Ok, Time to Come Clean and Admit Our Screw-Ups

[Got_Dirt_]

Admit it - we've all done some pretty dumb stuff in the name of RVing. They say a wise man learns from his mistakes. I say a wiser man learns from other peoples mistakes.

So, here's an opportunity to be an honest man or woman and share our blunders in the spirit of alleviating another from undue suffering and shame.

To start it off here's just one of my recent faux pas.

During off season, I drain my hot water heater and remove the anode (don't ask why I bother, I just do). It rained so much here in California that water got into the opening where you screw in the anode and rusted up big-time. When it was time to get out of Dodge, I couldn't screw in the anode as the opening was so rusted. What a Dumb A$$!

Long story short, went to the homeless depot and bought one of these.


Click For Full-Size Image.

Cut some grooves so the crud had somewhere to go and voila! Home made thread chaser! Now i know this has been done by many before - it was a first for me and it worked out great.

Anyone else care to share?

[et2]

When we had our last fiver I had a auxillary diesel fuel tank put in the bed. On one trip after setting up for the evening I went out with the truck to top off the tank for the remainder of our trip. I went to one of the local gas stations that had the cheapest diesel on the sign.

Put in my credit card and started pumping. After about 6 or 7 gallons I noticed the pump price was about 10 cents more than their advertising. I stopped pumping and went inside to inquire. They claimed they forgot to change it. I told them I wanted the advertised price. Not gonna happen. So I left with a bit of attitude got in my truck and steamed off.

That hose looked awful funny waiving in the side mirror hanging from my fuel door. That should teach them !!!

[Redterpos3]

One day after eating at a restaurant and leaving rig in a parking lot across the street I noticed a dent in my truck, and a busted light on my trailer. Was mad at "whoever" did this. Later at the campground noticed a scratch on my new truck cap, up high, and was perturbed at tree branches that must have scratched my new paint.

Later after thinking and stewing about things awhile I remembered jackknifing the rig to get out of a gas station, and later turned the wheel and jackknifed the unit to see, and yup everything matched up perfectly. Turned out I was mad at myself for jackknifing my rig too far!! 😞 Sorry to those "others" I was mad at!!!!

[am1958]

One of my favorite lines is:-

It is quite possible that some of my finest mistakes have yet to be made.

🙂

[Space_nerd]

I had to bring the 5er home by myself one weekend. On the way home the DW calls me and reminds me she will not be there to help me park. So don't hit the house. I said don't worry no problem.
The first thing she noticed when she got home was the smashed gutter on the house where the ladder from the 5er hit it. I love irony.

[nomad_297]

BobsYourUncle wrote:
I could write a short novel on some of the bonehead blunders I've done in my years of RVing.......

Things like the time I backed my truck into my fully open awning and tore an arm off..

Many times forgetting to remove the chocks and yanking my TT over them.

Blindsiding the TT into a narrow driveway in the pouring rain and a stupid ignorant power pole leapt out from the side and viciously attacked the back corner of my TT, leaving a big crunch in the side.

Jackknifing the rig too far backing up and poking a ladder on top of my truck rack right through the front of the TT at the top.

A full pound of butter down the heat duct once earned me the nickname here of butterboy...:B That was a classic... some of you here may remember my story on that one.

Forgot to latch the hitch on my TT once. Left the site in Fort Saint John BC and hit a big heave in an intersection, bucked the trailer off the ball and it did a nosedive into the pavement right in the middle of the intersection. There I was with a piddly little bottle jack and a few blocks if wood trying to put it back on the ball. Made it as far as Cache Creek on the way back to Surrey when the TT looked funny in the mirror. Pulled over and one side of the hitch frame was broken nearly right through. Good thing for a truck full of cordless tools to do a makeshift repair to get it to a welding shop for repairs. Yeah the was a monumental blunder on my part....

Not realizing my bathroom sink drained into the black tank not the grey, I kept pouring water down the drain into a full black tank, wondering why it was getting fuller and fuller. Stepped on the flush pedal to have a look down the hole, only to be greeted by a geyser of "soup" erupting like a volcano out of the toilet. Yeah that was a (unprintable) mess all over the bathroom to clean up.... ewwwwwww! :E:E Gag me with a spoon...

Left the awning too level once and had it fill up with water from a sudden rain storm. In a desperate attempt to empty it with a broom the scissor arm cylinder did its job and collapsed, emptying the contents of the awning inside the TT door, flooding the place.

I could go on!!!

Life with Bob in the RV is NEVER boring!!! :B

Through all of my time at this site, Bob has had the best stories. I read everything I see posted by him because it is never time wasted. Bob is a humble man and is not afraid to make fun of himself. I wish I could be more like him.

Bruce

[LJAZ]

First time out with the new trailer for the shakedown trip. I had a hard time getting the cap on the sewer hose holder, but thought I had it. Heading home down the freeway a car passes me and points to the trailer. I pull over and one end of the stinky slinky is still in the holder but about 15 feet of it was dragging behind. Must have been quite a sight.

At least it was only one of those cheapy starter kit ones.

[BizmarksMom]

Oh, and there's a dent in my tailgate from forgetting to chock the wheels before unhooking. Good thing I managed to jump out of the way!

[BizmarksMom]

I managed to not completely engage the coupler on my trailer. I didn't notice until I stopped for the night just north of Las Vegas. Thank goodness for the WDH!

[Santa_Fe]

Left my tailgate down when I picked the TT up from the dealer over this past winter...pulled out of the spot it was parked in and heard a loud bang. Didn't think much of it (you know how WDH pop and bang). Noticed the huge dent on the top of the tailgate when I made it home. Live and learn!

[dave17352]

georgelesley wrote:

jplante4 wrote:
Brought the Sahara home at the end of a season, so after a trip to the tire shop, it went right into storage. Next spring during the fitting out, I found that the radio wouldn't power up. I couldn't remember if it was working when I picked up the coach so I bought a new one. After re-wiring the new radio, it still wouldn't power up so I spent half a day with a DVM troubleshooting, finally giving up and running a new hot wire to the chassis switched fuse box.

Fast forward to 13 months later, I'm sitting in the drivers seat and looking at the switches. "What's this switch with the musical notes on it???"

Doh!

The winner is ^^^^^^ That's funny!!!

That is a great one! When I was a car mechanic I spent a day tracing why the turn signals did not work, finally put in a new wire, then I checked the fuse box...........

[delwhjr]

I've never had a screw up except the time I thought I had one!

My best one was trying to fit into a covered canopy. It was 10 ft tall and my TT was 9"10" but I forgot the AC unit was on top and taller than that. enough said 😞

[Trailblazer87]

Thought of another one, got the trailer home the first night, found out it and the truck are too long together to fit between driveways on my side of the street so I flip it around and end up "clearancing" the trees in front of the house across the street. Thankfully no damage was done except to my pride and the loss of a bit of time cleaning up the pruned branches.

[TimnJo]

Ahh, where to start?

I forgot to route the fridge drain plug out the vent, drained into the cavity for months, finally noticed when it started to delaminate under that vent.

Took a corner a little too tight - a tree jumped out leaving a big dent in the awning roll, taking out the fold out helper handle by the door and severely bending the steps.

Pulled up to the racetrack gates that were closed as it was too late, was told to just park it in the lot until the morning so the next morning, because I hadn't unhooked, I didn't do my normal walk-around. Just after going through the gate the next morning I get shouted at by a guy running up with my TV antenna in his hands - ripped off by the 'marquee' over the gate.

That's enough for now, I'll think of some more I'm sure.

[lawnspecialties]

Our first TT well over ten years ago. I was an extreme newbie.

Camping at a state park and a much better spot opened up. I immediately hooked up just the hitch and proceeded to move the Puma. Left the slide out and everything! At least I unhooked power and water.

Only real Oops was the bedroom TV fell off the shelf. These were the days before flat screens so it was busted for sure.

Can you imagine someone pulling their TT through a campground with the slide out? Jackleg for sure.

[Stefonius]

riven1950 wrote:
Don't try this at home. Was draining my hwh to winterize. Forgot to take the pressure off the system first. Glad I was standing a little to the side when the plug / anode came flying past me.

I had a similar experience draining a fully pressurized HWH. I wasn't so lucky. The blowout plug shot out and hit me right in the family jewels, followed by ten gallons of pressurized water. I was left with my jeans, socks and shoes soaked. It was late October, it was 10 PM and it was below freezing outside. I had another hour of setup to go before I could get changed.