77. Newbie RV Mistakes

We haven't made any serious mistakes yet, but here is what we have done:

• 7 way pin cable breaking - When disconnecting the truck at our campsite, the 7 way pin cable somehow got caught in the ball mount at the back of the truck and pulled out as the truck pulled forward. It seemed like a devasting mistake at the moment, but the cord broke close to the RV end and was able to be reconnected to get us to the nearest store that had a replacement cord. We wanted a new cord to be safe in case the trauma caused any other issues within the cord that we couldn't see. So, aside from the few hours of work for Bruce redoing the electrical connections twice and the cost of another cord, it wasn't a big deal in the end.

  
  

• Lower RV onto truck bed rails - We started the autolevel process when the truck bed was still slightly under the front cap of the RV. The RV almost lowered onto the truck bed rails, but luckily Bruce noticed and stopped the autolevel in time. That much weight on the truck bed rails would not have been good for the truck or RV.

• Bad winter parking spot - When we got our first RV, it was the middle of winter and had just snowed. We brought the RV in our driveway and parked it out of the way and disconnected the truck. When we went to move it in the Spring, we noticed a large rock in the way of where the truck had to be to hook it up again. The rock was about 8" high or so. The truck could climb onto it easy enough, but it was precisely at the spot the truck needed to be when it hit the king pin with the hitch. So, we had to hope for the best and do our best to estimate the height that the RV/king pin had to be when the truck rocked up onto the rock. Luckily, we got it right, but we would never do that again. Always plan for your escape when disconnecting the truck to not get into a bad situation like this. Our lawn took a beating from the maneuvering and towing of the RV through the soft grass.

  
  

• Mini poopsie - Once, one of the sewer connection at the dump site end was not fully aligned and it seemed like fluid was backing up from the dump hole, but it was actually just leaking out around the last connection to the 90 degree elbow to the ground. It wasn't a big deal since they had a well contained dump area, but it caused some confusion and slowed the process until we figured it out.

  
  

• Fridge & freezer opening in drive - We only used a baby fridge lock during a drive day for a while and it was only fine, until one day it opened during a drive. Luckily, we had thermometers in the freezer and fridge that alerted us to high temperatures when we stopped for gas. From then on, we use the hard lock that the RV came with even though it is slightly more annoying to put in.

  
  

• Lack of generator for Alaska - In retrospect, we should have bought a real generator for Alaska. We had a solar generator in addition to our solar panels and batteries in the RV, but they couldn't quite keep us afloat at times in Alaska, especially when it was rainy. We had to depart from a few nice sites a day early because our batteries were too low despite our best conservation measures. It would have been worth having the generator along.

  
  

• Water pressure regulator issue - Not really a mistake, but during our first year, our water pressure had been getting worse and worse and we didn't realize it was a bad water pressure regulator for some time. We swapped it out for a basic one we had and it improved the pressure significantly. Now we know what to check if that happens again.