How a $4 part can ruin your trip!

[cvbdsl]

Bear with me, it’s been a long week, just thought I'd share for a laugh.:B

All this past week I had to keep reminding myself that RVing is fun, but I can do some dumb things and other things just happened than can make it somewhat more "entertaining" than usual.

A quick week long getaway with DW, DD, the dog and me, just to go chill and relax after not having any real time off for about 18 months.

First gotcha – pinched nerve in my neck last week, making everything painful, meds to take a couple of weeks to reduce the chronic pain, but I can manage. We plan to only drive an hour or so and stay the week – lots of time to relax.

2nd – almost left with the toad in park, caught it after just pulling a few inches. Transmission came out of park with a bang but other than that seems OK.

3rd – pulled into a campground along the way just for propane, road was very narrow and partially blocked for the turn in – got stuck beside their sign – any more forward and the toad would take it out. With some help from friendly campers (and a great deal of embarrassment on my part) got the toad unhooked and managed to get past the sign with only a rub on the last inch of the MH.

4th – While unhooking it, noted that the toad had a very low tire – I figured I’ll pump it up when we set up as I carry a compressor. Trouble is the TPMS seems to be glued to the valve stem – it would not budge. With pliers holding the valve stem all I was doing was tearing up the stem. No problem, I’ll change it out with the spare tire. I've never changed a tire on the toad before in the three years we've had it so I never noticed until now it has no jack! Hoping the tire would last, drove it to the local Wal-Mart, bought a jack and went back and changed the tire.

5th – this is only the second time out in our new to us MH, last time I didn't dump because it was raining cats and dogs, figured I’d dump next time even though the tank was nearly full. So at our destination I pulled into the dumpsite and found out the black water tank dump valve was broken – handle comes out, bayonet gate doesn't move. DW and DD inform me they do not relish the idea of making night trips to the public washrooms etc for the next week.

This happened on Sunday so first thing Monday I called Camping World in Syracuse (I was near Massena NY) and a very understanding service writer said he could try and fit me in Wednesday morning. I could use their hookup on Tuesday night. So we cancelled what we could on our campsite and headed to Syracuse on Tuesday.

Their hookups, though free, are only 20 feet from the I90 so it really wasn’t a great night for sleeping. Oh yeah, along the way I also got another “rub” on the front bumper. In a construction zone a semi in front of us was scattering the orange cones left and right – not really his fault as they had narrowed the road way down – and even though I stayed well back, I hit one with the right front bumper.

Wednesday morning (after a few hiccups) they got the MH in. I really pity the technician – they had to cut into the valve to slide the bayonet gate out so they could dump it before installing the new dump valve – and you know it would leak! Here’s the kicker - the part (3 inch Bayonet) was only $4.02 – the labour ($297.50) and taxes brought the total to $325.64! I was in no position to argue – I could have done it myself at home but when you’re on the road you’re stuck.

5th – Wednesday night at our campsite I noted that although Camping World had fixed the black tank valve, the grey water tank valve now leaks steadily which it did not before.

6th – Couldn't find any place in our destination area that had 4 nights available. Managed to get a couple of nights in a state park, but I couldn't get anywhere for the 2 more nights we wanted. We also had a torrential downpour for three hours that flooded our campsite and I left behind a significant amount of firewood that will not probably dry for a week. Also found out one of our Fantastic Fan leaks and somewhere we have a leak on the front as well.

We’re now home a day earlier than planned all really due to a part that costs $4.02!

The good news is, I just booked a campsite for three days next weekend (same place this all started) and we’ll try again for a relaxing few days.:h

Anyone else had similar trips where nothing seems to go right?

Chris

[doubleG]

Sorry to hear, but momma always said that fun can be challenging!

[glamisorbust]

Don't feel bad, you're not the only one. Just this week, we decided to head up to the lake with the class A and jet skiis. Left the house, and needed to make a left turn to hit the only gas station for 20 miles. Well, I passed the road and needed to make a u-turn. I found a spot that looked wide enough to turn this whole mess around. So I waited until it was clear, and began making my wide u-turn with what looked like plenty of room. About halfway through the turn, as i'm looking out my window/mirror to the left to be sure it's clear, I hear something crashing in the rear, and the RV comes to a complete stop. Well, there was a guard rail low enough that I couldn't see it, and it got hooked on my right rear bumper of the RV, tearing about 3/4 of the fiberglass bumper and rear end right off. Also ripped the lower half of my ladder off and destroyed the front of my jet ski trailer. Lesson learned.

[Norm___Deb]

Actually your trip sounds fairly pleasant compared to some of ours.

[antiquedrose]

Beautiful! Your DD had a lesson in living life with grace. Lucky wife, lucky daughter.

[cvbdsl]

Great stories, glad to see I'm not the only one "living the adventure". Most of you guys/gals have had much more serious problems that what I had and it seems that we all keep going and having fun.

Chris

[Lumpty]

My maiden voyage this year was dry camping at the Sebring 12-hour race for a week. Little did I know that:

1. On the drive down, a nut on one of the front sway bar end links spun off. It was windy too, which didn't make me suspect anything was wrong. It was a huge chore to keep between the stripes. Discovered that one a few weeks after getting home. One new end link and pair of nuts later, ($40 at the Ford dealer!), all was fixed, with a healthy glob of threadlocker and breaker bar applied torque on the nuts.

2. Getting out the grill the first evening there, I find a floody mess in that storage compartment, which is also where the water pump lives. It turns out the pump strainer fitting has a crack and a resulting drip about every 15 seconds. Since I was dry camping on concrete, the drip had only dropped about a gallon out since I'd filled the tank 6 days before, and I had a water source, I just took the drain plug out of the compartment floor and let it keep dripping. IIRC, a new strainer via Amazon was about $8. Fixed that one a few weeks after getting home too.

3. Now paranoid about water, one morning during the week I happen to go outside shortly after taking a shower and notice a small water puddle on the concrete under the rear of the RV. Uh-oh. See it is coming from the top of the frame rail right at the rear cap, and that in turn is being fed from somewhere above in the house. Take off all the rear storage compartment panels,and get access to under the shower and to the plumbing in the wall behind it. I never found exactly where the leak source was, but caulking every shower enclosure and faucet seam, and making sure all faucet and shower hose connections were tight took care of this one too.

All those Go RV'ing TV commercials don't give you one clue on what an adventure it can be. 😕

[BrianinMichigan]

This was my weekend a couple of years ago.Weekend

[JeepCB]

Wow, awesome trip! We live and learn, and I'm glad it worked out and you're getting right back out.
Mine wasn't a $4 part but, our first big trip out with my new to me 5'er was a little like yours.
We had everything packed and as we are leaving the house, check engine light came on. So as I'm heading for the highway, wondering why the light is on, truck starts to shudder like it is running out of diesel, uh-oh! I've got DW, our 3yr old, DW's sister, and the wife isn't too sure about this whole camping thing anyway....I went straight to the local Ram dealer next to the highway, dropped the trailer on the farm lined street, pulled the truck into service, about 4 hrs and almost $500 dollars later we were back on our way! I could of easily changed the pump out back at home myself and saved all the labor, but it was better to pay to have it fixed there, because who knows if we would've made back to the house. The whole time the truck was getting worked on, the family had lunch, hung out talking, and took naps! Turned out great! Well, until I tried to change the fuel filter a couple of days later..........
Good Luck!
Billy

BTW, after reading your story, I will be changing out my valve before the next trip, thanks for the reminder!

[Ivylog]

wildwest450 wrote:
Actually, every single thing that happened was your fault, not the $4 part.

Chris, thanks for the nice post and once you get the bugs worked out of the new to you MH things should go better.
Wildwest450, in the two months you,ve been on here you have some of the most unhelpful comments I,ve ever read. Did not read all of you,re 101 as I got tired of your negative responses. You might want to go back and read what you,ve written and see if they have added anything helpful to these forums? If you do not see anything wrong with your posts, then you might want to get professional help.

[J-Rooster]

Sounds like your slowly getting the bugs out of everything. With the toad not hitting the sign I would have respect for someone that gets out of the coach to make things right like you did. I would rather break down the car then run over the sign. My worst time camping was in 2010! A run away pick up truck going down hill (the paperboy didn't set the handbrake or put in in park when he bailed out to change newspapers) the truck went downhill 250' hit right under my slide out at 5 AM and knocked me out of bed (it was a direct hit on my propane tank and it held)! On top of all that the guy had no insurance! I had full coverage and that protected me! Good Luck

[JackMS]

Gale Hawkins wrote:

wildwest450 wrote:
Actually, every single thing that happened was your fault, not the $4 part.

Not sure how you can know that. I can tell you pain has lead me to make mistakes too.

Pain plus meds make it even worse. Maybe they should add everything that happened to the OP to the list of side effects on his meds.

As you use it more, you'll find more problems and fix them. All your trips won't be like that. By you going right back out, I guess you know that though. Good luck and thanks for sharing.

[Gale_Hawkins]

wildwest450 wrote:
Actually, every single thing that happened was your fault, not the $4 part.

Not sure how you can know that. I can tell you pain has lead me to make mistakes too.

[cvbdsl]

wildwest450 wrote:
Actually, every single thing that happened was your fault, not the $4 part.

You're entitled to your opinion, but I would appreciate it if you didn't share it with me in the future.

Respectfully

Chris

[bertnspike]

wildwest450 wrote:
Actually, every single thing that happened was your fault, not the $4 part.

So? He's allowed to vent any way he wants to. The $$ hurt the most & are the easiest to admit to!;)