First mishaps on new trailer.

[edmojenks]

I have had my Montana for four months now and had my first mishaps all within the past 36 hours. I attribute all of this to a colonoscopy, ignorance and stupidity....not necessarily in that order.

We were scheduled to go camping the afternoon of the same day I had an "examination of the colon" (trying to make that sound as presentable as I can.)

For those of you who have had one, you know what the day before is like - starvation is one thing, not to mention the other stuff.

Anyway, I wanted to have the trailer out of the garage, hooked up to the truck and ready to go, because I didn't want to do all of that the day of. All of that is okay, except that I ran the battery down. Now I have learned that you need to hook the trailer wiring up to your truck if you are going to leave it out over night....or better yet, get the trailer packed and keep it plugged in while it is still in your garage. Then all you have to do is unplug and go. I know........this sounds so obvious now.

Day of - had the "procedure" at 9:00. Woke up from the anesthesia feeling great. Best sleep I have had in years. Of course, I had Drs. orders to not drive for 8 hours. No problem. We left town around noon and my wife drove the whole way. She can't back a trailer up. So I took over from there about 5 hours post exam. During that process I a.) knocked down the site number sign across the road from me. Didn't know I had even done that until the park ranger came to my site 45 minutes later to investiage. Apparently the campers who were watching me across the way reported me. They didn't see fit to inform me of this.

Then b.) when I was driving my truck out from under the trailer I had forgotten to let my tail gate down. A tail gate is no match for the weight of a fifth wheel tongue. The tail gate is not crushed by any means, but I did put the first two dents on my 2008 truck all within a matter of 15 minutes.

I guess there are many morals to this story. A few are: don't camp the day of a colonoscopy, live and learn, try to be as un-stupid as you can.

[Jay Bird]

Sorry about the mishaps. But you are right, you should not drive or mess with any other machinery after coming from under anesthesia. My doctor told me not to drive for 24 hours after my last exam. Everyone does not recover as fast as others and 5 hours post exam surely did not help. Glad the mishaps were minor. Continue to enjoy you rig and Happy Camping

George

[Waynem]

Ah! Just be a man and don't have any anesthesia. (I'll never do that again!!!!)

[CasaDelSol]

Dh installed an on/off switch for the battery in the front compartment. It has saved us a lot of headaches. The switch is available at any marine store or probably even Camping World although DH has never seen one there. Your's was a cheaper RV lesson than the ones we have learned!!!

[DarMar]

Your minor incidents are totally understandable considering what your had been through. Now that the worst is over, enjoy your camping trip!!!

[Wayne and Carolyn Mathews]

Don't know how long you were in "lala land," but after I had a knee reconstructed several years ago, I went back to the doctor a few days later and told him I was sure I'd suffered some sort of brain trauma during the surgery because I couldn't concentrate on anything I was reading and couldn't work crossword puzzles like I did prior to the surgery. He told me that for every hour I was under the anesthetic, it would take a month to get my brains back. I was out for nearly 4 hours, which sort of explained some of the problems with concentration I was having. (It didn't take 4 months to recover, thank goodness . . . at least I don't think it did.)

I'm sure you felt just fine and well enough to take over driver duties 5 hours after your exam, but maybe your brain was still enjoying some of that good sleep! Too bad your fellow campers didn't bother to tell you about that sign. That would have been the neighborly thing to do.
Carolyn

[edmojenks]

Back from the two day camping trip. Very relaxing two days, even though it is 95 degrees here in Louisiana. Let's just say that between about 9:00 am and 7:00 pm we staying inside a lot. But, it is still nice to get away from home and be in the middle of the woods.

Of course the weekend mishaps didn't stop with our arrival. On the way back the sewer hose came out of the boom and I drug it along the hwy. until I stopped. My wife had not secured the cap correctly.

Okay, this was our fifth camping trip. How long until you:

1. Drive to a camp site safely.
2. Back the trailer up perfectly.
3. Unhook without any problem whatsoever.
4. As you are leaving you get everything secured and you get home without a problem.

I'm still waiting for all of that to happen on one trip.

[Waynem]

You are a man after my own heart.

Blame the DW for everything.

[bncinwv]

I always worried about the tail-gate up, pulling out, smashing effect as well. My cheap solution was to use a P-touch machine and I now have a bold lettered label on the bottom of my rear view mirror that plainly states "CHECK TAILGATE". sounds simple, but every time I look in that mirror I cannot help but seeing that label that so far has kept me from making the same mistake. This may not be a sure-fire solution, but it has worked for me.
Bingo

[ONERUNNING]

Eddie, Sorry to hear about your mishaps with your Monty. However, it makes me feel a little better. You had an excuse, the anesthesia, and the DW. Myself, my bad luck wasn't due to anesthesia or the DW. I'm kinda of embarrassed to tell my mishaps. Anyway, here goes! We had just purchased our Monty on the 11th Feb. and went camping on the 19th. While there we noticed several small warranty issues with the Monty that needed taken care of. So when we returned home, I called the dealer that Monday, and he said bring it on over. Once I was at the dealer, the service department told me to unhook it right where I was parked in their lot. While in the prosess of getting the landing gear down, unplugging the electric plug from the TV, a couple walked up and started talking to me about how well I like my Monty, and as I came out from under the Monty, I closed the tail gate of the truck. After talking to the couple, I jump in the TV and pulled forward. Well, you know the story after that! I destroyed my tail gate to the tune of $1381.00 for a new one.
Now, we aren't done yet. When the dealer called me to pick the Monty up, it was pouring down rain, and I started to tell them that I would wait for a nicer day to come get it, but then I thought, well at some point in time I'll get caught in the rain, so I might as well get use to pulling it in the rain. So I called the DW and told her that it was ready to pick up, and I was going to get it. She asked if I was sure I could back it into the driveway without her spotting for me. Well I told her, the only problem I was concerned about was a small oak tree on the right side of the driveway when backing in, and I asked her how far had I been missing that three when she had spotted for me before. She told me I had about five feet of clearence. So I told her I could do it because I knew just where to put the left tires of the Monty to get into the driveway. Now Don't jump the gun, I know what you are thinking! (he hit the little oak tree) Wrong!!!! I got in the driveway just perfect. Now picture this. I have a 102 foot driveway, with a 22 foot wide pad in front of the garage, then on the other side of the pad, I have a 14' X 41' pad to park the Monty on. So that's 165 feet of backing, right. Well, everything was going just fine. I was backing using my mirrors to keep the Monty centered on the 14" wide pad, and not thinking how long I am. All of a sudden I felt a slight bump, and realized I had backed into the big oak tree at the end of the pad. Oh! you can't imagine how sick I was. I only had a six inch crack in gel coat on the uppper left corner of the Monty, but that tore me up. Anyway, I got it repaired for $450.00, and you can't tell it ever happened.
Those two incidents have woke me up. I stop and think about everything I'm doing, check things twice, and don't let anythng or any body distract me when hooking up or unhooking and backing. Oh! well, lesson learned the had way, I guess....Joe
BTW, that big oak tree at the end of the pad, is no longer there!!!

[edmojenks]

ONERUNNING - I suddenly don't feel quite as bad.