What is your favorite 'oops' story?

[Mrs.Mod]

Originally Posted by Skater

That's hilarious. I wouldn't even think of having my wife move the truck since I'm the one unhooking, and getting the truck out of the way is part of unhooking. She's usually busy setting up other stuff anyway.

Skater,
Exactly my point. But I was trying to be as helpful as possible on our first outing. When we were finally relaxing by the fire, I reassured him that we would 'smooth out' the set-up process. Especially since our 3 year-old had the job of setting the landing gear.

[MrUKToad]

Apart from the ding on the first weekend, we've been reasonably Oops-free. I have tried to lower the trailer onto the ball with the stabilizers still in position (doh!) but my favourite was trying to pull off a campsite pad with the x-chocks still between the trailer wheels. In mitigation, it had been a steamy, wet night and we were just desperate to get back on the road so it was easy to see how we'd overlooked the chocks. No damage was done, thankfully, because there was so much mud gathered on the pad from the night's rain that the four locked wheels just slid across it. Also, Mrs T always watches from outside when we move off, in order to spot any such problems and stopped me before I'd gone more than a couple of feet.

[SilverRanger]

Originally Posted by MrUKToad

...I have tried to lower the trailer onto the ball with the stabilizers still in position (doh!) ...

I did the opposite. Tried to lift the hitch off the ball with the stabilizers down. I remain impressed at the lifting power of the jack, and the sturdiness of the rear stabilizers. Glad it was the Bambi.

Okay, full disclosure (So that others may learn from my mistakes ). Here is an excerpt from a post, and a link, about our maiden voyage to Florida:

"BLOWN FUSES
So... we were gassing up near Clermont, Fla. It was just starting to get dark so I turned on the headlights and the fuse that controls tail light/instrument cluster pops. I replaced it, and it immediately went out again. We found a campground in our AAA Campground book that was only about a quarter mile down the road. They assigned us a nice level pull through right in front of the park office. I set up and unhooked the cable and replaced the fuse. It held, indicating the problem was with the trailer. The site was so level that I left it hitched up. I would tackle the electrical problem the next morning.

FLOOD
We decided that since we were so close to a supermarket, and it was such a beautiful night, we would get some exercise by walking to get dinner. While we were in the store, there was a torrential downpour (Hey, after all, it was Florida). We decided to wait out the storm before we walked back. After about 30 minutes of waiting we borrowed an umbrella from the store and walked back to the park. When we arrived, imagine my surprise when I saw the Bambi with water lapping at the underbelly. Since it was still raining, I had a decision to make... yank off the water/sewage hoses and that 30 AMP cable, and risk electrocution, or watch the brand new Bambi submerge under water. It was an easy decision. Did I mention that it was dark, and I was in knee-deep water? After I carefully laid the end of the cable on top of the only stationary object that was not afloat or underwater, I got in the truck and moved the rig to higher ground. I estimate if we were five minutes later, the trailer would have started to take on water. After a careful inspection, I discovered that not a drop of water got in the Bambi. Our neighbor, who was on slightly lower ground, was not so lucky. His TV was submerged past the door panels. The next morning the campground refunded our money (their idea), and apologized. The attendant said she had been there for over eight years and had never seen anything like it."

http://www.airforums.com/forums/f42/...ses-18570.html

[masseyfarm]

Your a lucky man!

Originally Posted by MrUKToad

---- it had been a steamy, wet night and we were just ------- .

[Skatiero]

Great stories! So far our oops stories have mostly involved leaving things like ladders leaned against the side when we use the tongue jack: crash.

[Travel Bird]

Love all the stories!! And this thread goes back to 2003??? I wonder what the longest running thread is, anyone know?

[casa3805]

So sad when it happens to you and so funny to see it happens to others as well. I have also jacked up the trailer and disconnected the truck only to have the AS roll forward off the blocks I had under the jack. Skye was inside and can tell you it was pretty scary. Embarrassing but no real damage to anything other than the ego. Chocks happen first now. Always.

But as a newbie we had only had the trailer for about a month and went to a rally. Leaving the rally with all my new-found knowledge we came up on a little intersection, with a 4 way stop sign. Turn left and get halfway thru when the trailer brakes all lock up. We now have the entire intersection blocked. And let me tell you that trailer will not budge when the brakes are locked. We got out, and as cars began to back up at all sides, tried to figure out what was wrong. I am thinking worst case, catastrophic failure but could see no problems. Skye sees the brake controller cable had pulled loose and says sweetly, "Is this wire supposed to look like this honey?". Now we were new, I had no idea if it was a one time use thing or what, but I popped the cable back in and the entire rig, truck and trailer, lurched forward a few inches as pressure was released. I am running back wondering if I had even put it in park when it all settled down on its own. No one ever blew their horn or gave us a nasty look. I suppose it is hard to be mad when you are laughing so hard. At home we investigated and the cable had been shortened several times over the years and had caught on the TV rock guards as we turned. New much longer cable was installed before the next trip. Sheesh

[MrUKToad]

Originally Posted by masseyfarm

Your a lucky man!

Not with the kids on board.........

[Kittypuke]

Driving back from Wyoming pulling my camper traffic began to back up badly on a two lane road. Stop and go, getting aggravated I eventually came to a police officer waving me in the direction of the rest of the cars.....turning onto a narrow lane, beautifully manicured and flowers everywhere I realized I was now in a funeral procession. Ignoring the glares of the mourning I had to ask for help turning around in the graveyard. Horrible but I couldn't stop giggling as the police officer stood there shaking his head.....
It reminded me of a quote a friend once said:
"I want to die in my sleep like grandpa, not screaming like everyone else in the car."


"I want to live to 100, die in my sleep in my beach house in Hawaii, and my husband to be so upset he has to drop out of College"......Me

[JodyoD]

OMGOSH Kittypuke!!! This is so hillarious!!!! Thanks for that visual!!!

[jgerardi]

Originally Posted by Mrs.Mod

Skater,
Exactly my point. But I was trying to be as helpful as possible on our first outing. When we were finally relaxing by the fire, I reassured him that we would 'smooth out' the set-up process. Especially since our 3 year-old had the job of setting the landing gear.
Attachment 154414

It seems like ALL kids love putting down the stabilizers!

Joe from Clovis

[missyloopy]

Still in the restoring phase of the Airstream, but a lesson learned in our SOB has already reminded me to get an extra set of keys...

We are camping in our 19 ft SOB with our four children during super soaker weekend at Yogi Bear. I had reminded hubby hundreds of times that weekend to grab his keys (I have OCD)and he finally had enough and told me he wasn't stupid. We decided prior to super soaker time we would go to the pool so we dressed and headed out with the kids. Kids didn't want to miss the water gun fun so we headed back to the camper, when I noticed the hubby's face. All I got was "Don't even say it" I tried hard not to laugh all the way back to the camper while he fumed. The only way we can figure to get in is through the little outside access door and it is also locked. Hubby is able to break the lock in order to remove the door but no one fits through the hole, well except the three year old who is crying because it is dark in there. To make matters worse we are now fully into super soaker time and the rule is no fuddy duddies allowed. Don't want to get wet, stay in your camper. We are trying to talk the little one into crawling through the cave like Dora the Explorer while other children and grown men and our own children are hosing us down. The little one finally decides to go in if she has a flashlight so we tell her there in the drawer, in the camper. She says "OK Mommy" and heads through the dark hole and out the inside door under the couch to get a flashlight that she needed to crawl through the hole! Dad and I were pushing our way to the door getting doused all the while trying to get her to unlock the door. She says "Wait I gotta find the flashlight mommy!" since that day, an extra set of keys stay in the tow vehicle which has the touchpad lock on the door. Now to never forget the code!

[overlander64]

Friends who travel with me, particularly those who have been through multiple expeditions, like to remind me that Murphy of Murphy's Law fame is my near constant companion . . . . sometimes it is more of an "oops" other times there just is not a good explanation . . . . . A few examples . . . . .

• First major trip in 1995 with my '64 Overlander and 1995 Chevrolet K1500 Z71 Club Cab pickup . . . . towing Southbound out of Chicago on Interstate 57 on December 21 around Midnight just 30 minutes ahead of an approaching Winter Storm . . . . cruise set a 55 MPH . . . Cadillac DeVille kept passing with passengers waving . . . . after third pass, pulled off into rest area only to discover that the old A & E Travel Awn had come loose from its locks and awning material was making like a sail above the trailer.
• Finally made it home to my family farm in far Southern Illinois about 5:00 AM the next morning . . . . was awakened about 7:30 AM by a neighbor ringing the doorbell with a pair of the Overlander's wheel covers . . . . it seems that the trailer had thrown both wheel covers on the passenger side and both had landed in this neighbor's driveway . . . the neighbor happened to be an Airstreamer and recognized the wheel covers and began searching the neighborhood looking for an Airstream missing its wheelcovers. . . .
• I must admit that the Overlander was well trained as it always waited until it was within a mile or two of where it was to be parked for the night before it threw its wheel covers . . . . it became routine for the coach to randomly throw one (or more) of its wheel covers upon entering a campground . . . . wheel cover scavenger hunts became the norm until I made the switch to alloy wheels in 2009. The most hillarious was when between the campground registration desk and my assigned campsite . . . the Overlander threw two wheel covers and my Cadillac threw two wheel covers . . . all from the curbside . . . . . kind neighbors were walking to my site with Cadillac and Airstream wheel covers as I was backing the Overlander into its home for the night . . . .
• While traveling the back roads of Iowa with some Airstreaming friends, we were all running low on fuel so it was decided to refill at this Shell station that had RV friendly islands . . . . the Overlander was just beginning to cross the drainage dip at the entry when a loud crash eminated from the rear of the Cadillac . . . . the shear pin on one of the Reese Trunions had broken and the weight distribution bar had dropped to the ground causing the rear left corner of the Cadillac's frame to hit the concrete apron of the gas station as the bar fell out of the receiver . . . made for a nice traffic block as nothing could move until the weight distribution bar was reinstalled so that the Cadillac's frame could clear the concrete apron. . . . . an hour and 26.7 gallons of premium fuel later (the tank only holds 27 gallons), the Cadillac was ready to leave the gas station along with three other Airstreamers who were stuck behind my temperamental combination.
• Traveling through South Dakota always seems to call for strange attacks of Murphy's Law . . . . .
  • While caravanning to the WBCCI International Rally in Bismarck, ND; we were traveling along a comparatively quiet strech of secondary highway when good friends in the rig behind mine got on the CB and reported that something had just flown off the roof of my Overlander . . . or so it appearead . . . immediately slowed and began preparing to move to the shoulder . . . . just as we were pulling onto the shoulder, the word on the CB was that it wasn't something from the top of the trailer . . . rather, it was the spare tire and mounting from the rear of the trailer . . . it had departed from the coach whereupon the assembly bounced to the pavement immediately ahead of the Oldsmobile Cutlass that had been tailgating me for several miles . . . the entire assembly jumped over the little coupe bouncing back to the ground immediately behind its rear bumper at which time the entire assembly veered to the right and bounded off onto the shoulder where it was retrieved by friends who had first reported the unexpected departure . . . no harm was done to the spare, its wheel cover or the protective cover . . . nor was there any damage to the Oldsmobile that had been traveling within a few feet of the Overlander's rear bumper for many miles.
  • When caravanning home from that same International Rally, my friends were again traveling behind me on Interstate 90 when I had to get on the CB to report strange roughness in the ride of my tow vehicle . . . they were not experiencing the same rhythmic bumping that I was so we pulled to the shoulder where we discovered that the new electric tongue jack that I had installed prior to departing on this journey had developed a mind of its own and was extending until its foot contacted the pavement whereupon it would firmly bump and then begin retracting . . . . it was still doing this on the shoulder. Realized that the only sure cure was to cut its power cord . . . wasn't thinking and cut the cord when it was fully extended so had to use the little manual wrench to retract the jack post into travel position . . . . the Overlander remained mated to the Suburban until we reached Cedar Falls, Iowa three days later where the defective switch was replaced on the jack and the power cord was restored. . . . .
• The only incident that actually caused any lasting damage was in 1998 when I had pulled into my home location in far Southern Illinois . . . the entrance to my side yard is located at a "T" intersection of two county roads with a high crown in the center of the intersection . . . it had been raining for 36 hours so I knew that the entrance would have muddy spots, but the Suburban traversed the muddy entrance with no problem . . . the Overlander hit the crown and as it crossed onto the mud it slipped about 18" to the left and the gatepost left a nice dent from the streetside livingroom windows to the galley window . . . . required replacement of the large flat side panel.
• Returning from the above panel repair, that same high road crown decided to extract another toll . . . traffic was heavy and I had to traverse the entry more quickly than usual which resulted in rear bumper contact with the crown . . . . this contact completely severed the Thetford dump valve assembly from the blackwater tank . . . required replacement of the the blackwater tank and Thetford valve plumbing . . . . .
• One of the most recent incidendts was in 2008 while traveling to the WBCCI International Rally in Bozeman, Montanna. The tow vehicle was the Cadillac Eldorado Convertible and the coach was the Minuet. The Cadillac must have thought that it was in one of the popular childhood fairytales . . . . it proceeded to leave a trail of parts from Illinois to Montana . . . . the only critical part was the alternator that burned out near Arcola, Illinois on the first day out . . . . after the alternator, it was a series of inconsequential losses . . . three of the four plastic fender extensions disintegrated dropping small bits and pieces from Iowa all of the way to Bozeman. To this day, the Cadillac is traveling with only one of its plastic fender extensions present . . . the plan is to replace the plastic extensions with modern fiberglass reproductions . . . it is now a case of saving for the required pieces to replace the lost bits. . . . .
• Of course there have been the less obvious issues like geysers that errupted from the kitchen faucet when city water was connected prior to testing the system for leaks on the first trip out with the Overlander in 2002 . . . . blowing the pipes out with compressed air had removed all moisture except some in that faucet that had frozen and created an internal rupture in the faucet head allowing for the formation of the geyser . . .
• Then there was the faulty graywater collection system employed at the WBCCI International Rally in Dayton, OH where my coach was perched on the lee side of a slight rise . . . during the first afternoon, I returned to my Overlander only to discover gray water had backed up into my bathtub and was threatening to overflow . . . my immediate reaction was to rush outside and disconnect my coach from the graywater collection system . . . this caused the pool in my bathtub to drain resulting a flood that moved down the slight slope flooding the patio areas of the three Airstreams parked below mine . . . the solution that was employed after reporting the situation to Wally Byam Control was the installation of a water pump to pump the graywater up to the main disposal drain . . . . after that experience, using the blue totes for graywater didn't seem like such an inconvenience . . . .

While some of my friends have trouble sitting back and laughing at such occurrences, I have learned to accept them as part of the unexpected charms of RVing in a Vintage Airstream . . .

Kevin

[Mrs.Mod]

Well, we did it! We rode it till the wheels fell off.
Just 5 days ago, we were rolling north on Interstate 5 heading to Oregon for a 5 night stay. I hear a noise and suddenly see rubber fly in my side view mirror. Instantly, cars swirve and Mr. Mod (sleeping in the backseat) wakes up.
Ok, we got a flat tire, I think. No problem, we have a spare. I look, but, OH! The whole flippin' wheel is gone! Mr. Mod walks back down I-5 and is gone for about 30 minutes.
Unbelievabely, Mr. Mod finds the wheel about 300 yards off the road on the other side of a creek. It had to hop 2 fences (and so did Mr. Mod) to get there. The wheel was in great condition, fully inflated and a little muddy.
ALso, this all happened in front of a rest stop where we were able to back into to make the repair safely.
I dropped the trailer and had to drive about 6 miles back to get a set of lug nuts. (Les Schwab was great!) We chased the stud threads with a die and reinstalled the wheel.
I am still in disbelief that the wheel flew off at about 60 M.P.H. and we literally put it back on and kept going.
We're still on this trip today. We're sitting at the bottom of magnificent Mt. Shasta and watching snow fall on the Airstream. People are waking by and taking pictures with our AS.
Tomorrow, we head home to Fresno. Cheers to a great trip that almost didn't happen.

[desertair27]

All I can say is WOW! You guys are so lucky it didn't damage your trailer or worse a vehicle behind you. I think I'm going to go torque my lug nuts just to be sure there all good and tight.
Have a good trip and be safe!

[ROBERT CROSS]

Mrs.Mod

Glad all are safe. and no serious damage, inspect all the wheel studs
carefully, damaged threads...not good. I would replace them just to be sure.

Sweet Streams


Bob

[Skater]

Originally Posted by ROBERT CROSS

Mrs.Mod

Glad all are safe. and no serious damage, inspect all the wheel studs
carefully, damaged threads...not good. I would replace them just to be sure.

Me too - it's just a matter of replacing the brake drum, right? It's easy and not terribly expensive...far cheaper than having a wheel come off and do some damage.

But, I'm glad you survived that without any damage! I'm going to recheck ours before our upcoming trip (I'd planned to do it anyway...this was a good reminder though).

[dznf0g]

"oh, yeah, this trailer is 8' longer than my old one....I forgot..."

Need I say more?

[Mrs.Mod]

Originally Posted by desertair27

All I can say is WOW! You guys are so lucky it didn't damage your trailer or worse a vehicle behind you. I think I'm going to go torque my lug nuts just to be sure there all good and tight.
Have a good trip and be safe!

Yes, I think we are going to be 'over-checkers' from now on. The wheels were off a few weeks ago when we had the brake system redone. One wheels stud broke so I think that started a wobble.
And yes, we are very luck that there was no real damage.
BUT! even more lucky that the flying wheel didn't hot anyone else on the road. What a disaster is could have been!

[JodyoD]

Originally Posted by Mrs.Mod

Well, we did it! We rode it till the wheels fell off.
Just 5 days ago, we were rolling north on Interstate 5 heading to Oregon for a 5 night stay. I hear a noise and suddenly see rubber fly in my side view mirror. Instantly, cars swirve and Mr. Mod (sleeping in the backseat) wakes up.
Ok, we got a flat tire, I think. No problem, we have a spare. I look, but, OH! The whole flippin' wheel is gone! Mr. Mod walks back down I-5 and is gone for about 30 minutes.
Unbelievabely, Mr. Mod finds the wheel about 300 yards off the road on the other side of a creek. It had to hop 2 fences (and so did Mr. Mod) to get there. The wheel was in great condition, fully inflated and a little muddy.
ALso, this all happened in front of a rest stop where we were able to back into to make the repair safely.
I dropped the trailer and had to drive about 6 miles back to get a set of lug nuts. (Les Schwab was great!) We chased the stud threads with a die and reinstalled the wheel.
I am still in disbelief that the wheel flew off at about 60 M.P.H. and we literally put it back on and kept going.
We're still on this trip today. We're sitting at the bottom of magnificent Mt. Shasta and watching snow fall on the Airstream. People are waking by and taking pictures with our AS.
Tomorrow, we head home to Fresno. Cheers to a great trip that almost didn't happen.

OH!!! What a story!!! Glad everything worked out okay! Enjoy Mt Shasta in the snow. Beautiful