What was your first RV noob disaster (or near disaster)?

[djgodden]

Ours was on our first trip. Just before leaving I installed a King Satellite dome and 2 of those vent topper thingies. First gas station (Kingman, AZ) I pulled under a forecourt I'd been under before. I stopped quite suddenly when I heard some odd noises. Quickly backed up a few feet and then went topside. I'd removed the satellite dome and damaged a vent. Kicked myself all the way to the Camping World in Williams to buy a new vent cover. Satellite dish was dented but the dent popped out and still worked fine.

[empty_nest]

I "removed" the A/C unit from the roof of our 5'r, along with the TV antenna (laying flat) on a RR overpass which was clearly marked at 10' 11". This was not 20 mi from our home and I'd gone under that hundreds of times, just not with the RV. A couple inches more and I would have peeled back the entire roof.

[Atlee]

I was unhitching the trailer. When the hitch cleared the ball, the trailer rolled back with the tongue jack sliding off the blocks I'd put down. You guessed it. I had forgotten to chock the wheels.

Fortunately, nothing was damaged and I could raise the tongue high enough to go over the ball on the truck. I was able to begin anew, just remembering this time to set the chocks first.

[allen8106]

Not an issue with my TT or 5ver but towed the double jet ski trailer with jet ski's on it to the lake about 30 miles away and forgot to latch the hitch lock. The only thing keeping the trailer on the hitch was the tongue weight, which honestly wasn't a lot of tongue weight.

Fortunately it stayed on, no damage but lesson learned.

[rwj146]

I have been RVing for awhile but when I had some serious health issues I gave my older ClassB to a friend and was RVless. Health improved enough for me to decide to 'get back out there'.

I found an older (1988) Terry Resort in Ventura Ca. for a decent price and I wanted to visit a friend in the area anyway. So I drive from Ft Worth Tx and pick up the trailer. In the ad the pictures showed a WD hitch but it was nowhere to be found. We get everything hooked up and working and I decide I can make it to the east side of Los Angeles and find an RV dealer and get a WD hitch.

Traffic was bumper to bumper from Ventura to the first rest area on the eastbound side of I-10. I stop for the night and get an early start, traffic was heavy but moving about 30-40MPH. Trailer started to sway a couple of times but trailer brake got it back under control.

As I get into the City of Banning traffic was moving about 40 but the freeway was packed. My trailer swayed far left once and when I hit the trailer brake it did not help. Here's where things get a bit blurry, one or two wide sways and I feel my truck turning left, very rapidly turning left.

I did a 180 degree jacknife, sitting looking west in the three middle eastbound lanes. No one hit me, nor did I hit anyone. I am not a spiritual person but somehow a minor miracle happened.

The funny thing is not one person honked or made rude gestures. Just watched me get my truck restarted and finish the 360 to the shoulder. One kind lady waved (and not with one finger).

After a cigarette and a bit to calm down I got out to survey the damage. Battery cover was gone, lp cover was almost off and a small dent on the trailer. Truck was not so lucky, good crease and large dent. I put the LP cover on as best I could and limped to the nearest exit which was another blessing, it was very close.

Found a vacant lot with a no parking sign and parked. As I stopped a friend called and asked when I would be by to see him. Told him what happened and he drove two hours with his WD hitch and rescued me. A true friend.

While I was waiting a Banning Police Officer came by and pulled in next to me. I'm sure someone called 911 when my jack-knife happened but he didn't say a word about it. He asked me" If I needed any help?" and when I told him I had help coming he just said "Have a better day" and left.

Trailer is being repaired now, the estimate on the truck would have been a total on my old truck so I called a guy off of Craigslist who pulled the crease and dent out, puttied it and painted it for $150.00.

And I found out my new and improved Pacemaker works.

[pappcam]

mgirardo wrote:
My big newbie mistake was listening to the Salesman 🙂 I asked about a weight distribution hitch when we bought our Hybrid Travel Trailer. We had a pop-up before, so WD Hitch wasn't needed. He told use we might not need it and that he'd let me know after we hitched up the camper. When we took delivery and hooked it up, his opinion was that we didn't need it, because the trailer was pretty level.

On our first trip out of state into Pennsylvania (lived in NJ at the time), I almost lost the camper on I-476. Between the pot holes and the passing trucks, the camper started to sway and it got really bad to the point that the tires were chirping and the camper was pulling me into other lanes. At least I had the road to myself, since every other car and truck was staying way back.

The one thing that saved me was the one piece of advice the salesman gave me that was useful. He said if the camper does start to sway, don't hit the brakes. Hit the gas to straighten it out. My instinct would have been to hit the brakes. I hit the gas, speed up to about 80 mph until it finally straightened out.

Drove the rest of the trip at 50 mph there and back. First purchase after we got home was a weight distribution hitch with built in sway control. Went back to PA the next weekend without a problem.

-Michael

Actually, you should be using the trailer brake in a swaying situation, not speeding up to 80 mph.

[Turtle_n_Peeps]

Still waiting. :B

[olygene]

The Arrivals area at the Anchorage AK airport has a height limit of 11'. Our Class C is 11' 6" in height. My wife, who was driving to pick up a friend, has no concept of height, weight, width, etc and merrily drove into the Arrivals area until, at the last second...no more than 6' from the barrier...I yelled out to stop. It took several minutes to backup (what with all the cars behind us) and take an offramp with no height restriction. It would have been a very expensive mishap. The problem is I don't think my wife learned from the experience.

[Don___Barb_Bogu]

Our second trip with the brand new 5er. Didn't check and do a pull test. As we came out the drive on the street the hitch bounced down into the truck bed. in the process it put a large dent into the left side rail of the truck. So the DW is calling out every piece of wood we can find, use blocks. rase the trailer put blocks under hitch in bed, lower legs, In the middle of getting to a point of hooking back up, this woman asks me when I will be out of the street, she needs to go to work. I told her when I was dun. Ad in we were staying in a RV Resort not a park. They saw the truck and treated us like we were trash, never ben back.

[csh_2088]

When I first picked up my RV I took it to an KOA park and while driving down the highway I saw a police car with it's lights on in my rear view mirror come up behind me. I looked over to the passenger seat and to my horror saw my license plates on the seat. Fortunately, the police car went by me but I was kicking myself for doing something so dumb.

[Danford50]

my class c was about 6 day old and we went to a rv park , one day
we left and when we got back our awing was blown off the motor home

[NYCgrrl]

Hasn't happened yet but when it does I expect it to be a doozy;).

[Bayoubass]

Way back in the late 70's we had a Datsun Pickup ( Orange, remember those, 4 cylinder) and. 13' Chalet pull behind. We were in Washington State and a friend from the area raved about a campsite in Olympic National Park but it was up a mountain, secluded on a rock road. We're young and strong, and love secluded sites so off we go. Wife in the middle , I'm driving and our friend riding shotgun- tight cab! About 30 minutes up the road I'm now in 2nd gear and climbing slow. Can't remember when I shifted into first but my heart was pounding and when I had the gas pedal to the floor and we stopped, I knew we were in trouble. Did I mention the road was one lane? And looking over the edge of the road was , ugh, scary! Put on emergency brake, standing around outside thinking , now what? You guessed it, me and my friend unhook trailer while my wife places a big rock behind the driver side trailer tire and after several moves and what seemed like hours, the trailer is now facing downhill so I get the truck turned around and barely get passed the trailer and running off the cliff, hook up and GTF out of there!!!!! Must have been a great campsite...... I thanked GOD for days !

[mgirardo]

My big newbie mistake was listening to the Salesman 🙂 I asked about a weight distribution hitch when we bought our Hybrid Travel Trailer. We had a pop-up before, so WD Hitch wasn't needed. He told use we might not need it and that he'd let me know after we hitched up the camper. When we took delivery and hooked it up, his opinion was that we didn't need it, because the trailer was pretty level.

On our first trip out of state into Pennsylvania (lived in NJ at the time), I almost lost the camper on I-476. Between the pot holes and the passing trucks, the camper started to sway and it got really bad to the point that the tires were chirping and the camper was pulling me into other lanes. At least I had the road to myself, since every other car and truck was staying way back.

The one thing that saved me was the one piece of advice the salesman gave me that was useful. He said if the camper does start to sway, don't hit the brakes. Hit the gas to straighten it out. My instinct would have been to hit the brakes. I hit the gas, speed up to about 80 mph until it finally straightened out.

Drove the rest of the trip at 50 mph there and back. First purchase after we got home was a weight distribution hitch with built in sway control. Went back to PA the next weekend without a problem.

-Michael

[996Pilot]

austinjenna wrote:

I totaled the tow truck that was sent to help me.

I can top this. Once when we were camping we ran out of beer on the first day

Oh the horror -- I could hardly read this without getting the worst knot in my stomach. This is, by far, the worst story I've ever heard :S