Over the fifteen years of RVing as I look back I have certainly made a few bone head mistakes over the years. As with any activity or skill set there is a learning curve that will see you have some ups and downs while learning. Then there are just the plain and simple bone head mistakes that get made because you are in a rush to get on the road, or in some cases to hungover to really think through your processes. I am guilty of all the above.

I remember my very first RV the white dolphin, back then I knew absolutely nothing about RV's. What a process I went through to learn even the basics of RVing. It was here that I had what everyone eventually has the Sewer hose accident. The White Dolphin came with a sewer hose which I just assumed was ok and would work. When I got to the dump station and hooked up the hose, I thought nothing back then of just pulling the handle and let it all come out. As the handle was pulled the Black tank rushed out and the hose itself under the pressure of the dump split in two, and then there I was scrambling to shut of the flow and minimize the raw sewage disaster that I just created. Well, that was the worst mistake I made back then, but it was a good one! So the lesson learned here? Never trust a used hose! Always inspect your hose before each use, and whenever possible purchase a new sewer hose when you buy that shiny new rig.

Now after my newbie shocker I vowed to learn everything there was to know about RV's and their operation. Certainly on the White Dolphin I cut my teeth and learned what I could from her in terms of operations, systems, and anything else I could think of. All of that knowledge came into play when we upgraded to the Vanguard (Jem).  Now Jem had her own unique systems to learn in order to operate her effectively. Beyond the regular repairs and upgrades, but I really felt that I had Jem under control and that I knew everything there was to know about her. How wrong I was.

One of the worst things about Jem was that out of the blue her engine would just stall, and stop running; forcing me to the side of the road in a hurry before I lost momentum. Now this was not always the easiest or most convenient emergency pull over to do. Many times I found myself just barely making it to the side of the road and in some cases the best I could do was get over to the right hand lane before I rolled to a stop. There we would sit on the side of the road for upwards of 20 to 45 minutes waiting for whatever the problem was to go away and allow the engine to restart, and restart she did. It took years to diagnose this problem. and in the end it was faulty wiring to the ignition module that caused this random shut down. Which, when I look back makes sense as I used to get out of the RV and wiggle wires, replug ignition cables, and reset the propane mixer all in an attempt to restart the engine, but never really knowing what I did to accomplish that feat.

Another issue I had was with the propane fuel system. On one trip to the West Coast, Jem had been in the shop for some propane work prior to the trip. As we traveled to the coast I never got to use all three propane tanks, instead I filled up once two were empty, but as we drove into Vancouver I decided to run on my third tank until we reached Parksville and I could fill up all three.  As we travelled through Vancouver all of a sudden the RV started to stall and sputter. Now this was not the ignition module as was the case before because I had just had that fixed, but it seemed to me to be a fuel problem. Well as we limped along the Hwy looking for a place to pull over, we eventually made it off the Hwy and onto a side street where the RV just died. To make a Long story short, Not knowing what to do I called for a tow truck, and had the RV towed to a mechanic I had found that could deal with propane. As it was almost the end of the day we ended up having to book into a hotel while we waited for the mechanic to check out the RV. In the end the problem was simple. The previous propane work I had done in Calgary messed up and did not fully open the valve on the third propane tank, so as we dropped in elevation the valve froze up thereby stopping the flow of propane. Never thought to check my valves Duh!

On the same trip to the coast I made two more bone head mistakes. While at Lac Le Jeune outside of Kamloops and on the Coquihalla Hwy, we had stopped for a couple of days before we made the big push to the coast and headed for the ferry terminal. The night before we left Lorraine and I were into the wine and I got a bit tipsy. As I sat around our campsite I decided to start to pack up as much stuff as I could so it would not be a big packup job first thing in the morning. So I went about my business and packed up everything and retracted the awning. Just about then Lorraine distracted me and I diverted my attention to another task. Oblivious to my tasks and not following my checklists I blindly went through a checklist in my head packing up everything before I went to bed for the night. That was my first mistake. Anyways, first thing in the morning we finished packing and hooking up the dolly and toad and off we went headed for the coast. Half a sleep still, and maybe a bit hungover I happily drove the RV onto the Coquihalla Hwy and headed towards Vancouver. Not long down the road I started to hear a flapping sound and as I looked in my right hand mirror much to my horror, there was my awning rolling out and flapping in the wind as we drove down the hwy at 100km/hr.  Well there was no place to pull over on this stretch of the Hwy, so because it was early in the morning and there was no traffic on the road, I put on my flashers and stopped in the left lane as far on the shoulder as I could.  As I got out to attempt to retract my Awning, what a mess I had. Long story short it took me 15min to fix and retract my awning and lock it into place, and then head off on my merry way. As it turned out my distraction the night previous found me forgetting to lock the awning in place after i had retracted it, Duh! If I had followed my checklists I would of caught this almost fatal error. Lesson here, follow your checklist religiously!

The last mistake I made on this trip, and the last mistake I made in Jem before we sold her, again surrounded a slight hangover in the morning. After partying it up with my family and friends while staying at Rathtrevor Beach in Parksville, we had had the propane fire pit on all night with a high flame. Unbeknownst to me as I went to bed we had almost consumed all of our propane.  So as the morning arrived I awoke to a fridge off line and no propane to the stove. Well, what a disaster, especially first thing in the morning and hungover to boot. What was a guy to do, but pull up stakes and disconnect from the campground and head out to get some propane.  As I disconnected all of my outside devices from the RV I ended up forgetting one critical item as I drove out of my campsite. As I got on the campground road a lady walking beside me spoke up and said "I think you missed something, there is a hose off your back end". Well I quickly stopped and got out and much to my chagrin there was the propane hose from my generator hangin off the back end of the RV. I had forgotten to disconnect it as I disconnected the power cord from the RV, Duh! Oh Boy what a bone headed move! How I forgot the fuel hose when I disconnected the power cable is beyond me and I can only attribute my forgetfulness to my hangover. In the end I got my propane but had to run my generator on gas for the rest of the trip as I could not find replacement parts for the hose I broke on the island.

So the moral of these stories? Always, always follow your checklists even if you think you remember everything, and never do anything first thing in the morning when you're hungover. Finally always double and triple check your rig before you move it, walk around it and look closely at all of the outside systems to ensure that they are properly stowed and ready for travel.

Happy Trails

The Glampurs