Lessons we've learned over the years

When hooking up to water at the campsite, do a quick check to be sure all the faucets are off just in case your darling daughter turned them all on for who knows what reason. Walking into the trailer with overflowing sinks and very wet floors does not make for a good start to the trip. Plus, nobody wants to swim for the first day because the beach towels are all soaking wet and hanging out to dry.

In our Pop-up, make sure the canvas is secured before the kids jump on it or else someone will fall through the crack...believe me.

In our Hybrid, make sure all objects are clear from the slide out, or you'll break something when you close it...and possibly ruin a bike.

On spare keys. Went to OK in March. Spitting snow on a Sunday morning and my grandson had spent the night. When I shut the pickup door the night before the aircompressor came on, and stuck on. Dead battery in AM. Smart me, I had a battery charger, I got it out, opened the hood, shut the door leaving the keys in the ignition. Chevy doors lock when the batteries are dead. Met a nice Oklahoma Indian locksmith and lost $70.

CavemanCharlie wrote:

Bank of Dad wrote:
Extra trailer keys in truck, maybe a third with the spouse. Ask me how I know.

And extra truck keys in your camper. And a third set hidden under the truck somewhere.

I'll 3rd the spare keys....

For "once" made it out of work early, great it's Friday and off to camp early.

We are on top of the mountain (Hocking Hills SP). I jump out, start filling the camper with water. Yes this is going to be a great weekend!

I hear a "click" and DW gets out to come see whats up. H'mm what was that click???

Ah yup, power locks. She hit the lock button by accident on the way out. Keys in the ignition, cell phone in the truck, wallet in the truck, spare truck keys in the truck... dang....

OK, hoff it a mile down the mountain to the check in station. Ask the park service if they can call On Star. They ask, do you know the number? No it's in my wallet. They have no internet but the ranger next door does. OK find the ranger. He says yes I have the internet, looked up the number,called On Star, they said it "should work" They said they connected to the truck, won;t know until you check.

Ranger says, don't worry if they can get it, I can... I open at least 4 to 5 a weekend.... He drives me up to the camper, the rig is blocking off everyone trying to get water....Oh mannnnn. Walked up and lift the handle and it worked!!

Lesson learned. Truck keys hid in the outside of the camper, spare camper keys in the truck...

Now have a Ford with a touch pad entry door but still have a spare truck key in outside of the camper.

That was a 3 hour learning experience....

Luckily I started out with an inexpensive 23-year-old TT with which to learn the finer points of RVing. The first thing I did when getting it home was hook it up to water WITHOUT using the pressure regulator. The second thing I did was run to the hardware for pipe fittings and glue to fix the new leaks.

All of these posts are bringing up painful memories. Someone mentioned the awning arms. When we got our first trailer, we had a heck of a time putting up the awning. So after several semi-disasters, we tried it at home slowly, several times, till we figured it out. Then we printed out a step by step instruction sheet. Then we laminated that sheet and kept it handy. Eventually we did not need the sheet.

Then we got a new trailer with a different awning mechanism and had to start from scratch. But this time, we knew what we did not know, and we knew that we had to figure it out carefully.

There is no such thing as a small brake line leak....

We broke both inner arms of our canopy on our first try to set it up. We had the directions in one hand talking to each other as we struggled to get the thing back up. Thankfully the grandson heard and watched us. He went and got grandma who got it back attached to the trailer. Sad day on the egos and a humbling trip living next to grandma. We replaced both inner arms and didnt try to use it again last year. Well this year we youtubed awnings. Watched took notes and watched the video again. We went to storage and successfully put out the awning. Now we may use it this year. Even bought awning lights feeling so confident!

Previously, we had a small PUP trailer 1600lbs...be sure to put the (rear)stablizer jacks down BEFORE you enter the trailer...wooops!

After dewinterizing your TT, when opening up the water heater, don't just open the in-flow valve and be satisfied to hear the water flow in and think you are done...there are two more valves that need to be opened or closed for the water heater to work right...

Never buy one that stinks! Apparently we bought a "cat house" on wheels. My boyfriend came home from work to find me chucking the entire interior in the yard! We have ended up gutting the entire thing and are starting from scratch. Any advice would be appreciated on odors and replacement ideas. Laughing at the rookies are free, of course! :O