Camping mishaps...

Our last trip, hubby was backing the Pop into the space and he wanted to be "perfectly aligned" with the concrete curb stop. He had backed up and I already dropped the stabilizers (which I call the levelizers) to make sure the ground was not too far away/we needed blocks.
He put one up, but not the other and then pulled forward- yanking it over the curb and twisting it around. So...it is currently held up with duct tape and bungee cord. He would not let me take a picture because he was so mad.
On this trip- our sink also fell out!

We planned on replacing them with scissor jacks anyway so I guess we can start on that corner!


Every time I read your "adventures", I too keep saying "300 dollars, 300 dollars..." :rotfl:
Of course, I am laughing with you (not at you) as I assume you are telling us of these adventures with a big grin :beach:
 
Every time I read your "adventures", I too keep saying "300 dollars, 300 dollars..." :rotfl:
Of course, I am laughing with you (not at you) as I assume you are telling us of these adventures with a big grin :beach:

That is EXACTLY what I told him haha! So far, we have only put roughly $100 into it.
 
Anyone else done the dance of the angry butterfly, teaching new words to the kids cause the a/c won't come on just to have your wife walk out and flip the pole breaker you forgot to turn on?

Just me?
 
Anyone else done the dance of the angry butterfly, teaching new words to the kids cause the a/c won't come on just to have your wife walk out and flip the pole breaker you forgot to turn on?

Just me?
Nah... that's a good one.

I have fired up the AC at the campground only to have it shuttering wildly. Had to take it apart in July on an unshaded site just to get the dirt dinner nest off the fan shaft.

I think I lost two religions and 10# on the roof that day.
 


Here's one that just happened 2 trips ago. My new trailer has a black tank flush, my first one ever. They placed all the trailer connections (except electric) inside a nice compartment in the basement. The city water and black tank flush are right next to each other. I have 20/10 vision. I can see great beyond 10 ft. Unfortunately I can't see anything without my glasses inside of 10 ft. (See where this is going?) The connections are labeled, but without my glasses, it doesn't help much. Here's a pic of my connection station.

20160126_170808.jpg
20160126_170808_zpsnp9pu1xg.jpg~original


It seems pretty clear in the pic, but 2 trips ago we stayed at a state park with full hookups. I screw on the water hose, turn on the water and thought it was a little funny that I could hear the water running longer than normal to pressurize the lines, but I figured DW was inside at the sink.

I go about setting things up outside and about 10 minutes later, I hear DW yell, "The toilet just exploded when I tried to flush it." Thankfully I put 2 and 2 together pretty fast and shut off the water. The toilet was literally completely full to the brim. I was afraid to step on the pedal. I hooked up the sewer hose and open the black tank valve. I figured another minute or two and I would have had Old Faithful from the black tank vent on the roof.

Good news is, the black tank is really clean. :D

j
 
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Here's one that just happened 2 trips ago. My new trailer has a black tank flush, my first one ever. They placed all the trailer connections (except electric) inside a nice compartment in the basement. The city water and black tank flush are right next to each other. I have 20/10 vision. I can see great beyond 10 ft. Unfortunately I can't see anything without my glasses inside of 10 ft. (See where this is going?) The connections are labeled, but without my glasses, it doesn't help much. Here's a pic of my connection station.

20160126_170808_zpsnp9pu1xg.jpg~original


It seems pretty clear in the pic, but 2 trips ago we stayed at a state park with full hookups. I screw on the water hose, turn on the water and thought it was a little funny that I could hear the water running longer than normal to pressurize the lines, but I figured DW was inside at the sink.

I go about setting things up outside and about 10 minutes later, I hear DW yell, "The toilet just exploded when I tried to flush it." Thankfully I put 2 and 2 together pretty fast and shut off the water. The toilet was literally completely full to the brim. I was afraid to step on the pedal. I hooked up the sewer hose and open the black tank valve. I figured another minute or two and I would have had Old Faithful from the black tank vent on the roof.

Good news is, the black tank is really clean. :D

j

Silver Linings are where we find them
 
Good news is, the black tank is really clean. :D
:rotfl2:

Thanks... That gave me a good laugh this AM when reading this.

I glad it wasn't too bad of an issue. I hope the black tank was mostly clean (particularly of the solids) before the "Explosion" :)
 


Don't feel bad Jim, I've done the same thing, but I didn't catch it in time, my camper did look like ol faithful at the roof vent... good thing all my neighbors got a good laugh,

To hear Randy's wife tell the story he was yelling "We're going down at the bow!". I guess I am not surprised for him to say something like that considering he is a boat captain.
 
Anyone else done the dance of the angry butterfly, teaching new words to the kids cause the a/c won't come on just to have your wife walk out and flip the pole breaker you forgot to turn on?

Just me?

You are not alone. I've done the angry butterfly dance too. But I have no spouse to help! At least I don't keep dancing...learned to check the breaker first now. :thumbsup2
 
We're tent campers, but I have a few mishaps.

One weekend we were camping and it was very windy. While I was up getting a drink, a big gust of wind came by and my camping chair (just one of those cheap chairs that fold up and you can store in a bag) blew over into the fire. Thank goodness hubby was there to see it and grabbed it and put out the fire but the chair was toast. Literally! HA!

Another time, I didn't take the frozen chicken out of the cooler early enough and when dinner time came around, those babies were still frozen solid!! With no microwave to defrost the chicken and no other meal options, we headed into town, got Chinese and brought it back to the campsite! From now on we always bring a couple of freeze-dried backpacking meals.

Here is the biggie- on the last day of a long weekend camping trip, I realized I lost a car key! Somehow it fell off the carbiner clip I keep my keys on. We searched all over the campsite, the bathroom, the path leading to the bathroom..... it was no where to be found. It also didn't help that it was October and the ground was covered with leaves. Thanks goodness it was NOT the key to the car we had at the campsite! To this day, we have only one key to our Altima.
 
In my youth, I belonged to Civil Air Patrol. We found ourselves hiking and camping frequently with this group. In ALL types of weather. One night after a long day, my boots (think older military style all leather combat boots) were wet and I wanted to dry them. So I put them by the fire to dry them out. Apparently I left them there too long and/or too close... I never new Leather could melt, but sure enough, the top of my boot was curled down as if it was a candle melting.
 
So it's been a while since we have posted on this one, which I hope means none of us have had any mishaps.

Ole Tiggerdad has one to add on here.

Now, it's not actual camping, but it involves the tow vehicle so I figure it counts. On all the vehicles I own I have always done my own oil changes. This includes my trucks, my wife's vehicles, my tractors, lawn mowers, etc. As a general rule on the vehicles when I'm done changing the oil I always let them sit and idle for 10 minutes or so to make sure I don't see any leaks. Just in case. Never found one.

Until...

My F-250, the first time I changed the oil in it I like to of never gotten the oil filter off. I literally bent the handles on the oil filter wrench trying to get it off it was on there so tight. I also found out that I had to put it back on equally as tight otherwise it would leak. Not sure if it was messed up by prior owner or what, but that's just the way it has been.

This past weekend I changed the oil, but, was in such a hurry that I didn't check that dumb filter. You guessed it, I got a few miles down the road and the low oil pressure light comes on! Oh shoot! Now, I'm closer to home than I am to a store so I go back to the house. Sure enough, it's leaking around the filter, big time!

Lost 4 quarts to be exact. The funny thing is, when you lose 4 quarts out the filter going down the road it don't just drip on the pavement, it coats the entire underside and tailgate of the truck. Man it was a mess. The filter had actually backed off some making the leak even bigger.

I got it tightened, added the oil and pressure washed the underside of the truck. Fixed.

Nope...

2 days later I'm coming home from work and the truck goes into its "Cleaning Exhaust Filter". For those of you not familiar with this, basically it dumps extra diesel in and super heats the exhaust to vaporize any residue. Problem is, if there is oil on the exhaust, well, it makes for a scary moment. When I got home I just knew she was fixing to burst into flames. So I did what any volunteer fireman would do.

I got my importants out of the truck and said my goodbyes.

However, she didn't burst into flames and eventually the smoke cleared. (Haven't had any problems with mosquitoes since)

I did find out that Purple Power, when used undiluted does a good job in getting oil off. I sprayed 3 gallons under the truck in total and rinsed it several times and finally got rid of it all. Lesson learned.

In most cases oil filters are only supposed to be just over hand tight, which has always worked in the past, but this one is a bit trickier and you can bet I'll not come up with another excuse to not let it idle next time and check for oil.
 
Frank likes the K&N oil filters. No oil filter wrench needed.
 
Good thing you caught that when you did. I also change the oil in everything I own. On one of my old trucks, the rubber O-ring gasket came off the filter and stuck on the engine adapter. I didn't notice it when I put the new filter on. Screwing the new filter on cause the old O-ring to squeeze out and make for a big leak. I always start up the engine and poke my head under to look for anything suspect (not 10 minutes worth, but enough to catch a big leak). And a BIG leak I saw. In the time it took to jump up and kill the engine, it pumped 5 quarts onto the ground. One nice thing about the old 7.3 diesels, they took 15 quarts.

j
 
20 years ago I was with my family on a wagon train.

We had a 6 horse trailer with a tack room in it that I would sleep in when we went on wagon trains. We had three of the horses tied out to the trailer oen night and the other three were in a paddock we made out of rope and 4x4s.

3 Horses can collaborate and work together to move a 6 horse trailer. They pulled the trailer on to its side and drug it a couple hundred feet to the makeshift paddock so that they could spend the night with their friends.

I apparently slept through the entire incident because all I remember is being woken up by my dad hollering "grab onto something, we're gonna flip the trailer back onto its wheels and get you out of there!"

That was the last time we ever used the trailer to tie out the horses.
 
Are you all serious? No mishaps in the last 8 months?

@2goofycampers , on the stickied towing thread there were some posts showing some towing accidents. Kinda derailed the thread from its purpose. Could those posts be moved to here instead or would the original posters need to move them themselves? I was gonna copy my post of the "land yaught" and move it over here and delete the original to clean it up. Wasn't sure what best route would be.
 
Sorry Mike. Even with the new trailer I have yet (knocking on wood) had any issues. I did however no fault of my own found Grey 1 and Black valves open prior to taking it to the dump station. I closed them but proceeded to continue with the BLue glove approach to the tanks and hose. Speaking of which I have a new 20 foot hose with my trailer. Better than the 10 footer I had with the old trailer. I found dropping both tanks was not as bad as I expected. I get them done in order and no issues as of yet. My water supply hose does not come anywhere near the valves thankfully.
 
I just found this thread and am procrastinating work, so I'll contribute. Grab your coffee, it's wordy.

Our first camper was a 2008 Rockwood Roo that we bought used off of the "Lemon Lot" on base, literally a week before we were due to PCS across the country from NC to CA in 2012. Doing what we do with anything, we made a trip out of the move and had planned to travel up through South Dakota and then back down. Our accommodations suddenly went from hotels and cabins to camp sites. We didn't have time before we left to do any trial runs. I hadn't had a camper since I was a kid and it was Hubbs first. When prepping the camper to leave a campground, we got in the habit of opening all of the faucets to drain the water out of the lines. Setting up in Custer, SD, we hooked up the water and went about setting up the rest of the outside. By the time I went inside, there was water coming out from under the bathroom door. Yup, we didn't turn off the faucets when we left Wall and the bathroom sink had overflowed. Once we got it dried up, only the GFC outlet was damaged, which was easily replaced. Lesson: immediately go into the camper to check the faucets after connecting and turning on the water outside.

Fast forward to January, 2014, when we bought a brand new Lance 2185. Whenever we unhitched Roo, we always leaned the sway bars against the front of the camper. When we got Lance home after owning him for a whole hour-and-a-half, we unhitched as usual and leaned the sway bars against the front. Lance had a different front from Roo in that the front lower part was angled down and had the aluminum tread metal for protection that you usually see on truck running boards. When Hubbs unhitched Lance from the truck, it lurched forward just a few inches as expected to settle. The sway bars made symmetrical punctures on each side of the front. We were able to bend the metal back into place and put a layer of epoxy over it, to the point that you had to know the puncture holes were there to find them. Lesson: don't lean the sway bars against the front of the camper.

Our maiden trip was to Big Bear, CA in January to go snowboarding. We arrived at the campground late in 25 degree temperatures. The host said that we were okay to turn on the water to fill the fresh water tank, and so we did. Only the faucet knob broke off in the process and we couldn't shut off the water before the tank flooded and we were soaked. Did I mention it was 25 degrees? Lesson: fill the fresh water tank with ample light and a way to turn-off the water.

During this trip we had friends with us - another couple named Rod and Diana. Being the good Marines that we are, we played drinking games and went to bed sloshed. I woke-up with a cold nose at o'dark-thirty. The temps had gone down to single digits. When I reached over Hubbs in bed to check the thermostat, he woke and surmised that the propane was out and that the tanks just needed to be switched over - easy peesy. Lo and behold - the dealer didn't fill the second tank and Hubbs and all four of us had enough to drink that we still didn't want to risk driving at that point to get the tanks filled at a gas station in the middle of the night. Hubbs and I hunkered down under our down comforter with hats on, while Rod and Diana climbed into the same bunk to keep each other warm. Lesson: 1) always check the propane before cold-weather camping and drinking games, and 2) the weight of two grown adults is not recommended for a bunk bed (The bolt that the bed rested on when in "bed position" was bent. The bed could be be flipped up to create a garage area.)

Just before a weekend trip to Disneyland, Hubbs had done something to the tanks and water heater. We arrived at the campground to discover that the water heater hatch wasn't locked and it blew off during the 79.8 mile trip. We felt like the Clampits all weekend. When I hooked up and turned on the water, I saw water pooling under the camper. Hubbs forgot to put the quick drain plug back in that was underneath the camper, so we also discovered Anaheim Home Depot that weekend. Lesson: 1) always do a walk-around before leaving to ensure all doors and hatched are properly secured, and 2) put the drain plug back in and carry extra just-in-case.

This brings us to 2018. Hubbs had just gotten orders back to the east coast (grumble). Apparently a cross-country move automatically means this family buys a new camper. We are now the proud owners of a 2018 Lance 2375. Our trek across the country took us to the southern states this time. When we were toodling through Texas on a two-lane highway that was being repaved with asphalt on one side, a rock hit the front of the camper and spidered the outer glass pane of the front window. Lesson: avoid Texas.

This same trip, we had just unhitched in Hot Springs, AK. I put the dogs in the camper and shut the door, when Lance II suddenly slammed down on the tongue jack. The old chocks had slipped and the camper rolled backwards just a bit. The dogs were not amused. Thankfully, there was no damage. Lesson: sun exposure will eventually compromise the integrity of plastic. Buy good chocks.
 
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Bozley in typical military jargon sounds like everything is SNAFU. Thank heavens they haven't reached FUBAR status , yet.
Thank you and your husband for your service
 

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