Full Time RV Travel
19 Things That Went Wrong Our First Month
Part 2

In Part 2 We've listed some more of the things that went wrong for us

BY Andy Shears & Lezlie Garr

In part 2 of our First Month saga, we continue to bring the pain with 7 more RV travel mishaps from the road- this time, after leaving our first RV camping site, we are on the road, at-large.

If you missed Part 1, you can find it on our blog (link in bio), but you can continue reading just as well and catch up later if you like!

Let the hilarity continue:

Thing #7

“Stop, Stop, STOP!”

After the panic had settled from Things #5 and #6, we were on our way to the next destination- an overnight stop in a Texas state park on our way to Little Rock.

Upon arrival, we drove through the park to find the RV sites. We picked one (a pull-through, again) and began setting up.

• Plug in electric: check. We had to plug in before doing anything because our battery was dead (Thing #6)

• Level the rig with leveling blocks: check. Since this was only our 2nd time, it took more time than I’m comfortable admitting in public. 

• Disconnect from the hitch: check.

• Hook up hoses for water: check.

At this point in the story, I’m going to mention that we have a single slide-out room on the travel trailer, which we did NOT measure the distance to which it extends…and that leads us to:

Thing #7

We didn’t park far enough away from the electrical post for our slide room to extend all the way out. Womp, womp.

We were only staying for one night and had just finished dealing with Things #5 and #6 hours earlier, so instead of breaking and resetting camp, we made due with a half-deployed slide for the evening.

Lesson learned:  Know how far your slide(s) deploy, and before you park/level/connect, check to make sure you have enough room.

Thing #8

“Hmm- a screw on the ground.”

Turns out, it was a screw from an RV storage compartment lock, which had decided to fall apart. (I know this one may not seem all that bad, especially compared to some of the things from Part 1 but, they can all be zingers!

The latch wasn’t broken; the screw had just fallen out. So, I looked at it for a minute to figure out how to put it back together and was proud of myself for getting it reassembled (it’s the little victories) …until I realized that it now closed in the opposite direction from the other latch.

Whatever. I left it like that…it gives our rig character, right?

Lesson Learned: RVing is all about customization…I think.

Thing #9

“The ice isn’t going down the toilet.”

So, our factory tank sensors on the RV have never displayed correct tank levels- a very common problem. From the internet, we found a potential remedy could be to dump ice down your toilet and drive around to slosh the sensor clean.

It didn’t work. 

And, we dumped the ice in there too quickly, so it backed up in the toilet bowl and took several minutes to get down the tube.

No pics of this one. I figured you wouldn’t want to see our that.

Lesson learned:  The little buttons on the RV control panel display a fun light show and are otherwise unhelpful. Now that we’re a year into full time RV living, we have a pretty good idea of how much water our tanks can hold and when we need to dump them. We thought about purchasing external tank sensors, but haven’t made the leap just yet.

Thing #10

“The eggs are broken.”

That’s it. We broke a carton of eggs in transit because they were just flopping around in our rear kitchen refrigerator while we were careening down the road.

Lesson learned: Secure all items in the fridge before departure. Anything loose will bang around.

Things #11 and #12

“I gotta do it; I’m pulling over.”

We check our tire pressure before we move the trailer anywhere, but we did notice a slow leak in one of the tires when were parked at our first site. 

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We kept the tire topped off with our 12v air pump before we left each new site, but while we were driving from Illinois to Indiana, my creeping anxiety about the leaky tire took over and I pulled into a truck stop to change it out for the spare.

We have a bottle jack that came with our truck, but we decided to follow some internet advice and drive up onto a stack of leveling blocks first, and then add the jack, which worked well.

We threw the old tire in the bed of the truck, so we could have it repaired, but in hindsight, we should have placed it where the spare sits, because then we might have noticed the spare tire cover sitting on the ground back there. 

Because we didn’t notice the cover back there, we drove away, leaving the spare tire cover at the truck stop. Awesome.

Lesson(s) learned:  Driving on a leaky tire is nerve-racking and dangerous, so change it as soon as you notice it’s not holding pressure. And, if you’re not going to put your spare tire cover over the old tire, stow it in a bin or something; don’t be dumb and leave it at a truck stop.

Thing #13

“How did the screen come out of the door?”

The dog – that’s how.

Our dog (Jax) has a bit of separation anxiety, and one of the first times we left him alone in the trailer for more than a few minutes (aka an eternity in dog years), he must have pushed it out trying to jump on the door.

It was an easy fix though. We used a dull pizza cutter to push the rubber seal and screen back into the door groove. Actual screen installation tools exist, but they are basically dull pizza cutters!

Jax has since gotten used to our home and no longer pushes the screen out, thankfully.

Lesson learned: Dogs cause damage- but finding multiple uses for what you already have is priceless.

TO BE CONCLUDED…

You can read all about the end of our long first month, and the last 6 things, in Part 3- on our blog now.

About the Authors

Andy & Lezlie travel the US full time in their fifth wheel travel trailer while operating a resume writing business ResumeLezlie.com and share their experiences & travel tips through their website Unknown Normal and Instagram @Unknown_Normal. 

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