# Whats the most daft thing you've done on site?



## overthemoon (May 12, 2010)

We arrived on CC site at Cirencester, SWMBO sorts Hook up whilst I'me doing my bit, all settled in,plugs telly in and nothing 8O Tried other sockets,nothing! 8O Panicking I phoned supplying dealer and told them the problem" try the trip switch " I'me told- nothing. " You have no electric coming in from the hook up if it dos'nt trip" tried the hook up and SWMBO had'nt turned it for connection  
Settling in for the evening I did my usual and parked trainers outside under van, gets up in the morning to find I had'nt shut the waste water valve off from last trip and left trainer is now full of grey water [ with sock ]. What a plonker  
It's not as if this was our first trip out, at least I did'nt drive off still hooked up though  
Great site and very well kept by the way.


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## Bob45 (Jan 22, 2007)

*What's the most daft thing you've done on site?*

Backed off the ramps under the front wheels, forgetting to wind up the corner steadies. Took me ages to free them and tie one up as the mechabism had broken.

Bob


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## Jented (Jan 12, 2010)

Hi.
Arrived after dark in a field of a farmer friend,no interior lights!. Being as I !!!!,had "modified" the battery set up,thought it was my fault.Through the thickening Red Mist,i could here Jennifer saying,"Have you switched it on inside the van?",this went on for about an hour,until i had checked my last "Mod"....." Of course i B8888Y well have!". She switched the switch to............ON!!!!,and there was light.......We still fall about laughing at this now,and it happened years ago.
There is a saying," Those who have never made a mistake,have never made anything" Lets see who else owns up,should be fun.
Jented


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## phil4francoise (Jun 21, 2008)

Forgot that the oven gloves had been used to wrap around the grill pan to stop the rattles and then lit the grill instead of the oven.My son was sitting about 1mtr away from the cooker as it caught fire and commented on the nice smell of dinner


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## Grizzly (May 9, 2005)

The most obvious was one we still do and embarrassed ourselves doing the first time we used the van.

It's the one where you're standing at the service point, hose plugged in, tap turned on and OH inside the van watching the "Water Full " gauge intently and reporting that it must be broken as it is still registering EMPTY.

After about 20 minutes the warden usually comes along and points out that all the water is flowing down the drive.

Oh ****** ! We forget to close the drain tap at the bottom of the fresh water tank.

G


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## tikki (May 13, 2005)

Has anyone ever forgotten to put the cap on the end of the Thetford emptying spout, used the WC for 3 days and then driven for 3 hours over hairpin roads in the Corsican mountains, arrived on site and wondered what the awful smell was?  8O 

Won't do it again!


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## Grizzly (May 9, 2005)

We once phoned Swift in a terrible panic because our control box was making a very loud electronic beeping noise and we couldn't work out why.

It turned out to be the smoke detector next to it telling us it had a flat battery.

So embarrassing....!

G


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## Delores (Feb 21, 2010)

phil4francoise said:


> Forgot that the oven gloves had been used to wrap around the grill pan to stop the rattles and then lit the grill instead of the oven.My son was sitting about 1mtr away from the cooker as it caught fire and commented on the nice smell of dinner


I have so very nearly done that many times! :lol:

PLUS we keep large cereal packets in the oven sometimes as they won't fit in the overhead cupboards and I inevitably forget and re-bake the cornflakes. 

Have also done exactly the same thing as the OP and not turned the EHU to click for electric - some kindly soul pointed it out to us after about 10 mins. :roll: 

Not on site as such but one time we drove off with one of the back side windows wide open and nearly decapitated several people along a narrow high street. 8O :lol:


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## DiscoDave (Aug 25, 2008)

Those who have never made a mistake,have never made anything 

I like that! 

Driven off with hook up connected - Check
Not plugged in hook up - check
Not emptied waste tank before it froze - check
forgot to empty the toilet before parking up for three months with out use - check

Won't do that again, at least not for a while!

We've all made mistakes, it makes us who we are!


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## rayrecrok (Nov 21, 2008)

Hi.
Easy went to Mablethorpe.


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## flyingpig (Jan 14, 2009)

rayrecrok said:


> Hi.
> Easy went to Mablethorpe.


???????? :?


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## mandyandandy (Oct 1, 2006)

Didn't tell daughter mummy emptying the black waste tank meant don't use the loo. 

Amazing what an 8 year old can produce :lol: :lol: 

Forgot to explain to a 16 year old male that a portable CD player wouldn't travel well on the top of a shiny wardrobe across a rally field. Which why it fell on his mother sat in passenger seat. :roll: :roll: 

Mandy


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## midlifecrisismil (Sep 27, 2009)

Hi

Have done the forgot to switch on the Control panel thingy -

Have have you put the EHU in at the mains _ Yes 
Have you connected it to the motorhome - Yes - 
Are you sure - Yes 
Ill go and check - 
OK - it must not be working - should we move pitch - 
Ill go and ask them at reception. 
Are you sure its not working - Yes 
have you tried turning the control panel on   .

Forgetting to close the dump valve on the fresh water thingy.

The oil filled radiator sliding down the MH thingy - had to make an emergency stop on the hard shoulder - do flying objects constitute an emergency?

Forgot to secure the sliding shower door :roll: :roll: :roll: - ENORMOUS CRASH!!!!  - thought at least we had been run into.

But its these things that make you laugh and make every day a journey into discovery.

Milly


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## wakk44 (Jun 15, 2006)

rayrecrok said:


> Hi.
> Easy went to Mablethorpe.


 :lol: :lol: :lol:


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## DTPCHEMICALS (Jul 24, 2006)

Went for a shower, 



stoppped to chat to a well endowed young blonde for half an hour.


Tea was off when i arrived back at mh.

dave p


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## Penquin (Oct 15, 2007)

On CL type site, put solar panel out to catch the rays.  

Some hours later........

Got into van and drove off, wondered what the noise was, 8O 

turned corner and solar panel still attached to wire flew out demonstrating centrifugal force (even though the physicists try to convince us that it does not exist!)  

spotted solar panel doing it's best to overtake us so decided to stop 8) - it obviously had too much energy and was making a bid for freedom! :lol:  

got out and recovered said item, totally covered in dust and crud  

cleaned it off and reconnected it in the expectation of nothing happening 8O :roll: 

panel works and charges battery but little blue light seems to have enjoyed it's break! It no longer shines to reassure us  

Dave


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## Grizzly (May 9, 2005)

Ouch ! 

I'm surprised you didn't get killed in the rush of helpful people trying to tell you you'd driven off with your solar panel attached.

G


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## Delores (Feb 21, 2010)

rayrecrok said:


> Hi.
> Easy went to Mablethorpe.


I rather like Mablethorpe. But then I'm a big fan of Bognor too!


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## iconnor (Nov 27, 2007)

Didn't tighten the screw on the swivel table properly.
Consequent screeching metal on metal noises going round corners.
The fragrant one and I consequently having visions of broken suspension, malfunctioning brakes, possible impending death.
It took about 20 minutes to work out that it didn't happen on sucessive corners in the same direction and that a slight bump in the back on left turns was the table hitting the back of the seat.
Durrrrrrrrr.

Didn't lock the water cap properly, lost the water cap. Bought new
cap at next Motorhome/Caravan shop. Took the fragrant ones set of keys from her and changed the water cap key over, she then un-locked the van and off we went. At next stop (supermarket carpark) a kindly person knocked on passenger side door, fragrant one winds down the window, kindly person removes her set of keys from the door lock and hands them to her.
Hmmmmmm

Assumed that the red light on the Thetford indicated almost full. No it means completely full, stop weeing immediately.
Yukkkkkkkkkkk


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## ToffeApple (Nov 21, 2009)

also assumed the red light on the Thetford meant it was GETTING full! Should have read the instruction book properly. Forunately, I was doing a dry? run at home before making a complete ass of myself on my first campsite. Now watch for red light like a hawk! 
Still, plenty more boo boo's to make in the years to come!

:roll: 
Chris & Tilly.


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## gromett (May 9, 2005)

Not giving full instructions to friend on how to use thetford while driving. She didn't close trap. First bit of heavy breaking (EWWWWW!!!)

Now I give full instructions to anyone visiting, some visitors get most embarrassed :lol: :lol: :lol: 

Forgetting to lock kitchen draw multiple times. CRASH!!!!

In my first van, reversed into wall in france. Superglued back lights back together to get me home. 20 minutes after fixing it back in reversed into a bollard. I never trusted my passengers instructions again >.<

Left my DataStorm partially up. Noticed it at a service station which I had only just managed to get into. Didn't realise that the dish has to go full up before coming back down. Crunch!!!! and I was wedged in the service station... Took my 20 minutes stuck at a fuel pump while I dis-assembled the control unit and applied a battery manually to the motors in reverse.

Karl


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## Paludic (Apr 17, 2007)

In Norfolk last winter, in all that snow - phoned ahead to campsite asking if access was ok, and checking they were open. Nice young sounding receptionist said yes, open, access was fine, no one had had any problems.....

So we arrive a bit later, and creep up the winding half mile of private access from the main road - ice, snow etc everywhere. A few minor slides, and me continually asking other half "she did say it was ok didn't she?".

Some time and tension later we slid onto a pitch, manoevering not an option! Then looked around site...... there were three other caravans there, all with 4x4 towcars, plus a Vauxhall corsa outside the reception...... No one else daft enough to attempt to drive with 3 tonnes of front wheel drive motorcaravan.

Which makes me now think it daft to trust receptionists...or should that be.... ask the right questions? A real case of what you don't know, you really don't know.

We did eventually get off the site - with other half walking down drive a long way in front of me driving motorcaravan - looking for icy patches hidden under snow. Took us ages!! 

Daft idea completely - we should have turned for home about two days earlier!!!


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## Nordet (Jan 27, 2008)

Beautiful afternoon, Christmas Eve 1988 on a site on the France/Spain border, nobody else on the site, the owners had gone off to a football match. 

I decided to fill up with water, no problem, turned the water tap off and twisted the whole lot off, sheared the pipe were it emerged from a concrete block.

The site then had an added feature, a fountain, full pressure. It took me a few minutes to realise the van was getting soaked as I looked for a way to stop it. Nothing around, and no way to turn it off.

I ended up jamming some wood in the hole, getting very wet, then putting a paving slab over the top.
When the owner arrived back, he shrugged, wished me Bonne Noel, and it was left like that. I'm always careful with water pipes since.


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## mags52 (May 9, 2010)

Pitched up in dark, desperate for loo. Pulled down blinds, rushed into loo sat down only to realise I was in full view from front windows. Shut loo door PDQ.


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## tattytony (Jun 29, 2009)

Very first trip out to CCC site Verwood and could not get electric checked everything what was wrong  didn't try switching anything on like the hob or heater duh  I was waiting for something to tell that it was connected what a fool I was :x 

Then to top it all the warden came to me several times to ask what electric appliances I was using as I kept tripping the pole :lol: :lol: I replied I didn't have any van was almost empty, guy next door then shouts to his partner you hairdryer and tongs are working now :lol: it was them not me :lol: 

Next trip I reversed over the electric pole on another site knocking it down and cutting the supply for a few visitors for a while   big bill followed :roll: 

In Koln Dec09 forgot to leave waste tap open and yes it froze solid for over a week :roll: as did the freshwater too  

Rolled off ramps with stabilisers down, reversed over electric roll, forgot to empty thetford a week later realised it was still there and full too   

I am sure there will be plenty more to follow as I've only been at this 18 months


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## EJB (Aug 25, 2007)

Picked up our MH from dealer. 
A few days later called in at a garage to fill up.
None of the many keys would open the fuel tank.
Called dealer.......'Use the ignition key!!!!!'

Having driven a number of Transits and Merc vans I should have known better!! :roll: :lol:

Nothing on a site though


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## midlifecrisismil (Sep 27, 2009)

gromett said:


> Not giving full instructions to friend on how to use thetford while driving. She didn't close trap. First bit of heavy breaking (EWWWWW!!!)
> 
> We have a friend who, when we visited friends at a caravan site in Penrith didnt know you had to open the trap :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
> 
> Did what she had to then tried to flush numerous times until bowl became completely full. Came out of loo red faced   saying "that toilets broken it wont flush" :lol: :lol: :lol:


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## Grizzly (May 9, 2005)

ToffeApple said:


> . Now watch for red light like a hawk!
> .


Ah ! The real excitement comes, as it will, when your red light stops working altogether. Then you spend a lot of time doing in depth analysis via the trap. The critical moment always arrives just as a thunderstorm breaks overhead and the rain buckets down.

Trust me...we'd been there many times.

G


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## barryd (May 9, 2008)

We spent a month touring the south coast over Christmas in the snow and ice (lovely sunny days though but -12 some nights). On a lovely CL in Salcombe, Devon we went out for the day on the scooter in the snow and ice (we are from the north and obviously dead hard). Had a great day with no incidents. There was one retired couple on the CL who watched us leave and probably thought we were mad and watched us return up the farm track back to the van. There was snow all over the CL and as we were approaching the van I got a bit cocky and used a bit too much throttle, lost the back end and off we went just 5 yards from the van. We were so padded up with warm clothes we didn’t feel a thing.


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## UncleNorm (May 1, 2005)

We don't do daft things in our motorhome.... but others have!!

OK, I'll confess to reversing off a pitch with corner steadies down. It took about an hour to refit, since when I've put the wheelbrace on to the vehicle pedals as a memo! :roll: 

OK, I'll confess to seeing flaming tea towels flying through the air as AuntieSandra prepared tea one day! :roll: 

OK, I confess to laughing my socks off when AuntieSandra went to open a roof light one morning after heavy overnight rain. I didn't know there was a leak! As she lowered the flyscreen, she was deluged in rain water!! :lol: :lol: :lol: I removed the unit and resealed it later.

During our recent Ruby wedding celebrations, we used Our Coral as a spare guest room. One guest didn't get the idea of opening the blade before using the loo. Thank goodness for paper towel rolls!

Another guest (daughter-in-law!) ran out of water when using the shower one morning. I told her that she had used about 40 litres of water. "Did you turn off the shower after wetting?" I asked. She replied naively, "No, should I have done? I was just enjoying a shower like at home." Our son then stated, "I thought you were on the mains, Dad." Durrh! :roll: 

Oh, another confession... whilst adjusting the position of the motorhome, I ran over the EHU, pulling the cable out of the plug!  That took about an hour to repair.

And there's more...

On the way to the Global, the SatNav peeped and flashed a Low Battery message. Strange, it's plugged into the 12v. I tried the second 12v and it was fine. Checked the first... nothing. AuntieSandra looked into the 12v socket... "It's a piece of paper at the bottom!" Before I had time to think about it, she had a knife down the socket... BANG! Good news... The Fiat X2/50 had a set of spare fuses. "Well, you should have turned the ignition off!" Sandra told me. :roll:  :lol:

Oh, another .... it's time for tea! Sorry! ("Thank goodness for that!" I hear you all say.) 8O


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## overthemoon (May 12, 2010)

Great stories peep's :lol: Not sure whether to try them all on next trip out or just deal with them as and when?
Mablethorpe can't be that bad surely? 8O


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## asprn (Feb 10, 2006)

Great thread. 

In late November 2005, we went away in our (then) Swift Kontiki 820 towing the car on the trailer, right up the north of Scotland for some solitude.

We stopped at a good site near Aberdeen just in time to beat an almighty snowstorm which snowed us in for 3 days (it was lovely), and then we set off for Thurso, right up the top.

Right, says me, there's no way we're going up the A939 to the Lecht summit 'cos it's the first road in the UK to be closed. On no. I know better. And off we go.

And then I say, this is a nice route, looks a bit like the A939. And then we tipped upwards at an angle like a airliner rotating at lift-off, and I said, "Oh s***, this IS the A939....". We disappeared into cloud and a blizzard, and the front wheels started to scrabble on the ice and snow. No way back (well, down, certainly, but backwards, trailer-first) and no visibility. Single track road (rutted ice). Passing places six-feet deep in snow.

We truly only just made it to the Lecht ski centre at the top, and I sat for 10 mins trying to stop shaking. Got to Thurso some hours later, and I was still shaking. And I don't scare easy.  

That was the day I started to check the SatNav's route BEFORE setting off.

Dougie.


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## Blizzard (Sep 21, 2009)

As we prepare to leave site, we have our own tasks and mine are usually outside (especially if it's raining).

Better half prepares the kids and inside.

Better half is standing washing breakfast dishes when I decide to ease the van off its levelling chocks. I gave fair warning to allow better half to brace herself, however I had not considered the contents of the kitchen sink as a mini tidal wave of warm soapy water headed across the worktop and cooker towards the rear of the van when I applied the brakes.

First time was funny.... Second time was just plain stupid.....


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## Zozzer (Aug 13, 2006)

On a trip to Austria, the liesure battery died on us at Wolfgangblick. I tried to ask a group of Austrian motorhomers sat around tables, if they knew of a place locally I could buy a new battery. Well Austro-English dialogue and hand gestures was getting me knowhere fast so a kind chap decided he wanted to see exactly what my problem was and came back to the van.

It wasn't long, before he had unscrewed each of the caps on each cell and pronounced my problem was a lack of distilled water. Well embarassed wasn't the word. I was mortified, I thought what is this Austrian going to think about this idiot Englishman and really I felt I bought shamed my country.

In mitigation, it did teach me the lesson of NEVER take a salesman's word for anything. When buying the van, I was told "Oh you wont need to worry about the leisure battery it SEALED FOR LIFE".

Fortunately, I was now armed with a little piece of paper with the words.... *Destilliertes Wasser*, and proceeded to the nearest garage the following morning.


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## midlifecrisismil (Sep 27, 2009)

Just remembered another one - 

The other weekend HWMBO emptied the Thetford in the Grey water disposal    

OMG - I cant believe you did that.

Its for waste disposal

No its for grey water disposal

Couldnt find a chemical disposal

Its round the back of the toilets

OMG hope nobody saw us - I did rinse it round well 8O 8O 

Milly


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## raynipper (Aug 4, 2008)

Parked new £50k. Winnebago outside new £90k. French holiday home and back wheels sank through the fosse septic lid into effluent. 

Ran around like a headless chicken while my wife took pictures.

Ray.


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## ChrisandJohn (Feb 3, 2008)

midlifecrisismil said:


> Just remembered another one -
> 
> The other weekend HWMBO emptied the Thetford in the Grey water disposal
> 
> ...


Ahh....Now I understand the No Poos rule. :lol: :lol:

Chris

edited to spell my name right.


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## Zozzer (Aug 13, 2006)

Allthough it's a little off topic, but I thought I'd like to share.

Many years ago before we entered the world of motorhome touring, we arrived at an hotel on the island of Malta and like most people the first thing to get unpacked was the travel kettle. Filled with water and switch on, we lost all electricity, not just to the kettle but to everything. I asked Mrs Zozzer, "you did check the voltage setting on the kettle didn't you?". No, why? she replied.

Because it's a different voltage here, and you have tripped the electric. Well I didn't know she said. Don't worry about it, we'll go and report it at reception, but, so what you don't mention the kettle.

So off we trot down to reception, and get told the power should be restored shortly as they were getting the emergency generators going. The whole island is affected so it must be a fault at the Power Station.

As we walk away I'm talking quietly out of the side of mouth.
"See what you've done now, you've blown the power station up, all because you didn't check the kettle". 

To be honest there was nothing wrong with the voltage settings on the kettle, it was just my quick thinking that took advantage of the situation to tease the wife. We often laugh about the day Mrs Zozzer blew up the power station.


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