Rookie Mistakes

[oldsmasma]

We have camped for years in many different vehicles but DH always drives. At the time in question we had a F250 Super Crew Super Duty 4x4 (DH's pride and joy) and a 28' fifth wheel. We were heading off on a long planned cross Canada trip. Fourth day in DH was feeling awful and I insisted he visit a walk in clinic. Turned out he was having a heart attack. Ambulance arrived to take him away to an urgent care hospital and left with him calling "don't forget tow haul mode". They gave me directions to the hospital and left. There I sat in a truck I had driven once and a trailer I had never pulled. Luckily there was a big open area to turn around in which led back through the front covered entrance. Through tears away I went. I always wonder how much clearance there was above the trailer. I never even thought about it at the time. Luckily there was enough. Good news is that DH is fine and it all turned out ok in the end.


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[ToniandSal]

I am so glad that your DH is okay. Cute and funny that he was giving you towing instructions as the ambulance drove him to the hospital!

[Delco Bobby]

Originally Posted by ToniandSal

We drove our newish 22' FR Class C from So. CA to NY and back this summer to visit family. We do not have a toad. We stayed at a very nice cg in Lancaster, PA overlooking a beautiful Amish farm. After a couple of days it did get a little boring, and since we may never drive that distance again in the near future, we decided to pack up and drive around sightseeing one day. It is a little challenging because DH has mile dementia, so I do all the driving, hook-ups, etc. I must have been distracted and in a bit of a hurry to pack it all up because as we were rolling through the campground almost to the exit one of the workers started flailing his arms at us. Turns out our awning was still fully extended! I am so grateful that he saw us and let us know. Odd though, we had just driven past a guy sitting in his camp chair outside his rig watching us drive by, and he never said a thing.

Maybe he was occupied in posting what he was watching into this forum...

I am glad the employee stopped you before you hit the road. That flapping awning would spoke the horses pulling the buggies.

[Wumba]

Was our fourth trip out a few years ago. Got a great spot by the lake for the weekend. Thought we were old pros at unhitching. We pull in and of course there were some old timers sitting by the campfire watching the youngsters get unhooked an set up. Pulled into the site and thought the tt was level. Ok, disconnect the hitch from the truck and forgot to do the one thing we will never forget....CHALK THE TIRES! Well, we didn't notice the gentle slope towards the water, but the tt sure did. Yep, off it went for about 10 feet until the tongue jack dug in. Talk about embarrassed! Had to get the cg managaer and ask him for a jack to lift the tongue jack back up (didn't have electric at the time). So there I am, jacking up the trailer while our neighbors just cracked open another beer and watched. Pure entertainment for them..LOL Awesome weekend after that! We still get a great laugh about it to this day. Live and learn!

[Theblairs]

We had our new TT out for our first trip to the lake lot. We get there and have to park up close to my brothers trailer. It was our first time having a slide on our trailer so we had to measure it up to ensure our slide would pull out and he could have his awning fully extended. It's tight for space there but we line it up perfectly after a few in and outs, we then level it up, disconnect and move the truck, everything seemed great......except we forgot about the tree on the other side of the trailer that made it so we could now not open our awning. Re hook up, move it forward 3 feet, re level, etc... All good.

[laurarice26]

We just finished a trip and almost forgotto takethe chains off when unhitching. My husband almost drove off. So now I just made an unhitching checklist to keep on my smartphone. I already had a packing up checklist. It really works.


2014 Wildwood x-lite 185br
towed by 2013 Ram 1500

[stevejahr]

We did a trip and were returning from Oregon in November and did an overnight in Mt Shasta. Next morning it was raining and we are nice and comfy having breakfast in our relatively new RV thinking this is great.

Then it got real quiet. We did not notice nor think anything of it. Until we opened the door and noted it was snowing and there was an inch on the ground already. And we had no chains with us (only 4x4 truck on street tires). So we skipped the tank dump ritual and beat feet out of there.

Well we got off the mountain and out of the snow just fine. And while we were driving we started reconnoitering where we were going to dump tanks. First idea was a rest area that turned out to be closed. Next thing that came up was a state park in Colusa CA. So into the GPS goes the address of the park and we start following the directions. Well we get just a bit "out of town" and are directed to a one lane pock marked road through a walnut orchard. It started to look like the GPS was directing us down the road to hell. Then the road ahead start heading up the side of a levy and I bailed doing a turnaround in the orchard.

I did a fine job of turning around and not getting stuck and not hitting any of the trees. Or so I thought... until I got home and wondered "now what the heck happened to that ladder?" and discovered we had hit and drug a branch all down the top of the trailer. Clobbered the fridge vent, one of the plumbing vents, one side of the ladder, and dented one of the vent covers. Fortunate we did not rip the A/C off or tear the roof membrane.

Needless to say the snow we also pulled in on top of the slides which then melted water inside was minor in comparison.