By Gail Marsh
It was a fun night around the campfire as we all shared our personal “newbie misadventures.” The great thing about RVing (and really about much that happens in life) is that the harsh sting of mistakes lessens with the passage of time. Often, even terrible troubles seem much less terrible once some time has elapsed. The ability to laugh at ourselves and humbly admit to our silly RV mistakes made this campfire session really enjoyable.
“We were all newbies once.” Perhaps by sharing our stories of misadventures we’ll help today’s newbies avoid our mistakes.
RV newbie mistakes
Not taking a “shake-down” trip
“How hard can it be?” Gloria remembers asking her husband, Glen. “You drive to the campground, set up, and relax.” Glen and Gloria are not the only RVers who have neglected to take a “shake-down” camping trip. Several others around the campfire nodded as they remembered their own version of this story.
“Not only did we overpack, but we also packed all the wrong things!” Glen admitted. “Remember the patio lights and extra pillows—but no towels? What were you thinking?”
“That’s on me,” Gloria acknowledged. “But who forgot the freshwater hose?”
“Yep, that was me,” Glen said with a smile. “I was trying to organize the RV basement before the trip and accidentally left the water hose behind. By the time we parked and unhitched the trailer, we were hot and sweaty and needed showers.”
Gloria continued, “But without towels and no way to access water, we gave up, packed up, and went home.”
Tank troubles
My husband and I shared our own newbie “oops” next. Arriving at a work camp, other workers advised us to keep our tanks closed so that we’d have water to flush the black tank. We took this good advice but failed to keep an eye on our tank levels.
Yes, the gray tank overflowed, making a huge mess all over the RV bathroom. Thankfully, we realized what was happening and immediately opened the tank and cleaned up the mess.
Now, when we know we’re going to be parked for an extended length of time, we leave the gray tank open. When it nears the time to empty/flush the black tank, we close the gray tank for a day or two. This gives us enough water to fully rinse the black tank while preventing a repeat of our newbie mistake.
Turns out, tank troubles ranked high on the list of RV newbie mistakes. One guy was unable to tell if his black tank had emptied. He removed the sewer hose to check and, well … you can imagine the mess. He said he had to burn his shoes. His wife purchased a clear sewer hose elbow to prevent this mistake from ever, ever happening again. Ever!
Checking clearance
Linda and Dale thought they had the whole RV parking/setup procedure mastered. Then on their third RV trip, they failed to check clearance before extending their slides. The kitchen slide bumped against a tree and caused quite a bit of damage.
“That’s nothing,” Joey commented. “Once I forgot to bring in the slides as I left the campground.” Everyone around the campfire cringed. He continued, “I was almost out to the road before someone finally got my attention.” We all visibly exhaled and relaxed.
Owners of a toy hauler chimed in, “We parked, set up, and the next morning discovered that there wasn’t enough room behind our toy hauler to open our garage door.” A synchronized groan sounded around the campfire.
Awning
Judy confessed, “We’ve had to replace two awnings. Two! The first time, we left for the day and the wind ripped the awning and bent the extender rods. The second time, I forgot to bring the awning in before going to bed. An unexpected storm in the night tore the replacement awning and we had to buy another one.” From the number of nods around the fire, other campers had experienced similar awning mishaps.
RV newbie mistakes go on and on and on…
More stories and good-natured laughter followed. The biggest newbie mistake RVers admitted to making? Not asking questions! A newbie needs to ask questions. (Don’t we all!) Ask a neighboring camper, an RV repair guy, the camp hosts, or an RVing buddy. Post your question on an RV blog, Facebook group, or here, on RVtravel.com!
Your own newbie misadventures
Do you have newbie stories to share? Come on, we want to hear them! Use the comments below to tell us.
More “Around the Campfire”:
- What’s a fifth wheel tug test, and should we be doing it?
- RVers’ sightseeing tips that save you money
- RVers share the RV ‘misconceptions’ that frustrate them the most
##RVT1169
Two on our trip. First was when we pulled into a Walmart parking lot that had an entrance adorned with a pipe that went over the driveway. We cleared an overhanging bar. We did but the sattelite dish did not-crunch
the other was the water. I attached water hose in what I thought was the city water only to find it was the tank flush. Good thing I had dumped and cleaned the night before as I made a fountain from our toliet
My dad bought a 19′ Open Road class A back in 1973. Back then there was ONE holding tank. By the time you add the black water & gray water that happens, the black tank didn’t hold enough compared to the fresh tank. It had a wet bath & we all (my dad & 3 kids 10-21) learned a valuable, but nasty lesson. My sister was going to use the bathroom, but the shower pan had an inch or so of holding tank contents. Always make sure you don’t overfull your holding tank.
We weren’t even “newbies” when we did this goofy thing. We were in a funky grass campground. No slab, no markings, no nuthin’. We got all set up and level and when I pulled out the power cord it was about three feet short. Didn’t have an RV extension cord then (but we do NOW!) and had to ‘rig for running’ to back up three feet. You only do stuff like that once!
This was years ago. Since we’d had pop-up campers before, and tent camping before that, the Airstream we recently bought was ‘higher tech’. The first several trips went OK. Then, once (and only once), I was most of the way through our town on a trip to a local state park when I saw in the side mirror that I’d neglected to flip up the manual entry steps! Hadn’t scraped ‘em on anything but… I never forgot them again.
Ha! I have a good one. I am not new to RVing, but I have always had travel trailers. We just got our first fifth wheel. On our first trip out, I forgot to make sure the pin was all the way through the release handle. The trailer came loose and slammed onto the bed of the truck at 65 MPH! We were so lucky the the trailer hung onto the tailgate and we pulled over, put the front jacks up and luckily my tailgate was damaged, but still opened and closed, so we reconnected and we were on our way. I need a new tailgate, but that was a close call to disaster.
Yipes! You really dodged a bullet there! Phew!
My biggest noob mistake was underestimating the logistics; You have to have a place to park your rig every single night.
Every.Single.Night
Whether it be storage, at a destination, along the route or in the shop, you need to have something arranged for where it throws shade.
Common sense says, “No duh!” but until hopping on that treadmill called logistics, where the park brake gets set didn’t get much thought. And you’re on that treadmill until the day you part with your RV.
Something you just don’t think about with sticks and bricks.
I asked my husband to do a “walk around” before leaving our site. Pulled out, and came upon three big biker dudes standing in the middle of the road, blocking my exit! I rolled down the window and one said “Miss, do you plan to drive 70 mph down the highway with your awning out???”
I noticed camping a lot of people let their awnings out when not around and storms come thru. You can’t rely on the Apple weather app. Weather changes quick.
Camping in the rain once, left the awning out to keep water off the entry area … When I got up in the morning the awning was full and sagging down with a big bubble of water in the middle. So, I thought to push up on it to drain it off to the side. The broom handle went right through and the awning split open, dumping all the water right on my head! I learned another lesson from that!
Pulled into a drive through site with a cement pad along one side. Once we parked we realized we couldn’t put the stairs down all the way. Hopped back in and attempted to maneuver the trailer to the correct location so the stairs would fully extend. While maneuvering back and forth I somehow managed to get the utility pole between the truck and the trailer. It took several times of disconnect-move-reconnect-move to get out of the predicament. The camp host who was helping us get unstuck, realizing what we had initially wanted to do smiled and said “you know you can adjust the stair length”.
Thank you, Gail! 🙂 The biggest newbie mistake that we made that I can still remember was overpacking. We have made numerous mistakes since then, but we could not hide behind the “newbie” designation as the reason for making them. 🤔😯🙁 Thanks again, have a great week, safe travels, and safe stays! 🙂