What constitutes a Newbie? Someone who is
full timing less than one year? Two years? Five years? Meeting Cindi and Roger
last week who like us, are starting out with minimal RV’ing experience reminded
us of all the mistakes we made our first couple of years. Mistakes that most
everyone has probably made over the years but definitely learning experiences. Our
motto has always been to learn from our mistakes and never repeat them but more
importantly learn from the mistakes of others and never make them yourselves.
With almost three years under our belts now, we
have had our share some of which I have confessed to and others up to today
have kept to ourselves. Our first mistake and one that we continue see is that
you should not trust your GPS 100% of the time, there are times it is just
plain wrong. Within our first month on the road it led us down a gravel dead
end road in California that resulted in some serious scratches on our
brand new rig and our first melt down leaving one of us crying on the side of
the road. Then there was the time we were passing through Chicago when the GPS
guided us onto the express lane during rush hour. Not a place you want to be
with a 40’ rig going 60mph. There have been other examples of when the GPS has
tried to lead us astray but now our policy is….if it does not make sense,
double check. |
| Where to turn around...... |
Pulling into a new campground can be intense no
matter how long you have been on the road. Three things we have learned about
pulling into a campground….1) Never pull in hungry. The anxiety level of most
RV’ers is highest when pulling into a campground and finding a site. Barb and I
have a pretty good system for pulling into a site but it can be intense and
there is always a crowd who loves to watch the drama unfold should things go wrong.
Pulling in hungry just adds to the stress and shortens the fuse to a meltdown.
Now if it is even close to lunch or dinner we will pull over and eat before
entering the campground. 2) Never pull in after dark. For obvious reasons this
is not a good idea and we have never intentionally planned a trip where we pull
in after dark. If we are driving somewhere until dark we will usually plan the
nights stop for a Walmart or Cabela’s and plan a midmorning arrival to our
destination campground. 3) Just because you can does not mean you should. Even
when everything is going right you can get yourself into trouble. On more than
one occasion we have been assigned a campsite the office said would be no
problem to pull into. But maneuvering a 40’ rig within inches of a poorly placed rock or
low hanging branch has caused more than one intense moment. In the beginning I would be stubborn and say, “I
can get in there” and in each case we made it in. But just because you can does
not mean you should….. we will now go back to the office and ask for a
different site if we find it too tight.
 |
| This is what happens when you try to squeeze in tight spots |
Some of our most disgusting incidents involved
emptying the black tank. Being newbies we had never used a blueboy before. Did
you know you have to open the vent before you take the cap off the hose when
emptying the blueboy? Well, if you don’t, the resulting pressure creates a
fountain of poo when you take the cap off and let me tell you, a fountain of
poo is no good.
Did you know that when you are filling the
blueboy you have to watch it carefully and shut off the valve on the RV when
the blueboy is close to full? Do you know what happens when you don’t? Your
blueboy is full, the hose is full, the pipe on the rig is full with no place
for it to go….result, more poo everywhere. No happy hours at our rig that week!
But by far the most disgusting incident involves
the first time we used a macerator pump. There are three hose connections; an in,
an out and one I later learned was the fresh water rinse. Let me tell you, if
you hook them up wrong…..let’s just say you don’t want to ever do that because
the result is…..you guessed it, a poo shower followed by undressing outside your rig
and throwing all your clothes, shoes included right into the nearest dumpster
(after showering (twice) and getting dressed).
Our scariest incident occurred as we were
driving west for the first time. We were just outside of Laramie Wyoming when we drove into a snowstorm that progressively got worse. To the point where we were in whiteout conditions and the rear end was slipping going up the Happy Jack Pass. Never again will we drive into a snowstorm again! |
| Never again! |
On one occasion our fridge stopped working. No
problem we bought this really fancy extended warranty that covers “everything”
so we make an appointment at an authorized dealer to get it fixed. Several
hours later it was fixed and we were presented with a $90 invoice for a fuse.
Needless to say the extended warranty does not cover blown fuses. To be fair, I
did check the fuses in the rig but did not know there was an inline fuse behind
a panel on the fridge. Lesson learned.
One mistake that was narrowly missed but for the
grace of Barb. We were at our daughter’s house and getting ready to leave. I
got the rig ready to roll and told Barb she was good to go and I was going to
take the jeep to the storage area where she was going to pick me up. ½ way
there I realized that I did not put the dish down. Our 13’ clearance now became
something closer to 17”. With no phone and no way to contact her I am panicking
as I am passing under bridges that would clearly rip the roof wide open on our
rig. I turn around somehow trying to think of how I was going to stop her. When
I finally did see her coming down the road the dish was down! She said she saw
it at the last second as she was getting into the truck. Whew!
These are just a few examples of mistakes we
have made and in comparison to others we have seen or heard about they are
minor in comparison. We have had friends forget to put in their awning and
drive away or leaving the awning out in high wind both resulting in the awning
being torn off. We know someone who ripped the roof off their rig due to low
clearance and two people whose 5th wheels drop on their beds of
their truck due to not being securely fastened and of course the dreaded
putting gas into a diesel truck. I now touch the word diesel on the pump twice
before starting the pump.
Looking back, most of these happened within our first year on the road. Does that mean we are getting older and wiser or just lucky?
Our two mistakes so far have been;1) when we let ourselves get distracted while hitching up and the 5th wheel dropped on the truck rails. Fortuantely no harm to the 5th wheel, the truck tailgate still shows its battle scar from that day. 2) when we hooked up the first time with our current 5th wheel and we didn't take into account the nose might sit further forward and we cracked the fiberglass on the front nose. Thankfully a year later we were at the manufacture and they repaired it and didn't charge us which was a pleasant surprise.
ReplyDeleteSince we don't boondock we usually travel with reservations, I do extensive research on our route using, truckers atlas, google earth and Microsoft Trips and Streets. We got into a horrendous hail storm in AZ near Winslow once, pulled off to the side of the interstate till it was done then drove the final three miles to our destination.
We try to learn from our mistakes so we hopefully don't repeat them.
I have heard of dropping the trailer on the truck on more than one occasion, that one happens a lot! Luckily that has not happened to us and is one that we will learn from others.
DeleteThank you for sharing your unfortunate situations. We have had nothing that serious happen to us yet, (knock on wood). Your poo showers are funny. It happened to us twice that our sewer hose was bad. Once it separated from from the factory connection and once it was just dry rotted that it sprung a leak. So it was more like poo puddles.
ReplyDeletePuddle of poo is much better than a fountain of poo. Luckily we have not had any witnesses to our sewer mistakes!
DeleteYup poo showers are so nice!!!! Not!! Ray and I have been fortunate that what you have described has not happened to us in the 30 years RVing, but I did drive down the road towing our blue boy to the sani-dump and was driving our truck too fast around a corner after hitting a bump and the whole blue boy tipped over. I was leaving a whole trail behind me .... didn't find out until I drove a block to the dump. Of course it was the "black load". Took me an hour to sanitize the road with bleach so our neighbours would not complain! We did however have some friends who got their sewer plugged in their camper while visiting Alaska. He decided to poke it with a stick and ended up covered in poo. His wife made him throw his clothes out right in the middle of the road and he had to jump into the freezing lake to clean up. No shower in sight! The saying "Shit Happens" certainly means more the the RV community!
ReplyDeleteWe saw a guy lose his blue boy load on the road here in Q last year. That would certainly suck. As for unclogging the sewer with a stick I will have to remember not to do that!
DeleteVery enjoyable post. We are about two years out from full time. We have however owned a fifth wheel for about fifteen years. We have made some of your same mistakes. Lessons learned the hard way.
ReplyDeleteSome of those doing once is enough to teach you never to do it again!
DeleteI too had the poo everywhere. I had the macerator pump all hooked up, pulled the black tank handle then noticed the sewer hose was twisted. As I tried to untwist it the sewer hose connector disconnected. My shoes and sunglasses got the worst of it so ended up in the dumpster!
ReplyDeleteYour first line sounds like it could be a line out of a Dr. Seuss book! Those macerator pumps can be tricky!
DeleteI guess we're some of the lucky ones without a major poo incident, a couple of small spills at a dump station when the sewar hose didn't connect right doesn't come close to your adventures!!
ReplyDeleteOur biggest "oops" our first year was trying to unhitch in an RV park where they had just applied very thick gravel to the sites. We had to park precisely between a Palm tree and the power post so we could put out all our slides and open the basement compartments. During the unhitching process the blocks under our landing gear slid in the gravel and we ended up with slight dents in the truck rails and a bit more damage to the small tool box in the bed of the truck. And it was a pull thru spot, should have been easy, right??? LOL.
Ouch! We have seen some pull thrus that were anything but easy to maneuver into.
DeleteMy first poo mistake was not having a foot on the elbow attached to the dump station pipe. I pulled the valve and the black water rushed down the pipe, causing it to flex and the elbow to pop out. I called it a poo geyser. As for hitching up, getting interrupted is a pain. I use a preflight checklist, which is especially important for our jeep "toad". A number of items have to be 100% right, or an expensive repair will be necessary.
ReplyDeleteI have been reading your blog now for a couple years. I really enjoyed your trip to AK. Thanks.
Thanks for following our adventures! We don't have a toad so we don't have those additional stress points, we have enough thank you!
DeleteGot a good chuckle out of that post, thanks. Not fulltime yet but have made some errors that are similar. The nasty little narrow gravel road rings a bell for sure with less than a thousand miles under our belt with the long rig. Knock wood on the sewer hose connection so far!!!
ReplyDeleteTrust me, it will happen...when you least expect it, be prepared!
DeleteWhat?!? No poo pictures?
ReplyDeleteIt's all true and anyone who says they've not experienced a similar incident is lying. Living the experience is awful but retelling it is funny.
No, I thought I would spare everyone the poo pictures. We sure have made our share of mistakes but I have never swallowed a crown!
DeleteLots of good information. Never used a blueboy. Now, I'm afraid to try.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing.
They are handy as we don't have to hook up the rig but there are certainly down sides as well!
DeleteThis is very interesting as you and Barb make it look so effortless! ;) But we're right there with ya as it seems we have a few new learning opportunities every year. Your post hear brings back some interesting memories for us too. At this point I feel part of the issues we create are strictly due to having a bit to much confidence, as our experience level has increased we push the envelope a bit to much, but boy when things go wrong it sure humbles you very quickly...and usually leads to WTF were we thinking! (notice I said "we", cuz when things go wrong it's never my fault! LOL)
ReplyDeleteThat is where we are at now. Barb has her jobs I have mine. She does all the inside stuff and I am responsible for the outside.
DeleteThank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteWhen we first made some of these mistakes we did not tell a soul but we later learned that many make the same mistake which made it easier to share.
DeleteGreat post. I love learning from others mistakes. I have to agree with SteveMc. At this point (over 3 years FT) our biggest problem is over confidence. I got a recent reminder when I did an unconventional overnight stay and did not disconnect. We were parked in sand and the trailer settled overnight. The next morning I was trying to level the trailer with the landing jacks on the front, but forgot to raise the stabilizers on the back. I just couldn't understand why the bubble would not move. I was lucky and did not bend the rear stabilizers. Wake up call! Idiot!
ReplyDeleteWe all need reminders once in a while, the good ones are when we just feel like idiots and don't damage anything.
DeleteBeing distracted when getting ready to hit the road has caused us not to double check that the hitch was locked and dropped our older fifth on out truck. Now if we are distracted we restart the process until we are sure we are secure.
ReplyDeleteGoing to a campground that has ten foot wide lanes with large rocks on each side of the sites is fun. We've left a few of those. The parks with low hanging branches that rip your rubber roof. The park says you are the first to complain or you did it somewhere else. Looking around the Campground and everyone has a rip in their roof they claim was caused by the same branch you hooked.
We've been spared the Poo Showers but did some fast moves to prevent a spill when we saw brown water bubbles coming from a hose.
Using the Blue Boy I do in small amounts with a clear Elbow and twist-on Gate-Valve for added security.
Be Safe and Enjoy!
It's about time.
Now with your new rig, you will have to be even more careful!
DeleteGreat info ,makes me afraid to try a Blueboy !
ReplyDeleteYes, you and I both touch the word 'Diesel' as a result of our mutual friend's misfortune. As you know having the Jeep (and us having the Escape), you also have to look and see which vehicle you are in at the pump!
ReplyDeleteHere is an addition to the dumping list, Jim: a neighbor of ours in Michigan started his black tank cleanout just before they were to leave for the day to go shopping. He shut the black valve, then got distracted and forgot he had the hose running. His poop fountain was out the roof vent and through the flap valve in the toilet, which flooded the rig while they were gone. $14,000 damage to the fifth wheel. I often wonder if he ever got rid of the smell...
That sounds like a horrible disaster! How would you ever get all the smell out?
DeleteI agree with Steve. We get a little too over confident at times deciding on if we can fit "down that road" or "into that spot". After all the boondocking in Colorado, we make it a point to scout it out first if at all possible or just don't take the chance. When hitching up, Steve keeps one front leg down just enough so that if it came off the hitch, the leg would take the weight, not the truck. We also don't let the gas level get as low as we used to before fillups (we also carry extra gas and DEF). Otherwise, we must be pretty lucky!
ReplyDeleteWe occasionally carry extra DEF with us, right now we don't have any but we will probably get the extra container filled before we hit the road to head north again. You never know when you are going to need it!
DeleteOh the joys of driving around your house:) Our very first trip out for the weekend to try out everything in the MH at our local state park left us with a long dig down through three bay doors!! John pulled out of our storage place and didn't realize how much swing the back end needed. Well, that back half meet a large boulder on the corner. I was following in the car and met him in tears at the park. Luckily, a couple weeks later the MH was getting winterized and the place where we had it done thought they scratched it because their place is so tight. They repaired and painted it!! We didn't bother to say anything because while our MH was there someone stole our main TV!!! They stole TVs out of 37 units. Of course, we had to pay for the replacement TV. So we didn't feel too badly about them fixing the scratch:)
ReplyDeleteSince then we (I) am a nervous wreck when moving, even after six and half years. John is very concerned about traveling with 40' plus towing. We started with an oversized tow dolly for our motorcycle and car. Making a wrong turn was not something we could afford to do. So John always drove (still does) our routes using Google Street View. We've never used a GPS. He prints the directions and occasionally I use Google maps on the phone. He knows our route and landmarks really well. I am really concerned about getting in and out of parks so John researches well and we plan how to leave the night before so I can sleep:) Fun times!
We think we did the same thing with the back end swing damaging the back corner of our rig. We are not sure when and how it happened but one day we looked up and the rain spout was gone and we had a gouge out of the corner....$3,500 later it was all fixed. Oh well, lesson learned!
DeleteLorraine recalls a route on a map differently than me. She points out some places and then says "that's where you got mad at me." Usually it is over a navigation error, we always seem to get lost in big cities. When that happens I call her "Fred" after Fred Noonan, Amelia Earharts navigator
ReplyDeleteNow that is funny!
DeleteI loved this post..and I think we are guilty of one or two of those ourselves 😉 I especially liked the one about not pulling into a campground hungry. Wow are you right about that one and we NEVER do that now after a couple of bad setups. I am sorry though Jim you were let on the side of the road crying. Bar should definitely be nicer to you. Miss you guys! 🙂
ReplyDelete