In this column, we share 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!
Please leave a comment in the form below with your own RV mistakes and “oops” moments. There have to be many among both our seasoned and newbie RVers…
What a sequence of events! One thing after another…
Terry H. had one thing after another happen. He wrote “I was transferred from AR to CA (Air Force) in 1985. I was pulling a 19’ Prowler TT in late November and it was a beautiful warm day. We left the Interstate and traveled north to see the Carlsbad Caverns. We spent the night boondocking at a roadside rest area. We woke up at sunrise, the wind was howling and buffeting the TT, it was raining, sleeting and snowing.
“The battery died running the furnace and I noticed we had a flat on the rear driver side. I break out my socket set and start to loosen the lug nuts. The socket shattered, half of the socket flew up and shattered my glasses, and glass flew into my eye. My wife is taking care of our six-month-old son.
“So with glass in my eye, I unhooked the TT and drove 30 miles back to the nearest town and hospital. The doctor pulled a small glass fragment out of my eye, and at that very moment, the hospital lost electricity. The doctor thanked me for my service and discharged me without billing me.
“So I went to NAPA, purchased a breaker bar, and drove back to my TT. Now that there was more daylight I noticed a small ‘L’ on the tire stud, reverse thread! So I was tightening the lug nut, not loosening it. I have since had another pop-up and now a fifth wheel and I still have the breaker bar.”
Another black tank flush disaster and then an expensive accident, to boot
Don N. did not have a good day at the RV park or on the highway. He wrote, “We were at an RV park in Wilsonville, OR, and the weather was near 32 degrees. We had to leave early Sunday morning, I hooked all utilities up on arrival but my blank tank cleaner faucet turned off. Their maintenance crew came and put insulation on all the faucets. They then turned on both faucets. Someone came to the building saying there was an RV with black stuff coming out the top of the RV. It was mine. I went to the front desk and told them what happened and needed to clean it up, which they did.
“We left the park and a few miles away, there was a very loud noise on the right side of my motorhome and I lost control and went across three lanes and just missed the barrier while getting control. A Honda car had attempted to pass on my right as I was halfway into the right lane. $10,000 later, my RV got repaired and his car was totaled. He worked at a TV station and got a news story. His insurance paid for my repairs.”
Touring the industrial section of Portland, Oregon. Thank you GPS… NOT!
Earl B. watches his GPS settings carefully now. He cautions, “Learned when setting up your new NAV GPS system there is one setting to pay attention to and that’s the ‘fastest’ or the ‘shortest’ route. Always choose the ‘fastest’ route. The shortest route will take you off the main highway and on secondary streets or maybe on dirt roads because it is the shortest route. Choosing the shortest routes puts you at a much slower speed taking much longer getting to your destination.
“I remember when we were driving through Portland, OR, and our NAV got us off of the 1-5 and onto secondary streets through an industrial area and then we ran into a trail on a spur that caused a traffic gridlock. I finally ignored the NAV and headed back to 1-5. We lost over an hour touring the industrial area of Portland. Make sure your NAV is set up for the fastest route.”
Hurried Tsunami evacuation leaves leaf spring hanger on the ground
Steven L. learned a lesson about his new chocks. He writes, “We were camping in Seward, AK, on our 99-day ‘trip of a lifetime.’ At almost 11 p.m. one evening got an emergency alert on my cell phone for an immediate tsunami evacuation. We slammed everything into the cupboards and truck and headed for higher ground, as instructed.
“I had recently added new in-between-the-tire wheel chocks that weren’t used to being there, so I didn’t remove them! Got back to the site the next day after the all-clear and the chocks were laying on the ground. That’s when I saw that I had broken the right rear leaf spring hanger off from the frame. $350 worth of welding later we were all fixed up. I didn’t do that again.”
Wife promises never to tell anyone about it but… it is three years later now
Rolling D. tells us about a sucked-up sewer hose cap and what can really happen. She wrote, “We go to drain the grey tank. We didn’t have clear elbows back then. Commander thought all was all drained. He pulls the valve and takes the dogs out. He goes back and pushes the valve in. I go to get a shower. Now I am wet and mad because I think he didn’t drain the tank. He said that he did.
“Commander goes out to try again. I mean, we both read stories of things in the grey and black tanks from building them that should have never been in there causing issues. Nothing. So Commander thinks it is a stuck valve. He gets to work under the trailer to access it. He discovers it works just fine.
“With the valve WIDE OPEN, he unlocks the hose to see if there is an obstruction. There is… but in the hose! The hose we were given at the dealership had caps that fit in the ends of the hose. Apparently, in all the craziness of buying hitch, and no power, the commander didn’t take off the cap on one end. The first time it drained must of tilted the cap but once done it suctioned in the end.
“Now there is grey water hurling in the face of the commander and all over him. He was mad at himself. I was laughing as I jumped out of the way. He made me promise to never tell anyone about it. I hope after three years he can laugh about it!”
First rule: Nothing except what comes out of you and toilet paper goes down the toilet, said his dad
Daniel W. found out the hard way someone was putting something else down the toilet. He wrote. “Well, we ended up using my mom and dad’s old but newly refurbished motorhome.
“The first rule when using the bathroom is nothing goes down that isn’t out of you or toilet paper, my dad says amongst millions of others. God, I wish I’d paid more attention to what he had said in the coming months.
“Well, I relayed the rules to my wife and daughters as soon as I picked them up. All’s good except they were asking about this and that and I had no idea what half the things that were attached to this monstrosity.
“‘Sit down, I’m driving!’ is what I remember saying. Anyhow all went well the first two weeks and then the sh** hit the fan! It appears that someone plugged the toilet up with something. I’d used it and flushed. My God those little bowls fill up fast. I was lucky it didn’t overflow.
“I used everything I had that might break the clog up from the inside. I’d even gone and bought a hand snake. No luck. So I had my loving wife empty some of the toilet water into a bucket and got everything packed up for a short drive to the dumping station.
“It had a solid cement wall on one side away from where you pull up, sloped floor going into a drain with a water hose on the side. I figured to clean up afterward, lol. Little did I know. We had figured out through a lengthy debate who had plugged it up and my oldest daughter blamed her mother. Well, how did she know. She handed me a box of sanitary wipes that were as thick as most towels and said, ‘See, this is what Mom’s been flushing down the drain.’ I was in awe that it hadn’t clogged up sooner!
“So it is now up to my wife to go outside and remove the drain cap. We tried using the hose first. I then went inside and tossed the snake out the window to her along with a few other items. A large beach towel, ski goggles, and a bottle of Joy soap. She asks what it’s for. ‘Well,’ I said, ‘I’m not shoving the snake up that pipe and the girls aren’t volunteering, so it’s all you.’
“She put the towel on the wall, which was about six feet away from the side of the motorhome. Goggles on and vent open, insert hand snake. She either was trying to work on my sympathy or goodwill but I wasn’t getting out. The girls were watching from the rear bedroom window, faces squished into it for the best view.
“All of a sudden I hear my wife say there is a trickle of water starting to drain… uh oh. My youngest daughter decided to help Mom out from the inside. My wife is now standing right in front of the drain. She’s wearing shorts, a light shirt, and sandals. Much to her horror, she heard what I heard as my face got pressed into the window for the best view I could get. As the youngest pulled the toilet handle my wife was ramming that snake in and out for all she was worth.
“She stopped, started to scream, thought better of that just as the dam burst. To this day I’ve never smelled something so foul as that septic tank as it emptied. And how in God’s green earth did it have that kind of pressure? My wife made a futile attempt to get out of harm’s way… not a chance in Hell of succeeding, although we told her later on she almost made it to safety.
“I don’t think she even moved before being hit by the sh** blasting forth because she was still standing right there holding the snake, whimpering loudly. I ran outside and started to hose her off while gagging. She spent the next two hours scrubbing herself at the dump station before I got her to a hot shower at the truck stop. Even then people were almost running away from her smell ten feet before she got near them. She spent another hour in the shower and left my ski goggles behind. I did not mind. She never said a word until the next morning. And she started giggling. Well, that had me worried a bit. But she was all right over time, but it took a while.
“She won’t go camping in a motorhome anymore though.”
Please share your RVing “oops” mistake story
Humor can be the best medicine and mistakes the best lesson! Have you had some unfortunate “oops” mistakes during your RVing adventures? We would love to hear them. Please fill out the form below and include a photo if you have one. Thank you!
Son in law had surgery, the wound was left open to drain, he was using Kleenex to clean the wound and dropping them down the toilet. Later when it came time to dump the black tank he discovered Kleenex doesn’t dissolve like toilet paper. By using a small drill bit he was able to get a stiff wire through the clear plastic elbow and pick at the stoppage until it finally broke the dam and drained, it really could’ve been a stinking situation. Motto of the story, DON’T PUT KLEENEX DOWN YOUR TOILET!
Only takes one lesson
RE: GPS fastest vs shortest vs no highways… This is where maybe AI could help. Fastest pretty much means ‘interstates whenever available’. Shortest as mentioned, is ‘I don’t care if it a 2-track with axle-deep mud’. It’s an RV, I’m not going faster than 65mph and usually less. And I want a solid road without tight turns, steep hills or low overheads. I would LOVE a GPS setting that says ‘most practical’. Avoids and not eliminates interstates, stays on paved highways where an extra 15 minutes doesn’t matter but an extra 3 hours does.
First Rule: My Wife and I were laughing so hard we had to stop reading several times. The fun isn’t over until the tanks are clean!
Thank you, Nanci! Boy! Those are some stories!?! I certainly hope that nothing ill befalls any of them again. It seems they have served their time and should have it go smoothly for a few years before anything else goes wrong. 🙂