It seems as though just about every RV/camping blog is packed full of all the wonderful experiences one has while RVing and camping. I hope my blog reflects those things too.
But just like life, RVing isn’t always wonderful. Sometimes RVing is boring or scary or really tiring, or you get sick, or something major breaks on your rig, etc.
If you’re thinking about taking up RVing either part-time or full-time (or if you already are doing that) and you’ve been worried about the more difficult side of RVing, then maybe it’s worth the time and effort to talk about some of those issues here.
I’ve made a list of possible issues that I’ve thought about (I love lists). And I’ve tried to come up with options for dealing with each one so the negative impact is at least reduced, maybe even removed completely in some cases. So here’s my list. Please add your comments at the bottom of this post. Lots of you know more stuff than I do or have a different take on things or a different way of handling certain issues. The more ideas the better.
1. Lack of mechanical knowledge. Whether it’s how your tow vehicle works, or how your trailer works, or just the refrigerator or the water pump, or the proper way to disconnect your rig’s batteries, or what the proper tools are for a particular project … mechanical knowledge, or the lack thereof, can be terribly intimidating to any man or woman who doesn’t have that education or experience. The first thing to remember is … no one was born knowing any of this stuff! Every one of us who knows anything had to learn it, and before we learned it we didn’t know anything either. So it’s OK not to know something and it’s OK to ask for help.
What to do. Learn about your RV and tow vehicle. The more you know and understand, the less your stress will be. Keep all manuals that came with every device you own. Keep a list of repair facilities and contact info. Keep a log of all repairs and upgrades done to your rig, with photos if possible. Learn how to do things … what things you should be checking on your rig and how to do that … what the electronic read-outs actually mean. Take a class in basic auto mechanics and remember that every student there will be just as inexperienced as you are. You don’t need to become a mechanic, but you should become familiar with the language and many of the tools. Ask if the mechanic at your local RV repair facility could spend an hour walking through all of the systems with you … or even just 10 minutes on the one system that you’re the most puzzled about. Ask other RVers about their experiences doing their own work … ask what tools they carry with them … watch videos online (but take the info there with a grain of salt). When you start a project, take “before” photos so you can put a system back together the way it was originally if you need to. Keep your RV neat and tidy!
All the tools in the world won’t help if you don’t know how to use them.
2. When the rig breaks down. This is related to #1 above … what to do when/if your rig has a major breakdown, when something goes wrong that you really need to have fixed pretty darned soon or maybe even immediately. I think we all have this concern, no matter how much we know or how experienced we are.
What to do. First, make sure you have towing insurance for the tow vehicle and for the trailer. As well, if your tow vehicle breaks down, of course you need insurance that covers towing the tow vehicle, but ALSO you might want to get insurance that will tow the perfectly good trailer to a safe place off the highway so you can stay in the trailer while the tow vehicle is being repaired. Make sure your towing insurance covers you wherever you will be traveling, especially if you’ll be traveling out of the country. Make a list of repair facilities located on your route and that are close to your destination. Keep those phone numbers easily accessible and keep your cell phone charged. Above all, keep yourself safe until help arrives, even if that means you should walk off the highway a bit and away from your rig to avoid getting hurt. Friends of mine keep a carryall bag in the tow vehicle with them. It holds ALL important papers, phone numbers, extra cash, spare cell phone power cords, etc, so in an emergency they can grab that bag quickly and leave.
3. Lack of physical strength. This is a concern for many women but also for some men, especially those of us who travel alone when there may not be a helping hand nearby. So maybe you do know the mechanics of how to change a flat tire, but are you strong enough to loosen those lug nuts? Well, there are tricks for doing that!
What to do. Again, take a class and learn how to use tools effectively. If you’re trying to loosen a lug nut in order to replace a flat tire, here are three tricks: (a) use a big hammer to hammer near the end of the lug wrench, the lug nut is more apt to break loose with intermittent big, hard whacks than with constant pressure; (b) or put one foot on the end of the lug wrench and push down HARD and intermittently, somewhat bouncing on the end of the lug wrench using your body weight. In both (a) and (b) here, you should position the lug wrench so you are pushing DOWN on the wrench in order to loosen the nuts. That’s in case you slip … then your foot won’t have far to go to hit the ground. That’s also because you should not be lifting UP on the wrench, that’s really hard on your back … you should always be pushing down on the wrench. The photo below shows how to position the wrench and put your foot on it in order to use your body weight. If you use your hands to push on the wrench, then your face will be right down there too … and if the wrench pops off the lug nut, the wrench could hit you HARD in the face … use your foot and bounce just a bit on the end of that lug wrench.
The third trick is one I’ve used in several different situations. Keep a length of iron pipe handy that’s a couple of feet longer than the lug wrench and that slides neatly over the lug wrench … you will have much better leverage. Again, position the wrench on the lug nut so you are pushing DOWN on the end of the pipe. Don’t position the wrench/pipe straight up as in the photo below; the lug wrench should be parallel to the ground as in the photo above.
Hitching and unhitching is another area of concern especially with certain types of anti-sway bar systems that take some muscle to install. In just about every situation, there is some sort of tool, pipe, iron bar, or other device that will give you better leverage … put a block of wood on the ground and pry from that height rather than prying directly from the ground for instance. Best of all … exercise and stay fit. And try doing everything that you might have to do (even the stuff you don’t think you’ll have to do) when there are other people around who can help you figure out how to do something by yourself. Don’t go it alone the first time. You need to know this stuff, even if it’s just to let someone who is helping you know how to do something some day in the future. I’m not a large woman and not so exceptionally strong, but I was a diesel truck mechanic for many years and did the same work that was done by the men mechanics. I know more men with bad backs or damaged knees because they refused to use the tricks available to all of us. Use tools and your body wisely; be careful.
4. Getting sick or hurt. We all get sick or we hurt ourselves, don’t we. We get a bad headache or pull a muscle or eat the wrong thing. Maybe we fall and hurt ourselves … and if that happens when we’re alone, then it could be a real issue.
What to do. Be careful! Carry the ten essentials when you go hiking. If you are traveling alone, carry your fully charged cell phone with you all the time, even when you are simply stepping out the door for a moment. Make sure someone in the world knows where you are. If you’re going to be outside cell phone range, make sure someone knows when you expect to return within range, and then let them know when you have returned. Make sure you have medical insurance coverage where you’ll be traveling, especially if you will be leaving the country even for a short period. Continue to have regular medical, dental, and vision checkups even while you’re on the road. Do some research before your trip to find emergency care centers in the areas in which you’ll be traveling. Inside your trailer, close to the door, post phone numbers of your emergency contacts so that, if you are incapacitated, someone helping you can notify your emergency contacts. Obviously, make sure you have an extra supply of any medications you take in case you get stuck somewhere and can’t get home in time to refill the prescription … whether you’re stuck away from home because of a mechanical breakdown or you simply have found heaven on earth and want to stay there a bit longer. 🙂
Grand Teton National Park
5. Fear of being lonely. Maybe every one of us who travels alone has this fear at one time or another. When something goes wrong with the rig or you get sick or you just feel really down, there might not be anyone around to help. Getting out of a sticky situation rests completely on your own two shoulders, even when you are sick or hurt or you’re feeling depressed or sad. First off, don’t criticize yourself! All of your feelings are A-OK.
What to do. Cell phone coverage is getting better and better in North America; make sure you can communicate with the outside world even if you choose to camp out in wild country by yourself. Have tools and spare parts for the common, critical things on your rig that might fail. Keep a well-stocked first aid kit on board. Keep in touch with friends/family regularly (start a blog!). Friends may be reluctant to interrupt or interfere with your RVing, so let them know that their contact with you is NOT interruption or interference but is important. They might be hearing about your adventures, but you need to hear about theirs as well. Rather than moving to a new campsite often in order to see more things, find a nice place and stay there for a month and get to know the camp hosts and other local folks, visit the local pubs and restaurants, ask the locals where they go for fun, go to church or the gym or fishing or take a class locally (wood-carving, chess, yoga), ask an elderly person if you can help them with their yardwork … all so you feel like part of a community. Also, choose your friends wisely. Choose those who nourish and support you. Make new friends of other RVers in campgrounds and on blogs/forums/etc. Quality over quantity, but do go out and make friends wherever you are. Couples feel alone too. Go meet people and see who fits into your life. There are so many benefits to traveling or camping alone! But we still need friends.
6. Unwanted advances by humans or other wildlife. This is a big fear for some some of us, especially those of us who are out there alone. Don’t berate yourself for being afraid, make plans instead. Keep in mind that the rate of incidence of unwanted human advances is extremely small for campers. The bad guys aren’t going to be driving around for hours and hours in the wilderness looking for a person camping alone. The bad guys are likely going to be in populated areas where targets are more plentiful. Bears and other wild animals, on the other hand, will be out there where you are camping.
What to do. Keep a cool head and plan ahead. Keep your cell phone on you at all times and keep it charged. Some single women campers keep a pair of men’s large boots outside their camper/RV … and some single campers keep two chairs out under the awning, not just one chair. One fellow online has a recording of a dog’s very deep-throated growling and barking that he can play instantaneously from inside his rig. There’s another story online written by a fellow who had 3 or 4 trouble-makers outside his trailer late one night threatening him and demanding that he come outside. The camping fellow had a gun and told the guys that he didn’t need to open the door … that he could simply shoot through the wall of the camper. When they laughed at him, he shot through the wall of the camper! They ran! He had to repair the hole later, but he was alive and safe. Some folks buy a single-unit van or motorhome instead of a tow vehicle and separate trailer so they don’t have to walk outside the trailer in order to get into the tow vehicle in order to drive away. Park your tow vehicle where you can see it from inside the trailer. Keep your vehicle key fob handy so you can activate the vehicle alarm system. Keep a few marine quality canned air horns inside the trailer with you; they are LOUD! If you were to shove one of those horns into someone’s ear and then activate it, it would likely cause physical damage and real pain. Install one exterior light on each of the four sides of your rig with interior light switches. If you have doubts about your camping spot, keep the trailer hitched to your tow vehicle the first night and don’t deploy the stabilizers in case you want to leave quickly. Always return to your rig before darkness sets in so you can see the surrounding area. Do not be shy about refusing to open the door to strangers … there’s no shame in talking with someone through a closed door. Non-human wildlife is another story … be careful of snakes and spiders and such, learn what might be in the area before you go there … make noise when hiking alone in the woods, carry bear spray (or wolf urine spray, even better! … thanks to blog reader Tim in Montana for that tip). There are lots of online resources and library books that can educate us about what mammals and reptiles and bugs will be in the area in which we’ll be camping … do some research before you leave and enjoy the education.
7. Coming to the end of a dead end road. This might sound funny because you may be thinking “well, just turn around and drive out”. But if you have just driven 4 miles down a road with your trailer in tow and you get to the end of the road and there’s NO place to turn around, it won’t be funny and you won’t be laughing. Maybe you’re on the wrong road, or maybe the road washed out, or maybe a storm blew down a number of huge trees across the road … no matter the reason, you’re stuck.
What to do. It may seem like the only thing to do is to back that trailer the full four miles which could take you a very, very long time. But there are some tricks. I carry a wheel for the bottom of my trailer’s tongue jack tube. Having a wheel on the front of the trailer makes the trailer easier to move when the trailer is disconnected from the tow vehicle. If there is room on this dead end road to get your tow vehicle around behind the trailer, and if there’s room for the trailer to be sideways in the road, then you may be able to tie some long/strong line from the truck to the trailer’s tongue and very gently pull the tongue around so the trailer turns around. As long as the trailer’s wheels stay on the road, you might just get away with this trick. If there isn’t room to turn the trailer, you can try towing the trailer from behind by tying lines from the back corners of the truck to the corners of the back bumper of the trailer and so get the trailer at least part way back down the road until you find a place to turn around … but you have to go REALLY SLOWLY if you do this because of that small tongue wheel, and the rig will look pretty weird, but you may get out of this pickle sooner than you would if you simply backed the trailer down the road, and driving the vehicle forward will be a heck of lot easier on your body and your brain than backing it those four miles. Another thing to do, especially if you can’t get your tow vehicle around behind the trailer, is to call a commercial tow truck and have them tow the trailer out backwards. There are manual trailer dollies and electrically-operated tongue jack wheel systems that will move the tongue as well … and there are permanent bolt-on systems that drive the trailer’s axle wheels … all of these systems work without any assistance from the tow vehicle. The permanent axle systems are very common in Europe but haven’t caught on here in North America; they are called “caravan motor movers“. They can turn your trailer literally “on a dime”.
8. Making mistakes or being judged. Gads, how many times we worry about how we look, how we sound, how we come across to others. This certainly transfers to driving a camper/RV! You can just hear some folks as they watch someone else do something … “why is he using THAT tool for that job, he’s going to screw that up big time” … “oh my word, this is the sixth time she has backed the trailer the wrong direction” … “no, no, no, turn the steering wheel the OTHER way!” I have certainly made my share of mistakes … that’s how we learn. Give yourself the freedom to be uncomfortable and to make mistakes, and then do what you want to do anyway. And try your best not to criticize or belittle others; it’s not helpful and I’d bet you know how awful it feels to be belittled.
What to do. What I try to do (sometimes successfully) is to pretend that other people are watching me because they are brand new RVers and are unsure of how to do something and want to learn … or they are really kind people and are looking for an opportunity to help someone (which actually might be true a lot of the time). Sometimes, if what I’m doing can wait, I’ll go do something else until the people who were watching have stopped watching. If they don’t stop watching, I’ve been known to walk over to them and say hi and just chat a bit. In those instances, every time!, they then stop watching me. One of the most stressful situations for lots of us is when we are backing our rig (especially a trailer) into a tight spot. Go slowly! Make small adjustments with the steering wheel. Pull forward and start over if you need to. Or just stop, turn the engine off (or it can pop into gear and kill people), and then walk back and look at the situation. And best of all, practice before you go on a trip. Find a large, empty parking lot and practice. When backing a trailer, put your hand on the bottom of the steering wheel … move your hand left to make the trailer go left … move your hand right to make the trailer go right. And then go practice even more. None of us wants to look stupid, but we all do sometimes, eh? In the end, just be yourself and do the best you can. After you’ve done the task at hand, do something nice for yourself, reward yourself. You did a good job!
In the video below, watch a professional truck driver parallel park a large semi truck in one move. I bet he couldn’t do that when he first started driving truck, so take it easy on yourself … practice makes perfect.
So that’s my list! I keep in mind that fear is helpful; it can keep us alive. When I pay attention to fears and concerns and then deal with them, I find I’m happier. There are countless other ways to deal with concerns and fears than those I’ve listed here. Please share your ideas in the comments below. I’d love to hear them and I bet other readers here would as well.
If these fears or others are holding you back from camping/RVing, remember that almost all of these fears exist when you live in a sticks-and-bricks home too. Once you become familiar with an RV as your home, you’ll find comfort and security will replace most of the fear, same as in a land-based home.
Oh wait, one more fear … getting lost! That’s an easy one for me to deal with. I carry paper maps … I check out the area online before I go … I use my electronic GPS devices … and I carry a fully charged cell phone. As soon as I arrive at a camping destination, I always talk with the camp host or the Park Rangers or other local folks for advice on sight-seeing activities and driving routes. When you find yourself lost, ask someone for directions, you just might meet some really nice people and learn about something new to see and do that you might have missed otherwise. I have gotten myself lost so many times! If you don’t get lost, that means you aren’t exploring. Some of the most fascinating places and people have come to me because I got lost. So my advice about the fear of getting lost is … go get lost! 🙂
In the end, despite all the challenges (we all have them, no matter what) … in the end, go live your dream!
Your friend’s boat is pretty awesome. Looks longer than 40’ in the picture.
I like your list. Some great tips.
That boat is a beauty, isn’t it? And yes it does look longer than 40 feet to me too Ginger. That rear “house”, the covered area at the back of the boat, was added to the boat at some point in its life by owners who were really short people. The guy half of the current owner/s is over six feet tall and hates that low roof line, partly because he can’t stand up and partly because he can’t see forward when he’s driving the boat. They are considering removing that roof (or raising the roof) although they like the shade it gives and they like that looooong line of the boat with that low roof … that’s a huge question with classic wood boats, whether to restore them to original or make them more useful. My 2018 Escape trailer doesn’t have the problem … I do what I want to it. 🙂
It seems like a healthy mind is as essential as anything else to get us out of jams. Thanks for so many solutions to “sticky” situations. Even just the tire changing tips were worth their weight in gold!
Oh good thought Robin! Attitude can make all the difference, and a healthy outlook about life and your place in it. There’s another whole huge list of tricks and tips for that, my gosh. When I feel down, I’ve found that music can change my mood in just a few minutes … depends on the type of music obviously, but also the key it’s written in. That’s another fascinating area of study.
Thanks for the nice words … 🙂
Oh my word, I wish we had known half of this when we were first camping with our trailer. My husband and I both had most of the fears you wrote about and we had NO way to deal with any of them, we didn’t know a thing and didn’t know what to do. We only had the trailer about three years and then sold it because it was just too stressful. But if we had known even half of what you wrote, I bet we would have loved camping. You should write a book!
I suspect a whole lot of folks just like you folks go out and buy an RV of whatever type thinking/hoping they will find joy and fun and/or relaxation or whatever. I sure wish there was a way to share information before people make that decision. Those purchases can be expensive. Thanks for the lovely encouragement about my writing a book, Judy … who knows, some day it might happen. But in the meantime, please share this blog with anyone and everyone you know who might be interested in learning but also who might be interested in sharing their experiences and insights. The more the better!
Hey, Ann, thanks for the nod about the wolf urine, it does work. And thanks for another great informational post, very important stuff here. Any good vehicle or truck or RV shop should be willing to spend a little time with a customer to train the customer, it’s just good business and will keep the customer coming back. My wife will tell you that I’m sometimes guilty of tackling a project without doing any reading beforehand, and that has certainly gotten me in hot water more than a few times, you are correct, do your homework BEFORE you start a project, or be ready to admit defeat and then pay even more money to have your bad work corrected, and then pay to have it done correctly.
Tim, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve started a project without reading the instructions, though I probably shouldn’t admit that. On the other hand, I can’t remember one project EVER that I didn’t eventually have to go read the manual to figure something out. We like to think we know stuff, don’t we. 🙂 Yep, you’re right … read the manual FIRST.
We keep the flat bottom plate installed on the trailer tongue jack. But we also carry a wheel that fits there if we wish. If the trailer is going to be towed (carried) by a flat bed truck, then the trailer must be winched up onto the bed of the truck, and there better be a wheel under the tongue! Most tow trucks have a dolly device of some sort that will take care of that, but not all of them do. Best to have your own handy when needed since they are inexpensive and easily stowed. Great advice on everything else, Ann, just thought I’d add this one idea. We are long time RVers with a trailer and love your blog!
Excellent information and advice! Thank you Marge. And thanks for reading my blog … please keep reading and keep sharing your experiences in the comments. I really appreciate words of wisdom from folks who’ve been traveling the road before me.