Dangerous RV Mistakes

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DANGEROUS RV MISTAKES

We all make mistakes.  I once heard a speaker say foolishness is never learning from your mistakes, knowledge is when you learn from your mistakes but wisdom is learning from other peoples mistakes so that you don’t make them.  So my hope is that  my knowledge becomes your wisdom.  

Electrical mistakes can be very easy to make.  I mean how complicated can plugging a cord into an outlet be?  But things can happen  with electricity that are unanticipated and can end up being dangerous. 

KNOW WHAT YOU ARE PLUGGING INTO.

When I first became an RV owner I was excited and anxious to try everything out.  Of course I didn’t have a 30 amp outlet at my house but I had an adaptor to plug it into a wall outlet. I knew I could run almost everything except the AC on that much power.  I plugged into a surge protector power strip that was mounted in my garage and the lights came on so I continued to work on the camper.  It was when I went to place a block under one of the stabilizer jacks that I realized I had made a major mistake. As I touched the crank to the jack I received quite a shock and dropped the crank immediately.  As it turned out the power strip I had plugged into was missing the third prong that connects to the ground wire.  That caused the entire camper to be electrified with no way to be grounded and because I was touching the ground and a metal part of the camper I became the path for it to be grounded.  I was lucky to only get a little shock.  My suggestion is to have a portable 30 amp surge protector with indicator lights to warn you if the outlet is not properly grounded.  I have heard of this same problem happening in campgrounds where the electrical hook-ups have not been properly maintained so it can happen anywhere.

NEVER FORGET TO CHOCK YOUR WHEELS FROM BOTH DIRECTIONS.

I know this seems simple but I have known even experienced RV owners to slip up on this.  Even if the sight looks completely level, all it takes is a little divot in the ground to cause some serious damage if your wheels are not chocked properly.  I learned this the hard way but was very lucky that nothing was damaged. 

We had just returned from a trip to the beach and I was parking the camper in the driveway. I leveled it out side to side with the leveling blocks and I chocked the wheels from going forward because my driveway slants in that direction.  I began to unhitch the camper and suddenly the camper began to move backwards dragging  my tongue jack on the ground.  All I could do is scream “Oh my God!!” until it stopped.  It only moved about a foot and a half but it was enough to scare the crap out of me and teach me a very valuable lesson in the process.  Lucky for me my tongue jack wasn’t damaged and I still have a working camper.  I had never anticipated the camper moving backwards because my driveway slanting downhill but a slight divot in the driveway in combination with the placement of the leveling blocks caused my camper to be pulled in the opposite direction.  I know chocking the wheels is a simple thing that may be easy to slip up and forget but the results of such a simple slip up can be devastating. 

TERRORFYING TAIL SWING.

Tail swing is probably the cause of most RV accidents.  I have heard so many stories dealing with this that I have really kept my guard on not to make this mistake.  I am a professional truck driver so tail swing is nothing new to me.  For those of you that are new to campers and have no idea what I am talking about  it is the distance from you axle to the rear of your camper and how much that part of your camper swings out when you are making a turn.  I know enough about this from being a truck driver and there are places I will never take my camper due to this issue.  I haven’t made this mistake with my camper but I did when I was still a newbie truck driver.  I took out a mirror on another truck  once in Washington DC I wasn’t charged  with the accident though because the other truck was parked in a no parking zone.  The streets of DC are very tight and crowded and making a turn in anything larger than a smart car can be a challenge at times.  You will find that is the case with most Colonial cities in the east. (Boston, Philadelphia, and New York of course) I have had to drive a truck in all of them and so I know from experience that there are some places a camper is never supposed to go.  In my camper travels I try to stick to the truck routes in order to avoid those tight turns and low clearance situations.  Sometimes though you just can’t avoid tight turns though.  That is when you just have to keep your patience and take it slow.  Use a spotter (Someone watching the part of the camper you can’t see from the driver’s seat) if you can.  The other option is one all of us truckers use which is the G.O.A.L (Get Out And Look) method.  No matter how much of a hurry you or those around you are in it is not worth having an accident.  Remember that the tail swing is happening on the blind side of your trailer so know what is there before you make the tight turn.

TRAILER SIDE WINDS 

 Being a truck driver I am used to pulling a trailer behind me but with the weight and size being so great the side winds don’t really affect me as much.  Totally different with a travel trailer.  I was on my way to the coast going at a normal speed  when a tractor trailer began to pass me on the left.  The air displacement caused by the semi passing  me was blowing against my trailer with so much force that it was pushing the tail of my tow vehicle and therefore steering me TOWARD the semi truck.  I quickly slowed down and let the truck pass and retained control of my vehicle but I know this could have been a dangerous situation had I not been prepared for the pull of the side winds.  Always know what is around you and know that when something big is passing you that you are going to feel the pull in that direction. Don’t let this sudden pull to the side catch you off guard. Keep  calm and let people pass. Remember you really have no reason to be in such a hurry.

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Tail swing is the cause of most RV accidents.