And just how did you screwup?

[Garyb2573]

Our biggest mistake was when we bought our Montana. I had bought the pullrite for the shortbox truck. I asked the dealer where I had the hitch installed how to install the kingpin attachment. He said,"We will do it for you." Mind you now, my truck was in Rochester, MN and my Challenger 5th wheel was in Amboy, IL." I told him that and he said," Just follow the directions and you will be okay." I followed the directions about making the attachment, backed my truck under the kingpin and felt it stop. I raised the legs and started to pull forward. You guessed it, the trailer came off the hitch and I have two nice large dents in the truck.

We had the kingpin attachment put on the Montana correctly by the dealer where we bought it and haven't had a bit of trouble since.

 

[Kathi-MOC]

These are all so funny. I know they weren't at the time but now you all can look back and say you learned from it. RIGHT? I don't know where to begin with all of ours. Trees, curbs, gas pumps, you name it we have hit it. When we went to Reno we had just installed our bedsaver. (Thank Goodness). Paul thought he had the Monty hooked up right so we pulled out. Some lady yelled at us that there was a cord hanging down, so Paul gets out and it is the cord from the trailer to the truck. So he fixes that and we proceed to exit the park. About 50ft from the exit the trailer lets loose and "CRASH" it wasn't hooked up all the way. It hit so hard that it bent the kingpin frame. I had to get up into the bed of the truck and kick the hitch to get it loose so that we could rehitch the trailer. Thank Goodness For the Bedsaver. It was only $175. and I am telling you it is worth a million dollars when that trailer comes loose. Please if you buy anything, buy that bedsaver. We never thought it would happen to us, BUT IT DID!

 

[8.1al]

Gee, I wouldn't know where to start. How about the time I didn't put a padlock on the lever lock on our Reese hitch? We traveled 250 miles and were backing into our site when the fifth wheel came off the hitch. Someone had flipped that latch up while we were away from the truck. Or how about last year when we forgot to fasten the strap on the bedroom tv and it came out and broke the mirrored door.

Myrna,
Tell Bob not to feel bad he has lots of company. When our Montana was almost brand new I was maneuvering into a tight spot. Nila, her sister and brother-in-law were watching the back. They were so concerned about this large rock they were afraid I would run over that they didn't see the back end was about to hit a retaining wall. By the time they saw it we were hung up good. By the time we got unhung the rear cap was half ripped off, the rear wall pulled out. The whole rear of the trailer had to be replaced, wall,cap,windows,everything. This kept us in Las Vegas for 7 weeks and cost $16,000.

 

[Bob-lee]

In the past 2 years of full time we have been at the same spot(still working) but as all have said before I have learned a lot from the people that have been there.. but I added a gate valve at the end of my dump line to be able to hold more in the gray and galley and keep suprises away thank well dont close it in the winter the large pipe hanging out the heated belly froze solid and so I had to lay there in the cold with a heat gun to thaw..lucky no damage.

 

[bamatravelers]

This thread is enough to discourage anyone from every buying an RV....maybe we should start a thread about our BEST experience in our Montanas. I think I will!

 

[skyguy-REDW]

My best screwup wasn't done by me, but by my dealer.Happened last spring, and it involved mixed up work orders....

But my personal best has to be the time we "smartly" left the Monty in Buena Vista for a week since we were coming back the next weekend...
Buena Vista is about 2 hours from Colorado Springs, only 1.5 hour w/out the Monty in tow. Anyway, as we were driving to BV the second weekend, about an hour into the trip I asked if anyone had remembered keys. Anyone??? ANYONE???

Now one set of keys is ALWAYS in the truck....

 

[countrygirl-MOC]

This past week as we were headed to Georgia, we discovered that afternoon as we started setting up in the campground that our bedroom window was standing wide open...upon closer examination, we noticed that the glass was completely gone with the exception of a few jagged peices around the edges. With the weather being near freezing that late afternoon, we were really trying to decide what we needed to do about that cold air coming into the bedroom. After David and I talked it over, we decided to get some cardboard and try to make it as air tight as we could. The Ranger in the park helped us get the cardboard and the rest is history. We fixed it...but now, the expensive part..
I am sure that I didn't close the lever real good to keep that accident from happening..Anyway, We have learned our lesson about closing the windows.
Shirley or Countrygirl

 

[Searchers]

Worst incident was in 1972 when I left the camper shell door raised after hooking up the Prowler TT and pulling it around the house to finish loading. Yep, punched a hole in the upper front right corner of the TT. Remember those fish decals that sportsmen had on their rigs? Well, after applying one to a piece of thin aluminum cut to shape, using a little caulk and pop rivets, I became a sportsman too!

 

[Northstar-MOC]

This will be easy to answer. I will pick out one to write about. I would sometimes leave the rear quarter panel door open when closing the rear bedroom slide out. You guessed it when the slide closed it ripped off the panel door. It only cost $50.00 to repair but I learned to now secure that panel door.

 

[WestCoasting]

Okay..... I wasn't going to add in my boo-boo as many of the old-timers in here have read it already but here goes:

I have most of the summers off work and will pull the Monty by myself or with my teen-age daughter a couple of hours over to the coast. I'll usually do this on a Wednesday. The hubby will get off work and join me on Friday evening.

One time at a campground at the coast, I got into a tight turn and the truck and Monty were both on uneven ground. I managed to do what the dealership said wasn't possible. I put the Monty through the back window of the truck. Scared the poop out of my daughter and the dog.

One guy was driving by and watched what happpened. He laughed and gave me the "thumbs" up. I was mad and reacted before I could think about it and gave him a "finger" up. That pretty much guaranteed that he wasn't gonna stop to help.

I had to finish breaking the window and cleaned up all the glass and then pulled the Monty back home. Our cost was $550 due to hubby finally getting that sliding rear window he had been wanting.

 

[thook]

My worst, so far, happened in 1969, a long, long time ago. I had just picked a brand new 18' Prowler. It was the first time I had towed anything. 20 miles from the dealer I heard a loud BANG and immediately the rig jacknifed and started me swerving back and forth across the center line. When I had the first opportunity to glance in my mirror I saw nothing but a cloud of insallation and trailer parts. Fortunately I didn't hit anyone.

Apparently the dealer hadn't tightened the lug nuts on either wheel and the left wheel came off, went through the trailer taking out the stove, furnace, refrigerator and shower and most of the left side. Of Course it totaled the trailer. No one got hurt and I had a new trailer by the end of the week.

 

[sreigle]

In Terlingua, TX, I did the pull test after hitching up and lifting the landing gear maybe an inch. I then got to talking with someone and forgot to raise the landing gear all the way. While pulling through the park Vicki asked what's that noise. It was the landing gear topping out on the bumps. Fortunately there was not a lot of damage. The right one still requires a hard tap wiht my fist to get it to drop, though.

I once tried to pull out of a site and wondered why that Montana is so hard to tow. Then remembered the between wheel chocks were still in place on both sides. The Ford pulled it far enough to turn those chocks sideways, making them very difficult to remove without destroying a tire.

I learned to always put the sewer hose in the little hole at a dump station (or site) before removing the cap on the Montana. One time the black tank dump valve handle had been pulled just a little, just enough to fill the dump pipe over time. When I removed the cap the contents went everywhere. Fortunately it was at a dump station where it ran onto the concrete and down the hole and there was a hose handy to clean the place up. Unfortunately there was a class A owner on the other side of the hole waiting his turn. He managed to keep it to a smirk as he turned and walked away.

Pulling into a tight site at a KOA near Baton Rouge we came to a sudden and definite hard stop with the truck turned into the site and the Montana mostly still on the road. All the neighbors were out there chatting, of course, and now they were offering advice about brake shoes coming loose and jamming, etc. I tried and tried to move the Montana but it wouldn't budge. Finally I walked to the office where they gave me the number of a mobile service. I called and first thing he asked is that I go back and see if the emergency brake on the pinbox had been pulled. You guessed it. The wire had caught on the edge of the hitch and pulled that brake. I later added an eye hook in a location not prone to that problem.

There are more, I just have to remember them.

 

[campbuddy]

So far we have had a couple...one was when the wife left the tailgate down. We had a cooler in the bed of the truck that fell out and lodged itself under the fiver while we were driving along. We even turned a couple of times..luckily nothing happened to the camper/truck, only the cooler had holes all over it and the contents were gone. Now on to my mishap...I slid the slide out in and forgot to move the stool...yep it went thru the cabinet! So right now we are one to one the wife and I and hoping to keep it that way!

 

[Dave e Victoria]

Steve,
I had the problem of the emergency break trip wire getting caught in the truck bed. I was going around a corner and had to drag the trailer to the side of the road. I solved that problem by getting a 7/16 ID plastic neoprene tube to slide it over the trip cable. It looks finished and is not likely to get hung up on anything in the bed.
Dave

 

[RADHAZJOE]

Well, yesterday I broke the rear window in the truck for the second time in 8 months. Oh, well, its only money.

 

[sreigle]

About two months into our first year of fulltiming we settled into an rv park near San Juan Bautista, CA. Good friends of ours live in this park and they came over to visit soon as we were set up. Pretty soon a guy walking by knocked and said we have a bad water leak and he'd turned off the water. I'd forgot to open the gray tank valve before Vicki started laundry. It had backed up into and overflowed the shower, flooded our bathroom area and ran down the pipes under the vanity into the basement. I had to empty the basement and lay everything out to dry for 24 hours or so, borrow a wet/dry vac, etc., etc. I can tell you our gray tank will hold a bit more than two washer loads of water if it's empty to start with.

Dave e Victoria, I'll give some thought to the neoprene hose. Sounds like a good solution. Ours has a slider and it caught under the slider rail at the rear of the rail. I will have to study whether the hose would help on that or not. Wouldn't hurt to try and it would look nice in any case.

Orv - ols1932, your map of visited states has exactly the same states as ours. All but New England and North Dakota.

 

[Random Line]

How did I screw up?

Let me count the ways.

Say do you know how to make it rain in the basement?

Just take a shower and then turn off the water at the shower head valve and leave the regular hat and cold knobs turned on. Works every time.

 

[jpbcny]

As with most RVers I've had my share of "Screw Ups"

Dropped the landing legs, unhooked, pulled away without dropping the tailgate, dragged the 5er about a foot (Had a small "Super Light Weight" Jayco then).

Opened the fridge after parking in the CG (not slowly, just whipped it right open), and had a large jar of homemade salad dressing fly out and explode on the floor, and all over the slideout carpeting. Took hours to clean up the glass, and contents.

Opened the slideout after parking in a nice shady spot (in too much of hurry to open the blinds, or turn on a light) without noticing a glass topped table had shifted during the trip, got wedged between the slideout edge, and the wall. Another glass mess.

And for the truly dangerous Screw Up, was running my water heater on propane (Agaqin this was my 1995 Jayco), deicided the aquastat was not responding correctly to the temperature lever adjustments I was making, so I decided to see if something was stuck inside, started to unscrew the unit, found out that you shouldn't do this while the propane is on, and the water heater pilot light is lit. Had flames about 3 feet high coming out of the W.H. enclosure, luckily I had a full 6 gallon water jug next to the trailer, as I was going to top off the tank. I was able to pour water on the flames while my brother, who was nearby turned off my propane tanks.

JP

 

[mike5er]

My big problem has been to get used to an overhead bedroom slider. I've got so many scars on the top of my head that now it looks like a battlefield. Several months ago I was working under the front overhang and came up right into the bedroom slider flange. My wife was inside the unit & said she thought there had been an earthquake. The very next day I did it again, only this time it knocked me flat on my back. It hurt so bad I thought I'd wet my pants, but couldn't help just laying there and laughing because of my stupidity two days in a row. Now when the bedroom slider is out the bright blue foam swimming noodles get put on. At least when I hit them I just get a reminder and don't wind up bleeding. Another time and another story will explain how to drop your 5th wheel onto the TV bed, or the time the tailgate got laid on the grass and was then promptly run over. I guess we all get brain fade eventually.

 

[HamRad-MOC]

ronnilu,
Mike do you think it has something to do with where we live? I nearly knocked myself out raising up quickly one time! Still come close even now. I'd put some padding under there except that I'd forget to take it out and then have slide problems!

Good luck from another Bakersfield resident.

HamRad