Well made my first big mistake.

[Mr. Dan]

Originally Posted by TonyShope

. . . .
I will promise you this much. If this is the worse thing that happens in your life or camping career you truly are a lucky person. . . .

This is true. Uncle Gene got a little to the right when backing his 5th wheel into his tree-lined driveway. When he pulled forward to make another attempt, he hung the front end of his awning on a tree. He ripped the awning off on both ends AND flattened the aluminum awning tube. I went to his house, got the awning back fairly close to where it should have been and wired both ends to the brackets on the top just so he could drive 15 miles to get the entire awning replaced. I won't mention some difficulties I had with a 3' tall bollard at a gas station!

[mulltrr]

Don't feel bad happens to everyone. The first time leaving my driveway with my new heritage Glenn I hit up left corner on my boat and tore off corner moulding

[oldsmasma]

I for one am in awe that you made it almost a year before an "incident". They are much more frequent in my world.

[TheWolfPaq82]

Originally Posted by PupScrappy

Wow. I think I would have given up eating beans [emoji12] but not after shedding some tears especially on the first trip. We take such pride and care in our rigs and then to have something so stupid and innocent of a mistake ruin all that. For me the financial hurt is bad enough but now I feel like our new Baby's innocence has been lost

I felt terrible, but considering how shabby the construction was inside, I now have more confidence in it's structural integrity with the way I rebuilt it.
I'm more diligent in my inspection of areas around the slides before running them out and bringing them in....so it was a "Good" lesson.

[rovinglion]

It wasn't my first, nor was it my biggest, but I did almost same thing. Put the grab bar the wrong way before pulling in slide. Fortunately the awning was retracted, but the slide caught the handle and bent it around the awning support arm. Only real damage was to the grab bar, and $36 and trip to RV1 store fixed it. If you do this long enough you can fill a file called "Stuff Happens", and often it happens in spite of your best efforts.

[TheWolfPaq82]

This was 4 years ago. Neighbor with their 40+ foot Montana on 4 month trip. Pulling out of CG, gets 3/4 of the way off pad and entire rig slams to a halt. He think...Transmission took a dump. Puts in reverse...all good...pulls forward...SLAM ! dead stop. Backs up, gets out, looks around. Jaw drops as there is a 4' long gash in the driver side of the trailer behind the axle and almost to rear of trailer. There was a fire hydrant at the corner of the pad by the road and he didn't notice. He cut the trailer to the right as he was pulling out and caught the cap of the hydrant. Because of the angle, he didn't see the hydrant and it was the interior frame that would stop the trailer as he pulled forward. He had to pop rivet a piece of sheet metal over the gash to finish the trip and replaced the entire panel when they got back home.

[Dwilcox]

Back in 2007 we picked up our brand new SOB 32' bumper pull trailer. We had hauled our pup that was the trade in to the dealer. While the dealer set up the new WD hitch on the rig we moved our gear from the pup to the new trailer. Packed up the kids and hit the road for the tow it home the long way around with an overnight to test everything out. Of course we needed to fuel up on the way to the camp ground. Turns out it turned a little tighter than I thought it would and wiped the middle marker off the less than 2 hour ours trailer. DW was not impressed. The marker was mounted to the slide so I was a bit panicked as to did I screw it up too. But it worked fine. Then when I winterize the thing I leave all doors, drawers and cabinets open so that air can moves around and let moisture get to the Dri Z Air's and the first spring the DW goes out to start prepping for the first trip of the season, opens slide, cabinet door gets caught behind slide edge and Bang, off pops the molding, in 2 pieces. At least she was mad at her self and not me that time. Just goes to show, a good list can't cover human error. Stuff happens so you, back up and swing wider, hide broken parts from spouse till he finds them and goes "What the heck?" Oh, and don't do like me and check off slides in, then next is in plug power, check it off then head to back of trailer, get distracted by neighbors, pull chocks, check off, jump in truck with kids and pull out to meet DW at office who is checking out. Have kid ride up to your window and say "Hey mister, you left your cord back there." Yep, new Lacrosse, 1st summer 3rd trip out, ripped the 50 amp connector out of the back of the thing. Dumb, dumb, dumb. No damage to pedestal, no major damage to trailer, just the 50 amp housing mount. Amazoned a new one and installed. All good and another lesson learned.
Happy camping.

[Sahall]

I did the exact thing on the first day of our new camper a month ago. My handle was crushed like yours, but I did not suffer as much awning damage. The handle was in my way as I was bringing things into the camper, so I pushed it rearward, only to forget about it.

[paulmac]

Originally Posted by Bikersarge

Do what we did, make a check list and check it twice, put everything on it. we did a spreadsheet and have several of them inside our door of the battery , gallery tank level box. the rig doesn't move till we place that check in all boxes. It works well for us.

Exactly what we have been doing for years. Made a check list that we keep posted above the door of the camper. My wife and I go over the list together when "we think" we are done, just to make sure we are. Then close up the steps and the door. Before a last walk around just to make sure.

[benchmarks]

Originally Posted by allenb12

Earlier this year we pulled the trailer to load food before departing. Got everything loaded and off we go. About 30 minutes into the trip I notice the grab rail out. Stopped and closed it. When we returned home the mail box was laying in the driveway. Totally ripped it off the mount. However the reinforcing I put in the aluminum post did not budge and no damage to the grab rail.

How and what did you do the reinforcing. Picture or a how to?

[benchmarks]

Originally Posted by PupScrappy

I really do appreciate all the good pointers and suggestions everyone is making however it would also be nice if people actually took the time to read AND UNDERSTAND what actually occurred here. I too like many have checklists. however on the checklist is to make sure the grab handle is up against the door ready for travel. If you were to understand what occurred to me, all the checklists in the world would not have helped because folding the grab handle inward is one of the last things that most people do. Allow me to try and make it clear, I was far from ready to leave the camp therefore I was way up on the checklist regarding the grab handle. It was simply time to roll in the awning so that I could continue packing everything up. The grab handle was not in normal use position nor was it time to put it across the door for travel. It was completely the opposite. It was laying away from the door flat against the trailer.
, (Well almost flat it was actually laying on the awning arm.) I was standing in the doorway looking towards the front of the trailer and the upper awning as I was pushing the button to retract it. The grab handle was laying flush with the trailer off to my lower left and out of sight. That is how I smashed it in the awning arm. So once again thank you for all the wonderful checklist suggestions and all the wonderful stories of leaving the grab handle extended out but unfortunately none of these apply to my situation. For those who have taken the time to read this far and appreciate and understand what actually occurred here are some pics to illustrate the damage that can occur so quickly and innocentlyAttachment 153545Attachment 153546

That’s a design flaw in my opinion.

[allenb12]

I cut two 5' treated 2x4's, then ripped them down to fit inside the aluminum post. Screwed them together. dug a hole 2' deep put the 2x4's in the hole and filled with concrete. After the concrete set I placed the tube over the 2x4's and put a couple of screws thru the tube into the 2x4's.

[Gohawks]

My brother tried to retract awning on the entry door of our motor home. Bent the outer housing of the awning bracket. Good news is it's his dime. Bad news is dealer says have to replace the whole bracket. Been sitting there for 2 nweeks waiting for parts.

[Mslaman]

The first time backing our tt into a campground my wife was “guiding” me as I backed up. There was a curb at our camp site she was worried I would hit with the back tires. So there she was waving me back as she watched the tires and that curb. When I felt the thud. Still watching my wife guide me back with that back up wave we have all seen in the rear view mirror. I put the truck in park and started walking back to see what I hit. I’ll never forget the look on her face as she scolded me to keep backing up, get back in the truck.
Honey. I hit something. There is about 8’ behind those tires. And at the back of the trailer was a big AZ ponderosa pine. Left a nice dent in the bumper.
I didn’t think much of it until I had to dump the tanks. That dent has entombed my dump hose since the coupler cannot get by the dent.. laugh every time we hit a dump station. Good thing I bought the extra hose.
First and last time we have ever stayed in a camp ground.

[Puma26RLSS]

When putting together a checklist, I urge everyone to put "take cap off discharge end of dump hose before releasing black water tank handle". If you really want to hear the story behind this very important "lesson learned", it will make your grab rail mistake seem a little less worrisome.

[dbarr]

That looks to be about the same distance from the rail to the handle as mine is.
I removed the handle and cut about 4” off each end. It now folds up to the wall when I travel or just want it out of the way.

[AbdRahim]

It has been a while but, it seems unanimous. First fuel on new rig and you guessed it - scrraaaaape as I pull up to the pump. My neighbor said "Now that you got that out of the way it has been initiated. Fix it and enjoy it".

[Dwilcox]

Originally Posted by AbdRahim

It has been a while but, it seems unanimous. First fuel on new rig and you guessed it - scrraaaaape as I pull up to the pump. My neighbor said "Now that you got that out of the way it has been initiated. Fix it and enjoy it".

Been there, done that. DW was not happy.

[whirledpeaz]

I was putting the awning out for the first time the other day and had the door open and unknowingly blocking the arm on one side. Thankfully it didn't damage anything though as I was watching it and noticed only one side was extending.