Avoid little RV disasters with better communication

Dear RV Shrink:
We had a mini disaster while traveling recently in our older motorhome. My husband is always saying we need automatic levelers. Presently we use plastic levelers we drive up on.

We were at a nice city park in Montana for the night and up on levelers on the passenger side only. I was boiling coffee on the stove and told my husband to let me know when he was coming off the leveling blocks so I could hold the coffee pot. Less than a minute later he rolled off without a word. The wooden stove cover fell, knocking the boiling coffee to the new tile floor. As we were busy wiping up hot coffee, we didn’t notice the wooden stove cover on fire. We threw the whole thing out the door and opened all the windows and vents.

I blame it on my husband’s CRS (Can’t Remember Stuff); he blames it on levelers. So what’s your opinion — Do we need to spend two grand on levelers or a brain transplant? —Decaffeinated in Denver

Dear Decaffeinated:
I would hold off on the brain transplant. We’ve all been there. I recently talked about a check list, but not everything can be guaranteed with a list. Your husband might have been busy doing other things and listening but not hearing.

Many new rigs come with levelers, and they are a great convenience. Adding them can be pricey so everyone has to make their own decision on value. Plastic levelers are less convenient but work very adequately.

If this type of communication glitch happens often, you need more than an easy system to level your rig. If it was an isolated incident I would chalk it up to experience and buy a new stove top cover that latches to the wall.

Don’t be too hard on your husband, the next time things go to pot it might be your fault and you won’t want him flipping his lid. —Keep Smilin’, Richard Mallery a.k.a. Dr. R.V. Shrink

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##RVT811