Stupid Pop Up Tricks

[B-flat]

We once had a thread about stupid things we did with our pop up campers and it was very helpful to many of us.  If anyone would like to post their most recent stupid things that happened with either their camper or tow vehicle while camping, please do so now.  The little photo in the recent PUT mag shows what someone did to their tow vehicle bumper and how a PUT bumper sticker covered the damage.  That's a neat idea.   It cost very little to make the repair. Right?

[Starryart]

OK B-Flat,
Are you talking about the time my DH and I tried to raise the camper top with one of the roof latches still on.
OOOPPS!!! Can you say "$100" to fix a broken lift cable! We learned our lesson the hard way. Now we triple check every time we pop-up.

[Campntime]

Ok..I'm in.  Assuming  is dangerous.  

First day of a 2 week vacation headed for the great West.  Took our new Coleman Bayside through a steep, deep ditch going from a Hardee's to the street and dragged the campers rear bumper off and bent it on one side as the camper went through.

All fixed now of course but not my happiest camping memory.  More in the category of stupid PUT owner tricks!

[SkipP]

If you lose your sunglasses, don't spend two day's looking for them, go ahead and look up on the roof of the camper. I've heard of others leaving keys up there. Not that this has ever happened to me of course.

[B-flat]

Don't leave a beer on the popup roof in a NC state park. This happened to someone we know and his whole camper was seached and all beer was poured on the ground by the nice rangers enforcing the rules.:rolleyes:

[Starryart]

I hear you! I left my can of Coke on the roof as we popped-up. I realized it when the darn thing blew over and dripped a sticky mess all over then we had bees buzzing us all weekend. ARGH!
 BTW.... the camper does NOT tow better with the rear stablizers down. Just thought you'd want to know

[SCCS]

If you lose your sunglasses, don't spend two day's looking for them, go ahead and look up on the roof of the camper. I've heard of others leaving keys up there. Not that this has ever happened to me of course.

I did leave the keys to the popup on the roof and spent the better part of the day looking for them. :mad: Once we even left them on the storage trunk and drove off to a rally,when we realized what we did we had to back track. :mad: Thankfully we only went a mile and we found them on the side of the road with no damage to them. Now I keep a spare set in the T.V. and always keep the original set in my pocket.

[jstaddwtr]

When we joined our new friends at the Poconos, we leveled our PU....in fact we did such a great job that when we packed up on Sunday, we found the level, right where we left it, on the roof.  With all the rain, we were suprised it stayed there.  

We also have some great scratches on the bottom of our bumper from going to fast on driveways where the road curve causes a deep depression at the entrance, and more depression on DH and me as we here the scrape!

Of course there was the time when I was unhooked and moved the TV up a little and forgot that the emergency brake release was still attached.....(fuse time!!!!)

[Subatical]

One thing I decided to do early on was to copy the instructions for popping-up and the breakdown from the owners manual and laminating it.  I may look like a newbie each time we go camping but this has saved me a lot of headache$ thus far.

[TJWSANTAFE]

On our second camping trip with a PU, the camping trip went very well. Well sort of... I forgot to latch the lock on the stepper door on our SantaFe. I was a little embarrassed when another driver on the road wave at me to inform me to pay attention to our camper...
The door had popped open.. We lost nothing, and there was no damage to the door or frame (luckily), and we lost nothing that we had placed just inside the door. However my ego was slightly bruised, we now double check that the door is locked.

[tlhdoc]

After you level the PU you want to put the stabilizing jacks down.  The PU can become unlevel if the rear jacks are not lowered.  Not that I would ever forget to lower them myself.   3 little kids can really laugh at a PU up on end. :p

[Bearnkat]

Hi B-Flat,
Hi B-Flat,
 
This SPUT (Stupid PopUp Trick) was done last year.
 
I had been wanting a drill and a socket to raise the roof of our Santa Fe, but DW felt it was an unnecessary expense. Of course, to prove my point, I decided to go forward with the purchase.
 
I decieded to to give my new tool a try. I went around and unhooked the 4 roof latches (or at least I thought I had). I plugged in the drill, inserted the socket, pulled the trigger, and started to raise the roof. All the sudden I heard a loud POP! I had not double-checked to see if I had really unlatched all 4 corners. I was in a hurry before DW came outside to see what I was doing. The drill had so much torque it took no effort for it to break one of the cables.
 
DW walked outside, looked at the popup's roof lifted at an angle, looked down at the drill on the ground, looked over at me, then walked back into the house. I was busted! Our beloved Santa Fe went to our dealer the next day for repair. A week later, and a $200 repair bill, the lifting system was repaired.
 
Moral of the story, double-check everything (backing, hooking up, lifting) you do with your popup and never be in a hurry like I was.
 
Chuck and Terry

[forestwalker]

Wow,man.There was the time we looked into our rear view and side mirrors while driving down the Pacific Coast Highway.We saw this incredible light show coming from our trailer.Kinda cool-Do you know what I mean?That is, until we pulled over and discovered that I had plugged  in,but had forgotten to secure the pig tail to the tongue.Dragged it about a mile-not much of it left...What a drag ! Like a real bummer ! No light"showed" the rest of that camping trip(no heat either).

[labontefan]

One thing I decided to do early on was to copy the instructions for popping-up and the breakdown from the owners manual and laminating it. I may look like a newbie each time we go camping but this has saved me a lot of headache$ thus far.

Ditto! I have a big zip-loc bag that all the owner's manuals live in. On one side of the bag is a sheet of paper titled "Camper Set-Up". On the other side is another labeled "Camper Take-Down." That's usually the first thing that gets unpacked when I get there and the last thing that gets packed when we leave!

But, it's not foolproof.  :p

When you decide to pull the PU forward just a tad because the original place you chose has a big hole under one of the tires, you should really remove the chocks from the other tire first! Otherwise, you have a really hard time moving the PU, and when you finally do get it moved, your chocks look kinda squished!

I tend to remove the hitch from the receiver before we start to unpack the TV. Otherwise I'm liable to take my kneecap off...or at least get ball grease all over my leg. Sometimes I store the hitch in the hidden storage compartment in the cargo area of the Durango. At Bristol in August, we got the TV all packed, and the PU down and secure. I was backing the TV up to the PU when we noticed that there was no hitch on the TV--just the empty reciever. The hitch was still in the storage compartment, under everything we'd packed! We only had to take out about half the stuff to get to the compartment! The sway bar was in the compartment too, so we pulled both out and repacked.

I got the PU hitched up and started to put the sway bar on. There was only one retaining pin! The other had apparently fallen off in the storage compartment. At that point, I said, "Forget it! We're only about an hour from home. I can drive that far without the sway bar!"

So now we double check to make sure the hitch is in the receiver and the sway bar is available and has both pins, before we pack the TV!

Oh, yeah...it's also a good idea to take the shepherd's crooks down before you lower the swing galley and pack all the empty water jugs, etc., in the space next to the galley! Otherwise, the poles are hard to get to!


I know there are lots of others, but those are the ones that stick in my mind!

[wiininkwe]

Yup, have had the stepper door fall open on the highway (luckily spotted it in the side mirror right away), forgot the keys to the camper at home, forgot to put down the rear stabilizers, left the crank in the back of the camper and found it still hanging there at a rest stop as we walked around the back of the camper, and I know there are other STPUTs that I'm either not emembering or have decided not to tell anyone about.  At least we only had one trick per trip.  

T