What’s the worst bone-headed mistake you’ve made before pulling out in your RV

[Rosy]

He said "The dealer said the only time I need to retract them is when putting it in storage" and he drove off with the slides open.

 

[Fish]

2 biggies.
1. Put the coach in gear to pull out with the jacks down. Thankfully, they auto-retract when that happens, but it still scared the crap out of me.
2. Thought my trailer hitch had the 2 5/16” ball on, but it was the 2”. Towed 300 miles like that.

Oh hell, I did that with my 16 ft box trailer. Had a brand new splendide 7100 in it I was hauling up to my fifth wheel to install when I was working at the refinery.
Made it about 120 miles and hit a bridge joint and heard a crash, looked back and my trailer was going all over the place, luckily the safety chains held.
Had to leave it on the side of the interstate and go up the road and buy a complete 2 5/16 assembly so now I have 2. Small scratch on my bumper that I covered with a decal and a dent in the top of my tailgate that I covered with an oversized tailgate protector. Combo splendide unit was ok, I was lucky.

 

[AbdRahim]

Nothing too bone headed that I can think of yet but I did learn to always close the cover on your city water connection, even if just moving from one site to another in the same campground, unless you like replacing strainers and o-rings.

?? Did I miss something? How is damage caused here?

 

[Rosy]

?? Did I miss something? How is damage caused here?

O ring fell out so I had water pissing out everywhere when I next hooked up the hose.

 

[Russellvh]

Knock on wood . Worse I’ve done, so far, is leave 7 pin and emergency stop cables hooked up when pulling away from 5er after pulling from hitch.

 

[sanda]

Left the campground with the Winegard Wing TV Antenna fully extended. Pulled into a close by gas station and heard a loud thump upon entering the pump area. My wife says "...what the %$##%$ was that ?" I replied "that was the sound of learning what NOT to do again!" Discovered there's a breakaway (shear) pin just for dummies like me so it was an easy fix. I now have a laminated checklist placard that adorns my dash when I sit down to turn the ignition key.

I hang a hat or bag on the inside handle so I will remember.

 

[Neemer]

I hang a hat or bag on the inside handle so I will remember.

I used to hang my keys on that handle.

 

[Russellvh]

Saw this one. Some “young person” was camping in a pop up. Decided she wanted to move to another spot. She hooked the pop up to the hitch on the Uhaul box truck she had arrived in. Drove over the grass and spots with the beds still extended. Got worse when she turned onto the road. The front bed got crushed and ply wood splinters went everywhere. Back bed fell down and she drug it several feet.
Don’t see her the next time I went for my walk. Not sure if she stayed or not.

 

[sanda]

I used to hang my keys on that handle.

That would be a fail safe way.

 

[Drblood41]

Yesterday I picked up my trailer and brought it home to get it ready for our next trip. I noticed the back up camera was not working. I got home and pulled out the manual, and came to the conclusion that the screen and the camera were not paired. By the way, it was 100 degrees here in Tucson, and very humid. So I tried to “pair” the screen and camera. This involves touching the screen and then running to the camera and climbing a ladder and pushing a button on the camera. This has to be done within 20 seconds. While I am in the middle of this, my wife is coming out and asking me questions, like,” Honey, did you put garbage in the recycle bin? “ etc. After about 10 unsuccessful attempts, and profuse sweating and cussing, I decided to call the dealer who installed the system. I was put on hold for service about 15 minutes, and then when I reached them, the lady said I had to put in a request for some help on line in order to get a call back. This was on a Friday.
She said it would take 3 business days to get a reply, and because of the weekend and Monday being holiday, they would not be able to reply by Thursday. I slammed the phone down and was ready to go buy a new unit. But then I searched the computer, and lo and behold. one other person had the same problem. He said you have to turn on your lights. Bingo! The manual did not mention turning on your lights.