I have 2 camping incidents and 1 trailer incident.

The first one
My did bought home a tt on a Thursday that we were gonna use ove the weekend. Parked it in the drive and hooked it into power while we got it cleaned and loaded. Some big storms started to build and they called for hail. So my hoped in he car to head to a bridge so we didnt get damage, and me and my dad hooked up the trailer, put up the stabilizer jacks, unhooked water, and took off. The only thing we forgot was the power cord. It riped it off from in the compartment.

Once while barrowing my grandfathers 5er i put some pop tarts in the toaster and went out side for a minute. All the sudden my dads running out of the door with a flaming toaster. Haha, turns out someone had set the toaster on high and i hadnt bothered to check that cuz most people dont enjoy burnt toast. I was a little scary.

Once at age 14 while moving my 2 place jet ski trailer with my moms suburban, i was backing into our driveway and jack knifed it and put a big dent in the rear drivers side quarter panel right by the gas filler. Worse part was that my dad got home right after it happened and he had a bad day at work. I thought it was all over for me.

all yall have some great stories. And hope fully we all can learn from the mistakes that we each make.

 

It was our first trip out west with our first fiver. We had did a couple of local shake down weekends before the big one. We had been at least a week and a half into our journey and we were on a very rough highway in WY. that had those seams in the concreate every so many feet. I looked out the review mirror and saw the door to my propane tanks had vibrated open. I pulled off the to the side and noticed that the rig was not stoping as good as it should. Well, my pin plug had come out of the socket and I had no lights, or brakes on the fiver. From then on I ALWAYS travel with my lights on so I can see my marker lights in the mirror. Also I installed a bed plug when we arrived home.

 

Not me, but my parents: they were parking the camper one time, and they'd each thought the other had chocked the wheels, and it started rolling. I guess between the two of them they were barely able to hold it until someone got a chock in place. Dad now double checks the chocks are in place before he unhooks the camper.

Another one with my parents (I vividly remember this one): We'd taken a different route home from the campground than we'd used going there, and it was one mountain after another. We get to the top of the last one, and Dad says, "I want to pull off at this restaurant here to let it cool down," as he pulls into the parking lot. Then, a moment later, he says, "We don't have any brakes." He pulls back on the road and uses the camper's electric brakes to stop us - just in time, too; we were already on the down slope when we came to a stop. This is not an approved braking procedure and probably only worked because we were going fairly slowly already. After the brakes cooled down they were fine again, and we continued home without another incident.

I left my awning out in the rain last summer. Collapsed one of the arms. And the awning in mine is a strange one, and it's old, so parts aren't available any more - it was looking like I was going to have to buy a new awning for it for $750. Fortunately a friend of mine was able to weld the arm and although it doesn't look pretty it does work.

I second Locopower on the lights thing - when I'm towing a car with my camper, I keep the lights on for the same reason. I can see the dolly's marker lights in the rearview mirrors.

 

I've nearly done or watched others do about everything that has been mentioned. Most damage I ever did was backing into a fairly tight spot at a forest service camp ground. Everything was fine except that I forgot about the short concrete posts that line the roads between sites. Backed the end of the exhaust pipe into one. Both spotters (yes 2) missed it also. Figured it was a sign that I really did NEED that after market 4".


Biggest mistake is that we don't get that 5er into the woods as often as we should.

 

I traded my travel trailer in on a new fiver, and on my first trip camping i had a funny thing happen. I have my fiver and my little 14ft fishing boat and my crew cab 250, so im about 65ft 1 inch. Pretty long. I have my wife and 2 little ones in the truck all is going well and we went to turn off of ST Road 26 onto ST Road 13 which is a right hand turn, after my truck turned onto ST Road 13 I squealed to a halt. My truck was on one road, my camper was between the turn, and my boat was on the other road and i was stopped dead. Needless to say i was freaking out, cars were backing up i pretty much had the hole intersection blocked. I figured it out pretty quick, my break away cable hung up on my rear hitch pin and when i turned right it was enough to pull it out. I learned a valuable lesson that day..........Don't let the HONKING get to you.

 

Wow, you touched on a gem there. When you are in a sticky situation, or just backing into your own driveway (I live on a mildly busy street), you have to block out all the honking, single digit salutes, stink eye stares, and just concentrate on the manuever at hand. If you let it rush you, you're gonna crash something for sure.

Thanks for reminding us of that one.
Bill

 

Hello all;
I grew up on a farm so towing was something that I did from day one. My father also towed a great deal so I had an excellent teacher. In general I was well prepared for starting to tow the 5er that I bought 2 years ago. I am generally very careful, do the walk around thing at all stops, GF is trained to watch for odd things also. I have towed everything from little tiny trailers (fun to back up) to 12+' wide and very heavy equipement. The little detail that I was not used to was the fact that the package is now 11.5' tall. I found a medium sized tree branch in front of the house. This broke two vents and damaged the A/C unit. The vents were repaired that day, and the A/C is still broken. I have been thinking about replacing it one of these days.....

Since then I have not done anything noteworthy. A deep gutter and a bent spare tire holder that bent back but otherwise fairly good. Lets just hope that trend of nothing major continues.

 

I cant believe no one else has posted this one so here goes. Packed up after a great weekend got home and safely backed into the drive. opened the door to grab a brew and immediatly realized I had taken off eith the fridge door unlatched. Pickles mayo ketchup and everything you could think of in there.And from the way it was all over the walls etc I was really glad I wasnt back there with it lol.

 

I have had a couple of incidents.
1) our first RV was a 28 ft Alpenlite TT. It had a factory bike rack on the back. I can't remember exactly when but in the late 70s or very early 80s went camping with my parents, we had a 60 something Fireball TT, Dad mounted a bike rack on the rear bumper and when we stopped those two bikes were no where to be found, the tubing of the rack had broke off flush with the top of the bumper. Fast forward to 2005, we have this Alpenlite with bike rack so the wife and I decide to buy brand new bikes. We are heading up to the mountains for the weekend and load up the bikes. We went about 15 miles and I'm thinking about the time with my parents so I decided to pull over to check on the bikes since you can't see them. Everything looks fine. Drive the rest of the 60 miles or so to the camp ground and as the wife is checking in I happen to walk around the back of the trailer, the two bikes and the rack are hanging at a 40 degree angle and the whole back of "skirt" of the trailer is half ripped off. The bike rack is one of those rail types where the bike "stand" on top of it, so the bikes didn't hit the road but there was a large flat spot on the bottom of the bike rack where it must have been bounce up and down hit the road. As it turns out the RV manufacturer only spot welded the bottom of the back of the mount to the cross frame and the front of the mount had 4 #6 size wood screws screwed into the plywood floor of the trailer. Well with a big moment arm and the weight of the bigs the screws pulled right out and the weld just acted like a hinge. Apparently, they forgot to complete the welding. They weren't going to cover it under warranty because the trailer was over a year old, even though it was the first time we used the bike rack, but they changed their mind after I mentioned that had those bikes come off and went through some guys windshield they'd damn well be involved in the lawsuit.

2) Sold the TT and got a 36 ft 5er. On about our 4th trip out went to the State park in Sequim WA, (nice area but the hook up section is really small and tight). It was still fairly early for around here (about June 6th last year), there was only 3 RVs there, of course they had them in sites 17, 18, and 19. We were site 18, naturally. So, I pull up and the guy in site 17 has a small TT that he didn't back far enough into the spot so that he'd have room for his late model GMC pickup. So the pickup is parked not quite parallel with the road with the right rear end just slightly on the road and the front even with the edge of our parker area. The road makes a sharp 90 degree turn right in front of our site 18 such that to back into the site you have to go around the corner, oh and there is a huge fir tree on the inside of that corner. So, I pull up and I think I need to be way to the out side in order to get around the corner with out hitting that tree. All the time I bitching to the wife about the ******* that parked his truck in front of our site and saying how I'm going make him move. Anyway, I pull up and stop, take a look at it. Wife says you want me to get out? And I'm thinking oh hell I'm good enough to go around the corner and back straight in to the spot right in front of that guy. I'll show him, right? And he'll have to back up to get out right? Haha after all it's a GMC right? So I proceed forward and swing around that big tree, didn't forget that tree, got around the corner and stop to back up but there's a funny kinda jolt, not the normal last little rock to a stop movement. Wife looks at me and says what was that? And I'm thinking, I wonder how wide the *** end of this trailer swings on a tight corner like that. Anyway, I was so focused on that tree that I didn't think how close I was to that GMC pickup and sure enough the very back corner of the trailer caved in that guys rear panel from the wheel back to the bumper. I don't have any idea what it cost to fix I just called the insurance and let them handle it, but I didn't even claim any damage to the trailer. Cost me like 4 bucks for a new cover for the external tv and phone jack and a little rubbing compound and elbow grease to wipe the mark off the corner of the 5er. I would have thought the fiberglass would have had a lot more damage based on how much damage there was on that truck. Worse part was we had to camp along side those guys for 3 days. http://images.ford-trucks.com/forums...2/smilies6.gif

 

I apologize for laughing, but that is funny.

 

Well, my only incident to date isn't camping, but delivering firewood. My trailer is a 16' international, and I had it stacked up with an unmeasured amount of green pine (for outdoor use). It was January, and the roads weren't great but I figured it'd be ok. It was ok, until I made it to the guys house. You couldn't see the driveway surface from the road, and I was already committed to the turn into the driveway. It was a sheet of ice, and fairly steep. I made one attempt in 2 wheel drive, and had my girlfriend get out and lock the hubs in. I made it further up the driveway this time, while spinning the tires up this sheet of ice...until the front axle hit dry pavement and smoked both front hubs. Now I've got to back down an icy driveway, and I can't steer, because it just has no effect due to the ice. Managed to back out, barely avoiding a jack knife, and missing the mailboxes at the base of the driveway by inches. I was pretty aggravated about the hubs, and mad that this guy would even want free firewood delivered to his house without clearing his driveway. Needless to say, he never called back about why he didn't get his firewood.

 

Let's start with our most recent trip... just 2 weeks ago.

Our first trip of 08 and 3rd with this TT. I've gotten pretty comfortable over the years and have most thing down to an science... unfortunately, things change.

We packed up, hook up and traveled to our destination - got backed-in, chocked and leveled. I was hooking up utilities - power good, water... wait, why is the water pouring out of the bottom - oh, it must be the out side shower. Water off and check the shower, sure enough, I had left the spigots on when I winterized. No problem, shut them off and turn the water supply back on... more water pouring out from underneath. Oh crap - the drain plugs are missing. <scratching my head> I'm know I put those back last fall... what the !@#$%? We are 20 miles to the nearest Lowe's and WalMart (BTW, WM doesn't carry them). Off we go... pull in Lowe's 15 mintes too late. No water over night - back to Lowe's the next day... all is good.

Get ready for dinner - where's the grill? Crap, sitting on the back pourch at home. I had forgotten that I too it out and used when our backyard grill ran out of propane.

This 4 day stay contiues without further incident. We leave and travel to another CG about 130 miles south.

We arrive without incident and start setting up. When I parked I had to level the slide side with a board, but it was still off a bit. So I figure it was a small enough correction to make with the scissor jacks; I begin jacking the front jack and it felt like the front of the TT was moving towards me... sure enough it was. Without really realizing, I was raising the front (tounge) enough for the tounge jack to slide towards me. Ended up bending the front jack a bit - good news is that it is still functional. In hind sight it could have been catastropic if the foot of the touhge jack had slid about another 2-3 inches it would have dropped off the blocks.

Finally, on our trip home, some how the 'emergency escape window' became unlatched and was flapping in the wind. We were on a bridge @ 60+ mph and could stop until the other side... a little pucker factor - all I could envision was that window flying off and hitting another vehicle.

A few other events from the past
- I too have backed mt old TT right in to the gutter of the house. I think sometime we get so caught up with the bumper that we forget the height.
- One time I forgot to double check the sewer connection (where is connects to the twist lock) and it popped off while I was dumping the tanks... luckily it was the grey water.
- Yep, we've emptied the fridge as well... and a few cabinets.
- One time I forgot to put a pin in the WD clete (where the chins hook to the a-frame), drove all the way to Fl without a problem... good thing the DW didn't know about it.

I'm sure there will be more...

 

I bought a Stehl tow dolly and have had some issues with it. Not precisely a camping mistake but the fact is that I use it for camping so it's pretty close. Basically although their site used to claim that the dollies are good for all cars and trucks, they actually sit too high for many cars (including my Chevy Impala and my Mercury Cougar), so I have to use boards to load and unload to keep the angle safe for the bumpers.

Coming home from this last trip, I got in the Cougar to unload it, pushed in the clutch to start it, and it drifted backwards. "Okay," I thought, "That's fine - I have to do that anyway to get the ramps to angle to the ground." Except then it kept going, right on to the ramps themselves! I hit the brakes and got it stopped partway down the ramp, but I wasn't able to get my timing right to pull it back on to the tray and damaged the bumper of the Cougar. (I realize this was my error but if the dolly actually did the job Stehl claimed it would, it wouldn't have been a problem.) I was pretty angry at myself and the dolly.

 

Ain't pulling campers great! I think so, but I have made some funny errors also.

1. When I had my pop-up camper, I hooked up to leave for home, drove off, and heard a terrible grinding sound. I had forgot to crank up the stabilizer jacks. They were bent at 30 degree angles. I couldn't even get them off, so I took my axe and beat them up even futher to about 45 degrees, and went home. Cost around 500 bucks for that fix.

2. We now have a 24' travel trailer. We have two dogs. Just last month we were headed home from Death Valley. I went to the dump station , and dumped. We were headed home, and after about fifty miles my wife yells, "where is taters" (our golden). I stopped and sure enough taters was not in the back seat. I was paniking. Then I thought maybe she is in the trailer.
I went in and there was taters asleep on our bed. I called her and she came out and jumped into the truck.

 

I have a pretty funny one about my brother in-law.We were both on our first campers, newly married, so they were not the prettiest things in the world. My first camper was a 1977 Wilderness 19 ft. His was about an 1981 coachmen 26ft. This was in 1999. Mine was in really good shape and had been stored indoors pretty much since new, and his was really rough and been stored outdoors probably all it's life. Lets just say it was a fixer upper. Well anyway we are on our way to tennessee from Indiana , I was leading and he was following, so naturally you look in your mirrors alot to make sure they are keeping up. We decided to stop to eat so we exited left off the roadway into a Meijers parking lot i looked in the mirror just in time to see his humongas cooler full of Beer and ice going flying out his camper door into the parking lot. His door was so rotten his cooler went right through it. We went into Meijer and bought a big super pack of duct tape and did a nascar repair on the door. Thank God we bought the value pack because in podunk Kentucky his front right corner of his camper started coming apart at the seem and was flapping in the wind. You guessed it, we taped it, it held the rest of the way there and back. Through it all the camper ended up being the only casualty in the end, because whoever made that cooler rates way up there in my book. We didnt lose a single beer.