First camping trip bloopers...

[aznighthiker]

[p]Not to many oops, I grew up camping with my older brother Gus. Those of you who may have noted my postings on the other site may have noted the oops and may have learned from them as I did. Though we have had a couple, but I will allow the Camp Commander (the wife) to take part of the blame. [/p][p]
[/p][p]Camping with our camper that actually should be my fault was a camping trip east of Payson. Due to our work schedules I usually leave a day or two early and set up camp and then joined by the Camp Commander. On this trip the weather was perfect, we had the same days off and I can image the tides were perfect some place on the planet. We stopped at a grocery store in Payson. While shopping I wandered off fetch a few items, paid for them and left the store. Driving off I stopped at a gas station in Star Valley and topped off the gas tank and got a soda. Starting to drive off I noted something was missing, left the Camp Commander back at the grocery store in Payson ! Drove back to the store, parked in the same spot and found the wife in the produce section selecting peaches. [/p][p]
[/p][p]While on a tent camping trip and staying at Kartchner Caverns State Park during the winter. The overnight lows were in the teens and since a Wal-Mart had just opened in Benson we stopped by and purchased a small electric heater and an extension cord. The heater was set up on an aluminum table and we had it running during the night. The next morning we thought the overnight low was in the single digit as it was cold. That's when we realized we had the heater set on fan only and not heat.[/p][p]
[/p][p]The next oops which actually was quite recent and though a solo trip the Camp Commander will share blame as she suggested it. Bicycle camping trip on the mtn. bike from our home in Payson. Rode out the 15 miles on pavement and dirt road to set up camp at Washington Park. Set up camp and loafing about when I noted the sign, the sign prohibited camping. The forest service had posted the area a couple of days earlier after changing it policy on camping. Had to strike camp and relocate camp three miles away. [/p]

[leslie]

I had forgotten this story. It happened in late 1960s when we were young marrieds. Now you can figure out how old we are...

We purchased a new van to use for tent camping. It had huge side view mirrors both sides. Driving it home from the dealer, some of our neighbors were outside watching us come home. DH was driving. Made a sharp right turn into our driveway. The mailbox setup was 4 mailboxes on one post, so 4 neighbors shared the one post. Can't you just guess what happened? All 4 mailboxes swiped off that post by the side view mirror.

We can laugh about this today. Well, I can laugh about this today. Fasteddie, you aaren't even close to this with just scratching your camper decals.

[runningwriter]

Good stuff, kids.  Good stuff..  Now I don't feel so all alone.

[pinstriper]

Double-blooper yesterday in the driveway.

Mrs. Pin was playing house in the trailer, getting ready for a trip, cleaning, puttering.

I went out in the evening to check windows and such, for some reason felt the microwave door was warm. The clock was still at 0:00. Opened the window and there's a nice pock mark in the glass, and a delightful spiderweb of cracked glass.

Went back inside. "Baby, when you were in the trailer today, did you try to set the clock on the microwave ?" "Yes, I did. Around 3:30"

She thought she was setting the clock on the micro, but actually turned on the oven, running it for 3+ hours. With the metal in contact with the glass. Unbeknownst to anyone, the metal rack in the microwave was sitting off-kilter, and even more oddly, the rubber thingie was off one of the tips. That tip was in contact with the glass door.

Gonna call I a few to see how quickly this can be repaired or replaced before the weekend. Clearly on us.

1. Don't store the rack in the microwave.
2. RTFM

[chuck893]

[quote source="/post/2824/thread" timestamp="1408629545" author="@dave"]Good stuff, kids.  Good stuff..  Now I don't feel so all alone.[/quote]So you don't feel so lonesome, Dave, I'll go again (I've got even more stories but I don't wanna be a hog).

2010, first season out with Rose the 2010 QS 8.1, we were in a Montana state park, beautiful park, paved sites with lovely views of a lake. We'd gotten into the habit of taking full advantage of the big picture window by turning the little camper sideways at the back of any view site we were in, which had not been a problem up 'til now. My wife was off paying for the site while I busied myself taking the tiny trailer off the hitch and setting up. I'd also gotten into the habit, especially in paved sites, of just pushing it where I wanted it, but as I started to turn the trailer sideways I suddenly became painfully aware that this perfect paved site had a slight camber---a low bulge in the center---for drainage. Uh, oh. Normally docile Rose suddenly lunged for the edge of the pavement, me trying desperately to control 1,000+ pounds of freewheeling camper headed straight for a tree! Fortunately she did no damage either to herself or the tree, but now I discovered that I could not get her back onto the pavement by myself. Other campers (of course) immediately rushed over to help. I think my face was as red as Rosie's hide! Nowadays the first things that come out are the wheel chocks. 

[lora]

Our first trip with our QS10 was to Acadia NP in Maine.  Our site was uphill from the road.  Too nervous to try backing in, I pulled in straight and moved the camper out of the way (fortunately I used wheel chocks!) and then drove van back down.

I then decided to put our camper perpendicular in the site so the door faced down to the road since we would be coming and going that way a lot.  I used my BAL leveler to raise the downhill side a good 3 or 4 inches, ran through the setup with no problems.  Hopped in and all was great.  Then my wife came over and pointed at the step...which was now about a foot off the ground.  "Do we have a step to get to the step?"

We ended up leaving it, but it made entering a bit of a climb.  I'm 6'3" so I hadn't noticed.

We also had trouble with bouncing.  I think the BAL allowed enough play that the a stabilizer jack got loose a couple times.  Looking forward to our next trip to try again.

[walt3]

When I was 6 or 7 begged my Dad to camp outside (wont say the back yard we live in the country) Dad finally gives in. We set up a 8 person old school tent set up the sleeping bags on the ground. After dark. Started to rain when we went to sleep. Woke up about 4 hours later when the water had soaked into our sleeping bags. Didn't realize we had put our tent in a slightly low spot.

[livinthegoodlife]

We had gone camping with another family in our tenting days.  My husband noticed his friend undressing in front of one of the screen windows.  He said hey what are you doing? Everyone can see you!  The friend was very embarrassed.  He thought that the 'no see um netting' on the windows was so nobody could see him inside the tent!

[runningwriter]

[quote source="/post/2825/thread" timestamp="1408630081" author="@pinstriper"]

I went out in the evening to check windows and such, for some reason felt the microwave door was warm. The clock was still at 0:00. Opened the window and there's a nice pock mark in the glass, and a delightful spiderweb of cracked glass.


[/quote]Wow, that could have ended much worse.  

[runningwriter]

Okay.  One more.

Again, on our first ever camping trip, we were having a good time socializing with a younger couple that we had met earlier in the day.  As we all sat around their fire that evening, we hear noise twenty feet from us.  It's raccoons rummaging through their stuff.  While the husband rises to try and chase them out, the kids say, "ya, and we just heard them messing with that camp site over there."  (Pointing to ours).

Coons cleaned our cooler out.  Lost drinks and fruit.  

We learned a lot in our first two weekend trips.

[chuck893]

[quote source="/post/2844/thread" timestamp="1408679564" author="@livinthegoodlife"]We had gone camping with another family in our tenting days.  My husband noticed his friend undressing in front of one of the screen windows.  He said hey what are you doing? Everyone can see you!  The friend was very embarrassed.  He thought that the 'no see um netting' on the windows was so nobody could see him inside the tent![/quote]I love that story! 

So one more: In our earliest tenting days I figured being comfortable meant carrying everything, maybe including the kitchen sink (which at the time was a pair of Rubbermaid dishpans). We had a little Nissan wagon with our young son in his car seat in the middle of the back seat, completely surrounded with gear and duffel bags. There were three bicycles hanging off the rack on the rear of the car, and a bunch more gear tarped on top. We stopped for gas, in a day when attendants came out and pumped it for you in all states, not just Oregon and NJ. The attendant took a wry look at our sagging-on-the-springs Nissan, and said: "Are you folks campin'? Or movin'?!"

I have spent the last 30 years trying to live that down.  (rofl)

[admin]

On a recent trip with our 10.0 I thought I had most of the basic setup figured out from the yard camping and a couple of short local trips so I didnt put much time into the pre-trip prep. I knew we were going to a state park with no water or electric hook ups but I wanted a few luxuries such like the AC unit to remove some of the near 100% humidity in the afternoon. So I decided to pack my small generator thinking to myself, there is no need to test it. I had already tested it earlier in the year and it seemed to run the AC unit with no problem when plugged into a direct extension cord. Well apparently in the heat of the summer it decided it was no longer going to work. The AC just kept tripping the overload on the generator so I switched to plan B. I figured I wold just run a couple of fans and run the generator to recharge the battery if needed. I plugged in the two 12v fan/light combos that seems to come with all campers these days only to find out that one of the fans no longer wants to run. It started to turn, but acted as if it was low on power. The other fan ran strong so I knew it couldnt be the battery. So now I'm stuck with no AC and only one of two fans. On to plan C, I figure I'll just keep the windows open and allow a decent cross wind. Its at this point mother nature must have be rolling on the floor laughing at me because the sky opened up and it started raining cats and dogs. Now I'm down to no AC, 1 fan, a single battery that needs to last at least 10 hours, and I cant even put down the windows for ventilation.

We ended up with 4 adults, 1 toddler, and a 70 pound dog in our 10.0 most of the evening and all night with the windows up in 100% humidity and the tail end of 95 degree temps. From now on I will setup and double check everything prior to our trip.

I have plenty of other stories but luckily most are from when I was an outdoor adventure guide. I got to witness plenty of first timers and their ideas of whats needed to go camping.

-Sean

[tinkeringtechie]

We had a few with our previous trailer (RPod 171). The first trip we didn't have a pin in the coupler (thanks dealer for not providing one or telling me that I needed one) and as we're pulling into a steep single lane road into the first loop the trailer pops off and skids to a stop on the retracted tongue jack. Luckily there was no damage to the tow vehicle or the trailer other than some scraping on the tongue jack. The trailer was light enough that I was able to lift the tongue by hand back onto the car. Blooper #2 was a few months later suddenly the toilet won't drain in the middle of a 4 day trip with no hookups. The black tank itself was practically empty. Turned out that we had the dreaded "poo pyramid" from dumping too early for the last few trips. Basically all the solids had formed a pile right below the toilet pipe and nothing else could get into the tank. With no snake in my toolkit I had to use a branch from the woods to loosen things up.

We had our first blooper with the camplite on our last trip. We're pulling out of the campground and I hear a bang followed by scraping and assumed I had hit a rock or something. Turned out that I forgot to put the L-pin into the WD bracket and the spring bar had slipped off and started dragging on the ground. Luckily the L-pin was sitting on the tongue still so I didn't need to go searching along my path. That was the first time I had to use their cheater lever to get the bar back up, but it worked easily and we were on our way in less than a minute with no damage (phew).

[leslie]

We got our brand new Camplite 21-BHS on Friday. In fact, we spent the whole day at the dealer while they worked on it. This is our first RV, and our first experience with towing. I have checklists to cover any situation, except for hitching and unhitching. So I asked the technician to take me through it, as I stood next to him with a paper pad and pen. I took meticulous notes. Thank goodness! Then I put it into a large bag I am using to hold owner's manuals, and other papers.

Just before we left the dealership, I walked around our rig just to make sure we were all set. I saw a sticky label, about 8 X 11 inches on the locking battery box, which I ripped off and stashed in my bag to look at later.

We stopped for the night at Wal-Mart, since we left the dealer too late to get into the state park campground. I pulled out the hitching and unhitching notes I had made, only to find that sticky label stuck to the page. Moan and groan.

I was able to resurrect my notes. I pulled off some of the sticky, putting pieces of my notes together like a jigsaw puzzle. Some places where I just could not remove the adhesive, I could make out what I had written by holding it up to the light. Bottom line, I have my checklists. Relief!

[leslie]

How many ways can one person mess up hitching up and unhitching? I think before I am finished, I will have been through every one of them.

I am learning to hitch up and unhitch the trailer all by myself. My husband was reading the checklist to me yesterday, and I was supposed to do all the work without his help. Well, somehow, I unlocked the coupler before removing the weight distribution bars. It took us an hour to complete unhitching - one hour of very hard work, I might add. Before it was over, my husband had a bruise on his shin from one very stubborn WDH bar.