Stupid Mistake round II.......... - Montana Owners Club

Glenn and Lorraine · 05-01-2006, 12:39 PM

OK some of you will remember the thread where we admitted our mistakes/blunders If you'll remember I'm the guy that filled his diesel tank with hi-test.

OK well today I had another senior moment....

When you are setting up your rig use your wheel chocks!!

I had the Monty down to the local RV dealer to go over the brakes and check a few other minor things and I am happy to report that everything went just great with no problems found. Brakes, tires, spring shackles, bearings all in great condition. So I drug the Monty back to it's site here at Avalon RV Park.

Backed her in like a pro. As the sand is rather soft I back all 4 tires up onto 6 foot 2 by 8s. I set the front jacks on a set of blocks and pulled the TV out from under the pin box and parked it across the road. I than proceeded to hook up the WES and cable. We put out the 2 slides and I walked around to the front compartment when all of a sudden the trailer drifted backward and the front jacks fell off the blocks of wood. The jacks sank into the sand 6 inches. The king pin was less than a foot from touching ground. Lorraine was inside the trailer at the time and must have thought it was an earthquake. She was not hurt.
Well after 2 hours and a lot of cribbing we were able to get her back on the TV. Happy to report no real damage to the trailer other than the two front pads on the jacks were badly bent and will need replacing.

As I said "no real damage to the trailer" but the parks water connection was a different story. When the trailer moved backward it pushed the water pipe over creating a leak. The piped cracked at the fitting nearly 30 inches in the ground. Well after nearly 3 more hours and hiring a plumber everything is back to normal.

The moral of the story is...

ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS USE WHEEL CHOCKS!!!

And always have your camera handy, which of course I did not.

rlwhit · 05-01-2006, 12:47 PM

Wow, what a story. I have come close do doing the same thing. At the very last second jumped out of TV and used chocks. OK you are retired and have a lot of time to deal with this kind of (they won't let me put the right word here)stuff. Take care and we all learn from these kinda postings. Thanks

Dave e Victoria · 05-01-2006, 02:53 PM

Glenn,
Glad everything is OK and thanks for the lesson. Last year, I found a couple of chocks that fit into the pattern of the riser blocks we carry to level the trailer. Also prevents backing off the blocks when parking.
Dave

OntMont · 05-01-2006, 04:13 PM

Glenn,

Congratulations on coming clean about this. Confession is good for the soul, and we all learn from each other's goofs.

As for your bent feet, you might want to look at the adjustable stailess steel feet offered on this site: http://www.imatech-moore.com/english/Home.html (notice that their demo model is a Montana) They have them listed as stabilizers. There are a few other intersting items on their site as well.

ols1932 · 05-01-2006, 04:29 PM

The very first thing on my checklist after pulling in or backing in is to put the wheel chocks in. That is, after I'm certain I have the rig far enough away from the utilities for the slide to come out!

Orv

fulltimedreamer · 05-01-2006, 05:33 PM

Glenn,

Don't feel too bad. About a year ago I was set up at Lake Rabun and was breaking camp. I had one set of wheels up on wood to level the coach side to side. The coach was chocked on the down hill side but not on the uphill side. When I went to raise the front of the TT the weight shifted and the trailer started going up hill (actually it was rolling off the boards I had used to level side to side)until the back of the slide made contact with the shore power box. It made a small ding in the end of the slide which is only noticeable if you know where it is. Needless to say, when I got home I made chocks that fit between the wheels, so that the next time the TT decides to defy gravity, it can't.

Of course Debbie was inside during my gravity defying act and wanted to know what I was doing. "Nothing dear, just hooking up to the truck".

bobgay · 05-02-2006, 02:34 AM

Glenn, glad no one was hurt and damage was minimal. We all make mistakes like that and usually we get away with it. Maybe this mishap will prevent a more serious one from happening in the future, either to you or to another one of us.
Bob

CountryGuy · 05-02-2006, 02:38 AM

Goodness Glenn, Tell Lorraine I am glad she did not get hurt.

You are a big man to fess up so!!

Glad it was not any worse!

Enjoy your months in the north country. Give us a ring if you get near lower Michigan.

TheCoachPotatoes · 05-02-2006, 03:34 PM

Glenn,
Thanks for the post. Glad nothing serious happened to your trailer. Also glad to hear Lorraine was ok. We all learn from mistakes, either ours or someone else's. I will take your advise as I must admit I do not always use my wheel chocks. This could have been a real disaster!

Al and Nita

drhowell · 05-03-2006, 05:21 AM

Glad nothing or no one was seriously hurt.

I didn't use to worry a great deal about the chocks. I would usually put them in place before unhooking but seldom had to worry about very uneven parking spots. UNTIL!!!! We parked at Woodson Bridge RV park near Corning CA. Beautiful spot backed right up to a bank overlooking the Sacramento River. The downhill slope of the site was toward the river. This time I was quite concerned about the chocks not being enough to hold her from going for a swim. I looked around for some bigger chocks and found a couple big logs that gave me a little more security. Needless to say I did not sleep well the two nights we were there, felt every little movement. When we got home I went right out and purchased the BAL Deluxe Tire Locking Chocks. I no longer have any fear the trailer will move with one on each side between the tires. Once I get the side to side blocked to level I install the Bal chocks and the trailer is not going anywhere. I sleep much better now.

Glenn and Lorraine · 05-03-2006, 07:03 AM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by CountryGuy

Goodness Glenn, Tell Lorraine I am glad she did not get hurt.

You are a big man to fess up so!!

Glad it was not any worse!
Enjoy your months in the north country. Give us a ring if you get near lower Michigan.

I fess up in the hopes that I may prevent someone from making the same stupid mistakes. This one is only going to cost me about $40 for new plates for the front jacks. With Lorraine being in the trailer at the time it could have been a lot more serious. The campground manager took the broken water pipe in stride and didn't charge me a nickle for the repairs to the waterline. Last year, the gasoline in the diesel tank cost me nearly 500 bucks. In both cases I know I got other members thinking and hopefully save them the bucks and the embarrassment of having to post it here.

As far as lower Michigan, who knows. Will you be around in late August or early September?

CountryGuy · 05-03-2006, 11:26 AM

Glenn,

Late August, early September, should be around within yellin distance.

You are such a good guy to share all your little OOOOPSERS with us, and for such a good reason!

Again, glad it all turned out ok, no one got hurt, the repairs are not gonna hurt that pocket book too much and you are soon on your way.

Safe rides, and ohhhh, chock that baby from now on!

CanDo · 05-03-2006, 01:33 PM

Glenn and Lorraine, so very glad to hear that no one got hurt (well, other than perhaps some wounded pride). Like the others have said, thank you for sharing your experience. Last year we were out and watched someone pull in a few sites away with a brand-new TT, just picked up the day before. We were out and about our campsite and not paying alot of attention to these folks. They had backed in, put the rear stabilizer jacks down, and started to raise the TT to take it off the hitch, and we happened to look over. Before we could yell to stop or anything else, the TT completely bent one of the stabilizers and the TT nearly rolled back and down a slight drop in the campsite! Thought he was gonna cry! Before ANYONE could run to help him, his young (12-13?) daughter came running and helped him lower the stabilizers, get the trailer off the hitch, and get camp set up. Their next-door neighbor offered to help, but they didn't need it. It was wonderful to watch this young girl pitch in and help her dad with the problem. They stayed and had a wonderful weekend. I'm sure sometime shortly thereafter the dad had to take the new TT to get the stabilizer fixed, but he didn't allow it to ruin their weekend. Just another example of why we love this lifestyle!

melnjoy · 05-06-2006, 04:19 AM

Glen & Lorraine, I just picked up on this thread. Wow. that is a story we won't soon forget. Thank goodness no one was hurt. We have chocks for our rig, but tend to use them only when we are not on real level spots. This really makes on think hard about making sure the chock are ALWAYS used. Thank You for sharing your experience so that it will not happen to us.
Joy T.

lightningjack11 · 05-06-2006, 05:05 AM

Thanks Glenn, I need all the help I can get when I get on the road.

bob n pam · 05-06-2006, 04:39 PM

Glenn, thanks for the post and I'm glad Lorraine wasn't hurt. We always rely on our past lives as sailors - first in, last out when it comes to setting up the trailer. Wheel chocks are first in, last out. Although I will admit that when we got here to our daughter's level backyard, we were so excited to see everyone that we forgot our rule for a couple of set up steps! Good thing nothing moved, but my usually calm demeanor was a little ruffled when I discovered I had forgotten since it is usually my job to set at least one chock!

sreigle · 05-08-2006, 02:43 PM

Ouch, Glenn! I'm sure glad no one was hurt and the damage was not worse. It just goes to show no matter how long we've been doing this, "it" can still happen to us. Get me out of my routine and I'm in trouble. Thanks for the report.

I have more than once tried to pull out of a site before removing those between wheel BAL chocks (one on each side). The Ford thought the emergency brake must be on but it turned those chocks sideways and seriously scrunched the tires. There is no way to remove those chocks in that position. All I could do was back it up and hope I didn't destroy four tires. Fortunately the tires handled it fine.

We have one front landing gear leg that requires a little bit of help to get it to drop because I got out of routine once and tried to drag the Montana down the rv park's road with the landing gear still down. I had raised them an inch to do the pull test. The road was not even. We got about 50 yards before Vicki heard it scraping on the ground. One of the gear got slightly bent.

I have had a number of other "oops" situations but they're mostly listed in that other thread.

Glenn and Lorraine · 05-09-2006, 02:08 AM

Steve, A year or so ago, I also bent one of the legs. It became such a hassle trying to get it up or down I just use wooden blocks. I block up to the jack. I also find the less jack the less movement. When I get a chance I'll post some pics of the front jacks and rear stabilizer blocks I have made.

DiananColin · 08-03-2006, 01:02 PM

Same thing happened to us when we had the Mountaineer TT. Did not put the wheel chocks in before unhitching, the ground was wet and the TT slid forward right onto its nose. Very embarassing but we were lucky no one was watching.

DiananColin
2005 3400RL
2004 Ram 3500 Quad
Laramie Turbo Diesel.

Whitby, Ontario. Canada

Ozzie · 08-03-2006, 01:22 PM

It's good to see some of these old threads revived. I like to read about these things, not that I relish in other peoples mistakes, but it's nice to see even the old timers are human.
I know I have to settle myself down when my wife starts after me cause I keep fussing trying to get the setup just right. I'm sure the guys will know what I mean - you got a nice rig and don't want to set it up half-assed.

327RKS

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