Here's one for you, 2 weeks ago we were pulling my 28ft travel trailer to a state park here in Texas. We had rain/sleet mix so fortunately I was going slower than normal. I slowed down to go over some railroad tracks, no problems. About a half a mile later, there was an intersection at the bottom of a hill with a red light, when I put my foot on the brake to stop, my brake pedal went straight to the floor, no brakes on the truck. Downshifted, pumped the brakes, used the trailer brake controller to stop. Scared the living daylights out of me. Turned out I had a broken rear brake line. Always be ready for anything. Safe travels y'all
Doug Duncan, no brakes?!?! Now THAT is high on my list of worst fears! I’m so glad you were able to stop safely. Good work on your part for not panicking! 🙌🏻👍🏻
I'm an RV newbie with a 13' travel trailer. My second time pulling it, the camper fell off the hitch and dragged behind the truck. I was calm but VERY embarrassed. Lucky I was only going 25 mph when it happened! It bent the jack but no other damage (thank heavens!)
I found it terrifying to drive the Million Dollar Highway between Ouray and Durango during a thunderstorm with heavy rain. The road is narrow, there are mountains on one side, a deep and sharp dropoff on the other side, no guardrail, and the white line has crumbled away in parts. I did it, but WOW!
We were camping in the mountains of Wyoming when my dad started running across the camp road. Our '49 Packard had lost its parking brake and was rolling towards a steep canyon. He got there just in time and put it in park to stop the rolling. He almost passed out in the front seat but all was well. I will never forget how I felt - 1955, I was 10 years old. Moral - put large rocks in front of your wheels if you are parked on an incline and make sure your car is in PARK.
I've driven the Alaska highway in a pick-up camper, Bronco pulling a 17' travel trailer, 4x4 1 ton van pulling a 31' Airstream trailer, a class C motorhome, a class A 34' gas motorhome pulling a 24' enclosed car hauler with car, a 40' diesel motorhome and on a few occasions just a regular 4x4 vehicle. The scariest occurrence was when driving in December north of Muncho Lake, B.C. I touched the breaks on a long downhill grade and ended up jack-knifing into the snow-filled ditch where we were stuck for 4 hours before a tractor trailer came by and pulled us out. Also broke the frame on the 34' motorhome pulling the car hauler near Fort Nelson, B.C. Hope for the best, be prepared for the worst! Love your videos.
My daughter was in limbo in Chang Mai for about 10 weeks during the early part of the virus freakout. She liked it a lot but came home until she could return to East Asia. Love you guys in so many ways, long time fan
Years ago while owning a class A towing a manual front wheel drive car on a car dolly I left the emergency brake on and luckily a fellow camper alerted me to the situation. With no rear camera, I would have left a long trail of rubber on the road. Go slow and think is my lesson in life. Love your channel and posts. Enjoy the Far East it is indeed magical.
We had an Yukon bear experience at a abandoned RV park near Watson Lake. We had a black bear walk through our site and all we had was a tent. It was a little unnerving falling asleep that night. When we got home we started watching your videos and soon bought our first TT. We are in our 70’s so I guess it’s time fore a little luxury. Keep up the good work!
Our first week of RVing, we camped at the wonderful free sites at Elk City Lake in Oklahoma. The rain began after dark, then the wind. The 24 ft. motor home was swaying. We were literally on our knees praying. Next morning, drove across OK, and saw tornado damage in Tulsa. Whew! Second time we camped there, same kind of big windy lightning storm, without the tornado damage. Just scary stuff especially when you're newbies. I think we'll pass on Elk City Lake on our next trip, even though it's a fantastic free facility with power and water free, too. Did I mention it's free!?
Terrifying moment #1. 2015 on our annual trip from Hot Springs, Arkansas to Camp Gulf, which we discovered in part by your video from there, Merging onto I20 at Tallulah, Louisiana in a driving rainstorm. While merging a car passed a semi-truck on the right side. I swerved to avoid a collision and fishtailed. It was a miracle that I gained control. Probably more that I have a great hitch and sway control setup. My wife looked at me and said, that scared you didn't it. I have logged thousands of miles and have had to do some fancy maneuvering but that's tops.
Thank you for sharing the back up story. It’s so important to know that even experienced RVers can screw up. I learn so much of what not to do! I’m glad no vehicle, or RV, or people were harmed in the process.
Here's my most terrifying RV event: This just happened on Jan. 7, 2019 on my way to Quartzsite. While driving south on CA99 into the north part of Fresno, I glanced over to my rear camera monitor and saw nothing!!! Oh, did I mention that I had been flat-towing my Jeep Grand Cherokee?? Yep, somewhere back on Hwy 99, my Jeep came off my '83 Airstream motor home, and I did not feel it. I immediately pulled over, hopped out and ran to the rear. There was NO jeep, also, NO hitch receiver either. 911 was called. They said nothing had been reported. I went to the next offramp, crossed over the freeway to go northbound in hopes to find my Jeep that self-jettisoned off of my Airstream MH. After driving over 25 miles back (northbound), I saw my jeep sitting next to the jersey rail in the center median, parked, and waiting for me. All the tow bar assembly was still intact along with the hitch receiver, UNDER the jeep. It caused damage to the underside to the extent of needing a new transmission. There was minor body damage also. All in all, I thank the good Lord no one got hurt and no accidents occurred because of this. I must say that my laundry load was a bit heavier than normal, and the heart meds kept everything in check. So, as it turned out, the original 1983 hitch welds to the side channel mounts decided to rip off. I never felt a thing. So, the word "terrifying" is a bit of an understatement to say the least. My advice to all y'alls that tow...., have your hitch inspected on an occasional basis. I would never wish this experience on any one. I did make it to Quartzsite, but without my Jeep. ..........Russell D. @ the Washington Land Yacht Harbor, Olympia, WA. (kb6yaf@sbcglobal.net)
KB6YAF, WOW!!! That was a terrifying experience! I’m so glad you were safe and that no one else was hurt. Truly a miracle! Sorry about the damage to your Jeep, but thankful it wasn’t worse. Thanks for sharing! 🤙🏻
I had a terrifying existence unhooking trailer. I had set the x-chocks and when I unhooked the trailer it moved backwards about a foot. It was on a slight incline. For a second I thought it was going to roll away. Fortunately it didn't. Moral, always chock the wheels front and back.
I was leaving the Army in Alaska and going home to Pennsylvania. At the time we had just purchased a 21' Coachmen TT. To get home from Anchorage, it was necessary to drive north to Tok and then connect to the Alcan and head south. We spent the first night in Tok. To my surprise, it had snowed that night in Tok. We had 6" of snow on the ground. I had never driven it in the snow. We got to the first hill and could make it up the other side. Someone stopped and towed us up the hill. The second hill the same thing happened. Except there was no one to help. The truck and the trailer then slid backwards down the hill. After wondering how I was going to make it home, it came to me. I took two of the links out of the leveling hitch, and never got stuck again.
Driving through Montana in our mini van pulling our pop-up camper. A group of deer on the side of the road decided to take turns jumping in front of vehicles. We saw the deer and the car in front of us hit the first deer. My husband is slowing down as quickly as he can. The other car pulls over. The second deer thought she would follow her friend and we hit her with our mini van. We pull over behind the other car that hit the deer. The other driver had fluid pouring out of her engine. We faired better then she did. Our Hood was crumpled up but everything was running as normal. A kind man from Montana stopped to help us all. He had some rope we used to tie our hood down just in case the latch was broken. We drove the 1000 miles home without any more issues. The other lady had a tow truck come.
My scariest moment was also coming home from alaska. About 25 miles out from Ankorage on my way to Tok, it was a windy gusty day but as the hwy turned the wind came directly from the side. I was in the slow lane with moderate amount of traffic with my jeep rubicon flat towing behind a 27ft clas A when a gust of epic proportions hit me. I thought my rig was going to roll, i held on for dear life trying not to upset anything anymore. In that instant i found i was almost on the inside shoulder of the fast lane going 55 mi/hr. Ive never had a gust affect my rig like that ever or since thank god , I don't know how i did'nt run someone off the road as when i pulled back into the right lane there ws traffic behind in both lanes. I'm sure many other than myself had some extra laundry too do that day.. Steve h.
The most terrifying incident for us was a driving incident. We were heading home on a rain slick Interstate with swoopy curves. We were driving 60 mph, came around one of the swoopy curves to find that a big rig had jack knifed and was blocking all lanes of travel. Several cars were already involved, and several were on the shoulder. So a shoulder ditch wasn't an option. We tow a 30 foot 5th wheel. My husband begins the emergency braking, & was going to head for the center divide, but had noticed another big rig was over taking us with the same idea. Our trailer was beginning to fish tail, so my husband had to pump the brakes to keep the trailer in control. We knew we were going to hit, & it was a choice of what part of the truck was going to take the brunt. Then my husband noticed the semi that was heading for the center divide, as he passed us he picked up his speed just enough that we could squeeze just behind him. My husband was saying out loud, " don't stop don't stop keep going". We had a hairs breath on each side of us, between the jersey barrier & the jack knifed truck. Our passenger mirror did clip the jack knifed trucks trailer, but somehow managed to miss our trailer. We managed to make it through unscratched, but knew we couldn't stop or we would end up being involved. We could see there were plenty of people on their phones so we knew 911 was already notified. Two lessons learned that day. We were tired, already driving for 5 1/2 hours, so this just reaffirmed the importance of driver fatigue & taking more breaks if needed too. And two, if your trailer tires get locked up, you can damage them. When we got home, one of the tires on the tandem axial was flat. We should have checked the tires after the hard breaking.
Somewhere between Texas and Florida there was a entrance ramp to the next Interstate highway that did not have an excelleration ramp. In other words my truck and trailer hit the next lane with no room to merge...……...at the same time as a BIG truck. Fortunately the truck driver saw what was happening and moved over. Thank you Mr Truck Driver.
A couple of years back my wife purchased a set of new front tires in TN for our toad, a 2013 Equinox that we had bought a couple of years prior on a used car lot. The rear tires appeared to be in good condition. The tire shop supposedly aligned the front tires. She then drove to AR where I had our motorhome. After she arrived in AR, I had the tires alignment re-checked by another local garage. This shop performed an All Wheel Alignment. They stated that they could not get the right back tire to fully align properly. Since we were intending to our LA home in a few days, I planned to follow up on this issue there. Unfortunately, this particular right rear tire blew out about 3 miles from our house. I was traveling less than the 45 mph speed limit and around a slight curve in the road. My wife was driving another vehicle separately behind me. Suddenly, I felt motion behind the MH and in the rearview camera saw the car swaying side to side. I believe that the violent, swaying that followed from the right rear tire blowout caused the Brake Stop to engage which caused an even more erratic behavior. (The Brake Stop cable snapped into).The car did a 90 deg swing hitting the rear corner of the MH before snapping two 3/8 inch receiver plates longitudinally (not at any weld). These two plates were part of the receiver that allowed it to bolt up to the MH. The toad and the entire towing assembly came off our motorhome, traveled through the opposite lane into a ditch before hitting a driveway culvert. The car did a 360 in the air landing on the residential driveway. It was a very frightening event and I am very thankful that no one was injured. I am now cautiously nervous when driving alongside an RV with a toad (or any vehicle towing a trailer), realizing these things happen even under the safest possible conditions.
We had a week of vacation. Headed out to the Oregon Coast excited because we had the best spot in the campground. Set up camp with our Chalet A-frame pop-up trailer. That night, a squall came onshore - heavy rain and wind and some thunder and lightning. The wind was not only buffeting the trailer, but gusts were popping the top open from time to time. We held onto each other and prayed it wouldn't blow us over. With a pretty steady, stationary front along the shore, we broke camp after washing off the outside of the trailer (sand that blew and stuck to large raindrops before the beach got wet enough to keep the sand down), and headed up the coast a bit to a more sheltered state campground. That night, repeated thunderstorms from the stationary front... and on the third day, we just headed home and staycationed the rest of the week.
Every time I have to take our RV to the dealer, it is terrifying....especially when I get the itemized summary at the cash register!!! Wouldn't wish it on anyone! Looking forward to more trip travel details!
I was pulling into a gas station in Asheville North Carolina after driving way too long. I caught the iron bar with my fender pulling into the gas pump. The noise that it made sounded like I was tearing the whole place down. That’s when I researched this rule…do not travel more than 400 miles in a day alone.
Merging on to I84 in Baker Oregon. Semi in the slow lane moves over to let me in. Merge on to interstate as truck clears. I flash my light to let him know he’s clear. As he moves over I hear this bang bang Bang and a piece of sheet metal about 2ftX2ft comes flying up at us spinning like a buzz saw. I made an emergency maneuver on to the shoulder. It missed the truck cab but I was sure it hit the Airstream. Pulled off at the next exit and it turns out it missed us entirely. Had the shakes for about an hour after that. And now, my heart is beating fast just reliving the event. Time for an adult beverage.
We were disconnecting from our tow vehicle and had forgotten to chock the trailer wheels first. The trailer slid off of lego block under the power jack. No injuries or damage to the trailer, except to my wits and my ego.
Thanks for answering my questions. A few years ago in southern Indiana we lost the transmission on our truck. The tow truck took our truck to their shop for repairs while the same company had another truck take the camper and us to O’bannon woods state park. The day we got the truck back from the shop it was storming so we decided to stay another night before hitting the road. Man was it a storm. A tornado was down and lifted just before the park and set down just after. I still believe to this day it was the right choice to stay but it was also the most terrifying. Once again thanks.
Gallion Adventures, thanks for the question! We live in tornado country, so we know exactly what you’re talking about. That’s crazy that it hit so close to your Campground! So glad you were okay!
Kristy Michael tornadoes are nothing new to us since we’re from the Kansas City area. We’ve been in a few bad storms while out in our travel trailer. Just something we deal with for being out on the road. I’ve been watching your videos for a while and you guys have really help us out. Thanks for sharing your adventures with everyone.
Having replaced the wheel bearing on my campertrailer literally in the middle of nowhere a fortnight prior we left Coolgardie on the way to Norseman, Western Australia, when this pickup truck passed me and said that the rear wheel on the campertrailer, the one with the new wheel bearing, was on fire. Pulling over the fire was quickly extinguished. What had happened was that the new bearing had collapsed thus allowing the brake drum to contact the brake pads and of course it caught fire. Needless to say the wheel was locked in position and would not rotate. Fortunately we were not quite in the boondocks and managed to be trucked back to Norseman where the bearing was again replaced, this time by a workshop. This still left us with a 3000km trip home. The entire issue was caused by a manufacturing fault where the stub axle was slightly bent forward causing a toe-in issue. This scrubbed the tyre and caused the bearng failure. The issue had remained dormant for a number of years untill the wheel alignment was affected by wear and tear. Apart from having to change a tyre, which had worn down to the steel band, we made it home albeit with no trailer brakes. The bearing collapse was only noticeable in retrospect. I did recall a very slight retarding force but at the time thought nothing of it.
@@kristymichael you're right, I only installed mine last year. Ironically it was because of one of your videos; the one you did on backing into RV Sites. You recommend having someone spot for you, but since I'm a solo I had to come up with an alternative. Thanks, and happy travels. P.
Don't feel bad, Sean, we have ALL done stupid stuff in our life before, and, many times! EARLY in my 38 year trucking career (first year in fact) I was working for a tank company in Houston. At the time I was pulling a pneumatic tank trailer hauling man-made fertilizer. Of course back then I was young and 'vibrant', (can't forget this is a family channel!), so, I didn't need a lot of sleep! Now, this trip was 160 miles one way north of Houston to the town of Gatesville, Tx to unload the trailer. I had arrived back to Gatesville on my third turn around and was really getting sleepy at this point. I 'was' gonna park in my uncle's car sales lot, but, thought I better not since he wouldn't know who's truck it was and would've probably had it towed I'm sure. So, I looked across the street and saw this supermarket...it had the same initials as my name...JRB Grocery. I thought THIS was the place to sleep! I drove around towards the back of the store, towards the huge empty parking lot, and, literally fell asleep as I drove around the corner of the building! In the process I ripped the twenty foot long 4" hose tube right off that brand new trailer! To make things worse, there were some people across the street saying goodnight to friends and saw the whole thing, and, was laughing like hyenas at the situation! Sooo,...by then I was wide awake, to say the least...and, after seeing the damage and cussing myself out, I thought to myself, "Here's your sign!" Thanks for sharing your scary moments with us! Hope you enjoyed mine! ( 2/24/2019 Sunday 4:00pmCST ~Jim from Houston, Texas~ )
When you drive for a distance, they say to open the window to get some fresh air or put on the radio, but nothing wakes you up like shearing your side view mirror off on a bridge abutment. (that's an old joke)
Traveling by car on I10 to Florida. We are supposed to stop in San Antonio. But we stop at a rest stop to pee and the wind is insane. This is before computers in our pockets. I have a Motorola flip phone and a weather radio. There is an ice storm warning, not watch, for San Antonio. We're on a time budget, getting to grandma and grandpa for Christmas. My husband goes "how's Houston?" Looks ok, so we cancel the San Antonio motel and get one for Houston. The entire time we drove from San Antonio to Houston, the wind was nuts. Many truckers stopped driving. And the few that were still out were wiggling a lot. It was scary, but we got to Houston safely. The road between San Antonio and Houston was closed just as we pulled into Houston. Luckily, we were just a car. You would not have pulled a trailer or even just driven a camper through that.
Driving our Class C towing our JK Wrangler in North Dakota. Beautiful day. Light traffic. Come up to a small tractor going down the road so we slowed till opposing traffic passed. Pulled out to go around the tractor and felt a small tug. Nothing out of the ordinary flat towing a Jeep. Four miles up the road we pull over to charge the battery for the safety brake and discovered the JEEP WAS GONE!!! As in NOT THERE! We high tailed it back and there it was snuggled up in the grass. The farmer in the tractor thought someone had tried to pass us while we were passing him. As it turned out the hitch receiver on the RV broke off the frame. This is after more than 8000 miles towing the Jeep. Luckily we were going slow and there wasn't a lot of traffic. Our Guardian Angle quit that day! Cheers folks. Love your video.s Rick & Lori
Don’t know if you’ll read this, but I wanted to say thank you. We watched one of your videos about ensuring your water pump is off while you travel. You saved our bacon today. Long story made short, we left our coffee thermos on the counter by the sink. Of course, it fell over hitting the kitchen sink faucet. Thankfully due to you, our pump was off.
We were locked out of our motorhome from a lock unit malfunction. We had the key but it wasn't working. We tried everything to get the key to work. We finally figured out a way to unlock one of the windows from the outside(yes its possble). Our neice was able to climb in and manually unlock the door.
Have y'all tryed O' Leno state park ? We love camping there & Manatee Springs state park, the deer will walk up all most touching distance and if you have squash or zucchini they will take it out of your hand. It's awesome I've got pictures of the deer eating out of my boys hands.
We made a list of all our screwups and it was at least 15 items. The worst one was driving off without closing my 5th wheel hitch because I was blocking the drive and got rushed. Luckily I stopped about a block away and discovered the error. It scared me so bad to realize I had almost gotten on the interstate with the hitch unlatched.
I had a set of wheel chocks that were stupidly placed under the tires, by me, on GRAVEL slip and cause the foot of the hitch jack to slip off it's base causing the whole 29' rig to roll backwards about 2 feet before the chocks grabbed hold. As soon as I saw it move and the bang as the foot hit the ground I knew it was going to roll all the way down to the lake...luck was on my side or an Angel on my shoulder that afternoon. I have since changed how I immobilize the wheels when it setup camp. BTW , you guys look relaxed!
I was towing our 5th wheel to Daytona Beach, Fl from across the state. About 10 miles out I started to hear a grinding noise. I stopped to check and couldn’t find anything wrong. I continued on and parked the rig. Right after I unhooked the truck the noise was present and much louder. The next morning I called the dodge dealer and brought it there. About 5 miles away. They said they were going to take it for a test drive. As they pulled out of the lot the right real wheel and axle came out/off the vehicle and rolled down the street. I was literally a few miles away from that happening while hooked up to a 38ft 5th wheel. I had it towed 125 miles back home and put in a whole used real axle. A friend towed my trailer home. Alan
We did loose 3rd gear in our transmission on the way home. We were headed south from Fort Nelson BC and the engine raced in cruise. We turned it around and limped back to Ft Nelson. The good news was that we could still drive it the bad news that it wouldn't work good. We limped it over 3000 miles home. Now that sucked but we brought home the best memories ever.
I had a trailer start rolling backward when I cranked it off the ball. I held onto the tongue and screamed to my wife, "Block the Wheels." Yes, I had forgotten to chock them. It was pouring down rain and I was trying to hurry up and get inside. My Bad!
I did that once as well! Fortunately for me I had not yet disconnected the safety chains or I would have been calling a tow service to remove the trailer from the bath house at the bottom of the hill...
@@thebigguy Good move but, unfortunately, I had already unhooked everything. I would have ended in a deep ditch. I really didn't need to hear my wife say, That was really Stupid". LOL
I also had my camper roll backwards when I cranked it off the ball. Holding onto it did not do much to slow it down. It finally stopped in the middle of my backyard. I now leave the safety chains on before removing it off the ball.
Stopping for traffic rubber-necking an earlier accident eastbound I-40 about the 210mm in NM when my load of grape concentrate shifted in my tank trailer and my truck scooched forward with tires locked on a patch of ice. c.1999. Per another Alaskan you tuber: having metal cups attached to belt loops while walking in the woods will alert bears (metal clanking is alien to them). Also, always a great idea to walk around ur vehicle after any amount of time away. Safe travels home, guys!
38ft truck and trailer combo, me, my wife and our 1 year old got re-routed from google maps due to a main road closure. We ended up towing down a remote, steep cliff side crumbly thin road. We over heated all the brakes twice and had to wait for them to cool, obviously blocking the whole road. The only other vehicle we saw was the UPS truck. Then after reaching a small town, we got routed onto a jeep trail. Excited about towing off road 4x4 style, we continued on. I had a bit of a trail freak out when the left turn we were supposed to take was not there at all, just thick woods. We then started the process of turning our rig around on a jeep trail. Luckily with the help of a hydroelectric power worker we flagged down and a small turn out, we got it done without unhitching and towed out the way we came. Turns out the main road wasn't actually closed. lol.
I do not know about the east, but anytime that you are in the mountains, (thinking Rocky Mountains), there are wild animals. National Forest camps often will have signs warning of bears. We encountered moose. They can be VERY dangerous as well. For that matter, if you encounter domestic cattle that have calves, they are not to be messed with. They are often in the mountains grazing. Near Mesquite Nev. we came upon three domestic dogs attacking a cow. If they can take down a 1000lb+ cow, they would attack a person.
I camp in Algonquin Park every August for a week or two, which is only a few hours away from the largest population centers in Canada. A few years ago at our favorite campground, they started putting up a small sandwich board by the camp office saying "Warning, Bears in Area". Apparently that wasn't enough, because a few black bears helped themselves to food that some idiots had left in various tents and soft sided vehicles. The last couple of years, it has been a large lit up highway sign, 10 x 10, "Warning, Bears in Area, All food must be in trunk of car, this is your only warning, $160 fine for first offence". They also had to put down a couple of nuisance bears. Black bears aren't as bad as grizzlies, but still aren't much fun to deal with. I wonder who had cleaned a fish or cooked bacon or whatever earlier on that table to bring the bear in and make him want to chew the table. That's another big mistake.
After we picked up our used camper we had a 150 mile trip and I had at least 3 times I had to slam open brakes because someone pulled in front of us and suddenly slammed on brakes. My nerves and middle finger were shot by the time we parked her in the driveway.
Gregg Tulowitzky, we had someone cut us off on the Interstate in Seattle in the rain. We had to use the emergency lane to avoid hitting her. Super scary, for sure! Glad you were okay!
Was following an RV towing a boat when all of a sudden, we see sparks flying. Sped up and saw that the boat had come off the ball and was be dragged by the safety chains. Pulled up along side the RV and told the driver to take their foot off the grass (NO brake) and coast to a stop.
Ha ha I love it where Kristi said that you slowly went back to your rig and "locked the door"....was that just in case the bear had a set of keys???? Thanks for the laugh.
larryz24, well bears have been known to be able to open doors (on cars, campers and houses), so locking your doors can make the difference of having a bear get inside your trailer or not. I prefer not. 😉
Yes Sean I've only been camping in our 24 ft camper about 2 years, pulling it with a 1500 dodge Ram and got in a hurry at tear down after camping a couple days & hooked up to the camper and took off for home and Praise God I drive trucks so I'm always slow down coming up to red lights and just paying attention to traffic around me because when we got home to unhook I realized I didn't plug the camper in to the trailer plug, So that being said I didn't have any trailer brakes & any brake lights 😲 SO if someone would have pulled out in front of us I wouldn't have been able too stop. Especially since and max trailer weight for our truck is 6,000 & that's what our trailer weight is. Thank you LORD for watching over us. I love all your videos
James Crutchfield, that is so scary!!! We’ve had 2 incidents where we did plug in our trailer but for whatever reason (I think a bit of dirt), we didn’t have a good connection. Thank goodness we caught it both times during our brake light check (I get out and Sean hits the brakes and uses the turn signals to make sure they all work). Glad you were okay! 🙌🏻👍🏻
Thank God for safety chains!!! We were unhooking the camper and forgot to chalk the tires next thing you know the camper starts rolling backwards once it came off the ball. Luckily we didn't remove the safety chains yet and it stopped the camper from rolling any further.
I know the feeling when you saw your trailer move without no one in the driver seat. The wife and I was rushing to unhitch our tt before it got dark. I thought she chocked the wheels. When the tt came off the ball, the tt begun rolling backwards to the woods. I grabbed the tongue pole and stopped the tt before it got momentum. Now I take my time and tell her to let me ONLY unhitch the tt. Luckily it was a 19 foot tt. My left hand was sore for 2 weeks.
One thing i did once and learned from was forgetting to chock the trailer wheels and on a little slop. Once it came off the ball of the truck it rolled forward and almost broke the power jack and nearly went through the tail gate of our truck!
Hey, lovely couple! Good to see you're having a wonderful time. You look so content. Both of my most terrifying experiences had to do with trusting my GPS. While driving my 30 year old 25' Class C, I found myself on a road that had sharp switchback after sharp switchback. On and on it went with no end in sight. I had no idea how many miles left I had to go and there was no turning around. Found out when it was finally all over that it was called The Tail of the Dragon (TN) and it's a world-famous road that motorcyclists and sports car drivers love to ride. Second one is simply the GPS took me down a very narrow, one-way residential road where there were parked cars on both sides and I literally was wedged in between the cars so tightly that I had no choice but to continue moving forward. Thankfully it was a very short street but I have not trusted my GPS since.
You should look into the GPS specifically for trucks and RV's. You enter your height, length, and weight and it won't route you anywhere you won't fit. No low overpasses, weight-restricted bridges or impassable roads.
Our GPS has given us a few strange routes over the years, but nothing too bad. Definitely look into an RV specific GPS (ours is listed in our Amazon store - link can be found in the description box below this video). John is correct about it asking the length, height and width of your rig, and then it plans accordingly. Definitely an improvement over the older models!
My GPS was the Garmin RV 770. I was going to Bandelier Natl Monument. It took me up a mountain over 8,000elev around hairpin turns with drop offs, down a 3 mile dirt road and then a turn onto a deeply rotted dirt road going up a hill. At that turn I stopped and said Oh No! I was able to back up about 20 feet to a cleared area big enough to turn around in. My TT is just 19 ft long. I saw some men working down the dirt road further on. I took my dog and walked to them and asked where I was. I had driven through the natl park, out the other side, and was in a logging camp. They said just take the diet road back out the way I came in, which took me again on all those hairpin turns down the mountain. I was praying to just get out of their. This was on my first solo cross country trip in October. Now I check th GPS, my cell Google map and paper maps. Never will trust the RV GPS only ever again.
We had a close encounter with a grizzly. It was in the Yukon on our way home from Alaska. We we're tent camping and had just layed down to sleep . My wife asked" did you hear that?" I listened and heard a snuffling noise. I was so tired, I instantly feel asleep. In the morning there were fresh grizzly tracks in the mud inches from our tent! I guess my snoring scared them away! But seriously, we took every precaution to no attract bears. After that close encounter, we purchased a travel trailer!
The Wandering Pinto, bears are so plentiful in that part of the country that it’s hard to not encounter them at some point. Glad he passed you by! I don’t blame you for getting a camper. I love to tent camp...but not in bear country! 😬
We were on our way to Cape Cod this past year and we almost had a game over moment at the NY./CT. state line on hwy 15. The sign said "no commercial vehicles", so I said "I'm not one of those" and we proceeded. Iiiiiiif they would have said there was a 9' 6" bridge lurking up ahead, I'd have NEVER proceeded. Since they left that fact out, we came within 20' of shaving the AC off of Clarke and our whole Canadian adventure would have ceased right there. Thank goodness for Ford brakes! I don't know how I didn't cause a wreck, but a great woman from NY let me into the middle lane to avoid the disaster. In thanking her, she told me that "Your not supposed to be on this road!" ,and I told her "I JUST FIGURED THAT OUT!" We promptly left hwy 15 and went over to the killing fields that is I-95N. I will never forget that moment.
You guys are great and I love watching your channel. Hope you’re enjoying your trip! I’m a one year in part timer and luckily my scariest thing so far is just backing up my little 18 ft TT 🤣.
Yes, it’s just horrible!!!! We do not yet have an RV!!! This after 3 plus years of research!!! But, in a couple of months, we will have a diesel pusher..
Day I picked-up my BlueBird FC-35. I was new to the whole air-brake system. I parked in a very large parking lot in Weed, CA. I went to the restroom, then in the back bedroom. I got into bed and noticed a bare flicker from somewhere. I looked forward and a LONG way away, though the windshield, I saw that the bus was moving. I raced to the front, and got it stopped somehow. The parking lot was just barely not level, and the coach slowly began backing-up towards a 30-40 foot drop into the woods in back. That would've been hard to explain.
Omg I recently left our brand new 53' rig in DRIVE!!! Almost the exact same situation as yours. In a hurry, last min remembered to get out and check something. Thankfully it didn't move. I realized it once I got back in the truck. I still haven't confessed this to my better half being that we recently purchased our rig. I'd probably be killed if I confessed. Lol. HAPPY RVING!!!
We were backed into our spot with the lake 20ft behind the trailer. It was at an slight pitch towards the lake but not terrible. While raising the tongue off the truck it was about in a small bind. I jumped on the bumper like I had before and all of a sudden the trailer popped off and rolled backwards. Luckily I had made it a habit to always chock the wheels and left the safety chains attached to the truck. Bout p’d our pants when the trailer jerked on the chains and rocked the truck. The ground was soft and the chocks were dug into the ground. All in all it moved about 6 inches but it felt like 10 feet! Almost had a house boat.
This year going to Quartzsite on I-10 almost to Ozona, TX. There had been a rain storm earlier and the road was wet. We topped a rise and the 18 wheeler ahead of us locked his brakes and was sliding. I moved over and as we topped the rise all traffic was stopped. I tried to move on to the inside shoulder and the lady in front of me just pulled over and stopped. So in a blink of an eye Ram 2500 and 36 ft TT hit the center median. Mud flying everywhere and we drove by the wreck in the median. After that highway patrol went and set up further back to warn people. Stopped in Ozona to get gas, stop shaking and possible clothing change.
Slow down! Now that is some great advise. Both for safety and sanity. It took me a while to change from that go go go world and relax and enjoy the journey as much as the destination, now hat we are full timing it. Now we've come to embrace the challenges and truly absorb the amazing sights and delight in the wonderful people we meet along the way.
I'm glad it was not the trailer/hitch ball coming apart while traveling down the highway. Then real terror happens as the trailer whips side to side and quickly rolls the trailer and tow vehicle over.
OK, full disclosure... it was our first trip in the Airstream and we were complete newbies... We were in a State Park and had successfully backed our rig into the spot which was on a slight slant towards the direction of the truck. All was well UNTIL, we broke camp. I had chocked the wheels as necessary to keep the Airstream in place but made the mistake of taking those chocks off BEFORE the truck was hooked up. Well, I raised the hitch jack and backed the truck up under the hitch ball receiver of the Airstream and began removing the tension on the hitchjack to lower the receiver on to the ball. Now you are getting the picture... of course, when the tension was removed the Airstream began moving on its own toward the truck and fortunately deposited the receiver directly over the ball and into the anti-sway hitch in such a way that it just stuck there. Of course we let out several screams and moved to chock the wheels of the trailer before it moved from its precarious temporary resting spot. With the wheels chocked we lifted the jack, moved the truck forward and began the process all over again successfully. We have never made that mistake again... you can imagine the horror of your rig moving back into your truck with no way to stop it... after the episode, we stopped, shared a beer (at 7:30AM in the morning) and vowed to make checklists for everything which we now use even though we now have thousands and thousands of miles of adventures behind us...
We were driving back home with our new 35ft travel trailer going through Nebraska almost to the Colorado border. The weather was getting worse, lots of thunderstorms in the area, but we could see the edge of the storm west of us, the direction we were heading. My daughter and her husband were in the back seat of the truck and my daughter was checking weather alerts for the area. Several tornado warnings for the region had been posted. All of a sudden we got hit with what must have been a 50 mph gust of wind that started the trailer into a fairly violent fishtail. I shut off the cruise and got on the trailer brakes immediately to stop the fishtail and then proceeded to brake down to about 40 mph. The winds got worse, but was able to keep control of the rig at the slower speed. We could see good weather ahead so we pressed on. Another mile down the highway or so coming up on an overpass, we see all these cars pulled over in the eastbound shoulder with their cell phones out. They were filming the tornado that apparently just missed us! So glad we didn't pull over and stop! As scary as it was dealing with the winds, I had a bad feeling about pulling over to the shoulder in the middle of nowhere in a thunderstorm. Guess I made the right call lol.
I also got out of the truck once while it was in drive. My wife and boys were in the truck and I went to check something on the trailer. Truck moved about a foot before I was back in. Very scary for all involved.
I had a similar experience with my 1968 Winnebago it was a 26 ft rig. This was our first voyage and it was more of a day trip. I stopped at a rest stop a few parking rows back from the rest stop. The Winnebago had a dash mounted gear shift and this was new to me. I parked the rig and started to the back of the rig to check on my wife and kids sleeping in the bedroom. As I was walking I sensed that we were still in motion. I looked back and saw the wall of the rest stop getting closer to the rig. Stealing your line with the speed of a super hero I ran back to the driver seat jumped in and hit the brakes just inches from hitting the wall. I am pretty sure that was my scariest experience ever.
You nailed it with the second part there. All of the major mistakes I have made with the RV have been because I was in a hurry. Slow down, take your time, follow procedures, and you are far less likely to make mistakes.
Hi! Thanks for sharing - we love your vids. So far our most upsetting trip was at the beginning of our first time out - honey was driving, saw buzzards having a snack on side of road, decided to honk a warning which of course frightened them off their meal - two adults went flying away from road but the juvenile flew up and right towards our truck - took off the passenger side mirror - yes, I jumped ! too close for comfort! Honey, being the man of many talents was able to reattach said mirror w/ zip ties!!! still waiting to take it to shop for electric work so we can adjust it - luckily its in a great position for both of us, as is, for now. Not a big thing but our first and last 'incident' so far. Your bears beat our carrion hands down! Have fun and safe travels out there! KenKarentwo :)
While you are in that area be sure and go to the Elephant Hospital...it is an experience you will never forget and make sure to get an elephant artist painting!
Our most terrifying moment/day would have to be when we were leaving Texas to head to Arizona. We spent one night in Amarillo, Tx to get an early start the next day and unbeknownst to us Texas got a fluke front that came through overnight. We woke up to 2 inches of ice covered with 6 inches of snow. We could not stay and hunker down and we were low on propane, we had to push forward. We left and literally went 20 miles an hour the entire way while semis were screaming past us at ungodly speeds. We easily saw 10 semis in the ditches along the way and too many to count cars that had spun out. We white knuckled it all the way to Arizona and we were unable to get up to highway speeds until we reached a good ways into New Mexico. It was so scary and stressful and one of the most exhausting days we have ever had. Slow and steady wins and my husband did an amazing job of staying calm and getting us where we needed to be safely!
I think you were lucky that your bear encounter ended so amicably. Years ago, I was rock climbing in Yosemite. Everyone in Camp 4 was laughing about the VW bug whose roof had been torn back with one swipe of a bear's paw. Turns out they had left an unopened can of tuna fish in the car. And the bears in Yosemite are not grizzlies!
Never get in a hurry, i.e. hast makes waste. In process of hitching my 5th wheel, with some unwanted help from a slightly intoxicated individual (Yes I should have known better than proceed) I didn't check that my hitch was locked in place, removed my chocks, retracted my landing gear, started to move forward, and guess what? Yup, the fifth wheel fell onto the bed of my truck, started to roll backwards, caused a minor heart attack/stroke (I am in my seventies and should know better than all of the above by now) but thank the Good Lord, caused no damage. Well it did hurt my pride. Never violate the rules and your own routine, and NEVER GET IN A HURRY!
Ray Sprague, so glad no one was hurt! I know what you mean about sticking to your routine. It really does make a difference! And getting “help” from well-meaning fellow campers always seems to be a disaster. 😂 I have learned to give a polite, yet firm, “no thanks, we’ve got it!” to anyone who tries to jump in.
I had to laugh when you said you got back in the camper and locked the door. Would locking the door offer added protection from a bear? Maybe it was an opportunistic bear looking for an unlocked camper. As usual, get video.
Believe it or not, bears DO know how to open doors. So do lions, tigers, and monkeys. When we went to an African lion safari, they warned us to lock our doors. We actually saw a bear open the back door of the car in front of us, but the quick-thinking dad who was driving the car was able to immediately reach around and shut the door and lock it. You can do a search on RUclips and find videos called, "Lion opens car door," etc.
susan edge-baker, actually it’s what you’re supposed to do, as crazy as it sounds. Lots of bears have been known to open doors. But if it’s locked it makes it much harder. He wasn’t so close to us that I was afraid he was going to attack, I just wanted to be outta sight, outta smelling range, outta mind! 😜
Well, that makes since, it just struck me funny at the time. I stayed in a little cabin at Katmai, Alaska, bears everywhere. Cabin had a thin wooden door that opened in and a bear trail running right in front of it. If a bear had sneezed that door would have come open. LOL. WHAT A FUN EXPERIENCE!
Hi guys, great channel, I am relaying my scariest experience. We drive a lance camper on the truck, the truck back then was an F2 50 with airbags and we were cruising down the highway at about 70 which was the speed limit in that area. The left rear tire delaminated it’s tread, slapping the daylights out of the metal work/quarter panel-even occluding the tear gas tank filler yolk. BUT THE WORST part was dropping 5 or 6 inches and induced SWAY from not having a tire on the left rear! Did not roll the rig but sure had heart failure. LESSON: do NOT run tires with date codes greater than 10 years ago!
Right--being equipped for wherever you are seems basic. I couldn't imagine being surprised by bears in quantity all around and in Chilkoot. That would be a main reason for being there, and the campground just adds food and garbage sources into the mix for them. I have spent a lot of time at Glacier NP over the years and, especially in certain areas like around Many Glacier, grizzlies can frequently be in near proximity and that is just part of the experience along with the closed trails, etc., by which the Park is trying to save everyone from immediate people / bear contact, not always very successfully.
Back when we used to have our school bus that I converted into a motor home, I started to pull over to the soft shoulder to check on the reason I had smoke coming out of the rear. Turns out there was no soft shoulder. Only a ditch. The right side of the bus leaned over and in slow motion the drivers side tires started to lift off the pavement. It stayed teetering like that until a farmed pulled us out with his tractor. Turned out the smoke was nothing, but almost tipping the bus over was kinda scary. His neighbor sold home made maple syrup so that was a plus. Oh...also a full sized buffalo walking through the middle of the camp ground in Yellowstone was interesting.
Had a black bear creep up on us, while we sat around our dying campfire one summer night around 10 p.m. or so. Scared the stew out of us, and tent sleeping was terrifying that night... Got a hardside trailer now!
We had two major issues on the same trip. The first was in Wood Buffalo National Park in Canada’s Northwest Territories. We were heading down a narrow road with a class C RV when we encountered a downed tree. There was barely enough room to make it through, but we did. Further down the road, we encountered a downed tree across the whole road. We were unable to move it. The choices were to turn around or backup several miles. I decided to try to turn around. I had a steep incline on one side of the road and a steep decline on the other. It took about a 50 point turn to get the rig around and head out of there. After a few days we were heading toward the Liard Highway. As we approached the northern entrance, it was beginning to snow, in mid-May. At the entrance was a sign that the road was closed due to deep mud. At that point our schedule, due to rental agreements, was pretty well committed so we forged forward; after all, how bad could it be. We met a northbound traveler not too far down who assured us we should make it through if we did not stop and drove carefully. We made it and celebrated at Liard Hotsprings, and gave the rental RV a thorough bath at Whitehorse.
We were hosting in Lake Selmac county campground in Selma, OR. My wife started her first round before sunrise and came across police tape at the boat ramp. We found out later in the day that a drug related murder had occurred. Our ranger supervisor expressed little surprise at our report (of course they never mentioned any security issues when we signed on). Solution? We gave notice and booked out of there. It's really the only bad experience in five years of full-time travel.
A couple of years ago, we were on the run to avoid hurricane Harvey. I was driving the tow rig, my wife and her dad followed behind in the car. We had a reservation at a nice site in Carrizo Springs, TX...just east of the Mexican border. We were about 30 minutes from our destination, and needless to say I was stressed and tired. We hit some construction on a two lane rural state highway and the bridge ahead was narrowed to one lane controlled by a stoplight so traffic could take turns in each direction. It was dark and I totally missed the light, and of course it was red. Seconds after I crossed the bridge, a car was coming the other direction, honking his horn at me. I wasn't sure what happened, then my wife called my and filled me on my dumbassery. Fortunately we were almost at the campground or I would have pulled over and taken a break, I realized that I missed disaster by about 10 seconds. I got a lesson for the future to say the least. Driving while stressed and worn out can be as dangerous as being impaired or distracted. I don't plan on ever repeating that mistake.
Dave B, so glad you were okay! I definitely think people underestimate the effect stress has on driving skills. We have had a few scary experiences when driving while stressed (towing and not), and it has been a big eye opener!
@@kristymichael Thanks. The drive home was more relaxing because my house received very little damage. It sure is nice knowing I have an escape plan should another storm come along. Keep up the great work!
We were going down Interstate 10 on our way home in our 2017 Entegra Cornerstone and had our distance control enabled at 70MPH and suddenly the Brakes slammed on! for 2 seconds. A "cleanup" moment. That coach had the sensor at the bottom of the front bumper and we surmised it was activated by road trash. We are now in a 2018 Newmar King Aire and the forward sensor is located "inside" on the forward windscreen! So you know! Stay Safe! "Just Burnin Diesel "
Ours is a bear encounter also. At one of the state parks at lake Tahoe, as we pulled in the host said to make sure we put all of our food inside the bear locker, even makeup. At the time we had an RV that the master bed folded out like a canvas pop up. We put our food in the locker but other stuff “why bother”. Middle of the night our small dog who sleeps with us started to growl. My wife said “I think it’s a bear “. I unzipped the window and the bear was walking right under us. We stayed very quiet and lucky the dog didn’t bark. The bear proceeded to the site next to us and trashed their soft-top Jeep. When he was far enough away we scoured our trailer for anything that might smell (including makeup ) and rushed it out to the bear locker. Note to self “trust the campground host and do what they say”.
I took my son and his wife and baby camping at White Water State Campground, in Indiana. There were only 1 site left, so I paid them and went to the site. It was very unlevel. It went straight back down a hill and trees were down there and a creek. I backed it in the site but left everything hooked up. My daughter inlaw and the baby and I went into the trailer to change the baby. Well, my son thought he would unhook the trailer from the truck. As soon as the trailer popped off the ball on my truck, it started going down the hill, very fast I may add. I jumped out of the trailer to see what I could do and it stopped just before the trees. It hit the electric pole that was standing about 4 feet tall. After that I hooked the trailer back on the truck and brought it back up on the site. I used every block I had to keep it from going back down. This was so scary that my son wanted to go home. That was 16 years ago. He has never gone camping since. Scared me very bad.
This event occurred many years ago on my way home from Lubbock TX back to Mississippi. I had taken my daughter back to school at Texas Tech and had used my living quarter horse trailer to help carry her belongings. My sister and brother-in-law were with me. I was driving on I-20 approaching Shreveport LA and topped a small hill and just on the other side of this hill was a parking lot of cars stopped on the interstate. I apply brakes and I looked in the mirror and the trailer had started to come around the truck. I let off the brakes and then re-apply them and looked and the trailer had started around me again. So again I let off of the brakes and get the trailer straightened up and apply brakes again and by now I have slowed enough that I managed to stop but with the front of my truck beside the vehicle in front of me. I asked the passengers if they had seen the situation before I did and they both said no. I know this story sounds like it took a long time to develop, but trust me, it was only a few seconds. In this case with the hill obscuring the forward view I am not sure what else could have been done.
I haven't had a terrifying experience but I had one that was unsettling. I was driving on a 4 lane interstate heading home pulling a popup Jayco with my F350. I moved into the passing lane to go around someone when I felt my back end lurch and I looked back to see the camper starting to fish tail. I instinctively went to press the brake but I realized I needed to accelerate. I accelerated just a bit to get the camper in line and I pulled over to the shoulder.
Here's one for you, 2 weeks ago we were pulling my 28ft travel trailer to a state park here in Texas. We had rain/sleet mix so fortunately I was going slower than normal. I slowed down to go over some railroad tracks, no problems. About a half a mile later, there was an intersection at the bottom of a hill with a red light, when I put my foot on the brake to stop, my brake pedal went straight to the floor, no brakes on the truck. Downshifted, pumped the brakes, used the trailer brake controller to stop. Scared the living daylights out of me. Turned out I had a broken rear brake line. Always be ready for anything. Safe travels y'all
Doug Duncan, no brakes?!?! Now THAT is high on my list of worst fears! I’m so glad you were able to stop safely. Good work on your part for not panicking! 🙌🏻👍🏻
I'm an RV newbie with a 13' travel trailer. My second time pulling it, the camper fell off the hitch and dragged behind the truck. I was calm but VERY embarrassed. Lucky I was only going 25 mph when it happened! It bent the jack but no other damage (thank heavens!)
I found it terrifying to drive the Million Dollar Highway between Ouray and Durango during a thunderstorm with heavy rain. The road is narrow, there are mountains on one side, a deep and sharp dropoff on the other side, no guardrail, and the white line has crumbled away in parts. I did it, but WOW!
We were camping in the mountains of Wyoming when my dad started running across the camp road. Our '49 Packard had lost its parking brake and was rolling towards a steep canyon. He got there just in time and put it in park to stop the rolling. He almost passed out in the front seat but all was well. I will never forget how I felt - 1955, I was 10 years old.
Moral - put large rocks in front of your wheels if you are parked on an incline and make sure your car is in PARK.
I've driven the Alaska highway in a pick-up camper, Bronco pulling a 17' travel trailer, 4x4 1 ton van pulling a 31' Airstream trailer, a class C motorhome, a class A 34' gas motorhome pulling a 24' enclosed car hauler with car, a 40' diesel motorhome and on a few occasions just a regular 4x4 vehicle. The scariest occurrence was when driving in December north of Muncho Lake, B.C. I touched the breaks on a long downhill grade and ended up jack-knifing into the snow-filled ditch where we were stuck for 4 hours before a tractor trailer came by and pulled us out. Also broke the frame on the 34' motorhome pulling the car hauler near Fort Nelson, B.C. Hope for the best, be prepared for the worst! Love your videos.
My daughter was in limbo in Chang Mai for about 10 weeks during the early part of the virus freakout. She liked it a lot but came home until she could return to East Asia. Love you guys in so many ways, long time fan
Years ago while owning a class A towing a manual front wheel drive car on a car dolly I left the emergency brake on and luckily a fellow camper alerted me to the situation. With no rear camera, I would have left a long trail of rubber on the road. Go slow and think is my lesson in life. Love your channel and posts. Enjoy the Far East it is indeed magical.
We had an Yukon bear experience at a abandoned RV park near Watson Lake. We had a black bear walk through our site and all we had was a tent. It was a little unnerving falling asleep that night. When we got home we started watching your videos and soon bought our first TT. We are in our 70’s so I guess it’s time fore a little luxury. Keep up the good work!
BlackdogGS, I love to tent camp, but not in bear country! Glad y’all were okay!
Our first week of RVing, we camped at the wonderful free sites at Elk City Lake in Oklahoma. The rain began after dark, then the wind. The 24 ft. motor home was swaying. We were literally on our knees praying. Next morning, drove across OK, and saw tornado damage in Tulsa. Whew! Second time we camped there, same kind of big windy lightning storm, without the tornado damage. Just scary stuff especially when you're newbies. I think we'll pass on Elk City Lake on our next trip, even though it's a fantastic free facility with power and water free, too. Did I mention it's free!?
How much does it cost?
Terrifying moment #1. 2015 on our annual trip from Hot Springs, Arkansas to Camp Gulf, which we discovered in part by your video from there, Merging onto I20 at Tallulah, Louisiana in a driving rainstorm. While merging a car passed a semi-truck on the right side. I swerved to avoid a collision and fishtailed. It was a miracle that I gained control. Probably more that I have a great hitch and sway control setup. My wife looked at me and said, that scared you didn't it. I have logged thousands of miles and have had to do some fancy maneuvering but that's tops.
Thank you for sharing the back up story. It’s so important to know that even experienced RVers can screw up. I learn so much of what not to do! I’m glad no vehicle, or RV, or people were harmed in the process.
Here's my most terrifying RV event: This just happened on Jan. 7, 2019 on my way to Quartzsite. While driving south on CA99 into the north part of Fresno, I glanced over to my rear camera monitor and saw nothing!!! Oh, did I mention that I had been flat-towing my Jeep Grand Cherokee?? Yep, somewhere back on Hwy 99, my Jeep came off my '83 Airstream motor home, and I did not feel it. I immediately pulled over, hopped out and ran to the rear. There was NO jeep, also, NO hitch receiver either. 911 was called. They said nothing had been reported. I went to the next offramp, crossed over the freeway to go northbound in hopes to find my Jeep that self-jettisoned off of my Airstream MH. After driving over 25 miles back (northbound), I saw my jeep sitting next to the jersey rail in the center median, parked, and waiting for me. All the tow bar assembly was still intact along with the hitch receiver, UNDER the jeep. It caused damage to the underside to the extent of needing a new transmission. There was minor body damage also. All in all, I thank the good Lord no one got hurt and no accidents occurred because of this. I must say that my laundry load was a bit heavier than normal, and the heart meds kept everything in check. So, as it turned out, the original 1983 hitch welds to the side channel mounts decided to rip off. I never felt a thing. So, the word "terrifying" is a bit of an understatement to say the least. My advice to all y'alls that tow...., have your hitch inspected on an occasional basis. I would never wish this experience on any one. I did make it to Quartzsite, but without my Jeep. ..........Russell D. @ the Washington Land Yacht Harbor, Olympia, WA. (kb6yaf@sbcglobal.net)
KB6YAF, WOW!!! That was a terrifying experience! I’m so glad you were safe and that no one else was hurt. Truly a miracle! Sorry about the damage to your Jeep, but thankful it wasn’t worse. Thanks for sharing! 🤙🏻
Glad all worked out as well as it did, 73s N5SP
Wow what a story!!!
Oh my Goodness!!!
@@kristymichael ...Thanks Kristy.
I had a terrifying existence unhooking trailer. I had set the x-chocks and when I unhooked the trailer it moved backwards about a foot. It was on a slight incline. For a second I thought it was going to roll away. Fortunately it didn't. Moral, always chock the wheels front and back.
I was leaving the Army in Alaska and going home to Pennsylvania. At the time we had just purchased a 21' Coachmen TT. To get home from Anchorage, it was necessary to drive north to Tok and then connect to the Alcan and head south. We spent the first night in Tok. To my surprise, it had snowed that night in Tok. We had 6" of snow on the ground. I had never driven it in the snow. We got to the first hill and could make it up the other side. Someone stopped and towed us up the hill. The second hill the same thing happened. Except there was no one to help. The truck and the trailer then slid backwards down the hill. After wondering how I was going to make it home, it came to me. I took two of the links out of the leveling hitch, and never got stuck again.
Driving through Montana in our mini van pulling our pop-up camper. A group of deer on the side of the road decided to take turns jumping in front of vehicles. We saw the deer and the car in front of us hit the first deer. My husband is slowing down as quickly as he can. The other car pulls over. The second deer thought she would follow her friend and we hit her with our mini van. We pull over behind the other car that hit the deer. The other driver had fluid pouring out of her engine. We faired better then she did. Our Hood was crumpled up but everything was running as normal. A kind man from Montana stopped to help us all. He had some rope we used to tie our hood down just in case the latch was broken. We drove the 1000 miles home without any more issues. The other lady had a tow truck come.
My scariest moment was also coming home from alaska. About 25 miles out from Ankorage on my way to Tok, it was a windy gusty day but as the hwy turned the wind came directly from the side. I was in the slow lane with moderate amount of traffic with my jeep rubicon flat towing behind a 27ft clas A when a gust of epic proportions hit me. I thought my rig was going to roll, i held on for dear life trying not to upset anything anymore. In that instant i found i was almost on the inside shoulder of the fast lane going 55 mi/hr. Ive never had a gust affect my rig like that ever or since thank god , I don't know how i did'nt run someone off the road as when i pulled back into the right lane there ws traffic behind in both lanes. I'm sure many other than myself had some extra laundry too do that day.. Steve h.
The most terrifying incident for us was a driving incident. We were heading home on a rain slick Interstate with swoopy curves. We were driving 60 mph, came around one of the swoopy curves to find that a big rig had jack knifed and was blocking all lanes of travel. Several cars were already involved, and several were on the shoulder. So a shoulder ditch wasn't an option. We tow a 30 foot 5th wheel. My husband begins the emergency braking, & was going to head for the center divide, but had noticed another big rig was over taking us with the same idea. Our trailer was beginning to fish tail, so my husband had to pump the brakes to keep the trailer in control. We knew we were going to hit, & it was a choice of what part of the truck was going to take the brunt. Then my husband noticed the semi that was heading for the center divide, as he passed us he picked up his speed just enough that we could squeeze just behind him. My husband was saying out loud, " don't stop don't stop keep going". We had a hairs breath on each side of us, between the jersey barrier & the jack knifed truck. Our passenger mirror did clip the jack knifed trucks trailer, but somehow managed to miss our trailer. We managed to make it through unscratched, but knew we couldn't stop or we would end up being involved. We could see there were plenty of people on their phones so we knew 911 was already notified. Two lessons learned that day. We were tired, already driving for 5 1/2 hours, so this just reaffirmed the importance of driver fatigue & taking more breaks if needed too. And two, if your trailer tires get locked up, you can damage them. When we got home, one of the tires on the tandem axial was flat. We should have checked the tires after the hard breaking.
I was holding my breath just reading that. Here's to you on that lightning speed reaction time. ML, Zanobia
Talking about threading the needle and needing a underwear change.
@Kathryn Browning very true. We were anxious to get back. Still...slow down.
braking
Somewhere between Texas and Florida there was a entrance ramp to the next Interstate highway that did not have an excelleration ramp. In other words my truck and trailer hit the next lane with no room to merge...……...at the same time as a BIG truck. Fortunately the truck driver saw what was happening and moved over. Thank you Mr Truck Driver.
A couple of years back my wife purchased a set of new front tires in TN for our toad, a 2013 Equinox that we had bought a couple of years prior on a used car lot. The rear tires appeared to be in good condition. The tire shop supposedly aligned the front tires. She then drove to AR where I had our motorhome.
After she arrived in AR, I had the tires alignment re-checked by another local garage. This shop performed an All Wheel Alignment. They stated that they could not get the right back tire to fully align properly. Since we were intending to our LA home in a few days, I planned to follow up on this issue there.
Unfortunately, this particular right rear tire blew out about 3 miles from our house. I was traveling less than the 45 mph speed limit and around a slight curve in the road. My wife was driving another vehicle separately behind me. Suddenly, I felt motion behind the MH and in the rearview camera saw the car swaying side to side. I believe that the violent, swaying that followed from the right rear tire blowout caused the Brake Stop to engage which caused an even more erratic behavior. (The Brake Stop cable snapped into).The car did a 90 deg swing hitting the rear corner of the MH before snapping two 3/8 inch receiver plates longitudinally (not at any weld). These two plates were part of the receiver that allowed it to bolt up to the MH.
The toad and the entire towing assembly came off our motorhome, traveled through the opposite lane into a ditch before hitting a driveway culvert. The car did a 360 in the air landing on the residential driveway.
It was a very frightening event and I am very thankful that no one was injured. I am now cautiously nervous when driving alongside an RV with a toad (or any vehicle towing a trailer), realizing these things happen even under the safest possible conditions.
We had a week of vacation. Headed out to the Oregon Coast excited because we had the best spot in the campground. Set up camp with our Chalet A-frame pop-up trailer. That night, a squall came onshore - heavy rain and wind and some thunder and lightning. The wind was not only buffeting the trailer, but gusts were popping the top open from time to time. We held onto each other and prayed it wouldn't blow us over. With a pretty steady, stationary front along the shore, we broke camp after washing off the outside of the trailer (sand that blew and stuck to large raindrops before the beach got wet enough to keep the sand down), and headed up the coast a bit to a more sheltered state campground. That night, repeated thunderstorms from the stationary front... and on the third day, we just headed home and staycationed the rest of the week.
J. Patrick Moore, I don’t blame you for ditching out. I would have done the same thing! Glad you guys are okay.
Traveling from El Paso to NM in a wind storm with 55 mph winds. I made it through next time I’ll boondock and wait it out.
Every time I have to take our RV to the dealer, it is terrifying....especially when I get the itemized summary at the cash register!!! Wouldn't wish it on anyone! Looking forward to more trip travel details!
I was pulling into a gas station in Asheville North Carolina after driving way too long. I caught the iron bar with my fender pulling into the gas pump. The noise that it made sounded like I was tearing the whole place down. That’s when I researched this rule…do not travel more than 400 miles in a day alone.
Merging on to I84 in Baker Oregon. Semi in the slow lane moves over to let me in. Merge on to interstate as truck clears. I flash my light to let him know he’s clear. As he moves over I hear this bang bang Bang and a piece of sheet metal about 2ftX2ft comes flying up at us spinning like a buzz saw. I made an emergency maneuver on to the shoulder. It missed the truck cab but I was sure it hit the Airstream. Pulled off at the next exit and it turns out it missed us entirely. Had the shakes for about an hour after that. And now, my heart is beating fast just reliving the event. Time for an adult beverage.
John S, yikes!!! That is scary! Glad you were okay. 🤙🏻
We were disconnecting from our tow vehicle and had forgotten to chock the trailer wheels first. The trailer slid off of lego block under the power jack. No injuries or damage to the trailer, except to my wits and my ego.
Thanks for answering my questions. A few years ago in southern Indiana we lost the transmission on our truck. The tow truck took our truck to their shop for repairs while the same company had another truck take the camper and us to O’bannon woods state park. The day we got the truck back from the shop it was storming so we decided to stay another night before hitting the road. Man was it a storm. A tornado was down and lifted just before the park and set down just after. I still believe to this day it was the right choice to stay but it was also the most terrifying. Once again thanks.
Gallion Adventures, thanks for the question! We live in tornado country, so we know exactly what you’re talking about. That’s crazy that it hit so close to your Campground! So glad you were okay!
Kristy Michael tornadoes are nothing new to us since we’re from the Kansas City area. We’ve been in a few bad storms while out in our travel trailer. Just something we deal with for being out on the road. I’ve been watching your videos for a while and you guys have really help us out. Thanks for sharing your adventures with everyone.
Having replaced the wheel bearing on my campertrailer literally in the middle of nowhere a fortnight prior we left Coolgardie on the way to Norseman, Western Australia, when this pickup truck passed me and said that the rear wheel on the campertrailer, the one with the new wheel bearing, was on fire. Pulling over the fire was quickly extinguished. What had happened was that the new bearing had collapsed thus allowing the brake drum to contact the brake pads and of course it caught fire. Needless to say the wheel was locked in position and would not rotate. Fortunately we were not quite in the boondocks and managed to be trucked back to Norseman where the bearing was again replaced, this time by a workshop. This still left us with a 3000km trip home. The entire issue was caused by a manufacturing fault where the stub axle was slightly bent forward causing a toe-in issue. This scrubbed the tyre and caused the bearng failure. The issue had remained dormant for a number of years untill the wheel alignment was affected by wear and tear. Apart from having to change a tyre, which had worn down to the steel band, we made it home albeit with no trailer brakes. The bearing collapse was only noticeable in retrospect. I did recall a very slight retarding force but at the time thought nothing of it.
Sean, get a back up camera on your trailer! They're wireless so they are very easy to install and based on that story you need one😬
Paul Baldassarre, this event happened back in 2012, so add-on back up cameras weren’t really a thing (at least not like they are now!).
@@kristymichael you're right, I only installed mine last year. Ironically it was because of one of your videos; the one you did on backing into RV Sites. You recommend having someone spot for you, but since I'm a solo I had to come up with an alternative. Thanks, and happy travels. P.
Don't feel bad, Sean, we have ALL done stupid stuff in our life before, and, many times! EARLY in my 38 year trucking career (first year in fact) I was working for a tank company in Houston. At the time I was pulling a pneumatic tank trailer hauling man-made fertilizer. Of course back then I was young and 'vibrant', (can't forget this is a family channel!), so, I didn't need a lot of sleep! Now, this trip was 160 miles one way north of Houston to the town of Gatesville, Tx to unload the trailer. I had arrived back to Gatesville on my third turn around and was really getting sleepy at this point. I 'was' gonna park in my uncle's car sales lot, but, thought I better not since he wouldn't know who's truck it was and would've probably had it towed I'm sure. So, I looked across the street and saw this supermarket...it had the same initials as my name...JRB Grocery. I thought THIS was the place to sleep! I drove around towards the back of the store, towards the huge empty parking lot, and, literally fell asleep as I drove around the corner of the building! In the process I ripped the twenty foot long 4" hose tube right off that brand new trailer! To make things worse, there were some people across the street saying goodnight to friends and saw the whole thing, and, was laughing like hyenas at the situation! Sooo,...by then I was wide awake, to say the least...and, after seeing the damage and cussing myself out, I thought to myself, "Here's your sign!"
Thanks for sharing your scary moments with us! Hope you enjoyed mine!
( 2/24/2019 Sunday 4:00pmCST ~Jim from Houston, Texas~ )
When you drive for a distance, they say to open the window to get some fresh air or put on the radio, but nothing wakes you up like shearing your side view mirror off on a bridge abutment. (that's an old joke)
JIM'S WORLD, wow! Glad you were okay!
Traveling by car on I10 to Florida. We are supposed to stop in San Antonio. But we stop at a rest stop to pee and the wind is insane. This is before computers in our pockets. I have a Motorola flip phone and a weather radio. There is an ice storm warning, not watch, for San Antonio. We're on a time budget, getting to grandma and grandpa for Christmas. My husband goes "how's Houston?" Looks ok, so we cancel the San Antonio motel and get one for Houston. The entire time we drove from San Antonio to Houston, the wind was nuts. Many truckers stopped driving. And the few that were still out were wiggling a lot. It was scary, but we got to Houston safely. The road between San Antonio and Houston was closed just as we pulled into Houston. Luckily, we were just a car. You would not have pulled a trailer or even just driven a camper through that.
Driving our Class C towing our JK Wrangler in North Dakota. Beautiful day. Light traffic. Come up to a small tractor going down the road so we slowed till opposing traffic passed. Pulled out to go around the tractor and felt a small tug. Nothing out of the ordinary flat towing a Jeep. Four miles up the road we pull over to charge the battery for the safety brake and discovered the JEEP WAS GONE!!! As in NOT THERE! We high tailed it back and there it was snuggled up in the grass. The farmer in the tractor thought someone had tried to pass us while we were passing him. As it turned out the hitch receiver on the RV broke off the frame. This is after more than 8000 miles towing the Jeep. Luckily we were going slow and there wasn't a lot of traffic. Our Guardian Angle quit that day! Cheers folks. Love your video.s Rick & Lori
Building She:Kon, WOW!!! That is so scary! I know you must’ve been having a mini heart attack when you saw that it was gone 😱 So glad no one was hurt!
Don’t know if you’ll read this, but I wanted to say thank you. We watched one of your videos about ensuring your water pump is off while you travel.
You saved our bacon today. Long story made short, we left our coffee thermos on the counter by the sink. Of course, it fell over hitting the kitchen sink faucet.
Thankfully due to you, our pump was off.
I could just imagine Yogi going camper to camper jiggling the door knobs ...
We were locked out of our motorhome from a lock unit malfunction. We had the key but it wasn't working. We tried everything to get the key to work. We finally figured out a way to unlock one of the windows from the outside(yes its possble). Our neice was able to climb in and manually unlock the door.
Have y'all tryed O' Leno state park ? We love camping there & Manatee Springs state park, the deer will walk up all most touching distance and if you have squash or zucchini they will take it out of your hand. It's awesome I've got pictures of the deer eating out of my boys hands.
We made a list of all our screwups and it was at least 15 items. The worst one was driving off without closing my 5th wheel hitch because I was blocking the drive and got rushed. Luckily I stopped about a block away and discovered the error. It scared me so bad to realize I had almost gotten on the interstate with the hitch unlatched.
I had a set of wheel chocks that were stupidly placed under the tires, by me, on GRAVEL slip and cause the foot of the hitch jack to slip off it's base causing the whole 29' rig to roll backwards about 2 feet before the chocks grabbed hold. As soon as I saw it move and the bang as the foot hit the ground I knew it was going to roll all the way down to the lake...luck was on my side or an Angel on my shoulder that afternoon. I have since changed how I immobilize the wheels when it setup camp. BTW , you guys look relaxed!
Burk Forsythe, chocking mistakes are so easy to make! So glad you were okay!
I was towing our 5th wheel to Daytona Beach, Fl from across the state. About 10 miles out I started to hear a grinding noise. I stopped to check and couldn’t find anything wrong. I continued on and parked the rig. Right after I unhooked the truck the noise was present and much louder. The next morning I called the dodge dealer and brought it there. About 5 miles away. They said they were going to take it for a test drive. As they pulled out of the lot the right real wheel and axle came out/off the vehicle and rolled down the street. I was literally a few miles away from that happening while hooked up to a 38ft 5th wheel. I had it towed 125 miles back home and put in a whole used real axle. A friend towed my trailer home. Alan
FlyingGyros, that is so scary!!! Wow! So glad you were okay.
We did loose 3rd gear in our transmission on the way home. We were headed south from Fort Nelson BC and the engine raced in cruise. We turned it around and limped back to Ft Nelson. The good news was that we could still drive it the bad news that it wouldn't work good. We limped it over 3000 miles home. Now that sucked but we brought home the best memories ever.
J Burritt, wow! 3,000 miles is a loooong way to limp. Glad you made it back safely! And you have a really good story to tell 😜🤙🏻
We fixed the truck up but my husband was so upset with the truck he sold it and got us a 2007 GMC diesel long bed, quad cab, 4x4
😮 WOW! Most dramatic experiences happen unexpectedly. Good to remind us all to not over react when it does happen.
I had a trailer start rolling backward when I cranked it off the ball. I held onto the tongue and screamed to my wife, "Block the Wheels." Yes, I had forgotten to chock them. It was pouring down rain and I was trying to hurry up and get inside. My Bad!
I did that once as well! Fortunately for me I had not yet disconnected the safety chains or I would have been calling a tow service to remove the trailer from the bath house at the bottom of the hill...
@@thebigguy Good move but, unfortunately, I had already unhooked everything. I would have ended in a deep ditch. I really didn't need to hear my wife say, That was really Stupid". LOL
I also had my camper roll backwards when I cranked it off the ball. Holding onto it did not do much to slow it down. It finally stopped in the middle of my backyard. I now leave the safety chains on before removing it off the ball.
I always leave the safety chains hooked until the last minute.
Wayne Johnson ; A good process for safety which I will now employ as well! Thanks for the lesson!
Stopping for traffic rubber-necking an earlier accident eastbound I-40 about the 210mm in NM when my load of grape concentrate shifted in my tank trailer and my truck scooched forward with tires locked on a patch of ice. c.1999. Per another Alaskan you tuber: having metal cups attached to belt loops while walking in the woods will alert bears (metal clanking is alien to them). Also, always a great idea to walk around ur vehicle after any amount of time away. Safe travels home, guys!
38ft truck and trailer combo, me, my wife and our 1 year old got re-routed from google maps due to a main road closure. We ended up towing down a remote, steep cliff side crumbly thin road. We over heated all the brakes twice and had to wait for them to cool, obviously blocking the whole road. The only other vehicle we saw was the UPS truck. Then after reaching a small town, we got routed onto a jeep trail. Excited about towing off road 4x4 style, we continued on. I had a bit of a trail freak out when the left turn we were supposed to take was not there at all, just thick woods. We then started the process of turning our rig around on a jeep trail. Luckily with the help of a hydroelectric power worker we flagged down and a small turn out, we got it done without unhitching and towed out the way we came. Turns out the main road wasn't actually closed. lol.
I do not know about the east, but anytime that you are in the mountains, (thinking Rocky Mountains), there are wild animals. National Forest camps often will have signs warning of bears. We encountered moose. They can be VERY dangerous as well. For that matter, if you encounter domestic cattle that have calves, they are not to be messed with. They are often in the mountains grazing. Near Mesquite Nev. we came upon three domestic dogs attacking a cow. If they can take down a 1000lb+ cow, they would attack a person.
I camp in Algonquin Park every August for a week or two, which is only a few hours away from the largest population centers in Canada. A few years ago at our favorite campground, they started putting up a small sandwich board by the camp office saying "Warning, Bears in Area". Apparently that wasn't enough, because a few black bears helped themselves to food that some idiots had left in various tents and soft sided vehicles. The last couple of years, it has been a large lit up highway sign, 10 x 10, "Warning, Bears in Area, All food must be in trunk of car, this is your only warning, $160 fine for first offence". They also had to put down a couple of nuisance bears.
Black bears aren't as bad as grizzlies, but still aren't much fun to deal with. I wonder who had cleaned a fish or cooked bacon or whatever earlier on that table to bring the bear in and make him want to chew the table. That's another big mistake.
After we picked up our used camper we had a 150 mile trip and I had at least 3 times I had to slam open brakes because someone pulled in front of us and suddenly slammed on brakes. My nerves and middle finger were shot by the time we parked her in the driveway.
Gregg Tulowitzky, we had someone cut us off on the Interstate in Seattle in the rain. We had to use the emergency lane to avoid hitting her. Super scary, for sure! Glad you were okay!
I did the same exact thing with a rolling rig just a couple of weeks ago. And yes, you can move much more quickly than you might have thought.
Bruce Nygren, 😂🏃🏼 right?!?! Lightening speed kicks in during a moment of panic!
Was following an RV towing a boat when all of a sudden, we see sparks flying. Sped up and saw that the boat had come off the ball and was be dragged by the safety chains. Pulled up along side the RV and told the driver to take their foot off the grass (NO brake) and coast to a stop.
Ha ha I love it where Kristi said that you slowly went back to your rig and "locked the door"....was that just in case the bear had a set of keys???? Thanks for the laugh.
larryz24, well bears have been known to be able to open doors (on cars, campers and houses), so locking your doors can make the difference of having a bear get inside your trailer or not. I prefer not. 😉
Yes Sean I've only been camping in our 24 ft camper about 2 years, pulling it with a 1500 dodge Ram and got in a hurry at tear down after camping a couple days & hooked up to the camper and took off for home and Praise God I drive trucks so I'm always slow down coming up to red lights and just paying attention to traffic around me because when we got home to unhook I realized I didn't plug the camper in to the trailer plug, So that being said I didn't have any trailer brakes & any brake lights 😲 SO if someone would have pulled out in front of us I wouldn't have been able too stop. Especially since and max trailer weight for our truck is 6,000 & that's what our trailer weight is. Thank you LORD for watching over us. I love all your videos
James Crutchfield, that is so scary!!! We’ve had 2 incidents where we did plug in our trailer but for whatever reason (I think a bit of dirt), we didn’t have a good connection. Thank goodness we caught it both times during our brake light check (I get out and Sean hits the brakes and uses the turn signals to make sure they all work). Glad you were okay! 🙌🏻👍🏻
Bear vs. Airstream, I keep thinking of a Sardine can and that little key! Great stories and thanks for the reminder to sloooow down
Thank God for safety chains!!! We were unhooking the camper and forgot to chalk the tires next thing you know the camper starts rolling backwards once it came off the ball. Luckily we didn't remove the safety chains yet and it stopped the camper from rolling any further.
I know the feeling when you saw your trailer move without no one in the driver seat. The wife and I was rushing to unhitch our tt before it got dark. I thought she chocked the wheels. When the tt came off the ball, the tt begun rolling backwards to the woods. I grabbed the tongue pole and stopped the tt before it got momentum. Now I take my time and tell her to let me ONLY unhitch the tt. Luckily it was a 19 foot tt. My left hand was sore for 2 weeks.
One thing i did once and learned from was forgetting to chock the trailer wheels and on a little slop. Once it came off the ball of the truck it rolled forward and almost broke the power jack and nearly went through the tail gate of our truck!
Hey, lovely couple! Good to see you're having a wonderful time. You look so content.
Both of my most terrifying experiences had to do with trusting my GPS. While driving my 30 year old 25' Class C, I found myself on a road that had sharp switchback after sharp switchback. On and on it went with no end in sight. I had no idea how many miles left I had to go and there was no turning around. Found out when it was finally all over that it was called The Tail of the Dragon (TN) and it's a world-famous road that motorcyclists and sports car drivers love to ride.
Second one is simply the GPS took me down a very narrow, one-way residential road where there were parked cars on both sides and I literally was wedged in between the cars so tightly that I had no choice but to continue moving forward. Thankfully it was a very short street but I have not trusted my GPS since.
You should look into the GPS specifically for trucks and RV's. You enter your height, length, and weight and it won't route you anywhere you won't fit. No low overpasses, weight-restricted bridges or impassable roads.
@@johnpalmer3848 - That is a great suggestion.
Our GPS has given us a few strange routes over the years, but nothing too bad. Definitely look into an RV specific GPS (ours is listed in our Amazon store - link can be found in the description box below this video). John is correct about it asking the length, height and width of your rig, and then it plans accordingly. Definitely an improvement over the older models!
@@kristymichael Thanks, Kristy. Nice of you to reply. God bless you guys and enjoy the rest of your exciting time far, far away.
My GPS was the Garmin RV 770. I was going to Bandelier Natl Monument. It took me up a mountain over 8,000elev around hairpin turns with drop offs, down a 3 mile dirt road and then a turn onto a deeply rotted dirt road going up a hill. At that turn I stopped and said Oh No! I was able to back up about 20 feet to a cleared area big enough to turn around in. My TT is just 19 ft long. I saw some men working down the dirt road further on. I took my dog and walked to them and asked where I was. I had driven through the natl park, out the other side, and was in a logging camp. They said just take the diet road back out the way I came in, which took me again on all those hairpin turns down the mountain. I was praying to just get out of their. This was on my first solo cross country trip in October. Now I check th GPS, my cell Google map and paper maps. Never will trust the RV GPS only ever again.
Now what if you were chasing the rig as it rolls away while the bear is chasing you? 😮😜
Ed Aker, definitely the worst case scenario! 🚌🏃🏻♂️🐻 🤣
We had a close encounter with a grizzly. It was in the Yukon on our way home from Alaska. We we're tent camping and had just layed down to sleep . My wife asked" did you hear that?" I listened and heard a snuffling noise. I was so tired, I instantly feel asleep. In the morning there were fresh grizzly tracks in the mud inches from our tent! I guess my snoring scared them away! But seriously, we took every precaution to no attract bears. After that close encounter, we purchased a travel trailer!
The Wandering Pinto, bears are so plentiful in that part of the country that it’s hard to not encounter them at some point. Glad he passed you by! I don’t blame you for getting a camper. I love to tent camp...but not in bear country! 😬
As always, great stuff! thanks for sharing your adventures! So, informative and entertaining!
We were on our way to Cape Cod this past year and we almost had a game over moment at the NY./CT. state line on hwy 15. The sign said "no commercial vehicles", so I said "I'm not one of those" and we proceeded. Iiiiiiif they would have said there was a 9' 6" bridge lurking up ahead, I'd have NEVER proceeded. Since they left that fact out, we came within 20' of shaving the AC off of Clarke and our whole Canadian adventure would have ceased right there. Thank goodness for Ford brakes! I don't know how I didn't cause a wreck, but a great woman from NY let me into the middle lane to avoid the disaster. In thanking her, she told me that "Your not supposed to be on this road!" ,and I told her "I JUST FIGURED THAT OUT!" We promptly left hwy 15 and went over to the killing fields that is I-95N. I will never forget that moment.
Runn Oft, yikes!!! That was close! Glad you survived unscathed. Yeah, not all big rigs are commercial. Sometimes places seem to forget that.
You guys are great and I love watching your channel. Hope you’re enjoying your trip! I’m a one year in part timer and luckily my scariest thing so far is just backing up my little 18 ft TT 🤣.
Yes, it’s just horrible!!!! We do not yet have an RV!!! This after 3 plus years of research!!! But, in a couple of months, we will have a diesel pusher..
A backup cam would have been a good thing in that situation!! We can't be without ours!!
Beth Zelten agreed. This happened back in 2012, so backup cameras were still pretty new (at least as an add-on option for older rigs).
Scary stories, good lessons! Thanks for sharing, have a blast in Thailand!
Day I picked-up my BlueBird FC-35. I was new to the whole air-brake system. I parked in a very large parking lot in Weed, CA. I went to the restroom, then in the back bedroom. I got into bed and noticed a bare flicker from somewhere. I looked forward and a LONG way away, though the windshield, I saw that the bus was moving. I raced to the front, and got it stopped somehow. The parking lot was just barely not level, and the coach slowly began backing-up towards a 30-40 foot drop into the woods in back. That would've been hard to explain.
Omg I recently left our brand new 53' rig in DRIVE!!! Almost the exact same situation as yours. In a hurry, last min remembered to get out and check something. Thankfully it didn't move. I realized it once I got back in the truck. I still haven't confessed this to my better half being that we recently purchased our rig. I'd probably be killed if I confessed. Lol. HAPPY RVING!!!
The DeCampers, lol! We promise not to tell! 😂
We were backed into our spot with the lake 20ft behind the trailer. It was at an slight pitch towards the lake but not terrible. While raising the tongue off the truck it was about in a small bind. I jumped on the bumper like I had before and all of a sudden the trailer popped off and rolled backwards. Luckily I had made it a habit to always chock the wheels and left the safety chains attached to the truck. Bout p’d our pants when the trailer jerked on the chains and rocked the truck. The ground was soft and the chocks were dug into the ground. All in all it moved about 6 inches but it felt like 10 feet! Almost had a house boat.
This year going to Quartzsite on I-10 almost to Ozona, TX. There had been a rain storm earlier and the road was wet. We topped a rise and the 18 wheeler ahead of us locked his brakes and was sliding. I moved over and as we topped the rise all traffic was stopped. I tried to move on to the inside shoulder and the lady in front of me just pulled over and stopped. So in a blink of an eye Ram 2500 and 36 ft TT hit the center median. Mud flying everywhere and we drove by the wreck in the median. After that highway patrol went and set up further back to warn people. Stopped in Ozona to get gas, stop shaking and possible clothing change.
Slow down! Now that is some great advise. Both for safety and sanity. It took me a while to change from that go go go world and relax and enjoy the journey as much as the destination, now hat we are full timing it. Now we've come to embrace the challenges and truly absorb the amazing sights and delight in the wonderful people we meet along the way.
I can say i have done the same thing in leaving my TV and in gear while out looking around. Glad nobody was hurt.
I'm glad it was not the trailer/hitch ball coming apart while traveling down the highway.
Then real terror happens as the trailer whips side to side and quickly rolls the trailer and tow vehicle over.
OK, full disclosure... it was our first trip in the Airstream and we were complete newbies... We were in a State Park and had successfully backed our rig into the spot which was on a slight slant towards the direction of the truck. All was well UNTIL, we broke camp. I had chocked the wheels as necessary to keep the Airstream in place but made the mistake of taking those chocks off BEFORE the truck was hooked up. Well, I raised the hitch jack and backed the truck up under the hitch ball receiver of the Airstream and began removing the tension on the hitchjack to lower the receiver on to the ball. Now you are getting the picture... of course, when the tension was removed the Airstream began moving on its own toward the truck and fortunately deposited the receiver directly over the ball and into the anti-sway hitch in such a way that it just stuck there. Of course we let out several screams and moved to chock the wheels of the trailer before it moved from its precarious temporary resting spot. With the wheels chocked we lifted the jack, moved the truck forward and began the process all over again successfully. We have never made that mistake again... you can imagine the horror of your rig moving back into your truck with no way to stop it... after the episode, we stopped, shared a beer (at 7:30AM in the morning) and vowed to make checklists for everything which we now use even though we now have thousands and thousands of miles of adventures behind us...
John Hirsekorn, I think all new trailer owners have this happen at least once! Glad y’all were okay! 🤙🏻
We were driving back home with our new 35ft travel trailer going through Nebraska almost to the Colorado border. The weather was getting worse, lots of thunderstorms in the area, but we could see the edge of the storm west of us, the direction we were heading. My daughter and her husband were in the back seat of the truck and my daughter was checking weather alerts for the area. Several tornado warnings for the region had been posted. All of a sudden we got hit with what must have been a 50 mph gust of wind that started the trailer into a fairly violent fishtail. I shut off the cruise and got on the trailer brakes immediately to stop the fishtail and then proceeded to brake down to about 40 mph. The winds got worse, but was able to keep control of the rig at the slower speed. We could see good weather ahead so we pressed on. Another mile down the highway or so coming up on an overpass, we see all these cars pulled over in the eastbound shoulder with their cell phones out. They were filming the tornado that apparently just missed us! So glad we didn't pull over and stop! As scary as it was dealing with the winds, I had a bad feeling about pulling over to the shoulder in the middle of nowhere in a thunderstorm. Guess I made the right call lol.
I also got out of the truck once while it was in drive. My wife and boys were in the truck and I went to check something on the trailer. Truck moved about a foot before I was back in. Very scary for all involved.
Terrifying experience? Pulling the trigger on the very first RV purchase..
Leonard Marlborough 😂🙌🏻
I had a similar experience with my 1968 Winnebago it was a 26 ft rig. This was our first voyage and it was more of a day trip. I stopped at a rest stop a few parking rows back from the rest stop. The Winnebago had a dash mounted gear shift and this was new to me. I parked the rig and started to the back of the rig to check on my wife and kids sleeping in the bedroom. As I was walking I sensed that we were still in motion. I looked back and saw the wall of the rest stop getting closer to the rig. Stealing your line with the speed of a super hero I ran back to the driver seat jumped in and hit the brakes just inches from hitting the wall. I am pretty sure that was my scariest experience ever.
Just bought our new(to us) 5th wheel toy hauler, hope to see you on the road ! Love your channel.
You nailed it with the second part there. All of the major mistakes I have made with the RV have been because I was in a hurry. Slow down, take your time, follow procedures, and you are far less likely to make mistakes.
Hi! Thanks for sharing - we love your vids. So far our most upsetting trip was at the beginning of our first time out - honey was driving, saw buzzards having a snack on side of road, decided to honk a warning which of course frightened them off their meal - two adults went flying away from road but the juvenile flew up and right towards our truck - took off the passenger side mirror - yes, I jumped ! too close for comfort! Honey, being the man of many talents was able to reattach said mirror w/ zip ties!!! still waiting to take it to shop for electric work so we can adjust it - luckily its in a great position for both of us, as is, for now. Not a big thing but our first and last 'incident' so far. Your bears beat our carrion hands down! Have fun and safe travels out there! KenKarentwo :)
While you are in that area be sure and go to the Elephant Hospital...it is an experience you will never forget and make sure to get an elephant artist painting!
Our most terrifying moment/day would have to be when we were leaving Texas to head to Arizona. We spent one night in Amarillo, Tx to get an early start the next day and unbeknownst to us Texas got a fluke front that came through overnight. We woke up to 2 inches of ice covered with 6 inches of snow. We could not stay and hunker down and we were low on propane, we had to push forward. We left and literally went 20 miles an hour the entire way while semis were screaming past us at ungodly speeds. We easily saw 10 semis in the ditches along the way and too many to count cars that had spun out. We white knuckled it all the way to Arizona and we were unable to get up to highway speeds until we reached a good ways into New Mexico. It was so scary and stressful and one of the most exhausting days we have ever had. Slow and steady wins and my husband did an amazing job of staying calm and getting us where we needed to be safely!
I think you were lucky that your bear encounter ended so amicably. Years ago, I was rock climbing in Yosemite. Everyone in Camp 4 was laughing about the VW bug whose roof had been torn back with one swipe of a bear's paw. Turns out they had left an unopened can of tuna fish in the car. And the bears in Yosemite are not grizzlies!
Never get in a hurry, i.e. hast makes waste. In process of hitching my 5th wheel, with some unwanted help from a slightly intoxicated individual (Yes I should have known better than proceed) I didn't check that my hitch was locked in place, removed my chocks, retracted my landing gear, started to move forward, and guess what? Yup, the fifth wheel fell onto the bed of my truck, started to roll backwards, caused a minor heart attack/stroke (I am in my seventies and should know better than all of the above by now) but thank the Good Lord, caused no damage. Well it did hurt my pride. Never violate the rules and your own routine, and NEVER GET IN A HURRY!
Ray Sprague, so glad no one was hurt! I know what you mean about sticking to your routine. It really does make a difference! And getting “help” from well-meaning fellow campers always seems to be a disaster. 😂 I have learned to give a polite, yet firm, “no thanks, we’ve got it!” to anyone who tries to jump in.
and learn to shoo away unwanted help - from anyone!
I hope that's the worst of it. Good luck, happy miles!
I had to laugh when you said you got back in the camper and locked the door. Would locking the door offer added protection from a bear? Maybe it was an opportunistic bear looking for an unlocked camper.
As usual, get video.
I have seen video of bears opening doors by operating the handle/ door knob. So I would say locking it is a good thing!
@@thewanderingpinto5979 Based on that I stand corrected.
Believe it or not, bears DO know how to open doors. So do lions, tigers, and monkeys.
When we went to an African lion safari, they warned us to lock our doors.
We actually saw a bear open the back door of the car in front of us, but the quick-thinking dad who was driving the car was able to immediately reach around and shut the door and lock it.
You can do a search on RUclips and find videos called, "Lion opens car door," etc.
I can’t think of anything more terrifying than an 800 lb Grizzly bear with a lockpick kit well maybe a caribou with a rifle Ha Ha
@@buzzzub8563 Apparently my bear knowledge is not what I thought it was.
Sean Kinda amazing that Christy's hair looks perfect while yours is????
Scott Lockwood, he is in need of a haircut, but I’m not sure he wants to brave a Thai barber shop! 😳😜
I’m LOL THAT you stepped back inside your CAMPER and LOCKED the door to keep the grizz bear out. Hahahahahahahahaha
susan edge-baker, actually it’s what you’re supposed to do, as crazy as it sounds. Lots of bears have been known to open doors. But if it’s locked it makes it much harder. He wasn’t so close to us that I was afraid he was going to attack, I just wanted to be outta sight, outta smelling range, outta mind! 😜
Well, that makes since, it just struck me funny at the time. I stayed in a little cabin at Katmai, Alaska, bears everywhere. Cabin had a thin wooden door that opened in and a bear trail running right in front of it. If a bear had sneezed that door would have come open. LOL. WHAT A FUN EXPERIENCE!
Man you guys get around 😃! We've got some catching up to do. Awesome video as always and thanks for sharing!
Hi guys, great channel, I am relaying my scariest experience. We drive a lance camper on the truck, the truck back then was an F2 50 with airbags and we were cruising down the highway at about 70 which was the speed limit in that area. The left rear tire delaminated it’s tread, slapping the daylights out of the metal work/quarter panel-even occluding the tear gas tank filler yolk. BUT THE WORST part was dropping 5 or 6 inches and induced SWAY from not having a tire on the left rear! Did not roll the rig but sure had heart failure. LESSON: do NOT run tires with date codes greater than 10 years ago!
Our tire guy says the best bet is to go no longer than 5 years on any tire no matter how good it looks!
I never go outside anywhere in Yellowstone or Grand Teton without my bearspray!
Right--being equipped for wherever you are seems basic. I couldn't imagine being surprised by bears in quantity all around and in Chilkoot. That would be a main reason for being there, and the campground just adds food and garbage sources into the mix for them. I have spent a lot of time at Glacier NP over the years and, especially in certain areas like around Many Glacier, grizzlies can frequently be in near proximity and that is just part of the experience along with the closed trails, etc., by which the Park is trying to save everyone from immediate people / bear contact, not always very successfully.
Interesting - never saw even one bear in either Park when we visited in 2008, thought they'd packed them all up and shipped them elsewhere.
Back when we used to have our school bus that I converted into a motor home, I started to pull over to the soft shoulder to check on the reason I had smoke coming out of the rear. Turns out there was no soft shoulder. Only a ditch. The right side of the bus leaned over and in slow motion the drivers side tires started to lift off the pavement. It stayed teetering like that until a farmed pulled us out with his tractor. Turned out the smoke was nothing, but almost tipping the bus over was kinda scary. His neighbor sold home made maple syrup so that was a plus.
Oh...also a full sized buffalo walking through the middle of the camp ground in Yellowstone was interesting.
Had a black bear creep up on us, while we sat around our dying campfire one summer night around 10 p.m. or so. Scared the stew out of us, and tent sleeping was terrifying that night... Got a hardside trailer now!
We had two major issues on the same trip.
The first was in Wood Buffalo National Park in Canada’s Northwest Territories. We were heading down a narrow road with a class C RV when we encountered a downed tree. There was barely enough room to make it through, but we did. Further down the road, we encountered a downed tree across the whole road. We were unable to move it. The choices were to turn around or backup several miles.
I decided to try to turn around. I had a steep incline on one side of the road and a steep decline on the other. It took about a 50 point turn to get the rig around and head out of there.
After a few days we were heading toward the Liard Highway. As we approached the northern entrance, it was beginning to snow, in mid-May. At the entrance was a sign that the road was closed due to deep mud. At that point our schedule, due to rental agreements, was pretty well committed so we forged forward; after all, how bad could it be. We met a northbound traveler not too far down who assured us we should make it through if we did not stop and drove carefully.
We made it and celebrated at Liard Hotsprings, and gave the rental RV a thorough bath at Whitehorse.
enjoy your trip with my 40 foot landscaping trailer loaded to max on the high way had a car cut me off came very close to drive over it
We were hosting in Lake Selmac county campground in Selma, OR. My wife started her first round before sunrise and came across police tape at the boat ramp. We found out later in the day that a drug related murder had occurred. Our ranger supervisor expressed little surprise at our report (of course they never mentioned any security issues when we signed on). Solution? We gave notice and booked out of there. It's really the only bad experience in five years of full-time travel.
A couple of years ago, we were on the run to avoid hurricane Harvey. I was driving the tow rig, my wife and her dad followed behind in the car. We had a reservation at a nice site in Carrizo Springs, TX...just east of the Mexican border. We were about 30 minutes from our destination, and needless to say I was stressed and tired. We hit some construction on a two lane rural state highway and the bridge ahead was narrowed to one lane controlled by a stoplight so traffic could take turns in each direction. It was dark and I totally missed the light, and of course it was red. Seconds after I crossed the bridge, a car was coming the other direction, honking his horn at me. I wasn't sure what happened, then my wife called my and filled me on my dumbassery. Fortunately we were almost at the campground or I would have pulled over and taken a break, I realized that I missed disaster by about 10 seconds.
I got a lesson for the future to say the least. Driving while stressed and worn out can be as dangerous as being impaired or distracted. I don't plan on ever repeating that mistake.
Dave B, so glad you were okay! I definitely think people underestimate the effect stress has on driving skills. We have had a few scary experiences when driving while stressed (towing and not), and it has been a big eye opener!
@@kristymichael
Thanks. The drive home was more relaxing because my house received very little damage. It sure is nice knowing I have an escape plan should another storm come along. Keep up the great work!
We were going down Interstate 10 on our way home in our 2017 Entegra Cornerstone and had our distance control enabled at 70MPH and suddenly the Brakes slammed on! for 2 seconds. A "cleanup" moment. That coach had the sensor at the bottom of the front bumper and we surmised it was activated by road trash. We are now in a 2018 Newmar King Aire and the forward sensor is located "inside" on the forward windscreen! So you know! Stay Safe! "Just Burnin Diesel "
Ours is a bear encounter also. At one of the state parks at lake Tahoe, as we pulled in the host said to make sure we put all of our food inside the bear locker, even makeup. At the time we had an RV that the master bed folded out like a canvas pop up. We put our food in the locker but other stuff “why bother”. Middle of the night our small dog who sleeps with us started to growl. My wife said “I think it’s a bear “. I unzipped the window and the bear was walking right under us. We stayed very quiet and lucky the dog didn’t bark. The bear proceeded to the site next to us and trashed their soft-top Jeep. When he was far enough away we scoured our trailer for anything that might smell (including makeup ) and rushed it out to the bear locker. Note to self “trust the campground host and do what they say”.
I took my son and his wife and baby camping at White Water State Campground, in Indiana. There were only 1 site left, so I paid them and went to the site. It was very unlevel. It went straight back down a hill and trees were down there and a creek. I backed it in the site but left everything hooked up. My daughter inlaw and the baby and I went into the trailer to change the baby. Well, my son thought he would unhook the trailer from the truck. As soon as the trailer popped off the ball on my truck, it started going down the hill, very fast I may add. I jumped out of the trailer to see what I could do and it stopped just before the trees. It hit the electric pole that was standing about 4 feet tall. After that I hooked the trailer back on the truck and brought it back up on the site. I used every block I had to keep it from going back down. This was so scary that my son wanted to go home. That was 16 years ago. He has never gone camping since. Scared me very bad.
I could not agree more. Slow down and enjoy.
This event occurred many years ago on my way home from Lubbock TX back to Mississippi. I had taken my daughter back to school at Texas Tech and had used my living quarter horse trailer to help carry her belongings. My sister and brother-in-law were with me. I was driving on I-20 approaching Shreveport LA and topped a small hill and just on the other side of this hill was a parking lot of cars stopped on the interstate. I apply brakes and I looked in the mirror and the trailer had started to come around the truck. I let off the brakes and then re-apply them and looked and the trailer had started around me again. So again I let off of the brakes and get the trailer straightened up and apply brakes again and by now I have slowed enough that I managed to stop but with the front of my truck beside the vehicle in front of me. I asked the passengers if they had seen the situation before I did and they both said no. I know this story sounds like it took a long time to develop, but trust me, it was only a few seconds. In this case with the hill obscuring the forward view I am not sure what else could have been done.
I haven't had a terrifying experience but I had one that was unsettling. I was driving on a 4 lane interstate heading home pulling a popup Jayco with my F350. I moved into the passing lane to go around someone when I felt my back end lurch and I looked back to see the camper starting to fish tail. I instinctively went to press the brake but I realized I needed to accelerate. I accelerated just a bit to get the camper in line and I pulled over to the shoulder.
Texas Slim, good on you for not panicking! We have fish tailed a few times and it’s definitely scary!