Ever read the 'I Learned About Flying From That' series in Flying Magazine? While I have a story for that magazine too, here's one for RVing. (We should have a thread just for these kinds of stories.)
On a recent trip to Southern California, not only did I discover that I might have the dreaded 'Winnebago Leaking Windshields' frame rust and rot, I had another little adventure.
Going across the San Rafael-Richmond bridge, the wind was really bad and hitting the passenger side of the motorhome pretty hard. I could hear a roar and joked that it was going to rip the awning off the side of the MH. I got across the bridge and there is a turn-out lane at the end of the bridge, so I decided to stop to check out everything.
As I looked in the mirror to pull over, I could see a few feet of blue awning fabric. 'That can't be good' was my first thought. Stopped and at first I thought I might be able to open the awning enough to then be able to retract it, but I discovered that it had ripped about five feet at the roofline. The wind was blowing so hard that I was afraid that if I opened it, it would turn into a sail and rip everything off the sidewalls of the MH. I couldn't really drive to a spot where the wind might not be blowing so hard, so I had no choice but to go up on the roof and cut the awning fabric off. A fellow RV'er that had stopped helped my teenage son hold and pull down the awning fabric to the ground. The whole time I'm thinking that if the fabric comes up and over the roof, I'm going with it, right into the 60 MPH traffic. The wind was probably gusting at 35+ MPH and it was a freezing wind, and of course the rain was pounding too. Got the fabric cut off but the frame was bent at the front, so I used the fabric pull-down strap from the awing to tie down the frame and rails, then drove on, looking for a Walmart so I could buy some rope and tie everything up more securely. I ended up getting a couple of short bungee cords, but rope or long zip-ties would have been just as good. (More stuff to get for the tool box!)
Once we got to southern California, I went and got an estimate from Camping World to replace everything: $1,700! Since the frame and arms were bent, I removed the entire awning roll and frame just so I didn't have to worry about anything falling off while on the road.
Hindsight tells me that for the for the price of a couple of zip-ties or bungie cords, I could have had the frame and rails fastened down and saved myself a ton of money. I'm guessing that the wind pounding the awning allowed one of the travel locks to lift just enough to allow the wind to lift the awning tube out of the travel position and once it started to pull away, it allowed the other end to pull away and start to unroll the fabric. After that, there's not enough time to get stopped without damage. Oh, well... spending more of my kids' inheritance, I guess.
So, what's your 'I Learned About RV'ing From That...' story? -RT
On a recent trip to Southern California, not only did I discover that I might have the dreaded 'Winnebago Leaking Windshields' frame rust and rot, I had another little adventure.
Going across the San Rafael-Richmond bridge, the wind was really bad and hitting the passenger side of the motorhome pretty hard. I could hear a roar and joked that it was going to rip the awning off the side of the MH. I got across the bridge and there is a turn-out lane at the end of the bridge, so I decided to stop to check out everything.
As I looked in the mirror to pull over, I could see a few feet of blue awning fabric. 'That can't be good' was my first thought. Stopped and at first I thought I might be able to open the awning enough to then be able to retract it, but I discovered that it had ripped about five feet at the roofline. The wind was blowing so hard that I was afraid that if I opened it, it would turn into a sail and rip everything off the sidewalls of the MH. I couldn't really drive to a spot where the wind might not be blowing so hard, so I had no choice but to go up on the roof and cut the awning fabric off. A fellow RV'er that had stopped helped my teenage son hold and pull down the awning fabric to the ground. The whole time I'm thinking that if the fabric comes up and over the roof, I'm going with it, right into the 60 MPH traffic. The wind was probably gusting at 35+ MPH and it was a freezing wind, and of course the rain was pounding too. Got the fabric cut off but the frame was bent at the front, so I used the fabric pull-down strap from the awing to tie down the frame and rails, then drove on, looking for a Walmart so I could buy some rope and tie everything up more securely. I ended up getting a couple of short bungee cords, but rope or long zip-ties would have been just as good. (More stuff to get for the tool box!)
Once we got to southern California, I went and got an estimate from Camping World to replace everything: $1,700! Since the frame and arms were bent, I removed the entire awning roll and frame just so I didn't have to worry about anything falling off while on the road.
Hindsight tells me that for the for the price of a couple of zip-ties or bungie cords, I could have had the frame and rails fastened down and saved myself a ton of money. I'm guessing that the wind pounding the awning allowed one of the travel locks to lift just enough to allow the wind to lift the awning tube out of the travel position and once it started to pull away, it allowed the other end to pull away and start to unroll the fabric. After that, there's not enough time to get stopped without damage. Oh, well... spending more of my kids' inheritance, I guess.
So, what's your 'I Learned About RV'ing From That...' story? -RT
Last edited:
but my real point was that I learned the hard way the value of a spotter second set of eyes, and by not using one it was a costly mistake.
