# American RV Highs & Lows of 1st Trip



## Forestboy (Feb 19, 2007)

Long story but it all happened.
We finally managed to get away for our 1st trip at Easter for 6 nights in Cornwall, having bought the monster back in March & spent the time in between getting used to how things work and a couple of drive outs.
The plan was to leave Thurs 4pm after work so on Weds myself & no2 son went off to a local garage to fill LPG tank for the 1st time, having bought all the fittings. Got to the garage managed to reverse onto forecourt by gas pump no problem but no matter how we tried we couldn't get any gas in, we couldn't get the fitting to seal we even borrowed the fittings from the garage but no joy. Eventually we gave up and left with no gas in a hurry to get back and watch Man Utd at 7.30. As I was reversing into the drive the monster stopped moving and I thought we were skidding as the ground was a bit damp. On inspection we were not skidding & on further investigation we discovered the parking brake was on & would not release so we were stuck. For some reason we have 2 parking brakes a ratchet foot operated one which is ok & an electronic one which was the one causing the problem and no amount of checking could get it too release. By now no2 son has left me on my own and gone off to watch the football & I'm getting more stressed by the minute wishing I'd never seen the monster & bought an apartment anywhere instead of this THING. My neihbours feel the same as we live down a narrow lane which is now completely blocked by this huge piece of junk. I phoned no1 son the mechanic who lives 25 miles away & the wife phoned Safeguard both said they'd be there within the hour. No1 son turned up and after 3 hours decided the only way to stop me committing suicide and unblock the lane was to wind the parking brake off from underneath which he did. The Safeguard operator eventually turned up in a Transit Breakdown truck took one look locked the door & refused to get out, he'd never seen anything so big in his life & didn't have a clue. We eventually got it moving & in the drive at 11.45 pm missed the football & no sleep was had that night.

We decided to go to Cornwall as we still had the ratchet brake & were assured by the local HGV garage everything was safe, plus I'd paid in advance. So off we went with a full tank of derv & half a tank of LPG. Everything was ok until we got to Avonmouth where it took us two & half hours to travel 4 miles, stress levels rising again I've never driven it in the dark but I'm about to. We got to the site at 11pm a 4/5 hour journey took over 7. The owner let us on as he was around so off we went to our pitch reversed in as this looked best and promptly reversed straight into the bank and bent the motorbike rack which I'd forgotten all about. Luckily it didn't cause too much damage & nothing else could possibly go wrong except off course it could. We now discovered the jacks wouldn't work we assume because of the electronic parking brake, by now I'd had enough drank 2 beers & went to bed

Next day the sun was shining I went for a stroll while the wife started a well earned breakfast. As I'm walking back I can hear someones alarm going mad, guess who's. It took us another 15 minutes to finally turn it off but only after disturbing every one on the site, this was despite me practising using it at home so this didn't happen. It was then my wife decided to nickname our adventure Mr & Mrs Bean Go On Holiday.
Over the next few days we had a few mishaps we ran out of water twice before I could convince the wife she was spending too long in the shower. We blew the trip on the hook up 3 times but managed to blame our neighbour the last time. Our hoses weren't long enough, we didn't have any spare bulbs for the trailer board or the van & the electric packed up in the slideout. The one thing I was dreading pumping out the tanks actually went like clock work using a macerator.

After 5 days in Cornwall it was time to leave for home and the dreaded drive through the Cornish lanes during daytime traffic. It was much easier than expected and the monster performed perfectly. I knew once we got through Camelford we would be ok, Camelford arrived and lo & behold it was simple the lights turned green we were at the front of the queue & off we went Phew that was easy. It was until we got to the bottom & the narrowest part as some kind person (my words not the wifes) had parked a car 10 feet from the lights. The first vehicle waiting to come the other way was a lorry who had had to swing his front out to get past the parked car, so the gap is now to narrow. To make matters worse another prat (my words) parks his car behind the lorry & goes shopping so now the lorry is stuck as well as me. It took 10 minutes (it felt like an hour) to get past each other and some serious gouges on both wing mirrors. To rub salt in the prat at the rear came back to his car & gave us a load of verbal abuse as he drove off, I had hold of the wife by the ankle as she went through the window after him. The rest of the journey was uneventful thank God & we got home safely 4 hours later. 
Question
Is this a normal first time experience or are we really Mr & Mrs Bean.
Sorry this is such a long thread but I just wanted to share our adventure with others & GUESS WHAT, WE LOVED IT CANT WAIT TO GO AGAIN
Cheers
ROR


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## 97993 (Mar 5, 2006)

Sounds about right, even the europeans have to go through this ceromony, but now its over and every one is still alive, its all down hill from now on 
Happy motoring 
Geo


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## Bryan (Aug 9, 2006)

Forestboy,

What a fantastic story. It made me feel really good to know that these things don't just happen to us!

I'm glad the tank emptying went well for you, we cannot boast that on our maiden voyage. Poor Bryan ended up covered in **** as he opened a valve and the contents of the tank shot out! It was horrendous! There were even bits of toilet paper stuck all over him! Ugh.

Surely, it can only get better!

Suzanne


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## thewaltons (Aug 21, 2006)

Oh flippin heck - I was already worried about ours and that arrives in 3 weeks from Florida - you've got me even more scared now! 

How was the suicide seat on the narrow roads? We are hoping to go to Woolacombe in August. I've already told Hubby I'm gonna keep a score card of how many people scream at us and how many we scream back at!!!! 8O 

Glad you enjoyed the trip anyway - I'm really envious!!!!

Anita


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## tonyt (May 25, 2005)

Forestboy said:


> ............Is this a normal first time experience ..............
> ROR


Quite normal, it's all about learning what can go wrong so that next time......

The important thing is that you enjoyed it.


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## 98064 (Mar 10, 2006)

Fully charged battery lasted half an hour
Kitchen tap leaked
Vanity tap leaked
toilet (fresh thankfully) leaked
Grey tank empty valve leaked
Black tank valve leaked!!!! 8O 
Black tank to pipe work leaked !!!! 8O (again)
(The later two were only minor but not pleasant)

Couldn't wait to get back, fix probs and get out again.

3rd trip, cooker packed up as did air conn, former fixed on return later just seems to be working again?????

Last trip, fridge stopped. Once home removed and cleaned jets/burner etc, fingers now crossed, frost in freezer after an hour but back in storage now. Insidentally this trip was also marked by the number of things we forgot!! 8O I blamed the wife 

Can't wait 'till our next outing.

I sometimes wonder if RV's and frankley all motorhomes should come with a health warning, you know RVing/motorhoming is seriously addictive.



> I'm glad the tank emptying went well for you, we cannot boast that on our maiden voyage. Poor Bryan ended up covered in **** as he opened a valve and the contents of the tank shot out! It was horrendous! There were even bits of toilet paper stuck all over him! Ugh.


It worries me looking up THAT pipe even when I know its empty in there :roll: 8O


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## wakk44 (Jun 15, 2006)

WebAgents said:


> Forestboy,
> 
> What a fantastic story. It made me feel really good to know that these things don't just happen to us!
> 
> ...


 :lol: :lol: :lol:

just nearly choked on my tea reading that,shame you didn't get it on video it would have made £250 if you had sent it to you've been framed.

Steve


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## 98452 (Apr 2, 2006)

I bought mine in Florida (on my own) and the dealer said use it and I was dying to but driving this thing was scary in a strange country and navigating on my own was hellish but got the hang of it after buying a compass so I knew which way i was actually going up and down roads :roll: :roll: 

Things are set up there for RVs so learnt quickly but it can be a handful first time.

I had a blast after a while up and down Daytona beach region :lol: :lol: :lol: 

Things will only get better (don't give up :wink: )


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## androidGB (May 26, 2005)

Great story,thanks for sharing, and as everyone says it can only get better



Andrew


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## mangothemadmonk (Aug 6, 2006)

Forestboy said:


> GUESS WHAT, WE LOVED IT CANT WAIT TO GO AGAIN
> 
> ROR


That says it all  

Johnny F


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## slaphead (May 14, 2005)

*i should'nt laugh.....*

what a great story.....you could write a book forestboy!
times like that ,i'm glad i've got a european van......having said that my next one will be a yanktank....
i'm just glad the macerator and pump worked ok or the s... :lol: :lol: really would have hit the fan.....


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## kijana (May 1, 2005)

Hi Forestboy. Brilliant post, and it isn't just you - we had similar stuff with our beast!

First time we saw it was at the docks in Southampton (we bought it over the web). Nobody had given us any instruction as to how anything worked, we just had to go around pushing buttons and flicking switches to try & see what happened.

We couldn't get the steps to retract when we wanted to drive off, but eventually found the right switch.

Then we set off up the road to the dock gate exit. I found I'd applied the emergency brake whilst fumbling with my feet. This was apparent from the strong smell of cooked brake lining filling the cab. I stopped by the exit hut to faff with it, but only applied the brake more firmly. By this time a giant lorry who'd been sitting behind us leant on his airhorn in frustration.

All I could do was to drive my shiny new behemoth onto the road, and shudder my way into a bus layby, pouring out smoke. A brief look round in a less stressful position located a tee bar handily labelled 'Brake Release'. D'Oh!!

There followed the nightmare of instant familiarisation of a first drive through Southampton traffic, before eventually getting onto decent roads.

All went reasonably well (if I ignored my wife's screams from the Death Seat) until we pulled into a layby on the A303 for a break and a bacon butty. Found a large space to park between two lorries, which was fine until the one in front was replaced by another who stopped much closer to us. So when it came to leaving, I started reversing to make room to clear him, and crunch. . . Somebody had foolishly parked behind me, in the blind acre of the rearview mirrors. And I wasn't then used to having a reversing TV, so didn't look at that.

Managed to resolve the guy's hurt feelings and minimal damage by bunging him £20, and we set off once again.

All was fine until we got into Devon. The more we got into the depths of mid Devon, the narrower the lanes, the harder it got. Eventually we turned into the mile long lane leading to our house. This is a typical Devon lane, with high hedges planted on earth banks, and twisty with it. Its width was such that both mirrors were scraping the hedge each side simultaneously, with occasional sticky-outy bits scraping the body sides too.

Nonetheless, made it all the way up to our house relatively unscathed. I then tried to reverse into our drive. I knew this was going to be tight, because I'd measured it all up, and drawn it out. Then I made a little cardboard Hurricane RV to the same scale, and played around seeing if it could be done (sad, maybe, but you know what it's like when you're waiting for your baby to arrive). This exercise told me it was tight, but do-able.

In real life, it was very tight, and not do-able. So after a bit more hedge remodelling I drove up to the end of the lane, to park in my neighbour's farm while we sorted it all out. Going round a bend in the lane, I hit a rock sticking out of the bank (the only rock for miles). This beat a hole through the front apron.

Getting to the farmyard, I had to reverse for positioning, and hit the bank with the roof access ladder, bending it. 

To be fair to Thor, not much else has gone wrong. It took a long time to figure out how everything worked, and I'm still not fully familiar with some of the electrics. And we still haven't rigged the Safari Room (supplied by the amusingly named 'Paddy O'Room' company). Or run the air-con in anger. Or used the shower. So there's still scope for upcocks.

But really glad you kept your sense of humour, Forestboy. Some don't, that's why every now & then bargain RV's come up for sale!

Good luck in your travels - keep smiling - hope to meet up some day.

Bruce


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## Arizona (May 9, 2005)

Great story! I think all RV owners have tales from hell to relate some seem don't seem fun at the time but definitely give you a good laugh after.

One of our first trips out we were in the west of Ireland driving from Westport through Lenane to Letterfrack, beautiful countryside very narrow roads! After about 2 hours or so of driving I noticed my brakes didn't seem to be working all that efficiently. I passed this info to my other half 

"Darling the brakes don't seem to be working!"

"Oh don't worry about that, they're not like your car, it takes longer to stop something this size!" 

We travelled on for a few more miles and at the risk of being told off, repeated myself . I eventually managed to stop the rig between a lake and Kylmore Abbey on a dirt track and himself disbelievingly got in behind the wheel. 60 seconds later ....

"J H C WE'VE GOT NO BRAKES" 8O 

"Haven't I been telling you that!" :!: 

It got even crazier after that but that's another story. 

One thing you definitely need with an RV is a sense of humour!

Enjoy.......


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## 102138 (Dec 17, 2006)

Great stories-- we were booked into Peterborough for our maiden voyage, have now decided to move to another spot on the camp site and get a bus to a nice safe place!!!!!! Only kidding, we have to face up to it all eventually. Look out for us there if you need a good laugh!!!
Nigel & Pamala


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## 98064 (Mar 10, 2006)

I'm sure there is a book in here!!

Limited audience but like this thread amusing, excepting whilst we may laugh it's that knowing laugh, you know the whilst funny we've all had our moments, like kijana's early reversing attempts, one of mine nearly got the wife!!!! 8O :roll:  

Si


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## G2EWS (May 1, 2006)

Hi Forestboy,

Great story and yes, just about par for the course as you can tell by others tales.

Picked my Winnie up and on the drive home got hit by a bus which took out the wing mirror!

Reversing in at home the RV dropped and went into the house. Damaged the awning canopy which is being replaced next week courtesy of Linda (LC1962)

Took it out to the garage for it's first trip and familiarisation the following day. Got the gas in OK, but could not find a key to the fuel tank! It was a few days later when preparing for our first outing and the Wife was cleaning the fridge that she found the keys in freezer!

Day before the first trip I found the batteries where dying slowly. Conversations with Linda and a quick trip to Moreton In Marsh and we had a new charger.

With 100 gallons of fresh water, 55 gallons of black waste and 55 gallons of grey waste, we keep running out of water and filling the tanks up. Not sure how in a few days but there you have it.

Luckily, no problems with waste disposal but will be looking at macerator in near future.

Microwave just packed in which is also being replaced next week by Linda (she is good you know!)

Regards

Chris


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## kijana (May 1, 2005)

> I'm sure there is a book in here!!


Over to you, Superk!

Forestboy, re your LPG filling problem. I couldn't screw on the UK adaptor to my tank, although the adaptor fitted others ok. It turned out the thread on my onboard LPG tank were slightly incorrect profile (pitch was ok). So I had to get the adaptor machined (thread-chased) to make it fit.

Don't know if this applies to your problem.


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