AZ Renegades
Advanced Member
RV LIFE Pro
WOW!!! We got lucky…
We are currently staying at a Thousand Trails CG in PA that has all grass, native soil RV sites. The grass is hiding a dangerous condition that can leave you trapped inside your RV if you have fold out stairs.
We arrived at our site following a day of rain to find out that the site they put us on was not “improved” with rock or other hard materials. The back in site sloped down away from the access roadbed that I pulled in on and had a high berm sloped drop off towards the other road at the back of our site. Our site was a 90 degree back in so I backed off the gravel road onto the grass site and the trailer sunk into the ground as I was trying to get squared up with the electric / water hook up. The flat grass gave way to spongy rain soaked soil near the back of the site and we were stuck. The 4x4 dually dug in spinning the tires when I tried to pull forward back up on the gravel road.
The built up roadbed was above the level of the RV site (6-12”) and I couldn’t get traction in the wet grass / mud to climb back up onto the gravel.
The longer I sat there the deeper the trailer sank it.
Luckily our friends had a Jeep and gave us a yank with a tow strap to get me back up on the gravel.
The site was wide enough that I eventually ended up having to angle the trailer at a 45 across the site to keep us away from the berm drop off at the back and give me room at the front to unhitch and pull the truck out without having to climb straight up the hump to the gravel road.
We got the trailer situated and used the auto level to set the stabilizers. We put down the swing out steps and adjusted them to clear the bottom of the door. It was starting to rain again so we hustled up and got inside.
During the night we sunk into the ground!!
The stabilizers pushed down into the rain soaked ground and we were leaning to the utility side of the trailer.
This is when I realized how LUCKY we were that the trailer sank on the side opposite our only door. If the trailer had sank down on the stair side it would have bound the stairs tight up against the bottom of the door and prevented us from opening the door to get out… TRAPPING us in the trailer.
Lesson learned:
1) Don’t set the stairs out and leave them out overnight if you’re parked on soft ground because you could become trapped. If you sink and the stairs bind up against the door then your only exit option will be that you have to climb out one of the emergency windows.
2) The orange stackable waffle block levelers were useless in these conditions. I purchased 50# bags of pea gravel and wrapped them in heavy trash bags to spread out the weight under the leveling blocks.
Solution: Pull the stairs up and store them inside the rig when you are inside for the night. That way if your RV sinks overnight you can still get out in the morning!!
Better yet, don’t accept a site that is not improved with a suitable surface to prevent this…. Yeah right …. Thanks to the new Thousand Trails policy of not letting you pick a site and they stick you on one like this during Labor Day weekend and there are no other choices, you are “stuck” with the site they give you and physically “stuck” on the site when you sink in….
The other issue that could happen on soft ground is if your front main “landing” gear sink into the ground far enough you might not be able to back in and get under your hitch. That’s another PITA to be avoided at all costs…
Safe travels y’all!
We are currently staying at a Thousand Trails CG in PA that has all grass, native soil RV sites. The grass is hiding a dangerous condition that can leave you trapped inside your RV if you have fold out stairs.
We arrived at our site following a day of rain to find out that the site they put us on was not “improved” with rock or other hard materials. The back in site sloped down away from the access roadbed that I pulled in on and had a high berm sloped drop off towards the other road at the back of our site. Our site was a 90 degree back in so I backed off the gravel road onto the grass site and the trailer sunk into the ground as I was trying to get squared up with the electric / water hook up. The flat grass gave way to spongy rain soaked soil near the back of the site and we were stuck. The 4x4 dually dug in spinning the tires when I tried to pull forward back up on the gravel road.
The built up roadbed was above the level of the RV site (6-12”) and I couldn’t get traction in the wet grass / mud to climb back up onto the gravel.
The longer I sat there the deeper the trailer sank it.
Luckily our friends had a Jeep and gave us a yank with a tow strap to get me back up on the gravel.
The site was wide enough that I eventually ended up having to angle the trailer at a 45 across the site to keep us away from the berm drop off at the back and give me room at the front to unhitch and pull the truck out without having to climb straight up the hump to the gravel road.
We got the trailer situated and used the auto level to set the stabilizers. We put down the swing out steps and adjusted them to clear the bottom of the door. It was starting to rain again so we hustled up and got inside.
During the night we sunk into the ground!!
The stabilizers pushed down into the rain soaked ground and we were leaning to the utility side of the trailer.
This is when I realized how LUCKY we were that the trailer sank on the side opposite our only door. If the trailer had sank down on the stair side it would have bound the stairs tight up against the bottom of the door and prevented us from opening the door to get out… TRAPPING us in the trailer.
Lesson learned:
1) Don’t set the stairs out and leave them out overnight if you’re parked on soft ground because you could become trapped. If you sink and the stairs bind up against the door then your only exit option will be that you have to climb out one of the emergency windows.
2) The orange stackable waffle block levelers were useless in these conditions. I purchased 50# bags of pea gravel and wrapped them in heavy trash bags to spread out the weight under the leveling blocks.
Solution: Pull the stairs up and store them inside the rig when you are inside for the night. That way if your RV sinks overnight you can still get out in the morning!!
Better yet, don’t accept a site that is not improved with a suitable surface to prevent this…. Yeah right …. Thanks to the new Thousand Trails policy of not letting you pick a site and they stick you on one like this during Labor Day weekend and there are no other choices, you are “stuck” with the site they give you and physically “stuck” on the site when you sink in….
The other issue that could happen on soft ground is if your front main “landing” gear sink into the ground far enough you might not be able to back in and get under your hitch. That’s another PITA to be avoided at all costs…
Safe travels y’all!
I don't care for the solid steps myself, but never considered such a predicament as yours.
