Don't forget to lower tv antenna!!!!

[Still_waters]

Stupid mistake. Packing up to leave I forgot to lower antenna. I have nobody to blame but myself but I wonder why those people waving good bye at the campground couldn't holler that the darn thing was still up. What really hurts is that I have a check list that tells me to lower antenna before leaving. Didn't look at check list before leaving. DUH!!! Antenna was fine till I pulled into my yard and an existing oak tree limb promply removed the antenna.

[Tom Gina 06]

I did the same thing last winter broke it off on my Wildcat. All I did to fix it was put in a spine gear about 7 bucks and then cut off the aluminum ends while on top of the 5er redrilled the holes and put the pins back in. Works great and much cheaper than buying a new antenna. That is if the head is salvagable. Good luck

[rrheik]

I did that last October, I left Ft. Stockton and pulled into KOA Fredericksburg, and the owner asked me how my TV reception was while on the road. I was sure lucky because I had only made one gas stop at a station without a overhang, otherwise my antenna would have been gone.

bob

[azstar]

Bob,
Don't feel too bad. The two most repaired items in RVing are Awnings and TV Ants.

[bsmeaton]

I have one of those little orange diamond signs from Camping World that you hang on the antenna crank to remind me. Worked so far.

Now I need one for the awning, slides, landing gear, hitch lever, rear jacks, hoses and cords........

[Illini Trekker]

Sorry to hear that, I reminder myself with a little sign that I hang over the slide switch. I take the sign off the slide switch and hang it on the antenna handle.SeeYa

[rnap50]

A hot pad hanging on the handle when it is up works well to.

[ols1932]

More people than you may think have done the same thing. Many won't admit it. It's happened to us twice; once with a pull trailer back in 1980 when I broke the antenna off, and again with the Monty when someone got my attention going down I-10 in California near Bakersfield back in 2002. Needless to say I now do a critical walk-around before I get in the truck and start off. Have even begun to move when I realized I hadn't removed my Roto-Choks. Now my wife makes sure that is done when she does a light check.

Orv

[ken]

Been there and done that. We also have the little orange tag now. I think it is somewhare in the drawer. On this Montana its right above my head in the bedroom and I remember to crank it down the day we are leaving. We all have done it sometime or another.

[Trailer Trash 2]

Well it almost happened to me, but a easy way to remind yourself is to put a camping wirld post sign "antenna up ?" or one you can make for free, I put mine over the frontleg stabelizer rocker switch, and when I hitch up the trailer, that sign has to be lifted to touch the switch when hooking up the 5er. an instant reminder for me. I leave it there all the time no need to remove it pluss it covers the switches inside the front compartment.

[Still_waters]

Thanks guys. You all are so kind!! Although I feel like an idiot no one called me one. I like the idea of putting a tag over the landing gear switch. Maybe that and the fact that I have it on my check sheet will prevent a recurrence. But in the meantime I'm only going to parks that have cable TV.

[stevemc]

Tooooo many things to remember! The trouble with checklists is once they become habit we skip over them without every step registering in our brains. Like proofreading a letter. If you wrote it you'll likely read over all the mistakes without even seeing them. Old age don't help either! (just speakin' for myself)

[bsmeaton]

Bob, Don't even consider thinking of yourself as an idiot . No one here was willing to "cast the first stone", so that means we are all guilty.

Just the other day I got distracted and forgot to release the hitch lever and tried driving away. DW screaming at me as the landing gear legs started sliding in the dirt. Spent the rest of the day worrying if I damaged the gear.
[IMAGE]http://www.emotihost.com/glass/22.gif[/IMAGE]

[W7PSK]

And I thought I was the only one that did that.


Ive left vents up too (till I got the Maxxairs on them and dont worry bout it

[campbud]

Oh dont feel to bad..I agree with the other members we all probably have done forgot something sometime or other. It is my job for the antennia and so far so good. One thing I did do once was to leave the tailgate down..luckily it didnt harm anything but the cooler that fell out...talk about being embarrassed

[Cat320]

BTDT.

My inside check list says "lower antenna" and the outside check list says "visually check to see if ant is lowered." All I have to do is remember to look at the check lists (or, as far as the antenna is concerned, just one check list)!

[Connorsmom]

I automatically head to the front of the Monty just before I bring in the slides, which is the last thing I do when closing up. This reminds me to lower the antenna. However, when I was leaving St. Pete, my neighbor started talking to me while I was in the middle of tearing down, I HATE it when people do that, it throws off my mental checklist. Fortunately I glanced up when he was talking though, I had put the antenna down, but it wasn't "arrow to arrow" inside, so one side of it was hanging out past the side of the roof...LOL

Jan

[SlickWillie]

Me too! Did that on the TT we had. We had the orange tag on it, and I still pulled out with it up. Just lucky there were no low hanging limbs. Oh, and I'll probably do it again. Hope that is the worst I do.

[harleyrider]

I was in a camp ground in Virgina Beach.Just got ready to pull out and leave.the guy that was camped next to me came over and asked me how tall my Montana is.i told him I believe its 12'9".he said well to me it looks like its about 14 feet with your antenna up.We both started to laugh and I thanked him for saving me some bucks.Of course I blamed it on my wife.probably one of the reasons I`am not married any more(lol)

[Bowie]

Sorry to hear of your problem. It is one that we all have nightmares about. Someone suggested to me that we should hang the truck keys from the handle--that way we would always be reminded to crank the antenna down when we were ready to leave. It was a great suggestion--until the morning I forgot where I put my keys and spent half an hour looking for them! Oh yeah--I did remember to crank 'er down that AM. Still think that the orange tag hanging from the truck mirror is also a good idea.