Epic Rookie RVer Fails !!!!

[Wire Wrat]

Has any one set up camp and found that some one had pulled the black water valve while you were in the restaurant? When I started to hook up the sewer hose, I noticed the handle was out. I pushed it in and then said....self, you are gonna get this place a little messy when that cap is removed. I found someone who had a 5 gal. bucket, and after suiting up in hazmat gear, let the cap loose into the bucket.. not quite the mess I thought I was gonna have, but I did have to sanitize the borrowed bucket. I learned to look at the rig very carefully after being parked in a parking lot for a time.

[cmillsbl]

Jim- I wish I could say it was the worst I have done but....
1. first time out after installing JT Strong Arms we were breaking camp with rain fast approaching. Set the Auto Level control to return the camper to the hitch-up position. As soon as the god awful sound started I realized I had forgotten to loosen the Strong Arms. Didn't damage the levelers, but did pull the front basement floor down an inch where the Strong Arms attach to it.
2. backed the TV into a tree while maneuvering to hitch up. Crunched the tailgate which was lowered (so rear camera was facing down).

[Willie]

I unplugged my Wife's liquid air freshener and it leaked on the shelf an ruined the shelf ...

[LV Naturist]

I unplugged my Wife's liquid air freshener and it leaked on the shelf an ruined the shelf ...

I take it the second picture is what ended up happening to the air freshener?

John

[Tunnelgas]

This is embarrassing but hopefully, if someone reads it they might save themselves some trouble....and I absolutely knew better. This wasn’t an uneducated mistake...it was a careless and thoughtless one...

The day I brought myself 303RLS home from SC I backed it into the driveway, leveled it out and disconnected the truck. I have a large compressor in the shop and it is a 30amp plug (know where this is going!). Anyway, I unplugged the compressor and tried to plug the RV power into it...it didn’t fit. I was too excited to get the RV plugged in to stop and think at that point. I ran to Lowes and picked up the proper end, brought it home, lopped off the end of the RV plug, installed the new one and plugged it in. Went into the camper and nothing worked. I came out, plugged the compressor back in and it came on. Plugged the camper back in and nothing. Then it hit me! I had been using a 220V outlet.

Fortunately, I had asked the dealership to hard wire a Progressive Industries surge protector in prior to me picking it up. That saved my electrical system from a very, very stupid and expensive mistake. As I said, I knew better...I just wasn’t thinking and if not for the surge protector, that lack of thinking could have been an expensive lesson.

I now have a 50 amp 110V outlet wired up in a weather-proof box on the side of the shop. All is good, thankfully!

[BabyBober]

This is embarrassing but hopefully, if someone reads it they might save themselves some trouble....and I absolutely knew better. This wasn’t an uneducated mistake...it was a careless and thoughtless one...

The day I brought myself 303RLS home from SC I backed it into the driveway, leveled it out and disconnected the truck. I have a large compressor in the shop and it is a 30amp plug (know where this is going!). Anyway, I unplugged the compressor and tried to plug the RV power into it...it didn’t fit. I was too excited to get the RV plugged in to stop and think at that point. I ran to Lowes and picked up the proper end, brought it home, lopped off the end of the RV plug, installed the new one and plugged it in. Went into the camper and nothing worked. I came out, plugged the compressor back in and it came on. Plugged the camper back in and nothing. Then it hit me! I had been using a 220V outlet.

Fortunately, I had asked the dealership to hard wire a Progressive Industries surge protector in prior to me picking it up. That saved my electrical system from a very, very stupid and expensive mistake. As I said, I knew better...I just wasn’t thinking and if not for the surge protector, that lack of thinking could have been an expensive lesson.

I now have a 50 amp 110V outlet wired up in a weather-proof box on the side of the shop. All is good, thankfully!

Certainly an opps but I want you to understand, you have a 220v/50a outlet on the side of the shop, not 110v. Your compressor was a 3 prong outlet, 2 110v hot lines and a ground. Your 50a service is 2 110v hots, and neutral, and a ground. A 50a RV connection is a 220v circuit but RV’s don’t run anything on 220. As such in essence you have 2 50a 110v circuits in the camper... BTW, there is a 50/50 shot that you actually had the neutral line in the box of your 30a compressor outlet sitting unused unles it as a VERY old install.

Jim

[Tunnelgas]

Understood, Jim. Thanks for setting it straight....certainly a situation that should have been avoided altogether by me.

[The Shumperts]

OMG - I have laughed until I was literally crying. This sounds exactly like me and my husband.

My husband is a master backer with a travel trailer, but the 5th wheel gave him fits on the first backing run. We just hope it gets easier.



QUOTE=GENESIS;98127]I've NEVER made a mistake.

OK - I lied. The thought hit me that pulling an RV is akin to an old adage in the motorcycling world - There are only three types of riders: Those that have gone down, those that are gonna go down, and those that are gonna go down again.

We've never owned an RV. That right there should be a clue. Before our 337 came home, we had plenty of time to get ready for it. You know.....like when you're expecting your first child and you gussy up a room so that "it's perfect" (according to SWMBO). I took down a tree (it needed coming down) and that free'd up about a 25' swatch of land between my workshop and my utility shed. Oh hell no......my baby's tires ain't gonna come home to dirt. That parking spot needs paving. Woman.....you got your baby room and by God I'm gonna get my RV parking pad!!

Get the 337 home and I've already mentally parked that sucka 107 times. Off the road, into the driveway, start making my left hand swing into the front yard (we got 2 acres of mostly cleared land so I got plenty of maneuvering room), pulled up to where I figured I should be in order to start my backing process. I'm pretty dang pumped up by now. Towed the 337 thru traffic, on the interstate, into the yard and EVERYTHING is going just like I pictured it in my mind. This 5er thang is a piece of cake.

Start backing up and the trailer isn't responding like the other trailers I've back. Hmmmm.....no biggie. I got this. After all - I'm Da Man. Pull forward - back up. Pull forward - back up. Now....after about 14 of these gyrations, my medulla oblongota is overheating because my CPU is at 98%. What in the Sam Hills am I not getting with this dang 5th wheel? People....frustration and anger is NOT YOUR FRIEND! I'm gonna poke that dang thing in that 25' wide spot if it kills me!!

Did I mentioned that I have 25' to work with and the trailer is only 8' wide? The wife is back behind the RV looking out for the caboose and is seriously trying to help. But she's waving her arms/hands trying to give me signals and in my mirrors, it looks like she's sending a semaphore message to some unknown ship. She also tries communicating using one word - STOP!!!! And every time she uses that word, I stop, get out and see what's wrong only to find that she didn't think the trailer was going whatever way she thought it should. We have a come to Jesus meeting. I start backing the RV that has a mind of its own (or so it seems). Again, I hear STOP!!! But she's cried wolf before so I ignore her. I keep backing and I'm *positive* I've got plenty of room on both sides of the trailer. Hell - it's a 25' wide spot! I'm about this || close to getting it where I want to make my last correction to straighten the trailer. Just a little more backing. About this time the wife is flailing her arms and using choice adjectives with the word STOP. I put the truck in park and ask what in he hell is the problem?? She just points to the opposite side of the trailer where I manage to introduce the trailer roof to the workshop roof. Got Dandruff, Some Of It Itches!! She's just standing there and glaring at me. And then says, "It serves you right mister smarty I got this. Well I tried to help but nooooo, you just decide that you know EVERYTHING. But guess what......"

I'm not sure how long she mentally whipped me, but it was a while. And I took it like a man. Shoot - I've eaten crow so much I've acquired a taste for it.

Tom[/QUOTE]

[Chiefblueman]

I have found that the single most dangerous situation facing the average RVer today is backing the rig up while a spouse is giving direction. I have a written apology on a laminated card that I simply hand to my DW when done backing, then I stay out of her way for a while.

[WhittleBurner]

Stopping when you can't see you spotter is very important. When backing the trailer in next to our house one time we had a terrible accident. The trailer was headed toward the house and it was on the side I couldn't see. Our walkie talkies had quit working. Marcy decided to run up to tell me to stop and I couldn't see her. Should have stopped and didn't. Ended up pinching her between the trailer and the house. Our son had come up yelling at me to stop. She was already severely hurt but she lived. Learn from othr's experience, if you can't see your spotter, stop. I was probably only 1/2 inch from killing her as she was pinched in the chest.