What….really?

[sheridany]

A coach owner shared this picture with me when he opened his engine bay recently. He quickly closed the door. Another owner told me what happened when he started his engine without checking the bay first. Not good. I am checking my engine bay everytime from now on.

 

[GypsyR]

Mine is a gasser and has the big access hatch up front. So one day I went to remove it for whatever I was doing and as I put my hand under the edge to lift it off something struck the back of my hand. I'd like to say I did a backflip but it wasn't anything like that graceful. Inspecting my hand all I saw were two REALLY minor scratches. So I had to know what the heck and took a more cautious approach. I then found a curled up black snake on my driver's side exhaust manifold area. I got a stick and annoyed it enough to move out of sight but not drop out. I eventually crossed my fingers and fired up the engine. After a few minutes it dropped out and I let it go elsewhere. Here it is under my front bumper. About a three footer.

I don't like snakes but mice tend to get in my shop and chew things up so I figure a black snake to be the lesser of two evils. Though they can and do startle the heck out of me they don't cause me any more issue. We live in a somewhat rural area and various creatures passing through are a given.
Slammed the door on my coach the other day and a cat I've never seen before dropped out of the radiator area and scuttled away. Whatever next?

 

[Neal]

Okay, someone has to have a BEAR story...

 

[Neemer]

Okay, someone has to have a BEAR story...

I have one. We were at a VA state park nearly ten years ago and in the middle of the night I heard a heckuva racket at one of the other campsites. Horns honking, pans being clanged together. I was so disturbed I went back to sleep.

The next morning the rumor mill told me a bear had been nosing around. I looked at my stuff and found a couple of paw prints on the side of my truck bed.

 

[Buly]

Meals on wheels for the bears

 

[Rich W.]

In a tree about 75 yards from camp, shot with a long lens because mama probably wasn't far away...

 

[Jim]

In a tree about 75 yards from camp, shot with a long lens because mama probably wasn't far away...

Nice shot, Rich!

 

[High Desert]

Okay - here's a bear story that happened to a very good friend of mine, some years ago. He had a travel trailer, and was in a county campground just outside of Markleeville, Ca. Due to the proximity of Nv, he and the wife decided to go get dinner and and do a bit of gambling while there. Upon returning to the CG, he noticed a crowd and saw lights shining towards his site. A brown bear, with a cub, had decided his rig was the meals on wheels that night. The sow had raised up, placed a foot on the entry door knob, and pulled the window out over the counter. She proceeded inside, and tore the refrigerator out of the wall and got it open.. The sow then proceeded to go in and out taking food out to the cub. In the meantime, the crowd just stood around watching and did nothing to try to make the bear go away. The bear pretty much ate, or took every bit of food out of the trailer. Needless to say, it was a mess, the door was practically falling off, the window tore up and gone, and the rig stunk to high heaven. I guess the lesson here is not to expect your neighbor to drive off a bar tearing up your rig.

 

[Scooterfan]

No bear story but last summer a bird discovered my engine bay was the perfect place to build a nest. The evidence was the unused rubble on the ground beneath the engine cover. I opened it up and a full blown nest was tucked in tight ready for eggs. Sadly I had to destroy it taking it out. The bird and I played this game for three more weeks before another location was found. But yeah, I've heard of raccoons, possums, cats, etc...taking up residence in the nooks and crannies of engine bays. I don't always look before hand (I should), but now I look at the ground below the bay.

 

[RangeMaggotBob]

Mostly bird's nests in the spring gets in our RV. But I remember on another forum, the question was asked, "What would you do if you found a snake in your RV?". One guy said, "I'd burn it to the ground!". I still laugh every day when I think about that.