And just how did you screwup?

[sreigle]

A year or so ago we had a thread where we posted about some of our screwups. A few of the newer people commented how much it helped them to learn from others' mistakes. I know I learned several things in that thread.

So, how about we do it again? I'll start it off with one of my many goofs.

I once decided to adjust the brakes with kingpin stabilizer in place. Jacking one side of a Montana with the tripod tightly against the pinbox is not a good idea. I discovered that bent large bolt in the kingpin stabilizer costs around $25, installed.

 

[ols1932]

The worst one I did was to not close the black water valve after dumping. I put the cap back on the outlet and went in and added water and my chemicals. Well, when I got ready to dump the gray water the next time, I took off the end cap. Can you guess what happened?
Orv

 

[William H. Collier]

Steve thats pretty cheap, we left our living room slide out window open when parked at Silveridge in Mesa News Years Eve while we visited with Linda's mother for about 2 hours. Hard for us to believe but someone came through that window and had a very profitable night. Linda lost all her jewelry, 15000 plus, and we also had a camera and gun taken. National Interstate will pay 2000. We wont be leaving any windows open again. Great security at a high dollar place, they broke into three units that night.
Bill

 

[Montana_4221]

My biggest screwup was in Pigeon Forge with my previous 5'er. We were fairly new to RV's and brand new to 5th wheels and we got to the CG late that night. With it being dark and myself being in a hurry, I forgot to scotch the wheels before releasing the hitch lever. The landing gears slid off the 2x8 wood blocks they were sitting on and the rig rolled back a few inches and just enough to completely trash the tailgate on the truck.

I now have a fifth wheel tailgate and a check list. And we avoid setting up after dark.

Do you know how much noise that makes during the night when that happens? I really felt like crawling under the rig when the lights in the CG started coming on.

 

[bamatravelers]

Oh, that's scarey, Bill. Fortunately we don't have anything that valuable along with us.

Glen pulled the handle on the kingpin before putting out the chocks. Thus our search for a new tailgate. Could have been a lot worse....the trailer was heading downhill. Hate to even think about it.

 

[DHenry]

Judy, you need to get glen a bedsaver, it would have caught the pin before it got to the tailgate.

 

[315RLS]

Forgot to secure the sliding door between the bath and bedroom and found it lying on the floor after it appeared to have traveled at a high rate of speed right though the end stop and out of its track. We were lucky, it could have caused some more serious damage.

 

[Montana_70]

I remember my very first screw up regarding RV living. It was really a group effort with myself as the leader. I was happy in Miss Montana for less than a week when the kitchen sink would not drain. Yes, you guessed it. The little fact about the separate drain for the galley was lying dormant somewhere in my brain.

I called the service department at the dealer. I heard every possible reason for this except, "Is the galley drain open?" All expensive or very involved fixes. Next I called Keystone service. They never once eluded to this little quick fix either. They all knew I was a novice RV'r. Why they never mentioned the obvious I'll never know. Next I started asking other RV'rs in the park. Again. Same story. I am not sure why I never found this info the manual. Not saying it was not there, just never found it.

I finally "got fed up" and called a service tech. He arrived. Got out of his truck. Said, "Hello". Looked around under the unit. Reached down and pulled the galley drain lever. That's when I said, "Oh, yeah. The galley has a separate drain". Duh!!! Of course the Service Tech was very clever about not mentioning this over the phone before he headed out for a "service call". Easy money for him. A stupid sign for me.

I was thankful I did not attempt some of the very involved fixes for the "clog" suggested by dealer and Keystone or my stupid sign would have been much bigger.

 

[bobgay]

My worst was leaving the TV tailgate down. No problem until I made a turn. The tailgate then made contact with the 5ver. Luckily it only hit the access door, wiping it out. It cost about $200 to fix, but I learned a valuable lesson, right? Wrong -- About a month ago I did the very same thing again. Some of us are slow learners.

 

[BandJ]

On our very first trip 5 years ago we had the following.

Day one first time getiing gas, after fueling up at a mobil station I hit the concrete pole when pulling away from the gas pump. Rip the side of the RV like a sardine can.

Day two when setting up in a campground for the first time I forgot to put the pins in the front landing legs.

Needless to say we had some major repairs to the RV and Truck.

5 years later and all is well..

 

[Glenn and Lorraine-MOC]

Mine didn't involve the Monty at all. We were returning from the Northeast rally last June. Needing a pit stop and fuel we pulled into the Flying J on I-81 in northeast Penna. Having been in that particular Flying J on numerous occasions I knew exaclty where the diesel pump was located and was able to pull right up to it. I got out of the TV, swiped my cards, picked up the nozzle and proceeded to fill the tank. After full I returned the nozzle to the pump, collected the receipt and pulled the rig away from the pump and went inside to use the facilities. Returning to the rig I happened to notice that the sign read that diesel was 2.29 a gallon. I thought that to be odd as the pump I was using said it was 2.18. I commented to Lorraine about the price difference. Lorraine pulled the receipt from her purse. She said we were charged 2.18 but for "Unleaded Hi-test" and not diesel. I couldn't believe I could be that stupid so I removed the TV's fuel cap and took a good sniff. Well to make a long story short... Some 4 hours later and nearly $500 less in our account we were again heading south on I-81.

 

[bamatravelers]

Bryan, you need to talk to Trebor. At the rally they had their back quarter panel held on by duct tape. Guess I should not add others goof ups when we have so many of our own. Those concrete posts will jump out and get ya.

Doug, you're right about the Bedsaver. Ours should be arriving in the valley within the next couple of days. We'll all feel so much safer. We are thankful that nothing more than the tailgate was damaged. It was just a matter of being too busy talking to other people and happened so quick. A Bedsaver is well worth the investment.

 

[Wrenchtraveller]

I bought a new 5th Wheel in 1987, It was a 26 footer, my previous one was a 24. I store my RVs in a driveway beside the house but when we load up for a trip I pull the rig out of the side yard and back it into the front driveway. I had a couple of glases of wine with supper and we were going to load up the rig the next day and I said to Donna, I am going to put the trailer in the front yard. She says , do it tomorrow, you had a couple drinks of wine. We really should listen to our wives sometimes but I knew better and I guess the outcome of this story is obvious. I backed the frikkin trailer into the house. I have a colonial style house with a lower roof and the trailer hit the edge of this roof. I just bumped the house square on and flattened the gutter. One of the gutter spikes went right through the trailer wall up on one corner.

I got lucky and the most expensive damage was to my pride. The house gutter I was able to bend out and it looks decent. The trailer only had the spike hole through the one corner, nothing else. I filled the hole with silicone, put a red reflector lens on the outside hole and another one on the opposite corner to match it up. Inside the coach we found a nice little picture to hide the hole. I do listen to Donna now and she was a sweetheart and did not gloat over this but I did give her a scare when she felt the house go THUMP. Take care, Don.

 

[Imp-MOC]

OK Judy, time to fess up. Bob would like to forget it. We were on our way to Minden and pulled in to a gas station up in the mountains. The diesel pumps were off to the side and there were some big rigs parked in the area. When we pulled out Bob turned too soon when trying to manouver around the big rigs. We heard a terrible sound and stopped immediately. To our horror we had hit a large square cement post at the end of the pumps. It had ripped a hole in the lower panel and pulled up the back cap. The post was about a foot inside the back cap. Other than total heart failure, we didn't have a clue on how to get it off. Two truckers came over and suggested we drop the monty and back in at a right angle, then rehook. Then as Bob backed up slowly, the two truckers and I pulled up on the back cap as the monty turned and the post came out. The back cap fibreglass was ripped up both sides about 2 feet, the lens caps had popped off, the ladder had some damage. We then dropped the monty and rehooked up and pulled it out slowly. We determined the lights were still working so out came the duct tape. We strapped both sides and the lens caps back on. Covered all the holes that we could in case of rain. And headed down the road. So the moral of the story is...watch out for those posts and have good insurance. One of us is now sptter when pulling out of gas stations. Total cost for repair will run about $6500. We are still waiting on the ladder. We are fulltimers and had to be out of our rig for 3 1/2 weeks. Evergreen RV in New Braunfels, TX by the way does good fibreglass work.

 

[Roman 4]

We stopped in a no-frills, self-service RV park with lots of shade. We circled around through a few spots, in and amongst the great old trees that created all that shade, trying to determine where the electric and water hook-ups were positioned. On one of our circles through a space I noticed a large piece of plastic lying on the ground. I thought to myself "some inattentive soul must have hit one of these limbs with his air conditioner." After parking, I looked up at my air conditioner covers and they appeared fine, so I didn't give it another thought.

The next day, though, I noticed that my refrigerator vent cover was missing. The need to check overhead clearances was reinforced in an expensive way.

 

[harleyrider-MOC]

Well my big screw up was when I was back flushing the black tank with the "flush king"I turned the water on and started to do some thing else and completely forgot about the water.My wife yells out that their is water in the bathroom.O no.Quickly turned off the hose.wiped up the water in the bathroom and pulled the handle on the black tank.Not much damage thank God.But i`ll tell you my tank sensers have never been better(lol)

 

[beliveauj]

There's so many in our two years of fulltiming but i'll just give you the last one.After I do the blackwater flush I close the valve and add about five gallons of water to start the week only this time for some reason I walked away and forgot about it untill we heard the big bang and felt the RV shake.Now the guys in the RV park won't let me live it down.

 

[Sweetfire]

My very first RV was an overshot camper. Right after picking it up I needed to stop for fuel. I pulled into the gas station, got out and checked the clearance between the top of the camper and the awning over the pumps. More than enough, good! Feeling smug for remembering and patting myself on the back I pulled forward and gassed up. Well, I was in the lane that ended in the drive-up cashier’s booth. I got in the truck pulled forward to pay and slammed the left front of the overshot into the roof of the cashier’s booth. Put a 6-inch gash in the camper and rocked the cashier's world. Scared the ---- out of both of us. Didn’t even own it for an hour, so much for smugness.

 

[trukdoc]

I have been fortunate. I have the small ones like bumping my head on the bedroom slide and on my old motorhome left the antenna up. For the antenna I have a red reminder tag that has a clip on it. Ant up tag is on the door - ant down tag is on the ant handle.
I attribute much of my lack of disasters due to the honesty of the MOC members willing to post their mistakes, therefore preventing many mistakes I could of made but have'nt.
The first didaster avoided was the decision to put in a slider hitch with a short bed even after several people I know told me I do not need it. About the time to pick up our Mountaineer and have the hitch installed. There was a post on Ford F250 shortbed hitting the trailer and knocking out the window.
Thanks to all MOC members that have helped me not to make the big mistakes!!!

 

[Dustytuu]

Our first 5th wheel,a 24 footer, we took it to Colorado Springs for weekend. Don was backing into the spot and hit a tree. Cost around $600 to fix that. We didn't notice it until we got home!

On a 2 week vacation with the Monty. One morning, I had left a water bottle on the shelf beside the bed. It had fell on the bed and was empty by the time we stopped for the night. Had to dry our mattress and bedding.