop around my neighborhood to come at my house from the other side and make a left into my driveway. Never fixed it, it was a reminder to always GOAL!

[RJHuser]

After all these years, you'd think you'd learn.

Hitching up after the Goshen Rally, had DW helping with pulling the chocks. I put the truck in gear and tried to pull forward. Wouldn't move and wheels started to spin. I had the great idea to put it in four wheel drive. With a lot of throttle I got it to move enough to get the chocks out. Tried to back up - wouldn't move. I got out and looked around

I had left the tongue jack down!

Jack tube bent at a nice 45* angle. I had enough tools and a bottle jack to get the foot off the tongue jack, which gave enough clearance to get home. I had to cut the jack tube off to get it out.

I've wanted to get rid of that LCI electric jack anyway. Got a nice Barker VIP 3500 now.

DUH!

Rick

P.S. I'd rather not talk about all the other woopses!

[B and B]

Originally Posted by Taranwanderer

The e-brake breakaway also comes in handy if you have to change a trailer tire when you're disconnected from the TV. Found this out recently with my car trailer, I had my jeep parked in front of it but not connected to anything, and even with two wheels chocked, it kept wanting to roll when I'd jack it up. Pulled the e-brake pin, all 4 wheels locked up, and good to go.

I'm still trying to wrap my head around why the video guy feels the need to chock his wheels if he parks his rig at a restaurant or truck stop? Like he didn't trust his truck's transmission and parking brake? Someone please enlighten me here...?

Only major oops that I had was with the Salem, first day I had it. Came home from dealer, made a right turn into my driveway, and the drivers side rear overhang clipped my mailbox. Put a nice scrape down the last 3 feet or so of the body. From then on, I made the nearly 2 mile loop around my neighborhood to come at my house from the other side and make a left into my driveway. Never fixed it, it was a reminder to always GOAL!

I did this on a another campers trailer once. He did not chock and the trailer started rolling, i ran and pulled the breakaway switch. Stopped the trailer as it dug into the gravel and chocked itself!

[asquared]

Originally Posted by Kaadk

Hmm, maybe I jumped the gun. So, do you have:

a:

or

b:

If a, then yeah, pull down on the arm (gently) and then tighten the screw.

If b, I'm not sure. I thought they pulled, but I haven't tried one out yet and if he's worried, then maybe I'm wrong.

We have option A.

[HONDAMAN174]

I'm still trying to wrap my head around why the video guy feels the need to chock his wheels if he parks his rig at a restaurant or truck stop? Like he didn't trust his truck's transmission and parking brake? Someone please enlighten me here...?

With all the recalls of trans cables popping off, or breaking or the fact that many e-brakes can barely hold the car they car connected to- yea chock the wheels.


2014 Stealth Evo 2850 "Woodstock"
2011 Toyota Tundra Rock Crawler TRD 5.7 "Clifford"

[Platokidd]

You folks are all train wrecks waiting to happen , oh wait they did happen

Okay, I too ran over a wheel chock and crushed it...But nobody seen it happen, does it count??

On my tracer while installing a door entrance handle I goofed with the drill, and the drill bit went all the way threw to the inside. (Note: use a sharp bit when installing one. )
Here again nobody ever knew, so did it happen??

[b_garage]

My two big goofs:

1. My dad says, "Your trailer tire is up against a small boulder but if you just roll forward up and over you should be fine." So I do it. Snap! Back end of trailer drops down over the boulder and sewer pipe slams into rock! Luckily it broke on the outer edge and the valve stayed closed with some duct tape and bailing wire.

2. Pulled into a tight spot this summer and was too close to the services to put the slide out. Pulled forward and to the right quickly to try and shimmy the trailer over a bit. Looked back to see a geyser. Back end of trailer just clipped the water valve. Blew for half an hour before campground tech found the shutoff valve. The irony: we were on our way home from seeing the real geysers in Yellowstone.


Doh!!


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[BigJohnD]

The ones I can think of off the top of my head:
1: Pulled into Hot Springs, AR in the pouring rain, put awning out. Later on that night heard a big crash. Ignored it as I was tired. Went to go out the door the next morning and it would barely open, but I could see the awning fabric. Took a knife and cut my way out. Aggravated, I took a knife and just cut the whole thing off the camper, threw it in the dumpster and went on camping.
2: Same camper, backing into the shop, which during the day, the door opening, even at 12 feet wide and 14 feet tall, appears like a black hole in the mirror. Backed the camper smooth into the perlins inside the shop.
3: Class A. Pulled motorhome out of garage to wash. Washed it. For some reason during the day I had dropped the garage door about 4 feet. Later that day went to put it back in the garage. I couldn't see the door in the mirrors. I realized just how sound proofed that motorhome was. Only thing I saw was my wife waving her arms and screaming. I had no idea what she was yelling about, until I stepped out of the motorhome and saw the garage door folded up on the roof of the motorhome. And wouldn't you believe, after completely removing the garage door tracks and laying a bunch of soft towels all over the roof, I managed to drive the motorhome out and only suffered some scratches in the ladder. I stared at that situation for hours after the fact, trying to figure out how there was almost no damage to the motorhome. The door, well it didn't fair too well.

[onthelake]

Some great lessons here to remember.

So far the only thing I've done is blow a tire driving over a survey marker I knew was there but figured I had the right angle, then POP & a bunch of hissing.

TT was just picked up from dealer and backing into the yard.

Couldn't fix the tire!