In this new column, we will be sharing some of the not-so-brilliant things we, the RVtravel.com staff, and you, our readers, have done while RVing. We hope that in addition to a chuckle or two, we can learn from others’ RVing mistakes and not make them ourselves!
IF YOU ENJOY THIS COLUMN AND WANT TO SEE IT CONTINUE, please send your story in the form below with your own RV mistakes and “oops” moments. There have to be many among both our seasoned and newbie RVers…
Knocked over a brick pillar
Joe E. experienced what a lot of RVers do with their new, long RVs. He wrote, “It was our first year with the new-to-us 38′ motorhome. I have had three other motorhomes but not as long as this one. I turned into a very tight half-moon-shaped driveway and I had to turn sharply left to get back out. Oh, yes. I was towing a car on a dolly. I didn’t allow for the extra-long rear end sticking out and it hit a brick pillar and knocked it over into the person’s lawn. OOPS. It put a long dent and scratches in the rear basement door.”
Saved by safety chains!
Joseph W. has learned his lesson about trailer chocks. He wrote, “When new to RVing, I read that you should put grease on the hitch ball. I forgot to do this so I promptly used the electric tongue jack to raise the trailer. Unfortunately, the wheels were on a slight slope so the trailer pulled away from my tow vehicle. Luckily for me, I had the safety chains attached and it stopped the trailer. I was lucky it didn’t bend the tongue jack. Now I don’t touch the hitch without checking to ensure I have chocks in place.”
Power cord still plugged in when leaving campground
Neal D. was 18 months into RVing when they finally decided to write a departure checklist. He wrote, “We had traveled in our RV for about 18 months by the time of this event and near-mishap. We were leaving a commercial campground near Austin, Texas. We also had been talking about creating a pre-departure checklist but had not made time to create it. After retracting the leveling jacks and the slides, we were ready to depart. I began to drive toward the exit as a woman walking her dog began frantically waving her arms. I stopped and she yelled that our power cord was still attached to the pedestal. The cord was about 6 inches from pulling loose from the RV. I disconnected, eventually reeled in all the cord, and we spent the first 30 minutes of our drive to our next stop composing our pre-departure checklist. Ultimately, we never damaged our rig despite numerous errors.”
Need your own checklist? Here’s one you can print out and check before pulling away from your campsite.
Electric pedestal shredded
Don R. wrote to us about his electric pedestal experience. “Probably others have made the same mistake, but I know I will do it only once. We were in a hurry to leave, slides were in, the toad was hooked up, the water was disconnected and we were ready to roll. I put the motorhome in gear and proceeded out of the site when I heard and felt a slight jerk after about 15 feet. While I had asked my wife to disconnect the water hookup we wanted electric just a little longer. I tore the innards of the electric pedestal to pieces while doing no damage to the cord or motorhome. I sheepishly stopped at the office and told them what I had done and would pay for the damages. The owner told me if I had left without stopping they would have come after me, but since I stopped they would let it go. Thankfully, water was disconnected.”
Watch out for phone map routing
Susan P. compared an RV trip planning route and Apple Maps. Apple Maps was so much shorter! She wrote, “While traveling through Arkansas, I chose to follow Apple Maps instead of RV Trip Wizard to save some miles. I found out why Trip Wizard has us going the long way… the road we took kept getting more and more narrow, then opened up to water over the road. There was no backing up the travel trailer or turning around. My husband had to wade through it to see if we could even drive through it. Thankfully we were able to drive on. Now the rule is: ‘If it doesn’t have yellow lines, we don’t drive it!'”
Please share your RVing “oops” mistake story
HELP! I’M RUNNING OUT OF ENTRIES! IF YOU ENJOY THIS COLUMN AND WANT TO SEE IT CONTINUE, please submit your RVing mistake story (or stories) below. Please fill out the form below and include a photo if you have one. Thank you!
I have learned over the years that when it’s time to load up and leave…. always… always…. always… do a final walk around of your campstation or your home unit…. and when it’s time to start loading up…. we start at the (roof vent/tv antenae) and work down from there…
Shortest route does not equal best route.
Don’t know why RV’ers, regardless of tenure or experience just don’t do a 360 walk around of their rig “BEFORE” they/you depart. Look up/down, pull/tug on exterior compartment doors and don’t forget to check your TV (tow vehicle) and/or your toad connections. This minute or two will prevent that “oops” moment.
We had been in the same spot for a month when we needed to pull in the slides for cleaning. We started to pull them in when I informed my wife that we are getting complacent about our procedures. Outside I went to do the walk around. Everything was fine as I suspected, however; it only takes once!
Totally agree! I walk around at least twice, and then I double check the inside as the other half does that. I have tried to learn from others so I have the TPMS, back up cameras, checklists, more truck for the 5th wheel that is needed, RV GPS, you name it! Most important for me is not to be in a hurry!
Yes Gil: Great point. I have done this from day one of Rv’ing some 30+ yrs. ago. I also look underneath for any leaks. I make a final walk around for power cord and hose. After that, I get into the drivers seat and review my checklist too. Never driven off with antenna up either! I guess this comes from my flying days in doing a pre-flight air frame/engine check and using check lists too! I have no doubts when I start the engine that all is well.
Agreed, Gil. Once we created our checklists (inside, outside, and towed), it was on the outside list as the final entry. 🙂
RE: Joseph W. has learned his lesson about trailer chocks.
Just a week ago, I thought we had a newbie in the park with a pristine Airstream. Luckily their site was very level front to back as they unhitched and leveled with no wheel chocks. Thought hard about it and decided to as politely as possible point out the risk. Turns out they have been RVing for 20+ years according to the husband, and wife jumped in saying she simply forgot the wheel chocks. Have my doubts. It will catch up with them sooner or later. I’ve had a trailer roll tight into the chocks as it cleared the hitch – and in nice CGs that looked level.
Returning from a trip to KS across southern MO the blonde inside the GPS informed me to turn left 2 mi ahead. I willing complied suspecting a detour ahead, 13 mi ahead I saw a sign advising St.Louis 174 mi. As we were heading east towards TN I saw no reason for going to St.Louis before reaching TN. Several miles later I found a recently combined wheat field that was dry enough to turn around and returned to U.S. 60 and turned east again where we found no reason not to continue east toward TN. Be careful when listening to the blonde in your GPS, she doesn’t know anymore than the idiot that drove that route when developing the directions.
Google will also put you on dirt roads. Fortunately it was when we were just touring in our toad, but it taught us to always actually look at the roads using Google Earth.
We use interior and exterior checklists. My bride goes through interior and I go over the exterior. Then we switch checklists and go over them again. Then before leaving, I walk around the rig looking up/down/around just to be absolutely certain everything is connected, pulled in, put away, or pulled down. Haven’t had a problem – YET.
I have learned to ask a fellow RVer to do a walk around for me. He will notice what I missed.
Thank you, Nanci! Ha! I’m famous! 😉
When going to meet a group caravan last year in the Rockies, and being our first long RV trip as well as our first trip away from the east coast, we stopped for an overnight stay. We arrived in the evening and hooked up our MH and disconnected the jeep. Went to dinner and returned. We planned to go shopping and then go to our meeting place the next morning. When we went outside, we were so amazed by the scenery (definitely different from the east coast) took some pictures and decided to take the toad with out the MH. (I was going to hook up the jeep so we could leave when our shipping was complete.) we decided to go with the jeep only and return and hook up and leave. Cont’d
I keep everything for the connecting in a bag; power cord, chains, break-away cable, hitch pins and pins. I have a Blue-Ox system. I placed the bag on the front bumper on the jeep and then took some more pictures. Obviously, got distracted. Well, we left in the jeep, while driving down the road, my wife heard a noise, looked in the mirror and didn’t see anything. After shopping, we returned to the campsite did a final look around the MH and went to hook up. NO BAG!!!! Looked in the jeep backseats and looked all around the parking area. There were only two other MHs in the park. Retraced our route and didn’t see the bag or the cables or anything that would resemble connection parts. Cont’d
I drove the MH and she the Jeep. Longest 2.5 hours ever! The pins were ordered from Bishes, the cables from another dealer and the cable with out the connectors from a supply house. Then we had to re-wire the connector since it was not aligning with the MH plug.
Lesson learned: Complete your task and don’t get distracted. Actually, it is don’t go shopping while on the middle of hooking up. That’s my story!
Also, keep this section! Like to see I’m not the only one who messes up.