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Taboos? Open waste valves Backing MH W/ 4 down etc.

SDcampowneroper
Explorer
Explorer
Taboos? Open waste valves, Backing Mh W 4 down Etc.
I have often posted about supposed taboos in effort to educate that they are notimpossible, can be done safely, successfully with proaction, patience, knowledge ahead of myth.
Lets hear from you of your successes contrary to the nay sayers. Share your ways of doing safely, reasonably with resources what they say cant be done.
Edit placed the thread topic in the post. Hopefully you get the topic now. Share your presumably wrong way but works ideas.
50 REPLIES 50

SDcampowneroper
Explorer
Explorer
fj12ryder wrote:
"Of course it should continue because while we are all equal in sense, we are not all equal in task."

Don't bet the farm on that one.

"You said so yourself that backing 4 wheel down can be done safely, as you said you have done hundreds of times,"

Actually he said hundreds of feet.
. Thank you for correcting my post. I did miswrite times instead of feet. My apology for misunderstanding he backed up hundreds of times a few feet, instead of backing up once for hundreds. That in itself made him a professional, as it is a far greater accomplishment to back hundreds od feet once , than to back a few feet hundreds of times.
in all my posts I have only asked for experienced , professional advice on such matters amd offered my own experience. A difference of opinions and experience is the educational value I wish to promote.

Bumpyroad
Explorer
Explorer
blt2ski wrote:
How about pulling a trailer half way across Washington state from Schwietzer ski area before I realized I did not put the light/brake cord into the trailer! eek! Not sure of the downhill grade coming down into Sand Point.....oh well! Life goes on..........

Marty


that reminds me, I was towing my toad and the electrical connection at the car was one of those small round plugs, the size of your thumb that have a raised area so they will only go in one way. WRONG.
I received the single finger salute that day before I discovered my mistake.
bumpy

mkirsch
Nomad II
Nomad II
Very few of these practices are GUARANTEED to end in disaster. In fact nearly everything mentioned so far, the odds are overwhelmingly in your favor for the activity to be successful.

What you are doing is vastly INCREASING your chance of failure. You're going from maybe 1:1,000,000 to 1:1,000. Still probably never going to have a problem, but 1000 times more likely to have a problem. It's up to you if 1:1000 is acceptable.

I just fail to see why telling people the right way to do things up front, and then letting them figure out what they can get away with on their own, is a bad thing.

Putting 10-ply tires on half ton trucks since aught-four.

blt2ski
Moderator
Moderator
How about pulling a trailer half way across Washington state from Schwietzer ski area before I realized I did not put the light/brake cord into the trailer! eek! Not sure of the downhill grade coming down into Sand Point.....oh well! Life goes on..........

Marty
92 Navistar dump truck, 7.3L 7 sp, 4.33 gears with a Detroit no spin
2014 Chevy 1500 Dual cab 4x4
92 Red-e-haul 12K equipment trailer

Bedlam
Moderator
Moderator
Join the club. Heaven nor Hell wants me, so I live to camp another day.

Host Mammoth 11.5 on Ram 5500 HD

gmw_photos
Explorer
Explorer
What the heck, I towed my TT yet again with my Frontier, and came home sunday, after dark, in the rain with a heavy crosswind.

Dang... and made it back ok !

drew999999
Explorer
Explorer
dieseltruckdriver wrote:
Well, I towed something sometime with ONLY an F250!


Shoot... I towed with an F150. Can't believe I'm still alive.
2017 Keystone Passport 3350BH Grand Touring
2013 F150 XLT 3.5 Ecoboost

fj12ryder
Explorer III
Explorer III
"Of course it should continue because while we are all equal in sense, we are not all equal in task."

Don't bet the farm on that one.

"You said so yourself that backing 4 wheel down can be done safely, as you said you have done hundreds of times,"

Actually he said hundreds of feet.
Howard and Peggy

"Don't Panic"

77rollalong
Explorer
Explorer
I took this to a car show/ flea market years ago, got a lot of stares going down the highway at 65mph. was a bit scary in some ways and the trailer has no brakes on it, and the car only has a single brake system, so if any leaks in the brake system you have no brakes at all. and using just a sway bar no eq hitch

soren
Explorer
Explorer
SDcampowneroperator wrote:
soren wrote:
BurbMan wrote:
This is like Campers' Confessional LOL, sub-titled "Stuff we all do but won't admit to because we would never advise a noob on a public forum to do likewise"



You are wiser that you know. Just because you can do something, with a decade or two of experience, that you know is far from textbook, and you know MIGHT bite you in the butt next time you do it, doesn't mean it was a good idea to pass the idea on to others. Just because you have done something that you know is dangerous, stupid, or leaves you shaking your head, as you think back about it, doesn't mean you need to brag about it. Oddly, some folks take these life experiences and decide that they would make pretty good advice to pass on to others, regardless of the damage it may cause.

Sure you can back staight back with a tow bar, I've done it for hundreds of feet, with no issue. OTOH, I also assisted another camper as we sledge hammered his bar enough to get it to release from the car, after he destroyed it, backing up. I also cringed as a CG owner told me of a guest who didn't have a clue as to what he was doing, and directed his elderly wife to sit in the toad and steer, while he backed up. He broke her arm. I'm certainly not telling anybody that the manufacturer is wrong, and there are no issues with backing up, since I did it sucessfully.

Sure you can leave your black tank valve open, and maybe everything will be fine. You can also create the dreaded "Mount Poosouvious" where the dried pile of solids creates a cone under the tank inlet, that grows until it clogs the tank. Does everyone have the skill and experience to prevent this mess? Further more, why create this opportunity to create a mess in the first place, and finally, why recommend the practice to anybody else?

Some tales are best left to those times you are sitting around with friends, and not offered on forums like this, where thousands of noobs show up every year looking for help doing the right thing.
Please quote where any anyone was ever hurt and where, or where their equipment was damaged by 3 rd party instruction.
You said so yourself that backing 4 wheel down can be done safely, as you said you have done hundreds of times, should make you the best of teachers,not a detractor to those who are misled it cannot, should not be done.
We who have the experience, have tried and proven true, disproved the myths and taboos associated with legaleze have a duty to share our knowledge. Ours is a duty to teach, share our successes, of failures..
Certainly there could be some learned as in any school who thinks above the teacher? who does seek need instruction. It might be they are the future professors, doctorates Should the school then not offer further instruction? Of course it should continue because while we are all equal in sense , we are not all equal in task.


Given your orignal post, and this reply, unfortunately, there appears to be some communication, and comprehension issues present. My post has several examples of property damage. I specifically said that I sucessfully backed one of my motorhomes up for hundreds of feet. I did this ONCE, not hundreds of times.

You are seeking approval for recommending questionable ideas and procedures to random strangers online, while claiming that you are correct because ignoring standard operating procedures and manufacturer's instructions has, so far, been sucesssful for you. Why you are on this journey is beyond me?

I spent a career as an electrician. My father did the same. Both of us would do things, without hesitation, that would make an OSHA inspector scream. That doesn't mean that I'm jumping on a forum and advising some random stranger to do the same. Please think about that before you decide that you know better than best practice, and decide to offer your off the wall "advice" again. When somebody destroys a tow bar, or ends up with a black tank full of dried fecal matter and toilet paper, are you going to be there to pay for the damage, or clean up the mess YOU encouraged an uniformed new RVer to create?

bucky
Explorer II
Explorer II
TakingThe5th wrote:
Bumpyroad wrote:
GWolfe wrote:
Had a truck camper in a half ton.

Towed a pop up with a Chevy Chevette.

Both without incident btw.


you admit owning a chevy chevette????????
that is my little secret. ๐Ÿ™‚
bumpy

FYI-Chevy also made a Chevette diesel. BIL owned one-someone gave it to him. Really slow, so slow that you could probably snooze in the pop up while driving. ๐Ÿ˜‰


To make the diesel Chevette worse it did not come with AC.
Puma 30RKSS

SDcampowneroper
Explorer
Explorer
soren wrote:
BurbMan wrote:
This is like Campers' Confessional LOL, sub-titled "Stuff we all do but won't admit to because we would never advise a noob on a public forum to do likewise"



You are wiser that you know. Just because you can do something, with a decade or two of experience, that you know is far from textbook, and you know MIGHT bite you in the butt next time you do it, doesn't mean it was a good idea to pass the idea on to others. Just because you have done something that you know is dangerous, stupid, or leaves you shaking your head, as you think back about it, doesn't mean you need to brag about it. Oddly, some folks take these life experiences and decide that they would make pretty good advice to pass on to others, regardless of the damage it may cause.

Sure you can back staight back with a tow bar, I've done it for hundreds of feet, with no issue. OTOH, I also assisted another camper as we sledge hammered his bar enough to get it to release from the car, after he destroyed it, backing up. I also cringed as a CG owner told me of a guest who didn't have a clue as to what he was doing, and directed his elderly wife to sit in the toad and steer, while he backed up. He broke her arm. I'm certainly not telling anybody that the manufacturer is wrong, and there are no issues with backing up, since I did it sucessfully.

Sure you can leave your black tank valve open, and maybe everything will be fine. You can also create the dreaded "Mount Poosouvious" where the dried pile of solids creates a cone under the tank inlet, that grows until it clogs the tank. Does everyone have the skill and experience to prevent this mess? Further more, why create this opportunity to create a mess in the first place, and finally, why recommend the practice to anybody else?

Some tales are best left to those times you are sitting around with friends, and not offered on forums like this, where thousands of noobs show up every year looking for help doing the right thing.
Please quote where any anyone was ever hurt and where, or where their equipment was damaged by 3 rd party instruction.
You said so yourself that backing 4 wheel down can be done safely, as you said you have done hundreds of times, should make you the best of teachers,not a detractor to those who are misled it cannot, should not be done.
We who have the experience, have tried and proven true, disproved the myths and taboos associated with legaleze have a duty to share our knowledge. Ours is a duty to teach, share our successes, of failures..
Certainly there could be some learned as in any school who thinks above the teacher? who does seek need instruction. It might be they are the future professors, doctorates Should the school then not offer further instruction? Of course it should continue because while we are all equal in sense , we are not all equal in task.

allen8106
Explorer
Explorer
I stayed at a Holiday Inn once!
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Bedlam
Moderator
Moderator
That was the era of normally aspirated diesels. My Mazda used a normally aspirated Perkins and Mitsubishi had one of first small turbos.

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