Unknown Problem turned out to be a "Duh!" moment

[DutchmenSport]

Well, in order to lighten the atmosphere a little, (you know, amid world cricies, rising fuel prices, and shoddy RV manufacturing practices), here's a story that may give everyone a good laugh, as I'm sure we've all experienced these types of "OH Duh!" moments.

OK, even though the weather is still reaching below freezing here in Central Indiana, we decided to take the trailer out and just dry camp at a near by state park. However, weather warmed up a bit and I went ahead an de-wintereized the Montana before leaving the house. But, I anticipated the campground to have all the water shut off, (until April 1). So we brought a full tank of water in the camper and our 35 gallon Tractor Supply Water tank full of water too.

After a couple days it was time to add water to my fresh water tank in the camper. No problem, I've done it this way a dozen times.

Hook up my secondary water pump to my external tank, connect to hose to the fill connection, flip the lever to "fill" and turn the pump on. Wait for it to spew out the over flow. Done! Right?

Well.... I decided to try it different this time. I thought I'd try it with the winterizing port so I could the trailer pump instead. I flipped all the valves and ... well, it didn't work. (I'll not explain way, it just didn't work). So, until another day to figure this one out, I just reverted back to the secondary pump, and everything was great!

Well, it was great until a bit later when we ran hot water in the trailer. Now, I have no idea how this happened, but my said, when we was washing dishes.... hun? We have no hot water? What? Well, I check the on-off switches in the panel and sure enough, both electric and gas was off. When did THAT happen. So I flipped on both gas and electric. She washed dishes with cold water.

OK the next problem was, I heard the water pump cycle on and off, you know those quick sperts it makes sometimes .... OH DUH! I knew immediately what that was.... I forgot to flip the switch from "Fill" back to "Normal". Ran outside and sure enough ... It was still on "Fill". Well, that took care of that problem (This is now my second "DUH!" moment!).

A couple hours later, I decided it was time to take a shower. I turned on the shower .... um ... no hot water! NOW I was freeking out! Did I somehow burn up the electric element in the water heater when I turned the power back on to it, maybe it wasn't completely full? I don't know. I check the switches, both gas and electric still on. But no hot water.

Crap! I was beginning to sweat a little now! I decided to go back and check the fill valve again. It was set correct ... what is the world was going on? Then I spotted it. Somewhere, somehow, along my journey to fill the water tank, I flipped with water heater by-pass on!

OH my third DUH! Flipped the valve ... Instantly hot water!

OK folks, I think we've all been there, done something like that, so go ahead and laugh. I'm laughing now, and just grateful it was nothing that needed a repair!

[Foldbak]

And I thought I was the only one!

[M&M]

I’m laughing with you, as this weekend i now know symptoms of an empty fresh tank. We had camped 3 nights with low 20s temps, so I was convinced we froze and cracked a connection. I had added water in the dark, so how could it possibly be empty. Gauge said empty but I’ve read so much about unreliable tank gauges.

Did further checks Saturday and after hearing gurgling from tank vent, added water, and DUH, no problem at all. And the gauge also agreed I now had water in the tank.

So my conclusion is the water I added in the dark was in the black tank flush connection. So I’ll chalk it up to lessons learned and hopefully avoid another DUH!

[Lee-CI]

Originally Posted by DutchmenSport

OK folks, I think we've all been there, done something like that, so go ahead and laugh. I'm laughing now, and just grateful it was nothing that needed a repair!

Not laughing at you Dutchman, not even remotely so! Certainly laughing with you instead, and the diversion was greatly appreciated. I too am one of those (the few?) who refuses to watch the news. All it does is get my blood pressure up. I feel you pain for the cascading series of - as you put it - Duh moments. The diversion was greatly appreciated from the discussions of fuel prices, oil price speculations and craziness in the world. Warmed our hearts and put a smile upon our faces here. Very glad it all worked out with no harm / no foul.

[Les Greer]

I feel your “Duh!” pain…
We had the water heater go out in our house a couple weeks ago and couldn’t get it repaired for about a week so we decided to use the 5th wheel to take short showers. We got everything together (shampoo, towels, clean clothes, etc.) and went out to the trailer. My wife went first, got undressed and ready to get in the shower, turned on the water and said “no hot water!”…so I turned it on. She said did you turn on the pump, I have NO water!…
…this is when the DUH! hit. I turned off the water heater , didn’t turn on the water pump and sheepishly said to my wife, uh, I can’t turn on the pump…we have no water to pump. I winterized it by emptying the water tank and blowing out the lines…she said you could have remembered that before I got undressed!
She got dressed we went back into the house and washed up at the kitchen sink. It has a 1 1/2 gal quick water heater that got us by for a few days.
My mother called them possible baths…you wash down as far as possible, then wash up as far as possible…and then you wash “possible”.

[Mark7]

Thanks for the chuckle!

My most memorable was expensive... and it was a result of being WAY overtired when unhooking a 5th wheel. Had the landing gear down, pulled the pin, went back and opened the endgate to unplug the light cord and........ Closed the damn endgate again and got in the truck and drove away!

I am here to let you all know that you cannot move a dollied off RV with the endgate, but you can get a little more room in your box with a "U" shaped endgate!

That was a $600 lesson. At least the incident happened at the end of the trip in my driveway and not at the beginning where I would have stewed on it all week.

Next time I'll tell you about my 6.5' box / too tight of a turn / back window story!

[Byron B]

Originally Posted by DutchmenSport

OK folks, I think we've all been there, done something like that, so go ahead and laugh. I'm laughing now, and just grateful it was nothing that needed a repair!

Having done so many stupid(?) things in my 40+ years of RVing, I cannot laugh at you but I can laugh with you!

[DebNJim B]

Proud member of the "Duh" club laughing along.
Last move we made I had drained all holding tanks to minimize weight, disconnected water and hooked up to leave.
Upon arrival at our current location I did the usual setup routine and while I was laying out the mats or something DW says "why is there water running behind the camper?"
Hmmm, investigation reveled I had for some reason flipped the fill switch to the fw tank and water was running out the overflow.