I hate it when I'm stupid

[Keith Williams]

OK Jaye, here tis.

I can't wait to hear your story. However, I must share one that a friend of mine told me. He had a Class C motorhome and after breaking camp he got on the Interstate to go home. He was going to dump his tanks at home so he just pulled up and left.

He thought it was funny how people were passing him, honking their horns, giving him the one-finger salute , running their windshield wipers and generally showing great dislike for him and his rig.

He decided he had better stop and see what's wrong. With great shock, he realized that he had sheared off the Black water dump valve and pipe as he was leaving the campground and was ''dumping'' his tanks all along the highway.

It's a miracle someone didn't shoot him. Can you imagine coming up behind that rig and getting sprayed?

OK, it's your turn.

EKW

[Loren G. Hedahl]

I think that was standard procedure in the early days of the rail roads. It's still done by all those beautiful cruise ships.

[Loren G. Hedahl]

Perhaps our biggest boo boo was years ago towing a Compact Jr with a Peugeot Station Wagon on a trip to Texas.

We got to Corpus Cristi and onto Padre Island and set up camp on the beach. We didn't notice all the other rigs leaving during the night. By morning, we had sand piled up almost over the top of one side of the trailer and spent much of the next day digging out.

All the veteran Padre Island campers apparently listen to the local weather reports and take appropiate action when a potential wind storm is on its way.

[jaye580]

Ok, here goes....its long, but I have to set the scene!

Way back in the early 90's I bought my first egg. It was the Casita I have mentioned and I spent months renovating it. I was very proud! For its maiden voyage I was to haul it from central Texas where I was living, to Maine where I was vacationing. My son (then about 6) had gone on ahead with my father which left my mother, her little Yorkie and I to make the journey alone a few days later. Well... We were supposed to leave early in the morning, but neither one of us were having a good day and it was late in the afternoon before we got underway. We had only driven a few hours before it was dark, we were exhausted and it was pouring rain, so we decided that under the circumstances we would stay in a motel for that first night and get a good early start the next morning.

We stopped at a motel in Palestine Texas and I drove into the parking lot looking for a place to park our "rig". The parking lot appeared to be U shaped and I thought that I saw a space where I could park lengthwise way down at the other end. Since I had spent all of my time remodeling the Casita and none of it practicing how to back it up, I wanted to be sure that I would not have to. HOWEVER, once I got to that far end of the motel I noticed through the dark of night and the pouring rain that the parking lot was blocked off and there was no way out. There were cars parked on each side of us, and there we sat in the middle of them in a near panic. Oh I tried to back up. I tried for a good hour or more and ended up with the trailer and car close to parallel to each other. Every inch I moved, every direction I turned the steering wheel, the worse the whole situation got. My moms head was hanging out the window in the rain and she was frantically yelling "Jaye what are you doing? Jaye how are we going to get out of here? Jaye try to go the other way! Jaye why did you drive down here? " etc. Her little Yorkie is barking with his high pitched annoying little attention attracting yelp till finally everyone at the motel (2 stories high) was out on their baloney watching these two ridiculous women try to back up this tiny little trailer... we were completely helpless.

Finally we gave up and walked to the front desk to ask for some sort of help. We found the night clerk locked in her office, watching the people on the balcony with binoculars, and was politely telling us that due to all of the drug activity and crime in the area, that she was not allowed to let us in to the lobby, but we could stand outside while she called "someone". After a few minutes the police showed up. We thought she had called them for us, but as it turns out they had been called to the hotel for "other reasons". We did manage to speak to one of the officers, we tired to explain our problem, even told them that I could unhitch the trailer and if just one of them would help me we could manually turn it around, but even though we were drenched and in distress, they left us standing there in the rain.

By now the motel clerk had called everyone she could think of to try to help us. She even called her husband! She called wreckers, she called AAA, but when she told him our problem they all just laughed and said they couldn't do anything. Finally we suggested she call a wrecker and not tell him what we needed, and maybe if the driver just showed up he could do something! It was about 4AM when a wrecker finally came. This young guy got out, the yorkie barked at him ferociously, he laughed at us but said he would get us out of the parking lot. He walked back to our rig, laughed harder when he saw it, and within a matter of about 2 minutes had backed our car and trailer all the way out of the parking lot and turned it around facing out for us! My mother handed him her credit card for the $60 showing up fee, and off we went.

It was almost daylight by the time we got back on the main road. Even though we were more exhausted than ever, we decided to keep driving. Of course mom fell asleep in the passenger seat, and the yorkie was napping quietly by now too, I think I drove till about 9AM or so and then stopped in a rest area so I could sleep for a couple of hours before continuing north. To this day, my mom still complains about the charge she had to pay for the wrecker, but I learned 2 valuable lessons... 1) always be sure that where I am pulling in, has an exit and 2) always have a wheel on the front jack so I can move the trailer by myself!

[Ruth C.]

Jaye, you win the prize. From now on, I'll put all of my little tussles into perspective!

[Keith Williams]

Jaye, that's the stuff Nightmares are made of. I think all RV'ers have a deep down fear of getting in that kind of bind.

Thanks for sharing it with us. Now I won't be able to sleep tonight.

EKW

[Anne H]

I was driving down a highway in Nevada (about a million miles from nowhere - the campground I'd stayed in the night before was totally empty and there was no town around it at all) one morning wondering what was wrong with my VW Westie - it just had no acceleration and we were on a totally flat road. I was already brainstorming about where I could get service and if I was even going to make it to a town.

Then I finally noticed that the pop-top was still up

What really got to me was that several cars had passed me going the other way and NO ONE flipped their lights or honked or anything - - - surely, they could not have thought that was the normal position for the pop-top!

Fortunately, I didn't rip the canvas or break the hinge mechanism (although the roof vent was never quite right after that).

[Ian R]

I must say that the $20.00 or so that I spent at Princess Auto for a front jack with a wheel was one of my very best investments.
Jayne - your nightmare has been my nightmare too.
BTW one of the first things that I learned about backing is that I find it almost impossible to back up using just my wing mirrors - I have to look out of the rear window otherwise I am lost (and you have no idea how lost I can be!)
If I can move my egg easily I don't find the need for a "Back-up Buddy" - I just get fairly close and roll it on the front jack.

Cheers

[Byron Kinnaman]

Almost tragic!

I backed into a spot, unhitched then rehitched figuring it would be better a bit farther back into the site. It was quite unlevel. Started to unhitch again then I looked at the where and how the trailer was sitting. OOPS,, if I unhiched it would roll down the hill and into a creek. I don't think it would have done the trailer much good. I'm sure glad I noticed it in time. I also changed my unhook and set up procedure. I now chock, and level side to side before unhitching. I use a BAL leveler which makes a great chock too. It's chock the high side, BAL level the low side, then unhitch and level for/aft.

I learned without the big loss....

[Mary F]

I found it! Dumbest trailering thing I've ever done. (It's a old "Legacy Post" topic, from before the board was hacked.)

[jaye580]

I found it! [b]Dumbest trailering thing I've ever done. (It's a old "Legacy Post" topic, from before the board was hacked.)

I just read all of these old posts, some very funny stuff there! Reminded me of a couple of experiences I had pre my own camper days when I went across country with my mom and dad in their old Dodge motorhome. I was 24 years old and had the pleasure of sleeping in the upper back bunk that was so tight that when I rolled over in my sleep I scraped the roof... we traveled for 6 weeks that way... anyway, the two most memorable moments were one of my dad driving and coughing up something foul and spitting it out the window only to look down and see a really angry biker pass us wiping something off of his jacket!!! The other was a very VERY hot July day that we spent in Lake Havasu. We got all settled in to the campsite only to find that we had no air conditioning. It was about 200 degrees outside, about 400 inside, and about 600 in that little bunk that I had to sleep in - but there we were for the night. The next day my dad got to looking at something to do with the a/c and noticed that some little copper wire had come undone. I don't remember the details, just remember that it took about 10 seconds to fix it and even though that was a good 22 years ago, we still tease him about that miserable night in Lake Havasu at every opportunity!

OK, so I shared one of my biggest mistakes early on in the thread and even threw in a couple of my parents, but I want to hear more!!!

[CD Smith]

Back in 1972 we were on our way to Carlsbad Caverns, NM with our 14 ft. Shasta towed by a 1970 Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser. Our first night was a stop over in Abilene, TX. We hooked up for the night and went to bed. About 3:00 o'clock in the morning our poodle Brandy woke us up scratching the floor.

I thought she wanted to go out so getting up I put my foot on the floor and the floor was covered with about an inch of water. Apparently I had forgotten to install the pressure regulator which allowed the full pressure of the campground water onto the Shasta plumbing and the connection to the commode was leaking.

I turned off the water outside and went back to bed thinking the water would drain to the outside. What I didn't realize was the water tank had been pressurized and even after the water was turned off the leak continued so the next morning the floor was still covered with water. I drained the pressure off the water tank and tilted the Shasta to let the water drain out the front, but it still took most of the morning to get the water out.

P.S. We never made it to Carlsbad Caverns because the A/C compress mounting bracket broke on the Oldsmobile. The dealer in Abilene insisted that I had to have the selling dealer make the warranty repair so we returned to Grand Prairie. OH, those were the days!

[Loren G. Hedahl]

Interested in selling the Vista Cruiser? I'll take it without the AC fixed.

[Harvey Craft]

Speaking of runaway trailers, I can share my own.

After getting our new Casita home I decided to go through all of the systems on the trailer to familiarize myself with the operation of each.

I wanted to put the trailer in the shop so i asked my wife to watch while i backed the trailer into the shop so i wouldn't hit the wall or anything else.

She stood at the rear of the shop with a frs radio in her hand so she could inform me of any obstructions or problems.

Everything went ok and the trailer was backed into the shop and I was getting ready to u-hitch and install a different tongue jack on the front.

Because i was going to install a new tongue jack on the trailer i got a floor jack and jacked up the tongue to get it off of the truck. Everything was going great and i got into the truck to pull it forward when my wife started yelling on the radio that the trailer was moving.

The floor of the shop is concrete poured so the water will drain so the floor is not flat. Well the trailer was trying to follow me toward the door.

All i could do was get the truck out of the way and let the trailer roll to the low spot in the floor where the drain is.

The trailer finally stoped about 40 ft. from where i had parked it so we had to hitch up again and put it back in place AGAIN.

Needless to say that i blocked the wheels this time. The floor jack acted like a wheel on the front allowing the trailer to roll.



Harv in Colo.

[CD Smith]

Interested in selling the Vista Cruiser? I'll take it without the AC fixed.

You wouldn't want it with A/C or without.

It was a disaster. It had 455 cu. in. engine, 500 ft. lbs. of torque, and a rear end ration of 2.73. Also the same radiator that comes with the 350 cu. in. engine. Continuous overheating problems. It seem like I had it back to the dealer at least once a month to have the radiator backflushed and new coolant put in. The problem was fixed in the 1971 model when they add an additional row of tubes to the radiator. Do you think I could convince them to replace the radiator in the 1970 model - No Way!

In desperation I finally put bolts through the fan clutch which made it sound like a B29 aircraft, but it kept the engine cooled.

[Candi Woods]

It's a good thing my new scamp has a long electrical cord! Just this last weekend, our second trip out in it, I decided to hitch up the trailer early while my family was at the lake swimming. I wasn't too interested in swimming in the lake and I needed a legitimate job to do but I also wanted to show my husband I could do it by myself. (I haven't told him this yet, though.) Our camper has a wheel on the hitch so it's not too much problem for me to pull it up to our Jimmy instead of having to back up to it. It's a good thing I did a once over before pulling it forward with the car because when I looked back the cord was hanging at an angle out of the outlet. I can't imagine driving off like that with the cord bouncing along the road.

I think I'll go confess to my husband now.

[Anne H]

This post should be required reading for all new trailer owners!!!! It will save me some embarrassing incidents!!

[Anne H]

Flooding - not once . . . not twice . . . . yes, THREE TIMES.

1. Checking out my 'new-to-me' VW Westfalia in my driveway, I hooked up to my city water and turned on the water. Water started shooting all over the inside of the van.
Lesson 1: When the books say 'Use a water pressure regulator, take them seriously'.
In my haste to get to the shut-off, I tripped over the hose and broke off the Van's city water connector (about $35 to order from online resource for old VW camper parts)

2. Armed with my new city water pressure regulator, I was camping for the first time and hooked up to the campground water supply - turned it on - confident that all would be well this time. Well, Water started shooting all over the inside of the van - and since it was loaded for camping this time, food, clothes, and bedding all got pretty damp before I got it shut off.
Lesson 2a: Sometimes even the water pressure regulator isn't enough on older campers.
Lesson 2b: ALWAYS test things at home BEFORE you load up the camper!!

3. Having learned my lesson never to hook up my old camper to city water, I went camping again - using just the water from the onboard fresh water tank for the sink. I happily made dinner and washed up afterwards - only to find water all over the cupboard and my food AGAIN!!!! The source this time turned out to be the little plastic ball under the sink that connected the sink drain to the hose leading outside connector. It was over 20 years old and had finally just cracked and broken - but, since I was in the middle of almost no where - I had no sink for that trip (back to the online resource for old camper parts when I got home)
Lesson 3?: Not sure what the lesson is here (although the fact that my next camper is going to be NEW with no aging, cracked parts).


I'll probably have more moments as I cope with pulling a trailer.

[jaye580]

Flooding - not once . . . not twice . . . . yes, THREE TIMES.

I am soooo paraoid about this happening that I rarely even hook up to city water! I only have a sink anyway so I usually fill a big water jug and just pour in what I need! I also keep a huge plastic mixing bowl in the camper so I can wash dishes outside! In my renovations I have replaced all of the plumbing in both Scamps but I am still afraid of something leaking- especially since all of the breaker boxes etc are right there ready to get wet should something leak!

[Penny Taylor]

Quote Anne H...although the fact that my next camper is going to be NEW with no aging, cracked parts).

When you get a new one, then there will be all the trips back to the dealer to get other nitpickin' things fixed. Quality control ain't what it used to be !!