For the new travel trailer owners, things that happen to me.

[Mark_and_Linda]

Thought I would put this out to the new people who are learning so they don't make the mistakes I have made in the past year.

1. Awning, don't assume the water will run off of it without tilting one end. Make sure before you leave the area for a few hours, even though the chance of rain is slight. Remember Murphy's Law!

2. If you use a Friction Sway Bar, remember to undo it before trying to back into a spot at the campground. I always undo mine now when I pull into the campground.

3. If you seal the area around your antenna on top, make sure you don't seal part of the rotating area. I forgot to check mine after I did it, got to campground; antenna would not rotate. Solution, had to call a former supervisor who lived in the area so I could borrow his ladder for a five minute fix.

4. Awning replaced by insurance company, no deductible. I was lowering it one day here at home to let it dry out from the rain we just had, the strap broke. I was lucky that I was coming down with it. Purchased another one at local RV Store, should have waited until I went to Camping World. I bought another one, half the price.

Just thought I would put this out to the new ones, just some things you don't think about.

[phone_man]

It works way better if before you leave your campsite to remove the wheel chocks.

[Eyefish]

I don't have toppers on the slides so I carry a ladder and a leaf blower to clean the junk off before bringing the slides in.

[chasmatt45]

FRS radios are great, but watch out in heavy rain. We had problems one time parking in a very heavy rain storm. My wife's radio failed from being too wet. We now have waterproof radios.

[MontanaCamper]

LeBout wrote:
🙂 I'm always tempted to take my set of two-way radios over to them, but by that time they're usually not in a visiting mood. Haha!

DW has done this, to my surprise..we have made a couple of good friends that way!!

Rescue16 wrote:
Now I use the Cell Phones instead off the walkie talkies

Where we camp, is about 4 miles from the nearest cell service.

[ScottG]

No need for #2, unhooking the friction sway stuff before backing.

[69_Avion]

6.7 tow rig wrote:

tbratzel wrote:
.....and remember to turn off the trailer brakes when backing in to your camping spot !!

Am I missing something with this one? Why would you do that. I've never heard such a thing

Maybe he has surge brakes. They don't back up too well, uphill, unless you lock them out. With electric brakes it doesn't make much sense. Sometimes I will back my controller off a little when backing up.

[PenMan]

tbratzel wrote:
.....and remember to turn off the trailer brakes when backing in to your camping spot !!

I'm with the others on this one, never heard of doing it and it makes no sense.

On edit, I should have read all the posts before posting this. Apparently the OP's brake controller was not adjusted properly so it was easier to unplug the trailer when backing up. It should not lock up the trailer brakes just because you are backing up.

[Rescue16]

Now I use the Cell Phones instead off the walkie talkies since I have hands free speaker for the cell in the Truck the DW just calls me using her Cell phone and and gives me those wonderful directions I choose to ignore most of the time but never the less she keeps me between the fence posts and I do not have to hit a push to talk button if I want to talk back....Which usually gets me in trouble when I do talk back to her LOL!!!

[Rescue16]

I have started unplugging my Brakes before backing into the spot beside the house since I am ridi8ng the brakes somewhat when backing into the concrete drive I had put in and always left tire marks from the trailer tires dragging because the trailer brakes were locking up when going in reverse..Did not think it would really matter but since unplugging and backing in no more tire trails on my driveway.

[Campfire_Time]

6.7 tow rig wrote:

tbratzel wrote:
.....and remember to turn off the trailer brakes when backing in to your camping spot !!

Am I missing something with this one? Why would you do that. I've never heard such a thing

This advice may have come from someone who pulled a smaller trailer that had hydraulic surge brakes. I had them on a PUP. Because of how the mechanism works you had to manually disengage the brakes to back up.

[RedRocket204]

Mark and Linda wrote:

1. Awning - ALWAYS roll it back up and store it before you leave the area no matter what...unless you are very nearby and can roll it up if the weather changes.

Fixed! 😉

Saw that someone else mentioned it and thought it important enough to mention it again. It only takes a few minutes to ruin an awning.

[LeBout]

X1 to the Walkie-Talkie suggestion. We have some great Motorola FRS radios and we LOVE them, especially for backing in to campsites. After we get settled into our site we love to just sit and watch the other couples come in. It can be quite entertaining to watch the wild hand signals by the wife as her husband tries to back in. Finally he gets frustrated and rolls down his window and yells: "I can't SEE you!!!" 🙂 I'm always tempted to take my set of two-way radios over to them, but by that time they're usually not in a visiting mood. Haha!

[trickyvic3]

Always good to make up a check list even if your a seasoned camper. Seems like I'm always forgetting something, but usually the DW will remind me before it's to late lol.

Vic

[MontanaCamper]

Bring walky talky's....and if you do, make sure the batteries are charged.... makes the weekend that much nicer.

[dadmomh]

We had the "awning in the rain" thing, too. No rain predicted...clear skies. Monsoon came out of nowhere in the middle of the night. 2:00 AM and what sounded like a cannon going off pretty much got us out of bed in a hurry. The big, heavy roller was folded in half like a piece of paper. What a mess. We always carry a 4' ladder - with the HTT it's handy - and DH and DF were able to get the thing off the ROO so we could get home. Pictures....lots of pictures before they took it off and the insurance adjuster was very pleased. Yes, our awning was in its normal slant downward, not on a tilt, but the water built up so quickly and had nowhere to go. This was awning lesson #2....#1 is "don't go off to work with your awning out and the trailer sitting in the driveway because the wind might come up". DH was able to order a few parts and fix it himself. Lessons learned.

Yep, leaving those steps down is a huge "oops"! Add to the list to lock the stove vent flap, lock the deadbolt as well as the regular lock, make sure to unplug before you pull out (friends did that one), remember to put the sway bars back on (same friends did that one followed by DH doing the same thing).

We each have our jobs and then we both do a good walk around before the truck moves an inch. Doesn't mean we won't miss something, but at least we have a better chance.

Oh, yea.....have extra fuses for anything and everything.