stupid things
Submitted: Tuesday, May 08, 2007 at 20:34
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chips59
what are some of the stupid things you have done will out caravaning?
one of my many was after staying the at a roadside stop, checked everything before moving off (i thought) after about 50ks looked at the fuel gauge and thought something was wrong because i was using heaps of fuel. stopped and checked if the brake was off, it was. carried on till the next fuel stop, about 100ks. must have used about 1/4 a tank more than normal. while filling and wondering how much its going to cost at this rate to get there, looked up and noticed the van roof was still up. it had been up for about 150ks. felt like a real d@#$ head.
Reply By: Member - Au-2 - Tuesday, May 08, 2007 at 23:49
Tuesday, May 08, 2007 at 23:49
I hope chips59, this can't be used against those of us who are getting into the 'institutionalised supervision' age bracket?
We have only been doing this camping thing for 12months so far, so haven't had any major stuff ups . . . yet. We did leave the dog's dishes (ice cream containers with his name nikkoed inside) on the draw bar as we left Charters Towers last September. They were gone, of course, when next
camp was reached, dog didn't starve though. Husband's wallet was mislaid while out in the bush, after searching high and low without result, we informed bank, not police as they were closed for the day, we arrived
home many hours later, to find it nestled comfortably in the bottom of the laptop bag.
Then there was the first -only- time we camped at a public camping site. That was a major mistake. We will probably not be doing that any more than we have to. The things I learned from that were:-
Don't
camp in public parks on weekends -- or any other time if you can help it.
Always carry earplugs, flying goggles, oxygen masks and shower caps - to be worn as mix and match accessories as the need arises.
Don't turn to watch the
toilet flush when you are in a rural area.
Enviro
toilets have a very chilling effect on ones down-unders.
A large, strong dog at the end of a long leash, can capsize a
campsite in under five seconds, if a small unleashed dog trots by.
OzeSheila.
AnswerID:
238725
Reply By: Member - Roachie (SA) - Wednesday, May 09, 2007 at 08:55
Wednesday, May 09, 2007 at 08:55
On a recent trip , which saw us camped-up at an
Alice Springs c/van park after several days in the bush, I managed to drive forward a few feet and crunched my driver's side gull-wing (on the Patrol's cargo box), on a tree which I had been parked next to. DAMN!!! Luckily we had done most of the dirt-road travelling we had intended to do.....but (due to the prospect of heaps of dust getting onto everything we own that travels in the box) we had to give
the Painted Desert a miss as
well as the track heading south from
Mount Connor, down into SA and back to the Stuart Hwy. Annette was not a happy camper because of that. I was not a happy camper because of my own stupidity.
NOTE: Gullwing has since been replaced/fixed AND I have installed switches on each door, so that if one of them is left open when the ignition is on, an ear-splitting alarm buzzer is activated in the cab!
AnswerID:
238765
Reply By: Keith_A (Qld) - Wednesday, May 09, 2007 at 09:28
Wednesday, May 09, 2007 at 09:28
Do NOT TRY THIS : went to roll up the annex on the side of the Poptop - and sent the whole thing upwards - yes - it can and will.
Bit hard to describe, but here goes:
The Annex is on a spring loaded cylinder - with a small lever to activate.
It is held out horizontally by an arm at each end, plus an arm at an angle to the van (eg making the hypotenuse of the triangle).
The horizontal arms are in 2 pieces that slide into each other - eg shorten or lengthen depending how far out the awning is (with a hand screw to tighten).
This horizontal arm slides down along the hypotenuse to a vertical position to fold up.
So - loosened the holding nut on the horizontal bar, and flipped the small lever to activate the spring to roll up the annex. (Forgot to slide the horizonal bar down).
The roll up action started - and since the holding nut was loose - the horizontal arms shortened and the thing went skywards.................Damn.............Keith
AnswerID:
238769
Reply By: Member - Boo Boo (NSW) - Wednesday, May 09, 2007 at 12:38
Wednesday, May 09, 2007 at 12:38
Thank you, thank you, thank you ....everyone of you have just made me feel good.
We bought a newish van a couple of years and took our grown up kids on a trip...never again.... anyway daughter can talk under water with a mouthful of marbles.. and she proceeded to do so while I did pre-departure
check... yep found out 20km down the road that awning was not locked in place.
Still haven't lived it down. I have also done the bung trick, but I have never left my car on the ramp ...thats a good one.
Regards Bob
AnswerID:
238795
Reply By: timal - Wednesday, May 09, 2007 at 15:10
Wednesday, May 09, 2007 at 15:10
its great to see some of these - I too had the boating incident. Had wife and kids in car, running late. pulled up at the
boat ramp, lined up and reversed down, stopped halfway down to styraighten up and left the boat on the ramp. no danmage, but felt like a d@#$head. needless to say more from wife. I had undone the shackle earleir being in a rush....I'ver also left the backdoor on the campertrailer down across the nullabour without knowing, drove off. 5k's later looked int he rear view mirror to see all our food strewn down the raod as far as a i could see....
AnswerID:
238822
Reply By: Member - DAZA (QLD) - Wednesday, May 09, 2007 at 19:09
Wednesday, May 09, 2007 at 19:09
Hi All
We picked up brand new 22ft van from dealer, after dealer gave us lecture on
all we should know ect, he even helped with levelers,and the Break Away
coupling, all was good until down the main road we went, and around a sharp
corner at a busy
intersection, all of a sudden every thing locked up, we wernt
going any where,traffic was building up behind us, my
cook was panicing,
I was walking around scratching my head, when I noticed this little black plug
hanging loose of the draw bar, the BL--dy dealer didnt leave enough slack on
the BREAK AWAY CABLE, and it pulled out. stopping every thing.
Cheers
Daza
AnswerID:
238870