Funny Caravanning Moments

[JBird]

Howdy all,

Was just in the process of looking for some insurance for the camper and stumbled across a page on CIL's website with a few cracker stories on funny caravanning moments and thought I'd share the link so everyone can have a laugh like I did. You can read them here.

Well you're at it, why not add your own stories to this thread if you have any and we can all have a good laugh. I'll kick it off.

On a recent roadtrip my wife and I had just moved on from a few day's stay in a caravan park.
Whilst heading off down the road to fuel up I noticed that the brake controller was saying there was a fault and there was no trailer connected: funny I thought as I started bitching and moaning to the wife about the installer of the brake controller not doing his job properly.
So out I get at the servo and proceed to fill up the car only to then look down and see every wire had been yanked straight out of the trailer plug: the cable got caught on the handbrake when turning. Needless to say I felt a little red-faced when telling the wife, especially after giving the installer a serve for the past 10 minutes. 

Jason

[JBird]

Jeepers, 153 views and not 1 reply. Either you guys aren't very humorous or don't get out enough   

[SteveandViv]

I missed the link first time around. Wonder if that's why

[ozbogwam]

Link doesn't work might be a reason

[GeoffA]

It worked OK for me just now.

[CBRK]

I missed the link first time around. Wonder if that's why

Same here, now i've followed the link, they are gold.

Loved the 11 kids and the 'too many carriages not enough horses'

Sent from my GT-P7510 using Tapatalk

[SteveandViv]

Yea, link works for me as well. Maybe just move it to below the text.

[berlitza]

Camped at a cp earlier this year I watched a youngish family that was packing away there setup, hitched up the caravan onto there tojo playdoe the dad did the orbit check then proceeded to try and drive off ( camped on and trying to drive off wet grass).

Trying to make out that I'm not watching and lmfao in the process, he had 4 attempts and using the 'f' bomb in more ways I thought were imaginable only to realise ( after being told by the old bloke that was camped beside me) that he hadn't removed the wheel chocks from the van. If the a%$hole didn't make fun of the elderly couple in there well used van I would have been more obliging to let him know before he even got behind the wheel making a dick of himself. Still not really all that sure why he had to use bloody big chocks to start with...

[ozbogwam]

I just get a page not found

[speewa158]

Here we Go
Went to a catch up in NSW A Swagger arrived started to set up his Cub , but the poles were not in the tube . They had escaped on the way up to camp . A Mad panic to try to find borrowed replacements .
Driving along Western Hwy toward SA noticed an old Jayco that hadn't been clamped down at the front & was 1/2 open . The wind was in the CT as it was flapping as it went along . Pulled the rig over & the bloke refused to belive the problem as it folded its self up as he stopped .
Siting at the traffic lights on the way to work 1 day with a new  CT in front . As the lights changed the tailgate opened & out rolled the kitchen . Dangling out the back on the way down the road .
Traveling up the Birdville track l tried to keep the cabled out of the rocks being sprayed out the back . Arrived at the border stoped for a pic only to find no plug & no Anderson , just a bunch of ratty wires on the CT .
l think we have all been there or seen it at some time or another 

[Brij]

This years big trip. 10,000km on road trip to Kunnanarra from Eastern Vic.
First day planned to stop on roadside at a particular road side stop 1/2 way between Vic border and Adelaide. Decided we didn't like that spot. Found another in the free camps book.
Keep going.
Gets dark. Still not there. See half decent parking bay on side of road. Decide that will do.
Miss the entrance. That's alright. Just cut across the shallow table drain onto the graveled area. Someone already parked up the end in front of us. Decide we will back up to the other end. No worries.
It's all dark. The reverse lights aren't very bright at the best of times let alone when they're blocked by the trailer.
But that's alright. I can see the table drain on my right, about 5m away, and the fence on my left also about 5m away, all lit up by the lights from the passing traffic. So I just back up, straight down the centre, keeping it straight.
Once I get to the far end I will just pull forward over to the left. No worries.
Backing....backing.....I say to the kids and wife "gee I hope there is nothing in the middle of .........." BANG. Yep. Rusty, steel I beam type power pole in the centre of the parking area.
Home made camper consists of a timber tent "box" slightly overhanging the rear of the ute type trailer......but not anymore. Pushed it forward on the LHS an inch or so, breaking the front mount out of the front of the box and bending a couple of other mounting bolts. That's alright, we can fix that. Actual hit was just to the left of the tailgate, breaking the edge out of the tail light, but not damaging the tail gate  . Thats alright, we can fix that when we get home.
Put the rear fold tent up. All the mechanism undamaged.  :cup:Phew. That was the most important bit.
Go to open the internal flap to get into the trailer tailgate once the tent is up. Nup. The impact has been right on the zip, breaking the little handle do-hickey off the zip and crushing the zip so it can't be opened.
We can bodgey that up.   Where's a screw driver? In the tool box. Where's the tool box? In the back of the trailer. , that we can't get into without opening the flap . Fold the tent back up. Get all the gear out of the ute tub.

Erect tent again......

And there is more funny stories on that trip  .......

To be continued

Peter

[rsser]

Wot Peter said: 

[rsser]

This one's not funny; memorable perhaps ....

I had my CT wiring done by a qualified auto-sparky who was also into off-road CTing.  On the first big trip we rocked up at Coward Springs on the Ood. Tk to find the Anderson junction had come apart, the battery end ripped off and the charge lead welded to the tow bar.  Complete short.  The charge cable was fried, some of the lights wiring alongside it ditto, one battery was half melted and acid was sloshing around the battery box.

The sparky had not fitted a fuse; he'd said that it cut down on the flow of current for charging.

The mechanic had Copley refused to touch it unless we cleaned it all up first.  This is the guy who wears the Schadenfreude t-shirt.  It fits.  Eventually we proceeded with just the second battery and a new charge circuit.

After some argy bargy the sparky back home agreed to cover our costs and install a new battery.

Lesson 1: Anderson connectors come apart.  Lesson 2 since learned: something will fail on every trip.  Try to see the humorous side.

[HEM19X]

This one's not funny; memorable perhaps ....

I had my CT wiring done by a qualified auto-sparky who was also into off-road CTing.  On the first big trip we rocked up at Coward Springs on the Ood. Tk to find the Anderson junction had come apart, the battery end ripped off and the charge lead welded to the tow bar.  Complete short.  The charge cable was fried, some of the lights wiring alongside it ditto, one battery was half melted and acid was sloshing around the battery box.

The sparky had not fitted a fuse; he'd said that it cut down on the flow of current for charging.

The mechanic had Copley refused to touch it unless we cleaned it all up first.  This is the guy who wears the Schadenfreude t-shirt.  It fits.  Eventually we proceeded with just the second battery and a new charge circuit.

After some argy bargy the sparky back home agreed to cover our costs and install a new battery.

Lesson 1: Anderson connectors come apart.  Lesson 2 since learned: something will fail on every trip.  Try to see the humorous side.

Maybe lesson 3 - always have a short bungy cord around the electrical cables

Won't mention the time we had set up and ran an Anderson extension lead from the CT to the Tug, decided to go for a drive, let's just say I'm glad the connector was the weakest point.

[speewa158]

& what is our lesson for today Master 
Ahhhh Grass hopper today we will learn
 Yes Master 
Today we will learn if you don't want trouble to find you traveling , then stay home so it wont have far to go 

[rsser]

Maybe lesson 3 - always have a short bungy cord around the electrical cables

Won't mention the time we had set up and ran an Anderson extension lead from the CT to the Tug, decided to go for a drive, let's just say I'm glad the connector was the weakest point.

Nice effort.

Yeah, after the melt-down I used a cable tie loop on each side and a small carabiner to link them.  Even that got blasted off several times.  Now have a housing clamp.  And a spare connector.  I once paid $30 for one at Uluru.

[speewa158]

lts cheaper to buy Anderson plugs at Birdsville only $15 there  How many can we put you down for 

[Spada]

Left William Creek heading towards Oodnadatta, after about 20 minutes of commenting how much dust was behind us, the penny dropped that I had forgotten to put up a stabilizer leg 

[speewa158]

Met a bloke heading for Camerons Corner after a overnight part of the way there . His old caravan had smashed windows & a bent frame as he hadn't wound up the legs . One had ripped off the other was bant beyond all help & the van was ,, Stuffed . expensive camp 

[rsser]

Back road into Renmark from Vic, hit a roo (broad daylight).  The roo crumpled and we drove over it.  Off it bounded.  Trashed grill and bent-down bonnet lip but the radiator was fine.  So we get into town and I notice the CT tailgate is swinging to and fro.  The padlock had come off the locking pin.  Hinges a bit bent but it still closed.  Got to camp, the bubble level that was glued to the towbar is gone. 

Three weeks and several thousand km later we get home and I'm scraping the mud out of the stabiliser channel section and out pops the bubble level!

[JBird]

Sorry to all that can't see the link or can't use it: try copy & pasting this link into your browser http://www.cilinsurance.com.au/about-cil/caravan-rv-news/cil%E2%80%99s-funniest-caravanning-moments

Some funny stuff here that's for sure.
To anyone that may be reading this thread that hasn't actually had something go wrong on their end ... yet! If I may offer some first-hand advice to keep in mind for when it does (and it will at some point, it's Murphies Law): Remember what rsser said earlier "Try to see the humorous side."
It may not seem at all funny at the time, but thinking back later on it'll be golden

Another one from our trip (yes, the same trip as earlier), we were spending the night camped at the Gulgong Showgrounds in NSW.
Upon arrival I knew the water tank in the camper was going to need filling so that was my first point of call before finding our "spot" for the night; so after locating the hose provided by the Showground I proceeded to filling her up.

Now I don't know about other camper trailers, but ours has a wider opening that narrows down to a standard garden hose size opening inside it, so you feed the hose in to the larger outside part and basically "wiggle it"around inside until it feeds into the smaller hose size filling tube and then you're good to fill er up.
Well little did I know at the time that the smaller inside tube was slightly bigger than garden hose size, and I'm talking the standard garden hoses here not the wider type ones that the Showground provided ... I was to find this out in the next 10 minutes.

So, after "wiggling" this hose around for a good 10 minutes or so trying to get it to go into the smaller opening I was beginning to lose patience (as was the wife) so I "wiggled" using a bit more force ... and then pop! Ahh, bout bloody time I say to myself and turn on the tap.
Get chatty with the good wife whilst the tank's filling, assuring her that within 10 minutes or so we'd be flipping open the hard floor for the night, and that was when I saw the water pouring out the other side of the camper, from the inside!

Yes, in my earlier frustration at forcing the issue, I had in fact "popped" the smaller filler tube off the larger one and basically fed the hose straight into the camper and turned on the tap; funny now, but then 

[Snow]

Went to a catch up in NSW A Swagger arrived started to set up his Cub , but the poles were not in the tube . They had escaped on the way up to camp . A Mad panic to try to find borrowed replacements .

Oh the pain, the pain! 
Cudos to BigJules for the borrowed set of poles. 
Curses to you Jamie for reminding me. 

Lessons learnt: Put foam in the pole carrier to stop pole movement and....Cubs only need 4 poles for the awning, not a dozen.

[MattNQ]

A couple of things I have learnt that are funnier in hindsight...
-Always double check your jockey wheel is up...even if you think you did put it up.....even after only 50m of bitumen scraping action mine has never been quite the same shape since!
-Never use your brand new garden hose to fill your water jerries ....
NOTHING can mask the taste!
-Always make sure your trailer handbrake works before  unhitching on a slope....came very close to ending badly...
-And one time, a mate camping near us  at Reedybrook learnt that if you forget your Missus's grog you WILL be required to drive to the nearest civilisation to source some, even if it takes you hours.



Sent from my HTC Wildfire using Tapatalk 2

[Bunyip]

So, the first time we take our brand new KK out I get to site, manouvre around for a while getting the camper at just the right angle to the creek (yes dear, I  can move it a little more). Unhitched and moved the car away, come back and the camper needed to move slightly. Rather than hitching up to move it I decided brute force and ignorance would do the trick. I jumped behind the camper and pushed, daughter was infront saying something that I couldn't hear (or didn't want to hear). All of a sudden a loud crashing sound as the camper lunges forward and goes nose down.
Two hours later, having jacked, chocked, kacked, chocked etc... I finally get the draw bar up high enough to re-attach the jockey wheel which had colapsed, got my 5lb hammer to "straighten" out the jockey wheel and we were off to a great start. Did I mention that we were camping for my birthday!!

Second instance pull up at site, turn on the water pump because I was in desperate need of a cuppa. Get distracted with something and don't get to pull the kitchen out. About 15 minutes later I notice water leaking from the camper, where could that be coming from? As it turns out the kitchen slides into the side of the KK and is not totally seperated from the rest of the interior.
In this instance it was a couple of hours of mopping up wet and flooded floors, battery boxes etc... Thank goodness we got the internal diesel heater.

I have to say though, everything that has gone wrong with the KK can be well and truely attributed to yours truely.

Bunyip

[chester ver2.0]

Same thing as above a few posts water filler hose shoved in to hard = one flooded goldstream due to fill point neck seperating at the part that goes inside the camper trailer

Other one was having a beer and happy the setup was so quick then we both looked up and saw the bed flies still rolled up above us and unable to be reached without winding the whole thing down