Challenging Trips

[rmitch]

Ok we have all heard of all the fantastic places, great weather, and beautiful sunsets. What are some trips you have taken that presented “ challenges “?
This year we have been challenged by WIND!
Morro Strand State Park 3 nights, wind 20 to 30 mph.
Oceano campground Pismo Beach 3 nights wind 25 to 40 mph.
Jalama County Beach Santa Barbara 5 nights, 3 days gusting 50 to 60 mph. The last 2 days were beautiful.
Quail run ranch, an ostrich ranch on harvest host in lake Hughes.
Took our two grandkids on this trip.
2 nights First was wonderful then the wind came up gusting to 70 mph.
Just Before sunset three DC-10 retardant dropping planes flew right over our trailer at less than 1000 feet before dropping retardant on a fire about 1 ½ miles away. It was quite a sight.
All these trips were still fun and I would go again in a heartbeat but boy the wind has been a challenge. I have other stories but would like to hear what others have been through.

[Rockhead]

Agree the wind has been a challenge this year. On our trip to the North Rim and Red Canyon, 2week trip n only 4 days without 20 to 25 mph winds ughhhhh

[Rossue]

Had bad winds on Kauai in May. Some said ther were of Siberian origin or something- I dunno.

[gklott]

April winds were challenging in Arizona and New Mexico. See attached from Springerville AZ where we stopped for lunch. We saw many larger trailers, class As, and class Cs pulled off the road, but we were able to safely drive along. Had to be extra careful opening trailer and car doors.

73/gus

[h2owmn]

Guess there was bad wind on the other coast. https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-...rough-weather/

[daniel108]

I guess the two most recent challenges...mosquitoes and tight back ins. The mosquitoes seem to have been a lot thicker this year and we weren't prepared so wound up being made a feast of as I got the trailer squared away a couple of times recently and it's discouraged outside lounging to some extent. They love my blood for some reason, seems like they will ignore everyone else standing right next to me while I'm under full attack.

I maybe wasn't careful enough on sight selection the last trip and reserved a back-in site that came off a narrow one way road at a direction of about 10 o'clock, with trees right along the road. I did manage to get it in there...probably should have filmed it as my greatest masterpiece of trailer backing ever. Then on the first night I managed to fix the water pump not shutting off and the furnace not coming on, so I felt pretty full of myself. Nobody else seemed impressed, however.

[JohnK]

From our home in Kansas to New Brunswick, Nova Scotia including Cabot Trail, and Newfoundland May 25 - July 9. 8012 total miles garage door to garage door. Pure magical beauty all around. We mostly traveled with no prior campground reservations and dispersed boondocked more that half the time. Our only challenge was high gas prices the further north and east we traveled. Crossing back to the US border literally within a few feet of the border we bought gas for $2.50 per gallon less than we had been paying in some areas. It was the trip of a lifetime and we're glad we did it.

John

[salmo7000]

My most challenging trip was my last one. In retrospect, what happened doesn't seem so bad now, but it was very upsetting at the time. At my second camp, I pulled my breakaway cable by accident while unhitching and woke the next day to a near dead battery. I was camped out in the middle of nowhere in southwest Montana. I checked everything I could think of but couldn't find anything wrong. Not knowing what the problem was, I called around to various RV repair places, all 2+ hours away, in the hopes I could bring it in. I finally found one that was willing to take a look at it but didn't really want to do a diagnostic or repair without a long term appointment. To make a long story short, I discovered the pulled breakaway when I went to hitch up, stuck it back in, and soon after saw the solar panel was charging the batteries, and they were already past half. I called and canceled the repair shop.

Since I was hitched up already, I decided to move camp so I drove to another site about an hour away. I set up there and was very happy until 2 large 5th wheel units arrived in the late afternoon. They fired up their very loud generators and left them running until well after 11:00 PM. Very disturbing. This place went from being wonderfully quiet with birds and frogs to the constant blare of unwanted noise. I could see the occupants inside watching their TVs, which did not help me tolerate it.

The next day I decided to move camp again, to get away from the generator people because it was obvious they were settling in. When I arrived at my new camp, I went to unhitch and discovered I had 0 power, not even enough to run the electric jack. Everything was completely dead, and this was after the batteries had fully recharged the previous day. At that point, I got this sick feeling and was suddenly wishing I had my own generator. By then it was late in the afternoon, and I was faced with either camping with no power or driving several hours to the nearest city while trying to beat the darkness, not knowing if my trailer lights would work with dead batteries, and not knowing if there was a RV repair shop that would even look at it, let alone fix it. But upon inspecting the batteries, I saw that one of the cables had corroded and broken off, right at the terminal. Fortunately, I had tools and electric tape on board and was able to strip the cable and splice it onto the battery, which instantly gave me power. The batteries were still fully charged, they just weren't showing a charge because the monitor panel doesn't work unless it has power. I was able to unhitch, set up camp, and then sat outside trying to calm down with a large glass of wine. I was beyond happy my temporary fix worked.

This was all very upsetting and the first trip I had ever taken in 4 years where I had any problem whatsoever with my Escape. Fortunately they were minor problems, although the breakaway cable thing could have been costly if I hadn't discovered it in time. So far the batteries appear to have recovered from being run down from the pulled breakaway cable and are holding a charge as well as they always did. I was able to finish my trip with no further incident. I've since replaced 2 corroded battery cables and thoroughly cleaned the terminals and sprayed them with the stuff that prevents corrosion.

I'm headed out in 4 days for another trip and hoping it's seamless!! I have added 2 additional items to my pre- and post-launch checklist... the breakaway cable and the condition of the battery cables. I have also added a fresh roll of electrical tape, a voltmeter, and 2 extra battery cables added to my repair kit. Not having power is a bad thing, trust me on this!! But I think I've gotten over the knee jerk reaction of wanting to buy a generator, at least for now...

[cpaharley2008]

Maintenance, or lack there of, can come back and bite you at the most inopportune time....stay generator free......

[gbaglo]

Originally Posted by cpaharley2008

Maintenance, or lack there of, can come back and bite you at the most inopportune time....stay generator free......

And, generators require maintenance.

[Mike Lewis]

In early March 2020 I was traveling north in California on US 101. I wanted to stay at the Mattole campground on California's "Lost Coast". I foolishly let Google Maps take me there from Garberville on the roughest road my poor trailer has ever been on. At one point I was exhausted so I had to stop for a break.

I checked the inside of the trailer. Nothing was broken, but the fridge had ejected its contents and its plastic shelves onto the floor. This is odd because I cannot remove those fridge shelves on my own without removing the dinette table because otherwise the fridge door won't open wide enough. But there the shelves were, on the floor, unbroken. The famously mediocre RMD5551 fridge held up and still worked.

I later learned that the proper route to Mattole is from Ferndale to the north. That's how I made my way out, and it's pretty tricky as well for a flatlander like me.

[Mike Lewis]

Correction: I meant the Dometic RMD8555 refrigerator, which spat out its food and shelves on the rough road.