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…
Please share your RVing “oops” mistake story
I am getting low on readers’ RVing mistakes and “oops” stories! 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!
Reserved long site in the tent section for 40-foot RV
Today, I am writing about yet another one of my own personal RVing “oops” moments. I was struggling to get a site in a state park in Minnesota during peak summer camping season. I finally found a 55-foot-long site. No hookups, but no problem. On Google Earth it looked like the road in was fairly wide with only one left turn.
Upon checking in, the park ranger looked out the window at our 40-foot motorhome and advised me to check the site out first. I zipped around in my tiny VW Cabriolet and thought a few branches might softly touch the sides, but no real issues. And it was a gorgeous site!
I started back for the loop with my husband following and got to the site quickly. He was taking forever. I couldn’t figure out why. Turns out that the simple left turn was between two gigantic old-growth trees. He inched forward turned slightly inched back and repeated. Again and again. Needless to say, he was not a happy camper when he finally arrived. He didn’t seem as thrilled with the forest beauty as I was, either.
At least the truck camper legs didn’t start walking on their own
Leslie P. wrote that even after eight years of full-timing it is possible to forget something major. She wrote, “We had a near disaster this morning. Bonehead move after almost eight years of full-timing! My husband forgot to put the pressure reducer on the water. We had a huge leak under our bathroom sink. Water everywhere!
“The biggest issue is that when our slides are in, that sits right above our main leg controller. So that can short it out and cause the camper legs to start doing their own thing up/down, one at a time or just one side at a time. They could literally walk on their own. It’s happened to others. They could extend while traveling!
“So after four hours of cleaning up the water, we had a lake on top of our black tank. We have unplugged the legs so they don’t have power unless we want them to. It’s impossible in a truck camper to find all the water, so we have to be very careful until we know it’s completely dried up. Yikes!”
And the cassette toilet cap just keeps going ’round and ’round
John S. watched in horror as his toilet cap went closer and closer to the dreaded sewer dump hole. He wrote, “Have you ever gone to a shopping mall and seen that big plastic device that eats your penny? You put a penny in it and it goes round and round, faster and faster until it eats your penny. Keep that image in your mind.
“It was the summer of 2010. I stopped at the Interstate 80 rest stop near Underwood, Iowa, to dump my cassette toilet tank. (Note to campers: Iowa is removing all of the dump stations on their Interstate rest stops.) The ‘pit’ is a concrete bowl that is about a foot deep with a dump hole in the center. I removed the cap on my cassette tank and poured the ‘nasty’ down the hole.
“I set the tank on the ground and looked for the cap. Well, the wind had blown the cap into the cement bowl, and just like the penny-eating machine, my cap was going ’round and ’round, faster and faster toward the center of the bowl. I made a move toward it hoping to retrieve it, but I felt like I was in slow motion. I knew that this wasn’t good, but there was no way that the cap would fit through the sewer pipe hole. I watched it go to the center, stand upright, and disappear into the darkness. I shouted a four-letter word so loud that I think people in the next state over heard me. I eventually ordered a new cap and never let the cap anywhere near the dump pit again.”
Sewer hose jumped the port
Wayne B. caught this dumping disaster early in the making. He wrote, “After over 20 years of experience I thought I had all the boxes checked for unhooking and leaving. Last fall on our first trip with our new-to-us Class A, all was going as normal. When I set up the sewage upon arrival I found this new campground did not have internal threads for securing the end connection. So I searched around and found several rocks to lay over the discharge port.
“So… I opened the black tank valve and heard a noise. Turning around I saw the hose had jumped out of the discharge with sewage spreading on the ground. Fortunately, I was at the valve and closed it quickly. Now I always carry three methods of securing the discharge end of the hose.”
Distracted dumping—At least the neighbors didn’t ask to help!
Larry F. sent us his distracted RVing story. He wrote, “Distracted RVing … We have all read the articles published on RVtravel.com about focusing on our arrival and departure tasks. We get pretty good doing these with experience, but what about routine jobs while staying put for a week? Enter the routine task I failed at while attending a recent rally.
“We were parked at the end of the row, a great spot! A lot of room beside the coach with a parade of rallygoers walking by. None of this should matter, but the DW causally said, ‘Do you think it’s time to check on the black tank?’ Being married for 56 years, I understood clearly that she really meant ‘Get up and dump the tanks!’
“I headed outside and since we were on full hookups with the sewer hose already attached it was a routine chore. Dump the black tank using the rinse function and dump the gray tank. Put some water in the black to start the prep for the next cycle. A simple and routine task, except here is where everything started ‘going the wrong way’. Literally.
“I am standing by the open wet bay and one of my fellow rallygoers walking by asked me one of those questions! Something like ‘I really like the paint scheme on your coach. What is the year model?’ Of course, me being the ever-proud papa, I walk up to the front of the motorhome and we proceed to discuss all things that we campers do like the year model, floorplan, where we are from, where we are going after the rally. You know… RV stuff. After they walk on, I go into the coach (not back to the wet bay). I added my Dawn and Borax to prep the black tank and, guess what? Lunch is ready so I sit down and enjoy my soup and sandwich. It’s a great day and all is well with the world (or so I think).
“After a while and possibly a little dozing off, I hear the DW exclaim, ‘There is water coming out of the bathroom!’ I jump up and see water coming out of the toilet! My first thought is a busted pipe or toilet valve. I go outside and shut off the fresh water at the spigot. Water is leaking out of two of the storage bay doors and one corner of the living room slide. At this point, I still don’t know exactly where the problem is… and then it hits me. The black tank flush is still on. In my coach, flushing the black tank is a matter of opening two valves (it also goes through a one-way anti-siphon). I had left the flush on to add some charge water to the black tank when the strolling neighbor asked about paint schemes. My fault! Now it was time to pay the piper.
“Water, water everywhere and definitely not to drink. The lots-of-room beside the coach turned into a drying area for all our stuff. Back then we used copy paper boxes to sort stuff in storage. No longer. Now almost everything is in large, see-through plastic totes. I made a quick trip to Menards for a wet-dry vacuum. (Who carries one of these? I do now). Several hours later—thank goodness it was summer, and we had a helpful breeze—things were getting back to normal. The storage bays were getting dry, and we had scrubbed and sanitized the inside flooring. Most of our floors are tile, so that helped. The small section of carpet in the slide I was able to shampoo.
“Our neighbors were great in that they didn’t offer to help. They most likely didn’t want anything to do with that crazy guy crawling around in the storage bays with a wet vacuum! A couple of days later, one did ask, ‘Did you have a water leak?’ I showed him the “Twenty-seven eight-by-ten color glossy pictures with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one”. (That phrase really dates me, but ask Chuck what it means. He will get a chuckle.) And so ends the saga of the distracted RVer. We still own the motorhome, everything still works, we are still married and love traveling on our RV.”
We recently dumped at a park with a huge 10″ dump hole. I attached the normal 90 deg angled adapter on the end of the waste hose & laid it over the edge of the dump hole. I didn’t notice that I hadn’t twisted the 90 deg connector on tight. The connector came off & dropped 3 feet down to where it connects to the main water line. It was just laying there, but water was flowing from farther upline & was going to flush the connector away. I quickly grabbed a pick-up tool I carry & was able to reach down into the hole & retrieve the connector.
Larry, did you try the Arlo Guthrie lunch special at Alice’s Restaurant?
Thanks, Dan! I had missed Larry’s reference until your comment reminded me. Thanks, and “City of New Orleans” is still my favorite song, despite all the songs I have heard since the first time that I heard it; sweet if distant memories! 🙂
Thank you, Nanci! 🙂 Boy! Larry F’s tale of woe was frightening and hilarious. I am glad sufficient time has passed for him to seemingly laugh about it. I am sure it was an entirely unpleasant learning-experience. It does remind me of an experience that we had, also when on full hook-ups, and also involving water emanating from the wrong place. I will send it to you forthwith. Meanwhile, safe travels! 🙂
Not rving but camping. Used to take my mom & the grandkids for a long weekend at O’Leno SP in FL so we could tube the Ichetucknee. Got there & discovered 1 of the roof poles on the 5×9 tent was among the missing. Had to search for a straight branch about the size and shape of the missing pole. When in doubt, punt!!