What is your favorite 'oops' story?

[StagrLee]

Originally Posted by StagrLee

1st day of owning a brand new Eddie Bauer (yesterday)...
Forgot the kids lowered the basketball hoop in the driveway.
Now I'm in the debate on fixing it with an insurance claim ($1K deductible) or leaving it as a constant reminder...

I was doing lots of maintenance on my EB and decided to see if the dent would pop out. It did quite easily with hand pressure. No leaks. All the insulation behind the dent it was dry.

If you take the corner panels out of the cabinet, I found that there is no inner sheet metal, just some glued on insulation.

[kswelsh]

We had unhooked the AS and headed into town for a quick meal and noticed a car of young boys following us and followed us into the parking lot of the restaurant. I was a little nervous and wondered what the heck they were doing. Well, the young man rolled down his window and notified us that we had left the hitch pin on the bumper. Those wonderful young people followed us about 5 miles to let us know. Boy were we grateful!

[Jim Flower]

I was wandering around the vacant prairies in the middle of nowhere on a dry gravel, extremely dusty road, when I suddenly came upon a t intersection. Since I lost the desire to continue to seek the horizon in front of me, a turn was in order but I had slightly overshot the intersection. No problem, just back up a little bit and make the turn. So I backed up and smashed into a beat up Acadian (car not the nice folks from Cape Breton) that had been following so close that they were not visible in my mirrors. And it had nothing to do with the excessive dust. They were just that close. 75 bucks to fix my bumper. Zero to fix the beat up Acadian. Now I never ever back up without my spotter. But I have not been able to figure out why anybody would purposely follow a massive cloud of dust for miles on the sweltering prairie. Perhaps they were just in awe of the beautiful Airstream. Jim


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[cwf]

Had the AS in it's spot, all leveled...tongue jack on a cast aluminum tongue stand....raised the tongue off the hitch as wife pulls ahead, the AS tongue jack slide off the plastic LEGO blocks...the aluminum jack stand crumbles... the AS continues forward as wife stops truck so that AS doesn't hit the truck.. tongue buries in to gravel and halts.. having a good, strong, tongue jack is very important.. Having better security of the wheels so thing's don't slide off the LEGO's.. priceless.

[HiHoAgRV]

We backed into a particularly sandy campsite and the curb side was just a bit low so I placed a short wooden block behind just the right rear tire and backed up onto it. Nice and level...
Another short piece went under the tongue jack and when the hitch cleared the ball away went the trailer . Luckily the chains stopped it before the Florida vegetation engulfed the Airstream.
Tight chains, tongue slipped off the wood and sank 1/2 way to China, the leveling block jammed between the two tires and the truck is stuck in the sand.
Oh, yes the front of the truck is blocking the campground road.

We haven't been back to that park in years

[rmkrum]

"I used to live in Chicago, I did but I don't no more"....😄😄😄😄


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[ROBERT CROSS]

This Thread Deserves More Stories>>>

Bob

[rlhendren]

I think I've done most of these at one point or another.

Most of my oops moments are due to 1. being in a hurry; 2. getting distracted; 3. trusting someone else's work.

My last one was when I bought the trailer, the seller helped me hitch it up. But when he plugged in the umbilical cord, he wrapped it around the tongue so that it wouldn't drag the ground. However, he didn't leave enough slack. So as I pulled out of the parking lot, the umbilical cord separated from the truck. It was not a good spot to stop and fix it, so I had to drive 2 miles to find another suitable place to pull off and reattach it.

So now, whenever anybody asks to help me set up/unhitch/hook up, I tell them "thank you, but please do NOT help me or talk to me. Go sit over there and watch or go take a walk, and I'll let you know when you can talk to me."

And after reading all these posts, I'm going to make sure that I always unhook the safety chains AFTER I lift the trailer off of the hitch ball, just in case I forgot to chock the wheels.

Great thread.

[martymcclain]

As a newbie Airstream owner, I appreciate everyone’s contribution. I really have learned a lot from this thread......

[rmkrum]

" Learn from the mistakes of others, you won't live long enough to make them all yourself..."--Alfred E. Neuman (Mad Magazine)

[alano]

I've had at least three oops moments...

1. Once, we didn't properly shut the bathroom door in our Classic. After banging around during a journey, the door damaged the pull-out pantry rack facade.

2. On our very first journey, we closed the fridge and freezer door and headed off. At the next stop all our groceries were strewn about and we were left with a nice dent in the fridge door. Now I know to listen for the click!

3. We unhitched from our ProPride and laid the lynchpins on the bumper of my truck. Well, after driving off the pins were nowhere to be found. Luckily we stopped by Lowes and were able to purchase a new set of pins. Whoa.

More to come later

[Utah Man]

My favorite ‘oops’ stories are any that do not involve me....

Regards - Ron

[NCMEDIC]

Well, there was the time I backed a RENTED Class A diesel pusher into my house............

[HiHoAgRV]

My favorite 'oops' stories all happened at just below my deductible.

[Burnside Bob]

Leaving roof vents open and lounge big window unlatched. Wind storm came up with gusts to 58 mph recorded at closest weather station. OOOPS!! Big window flapped in the breeze until it shattered. Consolation: local Airstream dealer carries the window glass stock 'cause breaking that window happens all the time'. Biggest PITA--picking all the little glass fragments out of the gravel drive.

Forgetting that I raised the trailer tongue to make hitch spring bar installation easy. Asked wife to pull ahead so I could remove the pinched wheel chocks. OOOPS!! Was able to make it home by removing the jack bolts--jack wouldn't clear hole but could be lifted high enough that foot cleared the ground. Yeah duct tape.

Walking into open windows. Tied plastic flagging on windows to provide visual when windows open. OOOOPS, flapping flagging can scuff clear coat after a long day at freeway speed. Curse you big billed baseball cap!

Bending awning arm. Why is this sucker so hard to extend? Whap, Whap, Whap with rubber mallet while lifting as hard as I can. Why is this sucker so hard to retract?? Whap, Whap, Whap with rubber mallet while trying to push arm into sleeve. OOOOOPS!! Compound bend in both awning tubing and rod--had to disassemble awning to remove arm assembly and straighten parts.

Leaving on 3500 mile trip Monday. May have new OOOOPS stories to tell!!

[Doodad]

After leaving the smiling dealer's lot on the first night's stop of the shake-down cruise with the brand new shiny object I unhitched the Pro Pride thingamajiggy from the whatchamacallit and pulled away for a clean separation. But omitted the part about lowering the jack stand first. One phone call and a floor jack later all was good.

[Mattirs]

I will let the pictures tell most of the story.

[Mattirs]

Got the pictures to attach.

After backing the trailer into the driveway, it was decided we need to move it over a few inches. After attempting a couple of times, I removed the handrail on the porch because we had gotten too close to it. Next thing I know the trailer is hanging over the porch. Wish I could say that this was the first time I had backed the trailer down the driveway, but I had done so successfully almost a dozen times before.
Just lost my concentration and had a bad day.
Finally called a tow truck, before anything was damaged.

Matti

[kendrick.l.j]

Just a thank you, no oops to tell.
Thank you all for sharing your oops moments. I bought my TT not too long ago and have much to learn. Reading your stories made me realize that I will probably make more than a few of my own, as long as nobody gets hurt, it’s cool. A lot of these shared moments really made me laugh, hopefully, I will be able to avoid some by learning for your.