As I'm sure most of you know it is often those huge disasters of mistakes you make in life that turn out teaching you the most valued and remembered lessons in life.....at a painful price of course.
So I was wondering if some of you would be willing to share with us what mistakes you made when getting into the RV life or buying your RV or anything related to RVing in general that might give a newbie like myself a useful and less painful education than what you received.
For that matter I'm sure that the experiences that you share here will be of great value to others besides just myself and newbies. Thanks in advance!
sirwinston21 said
02:44 PM Apr 24, 2011
I guess no one wants to admit their mistakes.
I high hitched the truck to the trailer at a camp ground where there was a very steep down slope from the front of the 5th wheel. So in actuallity the jaws were closed with the king pin sitting on top of the jaws The angle was so steep I backed out of the site instead of pulling forward. Of course when I finished backing and went to pull forward the trailer fell onto the bed of the truck. Yikes! Luckily we had so much junk in the truck it helped support the trailer and we had negligle damage. Just a small crease on the top of the tail gate. Lucked out on that one.
bjoyce said
03:40 PM Apr 24, 2011
Most of our lessons cost us time more than money.
Our newest expensive lesson or reminder is to look high and low when driving. A few days ago we were going across a narrow bridge where we had to stay tight to the centerline to keep our mirrors from hitting the verticals. At the end of the bridge the driver moved right and scraped the side of the motorhome on some guard rail that was lower down. The copilot had no time to give warning, since the move right was unexpected. Now we get to spend a few days in late May getting some body work and painting done. Bye bye vanishing deductible on our insurance. In all our years of RVing this is the worst damage we have had.
We once camped in the Sacremento River delta area of California after it had been raining for weeks. The campground was below the levies and the campsites were on grass. Our RV sunk in the ground, we were not level, and we had to get towed out. We have been careful ever since on grass. The tow out was free since we have Coachnet, but we moved to a more expensive campground for the rest of our stay.
Once we were backing into a campsite with a bush in the back. I didn't think anything about pushing into the bush a bit but found out that just behind the outer leaves were some cut off branches, about 1/2" behind. We got some paint damage that day. We are more careful to make sure there are no hidden hazards now.
We were dry camping in Alaska in 2006 and the line was long at the dump station so we decided to drive to our next campground to dump and take on water. About halfway there we had a breakdown, it was Friday and after getting towed to the closed repair facility we had to survive on little water and fairly full waste tanks. Now we do not travel without enough waste tank capacity and water in the tank to survive three nights. So far we have not needed to do so again, but we are ready. We will sit in a long line to dump.
-- Edited by bjoyce on Sunday 24th of April 2011 03:41:21 PM
Jack Mayer said
04:44 PM Apr 24, 2011
If you are going with a 5er the most costly and common mistake is to not buy enough truck. If you stay with the fulltiming lifestyle, then most people buy another 5er at some point. And these are almost always heavier.
Luvglass said
05:32 PM Apr 24, 2011
A couple of times I have unhitched and driven away without disconnecting the electrical plug, and only once, thankfully, driven away without dropping the tailgate. Rewiring the plug is only 30 minutes after you've done it once, but a new tailgate was quite expensive.
We also once ran the washer, forgetting to open the grey tank, went for a walk and returned to see water running out the basement door.
Forgot to lower the TV antenna once and stripped it off leaving a campground.
There are probably a dozen other instances, but I tend to conveniently forget them soon afterwards. :)
Unless you are totally anal and have 40 checklists, these things will occasionally happen.
-- Edited by Luvglass on Sunday 24th of April 2011 05:34:53 PM
Racerguy said
06:01 PM Apr 24, 2011
I scraped the right side lower panel on our fiver on a low to the ground pole because I swung wide to miss a flower pot on the left side.The worst was forgetting to close the black tank valve after dumping and dry camping for 3 days before getting to our destination with full hookups.A five gallon bucket and some rubber gloves minimized the mess. I have forgotten to unhook the emergency brake cable once.
GSF63 said
07:34 PM Apr 24, 2011
Here's our more painful mistakes. Buying too small of a TT. Replaced it with another extra big 37' TT that was a lousy trailer for sway. Finally got a nice 5er. Forgot to latch the rear bathroom door and had it catch on the slideout damaging the stub wall the door was hinged on. Had a drawer open traveling and caught on the same slide. Bought a 2007 F350 with the 6.0 thinking that the problems with the 6.0 should be fixed after four years. Bought a new 2010 f350 to replace the 2007 after three turbo's in four months. On the humor side. I didn't leave enough slack on the brake away cable on the first time pulling out of my driveway. I live on a busy state route and after getting out across the road I turned sharply and pulled the cable and came to a sudden stop.
Melstar said
08:55 PM Apr 24, 2011
Well, second trip out....this one was to be for a month in our 5er....all the way to FL my husband was looking for the "cheapest" fuel.....we found ourselves in some tight spots pulling that thing....well, upon making a U-turn to get out of one gas station.....hubby tried to avoid a big hole in the road, turn left too sharp and crash, bang, boom....metal, glass breaking everywhere....we had done the dreaded u-turn too sharp.
On the return home we ONLY looked for "travel centers" or truck stops for fill ups NO MATTER what the price!!
Freesai said
11:50 AM Apr 25, 2011
Ouch! What is so painful is that it looks like most of these mistakes would be quite easy to make. Thank you for sharing these painful lessons!
Penny and Paul said
12:12 PM Apr 25, 2011
I unhooked the toad while it was still in neutral. Glad the road was "kinda" level...
Same trip, I tried to drive away with the toad in park. DOH!
RVRon said
06:27 PM Apr 25, 2011
OK... since we're all confessing. When I made the first visit to our local Workhorse dealer I wasn't sure where to park the motorhome when I arrived. Seeing some other RVs parked at the rear of the parking area, I tried to squeeze through an area next to their canopied service writeup area. I got part way in and realized it wasn't gonna work. When I backed up I heard this awful sound. Getting out and looking I saw that I had caught the bottom edge of the front cap of the motorhome on the edge of a signpost and had ripped the cap outward at a 30 degree angle. Fortunately it was only a small tear in the fiberglass and I was able to fix most of it myself.
Lesson learned: When you're in a tight spot get out and look!
The Bear II said
04:12 PM Apr 26, 2011
I was making a left turn out of a parking lot onto a boulevard. A car coming in the opposite direction from a parking lot across the boulevard was coming straight across into the parking lot I was leaving. I waved her on and she pulled across the boulevard from her direction while I pulled across from my direction. In my mind's eye if she had continued across I calculated that I would be able to make my turn as she went by without hitting her with the 5th Wheel.
Only problem, she stopped instead of heading straight across. I don't know why she stopped, my 5th wheel was blocking traffic, so she had a clear path into the driveway that I just left. My attention was diverted from her watching some cars that were coming down the boulevard. I started my wide turn and felt the impact of the 5th wheel against the rear corner of her SUV.
Only slight damage to the propane door on the 5th wheel and a busted taillight for her.
I learned my lesson to keep an eye in the mirror when dodging an obstacle. Don't depend on my mind's eye for clearance.
As I'm sure most of you know it is often those huge disasters of mistakes you make in life that turn out teaching you the most valued and remembered lessons in life.....at a painful price of course.
So I was wondering if some of you would be willing to share with us what mistakes you made when getting into the RV life or buying your RV or anything related to RVing in general that might give a newbie like myself a useful and less painful education than what you received.
For that matter I'm sure that the experiences that you share here will be of great value to others besides just myself and newbies. Thanks in advance!
I guess no one wants to admit their mistakes.
I high hitched the truck to the trailer at a camp ground where there was a very steep down slope from the front of the 5th wheel. So in actuallity the jaws were closed with the king pin sitting on top of the jaws The angle was so steep I backed out of the site instead of pulling forward. Of course when I finished backing and went to pull forward the trailer fell onto the bed of the truck. Yikes! Luckily we had so much junk in the truck it helped support the trailer and we had negligle damage. Just a small crease on the top of the tail gate. Lucked out on that one.
Most of our lessons cost us time more than money.
Our newest expensive lesson or reminder is to look high and low when driving. A few days ago we were going across a narrow bridge where we had to stay tight to the centerline to keep our mirrors from hitting the verticals. At the end of the bridge the driver moved right and scraped the side of the motorhome on some guard rail that was lower down. The copilot had no time to give warning, since the move right was unexpected. Now we get to spend a few days in late May getting some body work and painting done. Bye bye vanishing deductible on our insurance. In all our years of RVing this is the worst damage we have had.
We once camped in the Sacremento River delta area of California after it had been raining for weeks. The campground was below the levies and the campsites were on grass. Our RV sunk in the ground, we were not level, and we had to get towed out. We have been careful ever since on grass. The tow out was free since we have Coachnet, but we moved to a more expensive campground for the rest of our stay.
Once we were backing into a campsite with a bush in the back. I didn't think anything about pushing into the bush a bit but found out that just behind the outer leaves were some cut off branches, about 1/2" behind. We got some paint damage that day. We are more careful to make sure there are no hidden hazards now.
We were dry camping in Alaska in 2006 and the line was long at the dump station so we decided to drive to our next campground to dump and take on water. About halfway there we had a breakdown, it was Friday and after getting towed to the closed repair facility we had to survive on little water and fairly full waste tanks. Now we do not travel without enough waste tank capacity and water in the tank to survive three nights. So far we have not needed to do so again, but we are ready. We will sit in a long line to dump.
-- Edited by bjoyce on Sunday 24th of April 2011 03:41:21 PM
A couple of times I have unhitched and driven away without disconnecting the electrical plug, and only once, thankfully, driven away without dropping the tailgate. Rewiring the plug is only 30 minutes after you've done it once, but a new tailgate was quite expensive.
We also once ran the washer, forgetting to open the grey tank, went for a walk and returned to see water running out the basement door.
Forgot to lower the TV antenna once and stripped it off leaving a campground.
There are probably a dozen other instances, but I tend to conveniently forget them soon afterwards. :)
Unless you are totally anal and have 40 checklists, these things will occasionally happen.
-- Edited by Luvglass on Sunday 24th of April 2011 05:34:53 PM
I scraped the right side lower panel on our fiver on a low to the ground pole because I swung wide to miss a flower pot on the left side.The worst was forgetting to close the black tank valve after dumping and dry camping for 3 days before getting to our destination with full hookups.A five gallon bucket and some rubber gloves minimized the mess. I have forgotten to unhook the emergency brake cable once.
Here's our more painful mistakes. Buying too small of a TT. Replaced it with another extra big 37' TT that was a lousy trailer for sway. Finally got a nice 5er. Forgot to latch the rear bathroom door and had it catch on the slideout damaging the stub wall the door was hinged on. Had a drawer open traveling and caught on the same slide. Bought a 2007 F350 with the 6.0 thinking that the problems with the 6.0 should be fixed after four years. Bought a new 2010 f350 to replace the 2007 after three turbo's in four months. On the humor side. I didn't leave enough slack on the brake away cable on the first time pulling out of my driveway. I live on a busy state route and after getting out across the road I turned sharply and pulled the cable and came to a sudden stop.
On the return home we ONLY looked for "travel centers" or truck stops for fill ups NO MATTER what the price!!
Ouch! What is so painful is that it looks like most of these mistakes would be quite easy to make. Thank you for sharing these painful lessons!
I unhooked the toad while it was still in neutral. Glad the road was "kinda" level...
Same trip, I tried to drive away with the toad in park. DOH!
OK... since we're all confessing.
When I made the first visit to our local Workhorse dealer I wasn't sure where to park the motorhome when I arrived. Seeing some other RVs parked at the rear of the parking area, I tried to squeeze through an area next to their canopied service writeup area. I got part way in and realized it wasn't gonna work. When I backed up I heard this awful sound. Getting out and looking I saw that I had caught the bottom edge of the front cap of the motorhome on the edge of a signpost and had ripped the cap outward at a 30 degree angle. 
Fortunately it was only a small tear in the fiberglass and I was able to fix most of it myself.
Lesson learned: When you're in a tight spot get out and look!
Only problem, she stopped instead of heading straight across. I don't know why she stopped, my 5th wheel was blocking traffic, so she had a clear path into the driveway that I just left. My attention was diverted from her watching some cars that were coming down the boulevard. I started my wide turn and felt the impact of the 5th wheel against the rear corner of her SUV.
Only slight damage to the propane door on the 5th wheel and a busted taillight for her.
I learned my lesson to keep an eye in the mirror when dodging an obstacle. Don't depend on my mind's eye for clearance.