Camping mishaps...

tiggerdad

I don't always get distracted but whe...SQUIRREL!
Joined
Jul 8, 2009
Figure with all of us we are bound to have some stories to tell. Here's one of mine:

My Jayco has an outdoor kitchen with a sink. Well, toilet water goes to the black tank, and everything else goes into the grey tank. WRONG!

I had the bright idea to flush out my grey tank by turning on the outdoor sink while I was packing up our stuff. I kept checking that gauge, but it wasn't moving. It was my first camping trip so I was oblivious to how much it should hold so I just assumed it was rather large. Well...I got my first clue when my daughter started screaming about water on the back room floor. I went outside to a waterfall coming out of the outdoor kitchen.

Checked the gauges...grey was empty...black was full.

Nothing in the manual about it leading into the black tank and certainly no warning from the dealer. Lesson learned...

So what you got?
 
Figure with all of us we are bound to have some stories to tell. Here's one of mine:

My Jayco has an outdoor kitchen with a sink. Well, toilet water goes to the black tank, and everything else goes into the grey tank. WRONG!

I had the bright idea to flush out my grey tank by turning on the outdoor sink while I was packing up our stuff. I kept checking that gauge, but it wasn't moving. It was my first camping trip so I was oblivious to how much it should hold so I just assumed it was rather large. Well...I got my first clue when my daughter started screaming about water on the back room floor. I went outside to a waterfall coming out of the outdoor kitchen.

Checked the gauges...grey was empty...black was full.

Nothing in the manual about it leading into the black tank and certainly no warning from the dealer. Lesson learned...

So what you got?

No stories right now, but wanted to commiserate with you on that type set up! The mh we had before purchasing our current one, found out the bathroom sink went into the black water - not acceptable 'at all'!! Dh changed the drain to go into the 'grey' system. What are these RV planners thinking??? Must have been the 'easiest' option - an amazing theory!! We didn't have a mishap, but we did have to be 'very' careful on our first few trips after seeing what was happening! :eek:
 
Figure with all of us we are bound to have some stories to tell. Here's one of mine:

Just one!?

I've got my fair share of them too,

We were at FW during July 2012, it was one of those Fort lazy days, my wife (at the time girlfriend) and I was relaxing in our hammock, she went inside to fix a drink came back out and sat outside for a couple of more hours. I got up to go start supper went to go inside the camper and the door was locked! I said "hey why did you lock the door?" And her reply was simply "I didn't o_Oo_O?" Well when she shut the door I guess she slammed it and the lock tripped? So with the keys inside the camper, I didn't know what to do? Thought about it and came up with the idea of lifting up on the window by the and maybe she could reach the door lock... while we were doing that, my wife standing on a Rubbermaid box and had her arm in the window up to her elbow reaching for the lock and me prying up on the window hoping that it didn't break, I looked back over and my shoulder at the voices I heard behind, "look their breaking in that camper, she we call the police?!" I had to say "HEY NO WAIT IT'S OUR CAMPER I PROMISE! WE'RE LOCKED OUT!! So we were able to work the window open and she reached the door lock, all is good! So now and since then there is a key hidden outside the camper somewhere for that kind of emergency again!
 
Some of my (shorter) favorite Fort stories:

1) A camper came up to my Concierge Desk:
. . . He says, "A squirrel stole some of our food."
. . . Then, he asks, "Can we get reimbursed?"

2) A family was waiting in line for park tickets. Young boy (son) asks how not to get lost at The Fort.
. . . All-knowing Father replies, "You’ll never be lost if you remember that moss always grows on the north side of your compass."

3) A couple of young women (college-age?) were checking-in next to my desk, and reading the regulations.
. . . One says, " Fort Wilderness is the only place where they have more rules than your parents."
. . . The other adds, "And, a two-man pup tent does not include two men or a pup."
 


Great stories. I have similar holding tank and locked out stories too.

The short version is: One trip when boon docking at a race, we drove most of the way home with the bath tub half full (of grey water). Seems adding water to a 68 gallon fresh tank through the weekend combined with a wife that likes to take baths is a little too much for a 40 gallon grey tank.

Locked out was 2 occasions. 1st was some friends that rented a MH for a race at Daytona. Somehow they got locked out. We thought the drivers window would open a little, but we couldn't reach it so the smallest of our 3 kids got picked up and shoved through a very small window. The second one involved one of us (me) climbing up through the laundry hole from the basement into the bedroom closet.

j
 


OK........ you shamed me into it. A couple of mishaps that involved our dog Bernie who loved to camp. He passed after 17 years, we miss him much.
One night about 2 in the morning we heard a thump. We realized Bernie was not in the bed anymore. In my haste to set up the pup, (before the teardrop) I forgot to secure the tent under the slideout bed. As he snuggled in the corner the tent gave way. When I went outside to get him, he still seemed to be in a state of "what the heck just happened". Also, when he was just a little dog learning the ways of the wild, he went to introduce himself to the local wildlife. The skunk was not in a hospitable mood. Bernie wasn't real crazy about the tomato juice bath and spending the rest of the weekend in the back of the truck.
 
My first trailer I filled the water tank to sanitize it and let it set. I started to drain the tank, opening all the faucets up and let them run, went outside the trailer and noticed that there was water coming out from under the trailer. Oh that can't be good. Turns out the factory either did not install the trap under the sink in the bathroom, or it had vibrated off of the new camper during delivery and the whole back was full of water. Now I check my connections every time we arrive somewhere. Better safe than sorry.
 
A few years ago, my brother and myself headed down to watch the shuttle launch. Well, we jinxed that and headed home. Every time we had to slow down or stop because of traffic, stop and go, bumper to bumper, we would hear this scratchy sound somewhere under the dash. Sounds like an old transistor radio ( this gives away my age) slightly off the station. Brother was crawling around on all fours trying to figure it out. After about 20 minutes we finally got it.
Who knew those rear view cameras had microphones on them? The old motorhome behind me would get close enough to the back of ours that the engine sound would pick up on the mike. We had a good laugh.
 
Reading SouthAlabama5er's 'locked out' story reminded of one that became funny 'afterwards'!! Several years ago we were camping at the ocean in a trailer. We all went out to swim, but when we returned dh was missing his trailer key (gotten out of his swim trunk pocket somehow).

We were stumped on what to do when dh saw a solution - put ds age 4 through the little storage door on side which opened into the storage under the dinette booth with another door opening into the trailer. Ds was afraid and didn't want to go in so we sort of, kind of, boosted him in anyway and he scurried on through pushing the other door open. Think he was scarred for life - it was too funny when we'd talk about it later. He would say don't you ever do me that again! The things we put our poor innocent children through!! :D

We, too, got smart enough real quick to put a key outside!
 
We have had many camping mishaps including locking ourselves out and sending a child in through an opening. The one I will relate to you happened on our first trip to WDW at Christmas. We had promised the children that we would watch the parade at MK on Christmas Day, so we left FW early that morning in order to secure a good viewing spot. The forecast called for rain so we were prepared with ponchos and umbrellas. I secure a spot in Liberty Square and prepared to wait, a soft drizzle began. DH took the children to experience some rides nearby. As the time passed the rain began to pick up until approximately 10 minutes before parade time the parade was called off. By this time we had three children 8,6, and 4 who were wet, tired and disappointed. We decided to return to FW, as we were exiting MK the skies opened and rain poured down. By the time we got back to the TT we were soaked to the bone and cold. DH turned up the heat....only cold air. No problem he would just switch the tank over, unfortunately he had flipped the switch to burn both tanks together instead of one at a time. So we found ourselves out of propane on Christmas Day. Needless to say the rain continued all day and we spent it in the trailer wrapped in blankets.
We were lucky to have been invited out for Christmas Dinner at friends rental home in Florida so we did enjoy a hot meal and a chance to warm up. Lesson learned we now always insure that only one tank runs out at a time and will fill the empty tank shortly after switching over to the full tank.
 
There we go! Anybody ever drive off with the freshwater still hooked up? Did that once when borrowing my fathers camper. My neighbors, who were camping with us were laughing too hard to stop me. It boke the faucet off just under the ground where the PVC connected to the metal faucet. They let me drag it all the way home. His wife was kind enough to get behind me and film it with her phone.

The husband was kind enough to let the folks at the campground know they had a leak.
 
Haven't done that one yet!

Had a good friend of mine unhook his fifthwheel, set it up and everything done except for letting down the legs on the front.... it left a nice dent on top of his truck bed!
 
I (almost) rolled down a small hill due to not putting the chocks under the wheels before unhitching...slight roll before coming all way off hitch warned me ( phew!)
 
Our biggest mishap. We were on vacation for a week at our favorite VT campground. My mother was with us and apparently got up during the night to use the toilet. Apparently it did not completely stop flushing when she turned the knob, but she didn't notice and went back to bed. My DH had closed off the black water tank before heading to bed as sometimes the odors will come into the camper if left open. We were awakened to the sound of our 2 dogs licking water. The entire camper had 2 inches of water throughout it. When we opened the doors it was like a waterfall flooding out. All I can say is thank God we had insurance and it covered the damage. I'm also thankful the the black water tank was empty before we went to bed so it was 99.9% water.
 

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