I'm an idiot

[tvketchum]

Originally Posted by airdreamers

I will interject one thought here. One observation regarding hooking up your trailer to your tow vehicle. It seems that you are just in the middle of this important activity and someone comes along wanting to be nice and CHAT! Well let's table that Chat for later, shall we, you do know what I mean. One thing at a time!! Safe travels to all.

This is what will cause me to lose tract of where I am in the set up and pack up process. I hate to put off people, but there ought to be a written camp rule about let people finish setting/breaking camp before engaging in conversation.


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Tom
TVKetchum

[GoWhereTowed]

We are never too old to learn. Glad it turned out that no damage was done, other than that little spat with your honey. I have done some really dumb things in my life and felt like a total fool afterward.

[Protagonist]

Originally Posted by airdreamers

I will interject one thought here. One observation regarding hooking up your trailer to your tow vehicle. It seems that you are just in the middle of this important activity and someone comes along wanting to be nice and CHAT!

Unless they're motorhome owners who don't have a clue what it takes to hitch up a trailer, they should already know better. I think that maybe the best way to handle them is to ask them when they're going to be hooking up their trailers to leave, so that you can make a special trip to come back and interrupt them!

For the record, they're just as bad when they see me hitching up my toad, with the added attraction of the novelty of it. And yes, even though I'm a motorhome owner, I do know better than to interrupt someone hitching up their trailer, ever since that one time…

[Wayne&Sam]

When we are just stopping for the night and not unhitching, I frequently put down the hitch jack to level a bit or just to stabilize things. I always put a plastic bag over the transmission shifter as a reminder to put it up before I drive away. So far, so good. So far.

[andreasduess]

I put a levelling bock on the driver's seat, for the same reason.

In our first year, I unhitched, but couldn't get the Hensley to disconnect. It took me ten minutes of head scratching to figure out that I hadn't released the WD.

[Meeks]

A couple of weekends ago I dutifully went through my "in the trailer" and "outside the trailer" checklists which are comprised of fifty items. While this might seem extreme you might be surprised with how many things you check before leaving a campsite. I find the checklist very comforting. I've trailered both with a checklist and without one.

Anyway, I luckily was only moving the trailer a couple hundred yards from the campsite to a parking lot for the day. I noticed the campground hosts follow me into the empty parking lot I had gone into. Turns out they were letting me know I had left the X-Chock in between my tires! No damage done though I was reminded that even with a checklist one can make mistakes. I had checked this item off the list as done...that I had removed and stored the X-Chock! And I had done a walk-around before we had left, as well, and was not in a hurry. Stuff happens!

[whitegs]

I'll join the chorus replying to my own thread.

The first time I tried to disconnect my new trailer, I pulled off the Equalizer bars and then loosened the latch on the trailer and extended the trailer jack. As the jack went down the truck came up and I was convinced something was wrong with the latch and I even stood on the hitch trying to break it loose.

After several attempts I suddenly realized nothing was wrong. The reason the truck was coming up was that I was taking the weight off the back end and I just kept extending the jack until finally the trailer separated from the truck.

Richard

[McDave]

I wouldn't be surprised if we all didn't have similar experiences. I remember leaving a two day archery tournament where we were all parked or camped in a big field. To get the trailer hitched up, I have to raise the hitch jack on the trailer high enough to get the ball underneath. Then I have to lower it to seat the ball, and lock the ball. Then I have to mount the weight distribution bars on the hitch, and raise the hitch jack up again enough to get clearance to mount the bars on the trailer side. Then I am SUPPOSED to lower the hitch jack again until it is fully retracted, pick up my wood block and throw it in the back of the truck. Instead, I did everything else I was supposed to do, and headed off across the field toward the exit. It seemed a little more bumpy than it did coming in, and I briefly wondered about that. People were waving at me, and I waved back, thinking "See you all next time!" Finally someone ran up to my truck and yelled for me to stop. I looked back, and I had plowed about a hundred yards of field with my hitch jack! I walked back for my wood block, and the people camped next to me, who hadn't noticed the spectacle, commented, "I wonder how he remembered that?" Somehow, the hitch jack survived, and still works.


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[TG Twinkie]

I went to hitch up one day years ago. Cranked the tongue jack, as I did, I thought. "Man this is getting more difficult the higher I go".. Turns out I still had the stabilizers down which makes it real hard to lift the whole trailer with the tongue jack. Luckily I figured it out before I damaged something.
We all have our days.

[jcanavera]

Thankfully my reminder for the stabilizer jacks is the slide out. Slide out goes in, next step is stabilizers come up. Vice versa for the set up. Stabilizers down, slide out gets extended.

Now I do have my share of missteps but one of the things I've learned is the walk around before driving off, and finally one more as I pull the trailer clear of the campsite as I depart.

One of the biggest things I've learned is not to talk to someone in the process of setting up or taking down. I know when I've screwed up, it's that visit by a friend or neighbor who interrupts my routine. If it happens that someone comes to talk, I make countless revisits to look at things like drain outlet caps, drain hose storage caps, power cords, vent covers, water pump switches, bathroom vent fan cover, antenna, stove vent cover latches, thermostat switches (especially in the cold weather), and water heater switch, just to name the few that I've thankfully caught by those final walk arounds.

Jack

[martian]

whitegs - Welcome to the idiot club! I've got a lifetime membership as I've pulled some doozies, which I won't mention. You're more courageous than me. By the way, no one died so cheer up.

[Ultradog]

I'm sure idiots are welcome here.
If they weren't I wouldn't be allowed to post.

[airdreamers]

I don't think that this thread is about idiots as to talking about experience we all have doing what we do to have a good time Airstreaming etc. The checklist is great if you look at it and do it. Not to get sidetracked as said before is the key. One thing at a time. If any of the steps are missed hooking up your trailer, the results could be awful. Be courteous and save the conversation till work is done! Don't forget it takes two to tango!