Sunline funny stories

[Galaxiedriver]

During the fall of '05 I did a 3 month consulting job at a power plant. It was a 40 mile drive from my home and I was scheduled to work the night shift, 12 hours, the entire time. Not wanting to drive home in a state of exhaustion, I decided to move our T 2475 Solaris to a campground near the plant and stay there and come home on the weekends. I reserved a spot in late August on a hot day. I picked a nice flat site under a huge tree that I thought would provide nice shade while I slept during the day. And it did for a while until the leaves fell but then the temperature was much lower and the heat from the sun was not a problem. But something else was. One afternoon I was rudely awakened cold and very wet with a lot of pounding on the trailer roof during a Missouri storm. The nice big shady tree I was parked under was a hickory tree. The banging on the roof was the hickory nuts falling from the tree and one of them shattered the skylight above the bed and the rain was pouring in.

Standing on the bed, I was able to raise the remnants of the skylight and use it to clamp a trash bag over the hole to stop the leakage. I was able to find an exact replacement skylight at a local RV dealer so the repair was easy. I replaced both because the broken one appeared very brittle from UV.

Lesson learned - Don't camp under nut trees in the fall.

Paul

[Makers Mark]

Some of those nuts are as bad as golf ball sized hail.

DW and I just got back from 4 days in Assateague State Park, MD and 4 days in Delaware Seashore State Park. Assateague had wide open spaces with no hook-ups and Delaware had full utilities but very close to your neighbor. It was hard but I finnally got the DW used to shut off 12V pump in Assateague when we left the coach for any length of time.

On our third day at Delaware we returned from a very long bike ride and decide to go relax and watch Opra (I know real excitement!). Well I can't sleep because I hear what I thought was a diesel pusher coming in next door and it just kept running and running. I finally got up to investigate and found out the the DW decided to turn the pump on for a now empty fresh water tank and it was running all this time to get prime.

Lesson learned, just when you think you wife is understanding the systems, watch her like a hawk. Expect the un-expected to happen.

MM

[emam]

Heck, we've been in our 2499 Sunline for 5 full months now and Cindy still gets into the shower every other time and yells "Why isnt the water Hot?"

Depending on where we are, I usually think for a second and reply back with something like "Becasue we're not hooked up to shore power and you turned on the electric water heater" I usually laugh for a few minutes while she has to get out of the shower soaking wet and wait for the propane water heater to warm up the water.

I learned after the first cold shower, which switch was which.

Pat

[Galaxiedriver]

Another funny story from us.

On our maiden trip with our "new" T 2475 in June of '04 we took our two Grandsons on a trip retracing the route of Lewis and Clark from St. Louis where they lived and up into Montana where I once worked and lived. It was a most wonderful journey.

As we were driving, the boys, 11 and 13, joked about having Indian names. I told them that those names are given due to some notable deed or event and that I, as Grandfather, would choose names for them before the trip was over. It didn't take long.

The youngest, at each stop, would rush out of the Explorer in his bare feet to go see the attraction. In South Dakota I warned him to wear his shoes because of rattle snakes. He didn't listen. In the Badlands we stopped to admire the scenery and as usual, he jumped out of the vehicle and ran out into the prarie. Well, there were catus everywhere at this stop and he suddenly stopped running and started screaming. I went to get him and carried him back to the Explorer and commenced pulling the catus needles from his feet. Not a pleasent experience for either of us.
Within minutes, he bacame known as "Walks On Catus."

The other, because of his passionate interest in wildlife and buffalo, became known as "Watches The Buffalo."

If you're looking for a trip to take kids on, consider that route but include Custer State Park in SD. (you can drive right through the middle of the buffalo herds) Little Big Horn, The Minute Man Missile museum in Great Falls, Montana on Malmstrom Air Force Base, Glacier National Park, and Yellowstone. The Berkley Copper Pit, School of mines and mining Museum in Butte is also of great interest.

Horse Thief Campground near Rapid City is beautiful as is Fishing Bridge campground in Yellowstone.

Paul

[JohnB]

Well here is “one” of ours. I laugh now, but at the time….

It happened on our first camping trip with the new camper. Which also was the very first day we picked up the camper from our dealer 450 miles away. I guess you would call this our Maiden voyage as since it was so far from home that after our dealer inspection is was too late to drive all the way home. So we camped the Friday after Thanksgiving at a state park about 300 miles from home. We planned for the camping trip. We where winter PU campers so being in the TT was luxury.

Cold, wet, rainy and backed the new camper in the site. Was on a gravel pad with a moderate slope. Tried to unhook so I could level out the TT. Then the fun began.

For the life of me I could not get the TT ball coupler to unlatch. Dealer hooked up the TT so I never saw it before or payed much attention. I did the normal make sure no weight is on the coupler, pulled forward to take all the play out, etc. Still I could not get the ball coupler latch to unhook. It would not even budge.

What is it with this thing. I have been towing trailers of all kinds all my life and I can’t get this thing unhooked. Wet, soaked, DW asking…..

I’m looking at the latch and it has a little finger lifting tab. I’m trying to pull it up, No go. Went to get the tools… Still nothing. I’m going to break something… This is stupid.

After 45 minutes somehow I got it unhooked. Leveled out the camper, went in and had supper. Flustered as can be.

Next morning we hooked up and drove towards home. The excitement was still so high from having the new camper, we camped the 2nd night at a local state park again before getting home. Again the same thing, on a level blacktop pad I still can’t this darn coupler to unlatch. Fought it this time for 30 minutes…. Well I’m gaining, down 15 minutes from the 1st time.

The next day we came home and I parked it in the yard. Crawled under and looked up at the coupler mechanism. Oh my goodness…. This ball coupler does not lift UP. It slides straight back….

Now with my index finger, I can slide the latch BACK in about 1 second… . That little tab that looks like a lifting tab, Ah nope. It must be there for looks….

Live and learn.

John