What was your first newbie moment?

First time using the furnace I asphyxiated my wife.

RV closed up with wife inside. The furnace would not turn on so in desperation I went outside and removed the furnace access cover to snoop around. I find a switch, flip it, and "Whoa" the furnace starts running. Before replacing the access cover I get distracted. It didn't take long before my wife is screaming that the inside of the rig is filled with fumes.

That was a quick lesson... NEVER run the furnace with the outside cover removed.

While backing into our site at dusk, my wife asked " should I go back there and make sure you don't hit the only tree on the site? I said, no, huge site no way! Well guess what happened!!!:o Was able to straighten out the square tube in our tool room at work.

We made a big impression at a beautiful little campground in Chama, NM. While trying to back the 5th wheel, we accidentally ran into an rv neighbor's satellite dish. The next day we rode the Cumbres and Toltec scenic train. After arriving back at the campgrounds we heard from several sources that our two dogs somehow escaped the 5th wheel and roamed free part of the day. We mistakenly thought the door was closed and locked tight, but our larger dog was able to push the door open. We took a little kidding from our fellow campers.

On day 2 of owning the RV (three days ago) we decided to open the awning for the first time and immediately broke it. We had to get help from our local firefighters to get it unstuck. It was embarrassing to say the least.

Our first RV was a used Delta Class C about 26 feet long. After a very trying trip and a lot of miles, I pulled into the shopping center two miles from our house to drop off the film from the trip. Yes, before digital there was F I L M. This was early 1980s.

There was a chain called MotoFoto that developed film and they had little metal kiosk buildings set up around in shopping center parking lots. The whole think was probably no more than eight feet long and five feet wide and maybe seven feet tall with a young very, very plump lady sitting in there to take your film to develop and sell you new film. This whole deal was a drive up to the side operation.

I forgot about the overhang and caught the right front edge of the Class C overhang on the upper corner of their overhanging roof. Now, these were very flimsy little kiosk/buildings. I knocked a hole about three inches in the RV and did slight damage to the kiosk roof. BUT, it did raise the building (it was on skids and not permanently anchored)a couple of inches, causing all of the film for sale in front of the gal to come a tumblin' down like the Walls of Jericho.

She hollered and ran out the little sliding door on the opposite side to the drive through window. She was shook but unhurt. I gave her my name and phone number and told her to have her boss call about the damage (which was only a little bent corner). They never did call and so no harm, no foul.

I took the RV on home, sick about the trip and the whole kiosk situation. A few days later, I filled that hole with Bondo and painted a six inch wide stripe with black flat Krylon across the front of the C overhang. Looked pretty darn good !

I took that puppy down and trade it in for a brand new Intervec Horizon Class B and we had it for years with many, many great memories. We have had two more Bs since that fiasco and two more Cs and never had another really bad incident............except when the macerator hose broke out on the Western Slope and sprayed me with naughty naughty.

I have always wondered about the gal in the little building. The look of horror and scream were reminiscent of one of those 1950s black and white horror films.

Thus endeth the tale.

Paul

We had a new AF which is 8.6 wide, add a touch more for the slide. First road trip, pulled into a new RV park for the night. The slots were narrow and had curbs on each side of the tt. I told the host we were wider than normal by roughly 8 - 10". He said no worries. It was late, I pulled thru just left the truck hooked up, I went in to take the slide out and it stopped 6" short, hum why is that, I thought. Brought it in and did it again, stopped again, what the @$*&!#. I did it one more time and this time it went out. We went to bed. The next morning preparing to leave I went to unplug the elec and found I took out the elec post, opps. I only had a small nick on the TT slide. Now I stand out side no matter how clear we think the slide is and I watch while the wife slides it out.

We live in AZ, that small nick in 5 - 6 years ended up crawling up the whole side of the slide, delaminating it. No water, just flat-out heat.

After 10 years towing a 5th wheel, got a 30 ft. Class C. Stopped by the campground check-in station heading out and needed to make a U-turn to re-enter the campground. Forgot about the rear overhang being up against a log fence and damaged the rear lower corner pretty badly. Expensive body work!

The awning of course--and definitely help from a fellow camper--universal first and least damaging newbie experience for sure.

I was trying to dump at home for the first time and could not get a decent downward flow--so I backed up on blocks which moved me right into the garage, breaking some roof tile, denting the flashing--and breaking the ladder that I had just fixed.

The first probably was finding rot in the back panel of our new to us RV and figuring out how to fix it. We had looked for rot in all the places they recommend in buying a used RV--overheads, cabinets, etc. Nobody mentioned back rear panel!

Then almost immediately catching the rear corner on I don't remember what and having to fix it again.

Several little things--buying a ton of "stuff" to get started, some of which we no longer use. Also learning to caulk--still not very good at it. Going through batteries, it is way too easy to drain one all the way--repeatedly. Not putting down the antenna--another fellow camper support issue. Leaving the vent open in the rain before I put on vent covers. Not securing everything before leaving camp. Forgetting to plug the cord back into the generator. At least we never drove away connected--but some of these are not so much newbie as ongoing learning curve!

Somehow after you do it once, you add it to the must do list and something else happens! We are six years and counting and loving every minute.

First time out, couldn't remember how to open the awning. Had to get the instructions out. DW still teases me about it.

Hoooking up city water to the black water flush (hook-ups are exactly alike & on the same side, albeit a small sticker).

Fortunately, I was still setting up noticed the sound of rushing water "into the tank", thought I had a water leak, freaked out, turning off water, to then realize I was flusing the black tank. Whooo...


Markiemark:C