You Can Avoid an RV Disaster
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our E-mail Digest or RSS Feed. We will then send you the stories that are posted each day in an e-mail digest. We use a service called Feedburner for delivery of these emails. You will receive an e-mail from Feedburner after you subscribe and you must click on that email to activate your subscription. Thanks for visiting and enjoy all the information!
RV.Net Blog Admin
Despite high fuel prices, more Americans are planning to hit the highways and byways this summer.
A recreational vehicle sits crashed into a garage in Gaston, North Carolina. Firefighters were dispatched to the incident that sent one man to Gaston Memorial Hospital with non life threatening injuries. (Credit: Gaston Gazette)
Whether you are a rookie or a veteran when it comes to the pleasures of traveling in a recreational vehicle, a review of the basics can help to keep you on the road to safety.
Realize your size. Many road mishaps occur because of an RV’s additional size and weight. For instance, operators accidentally drive under an overpass without enough clearance because they forget about the additional height. Know your RV’s height (remember to include the AC unit), width, and length and have them posted in the cockpit clearly visible to the driver.
Also know the clearances of the bridges, underpasses, and tunnels along your route, especially on back roads. A road atlas specifically for RVers or semi drivers can help.
Having your recreational vehicle road-ready and smart planning often helps the RVer to avoid a disaster as the following four incidents illustrate.
RV trapped in mall parking lot
Santa Maria, California: On May 7 (2011), a driver found out the hard way that it’s important to know the height of your recreational vehicle and pay attention to the clearance signs in parking lots. A mini Toyota camper truck wedged itself in the south parking structure of the Santa Maria Mall on the 400 block of Town Center East.
Officers and firefighters had to flatten the tires of the camper to get it out. A nearby repair shop then had to put new tires on the RV.
There is a sign that states how much clearance the structure has, but the camper was too big. No damage was done to the parking structure.
Man hospitalized after driving RV into garage
Gaston, North Carolina: A Gastonia man was hospitalized after apparently driving an RV through the garage of his home on Friday night (May 6).
A firefighter at Gastonia Fire Department station four on Armstrong Park Road said they were dispatched around 8:15 p.m. to 615 Rosemary, the home of Russell Miller.
Credit: Gaston Gazette
A nursing supervisor at Gaston Memorial Hospital said at 5 p.m. Saturday that Miller was in very stable condition.
The tan-colored Allegro RV remained half in and half out the carport area of the single-story brick home on Saturday evening. The roof of the RV appeared gutted as it apparently crashed into the roof of the home. The RV roof appeared to be intact but the interior of the driver’s side of the vehicle was totally encompassed by wood, glass, and debris.
On February 17, a similar situation occurred just down the block from Miller’s home. An 87-year-old man and his wife were pulling into their carport at 330 Rosemary Lane when the driver hit the gas instead of the brake in his Toyota Avalon.
It is unclear if Miller hit the gas instead of the brake in the RV.
Exhaust ignites wood on RV’s tow rack
Sun City, Arizona: A family renting a motorhome escaped disaster after exhaust from the motorhome ignited wood the family had secured to a tow rack behind the unit. The renters had inserted a carrying rack into the hitch receiver in back of the rental unit and secured a supply of firewood to be used later. The vehicle’s exhaust came out the back of the unit directly beneath the wood. The wood caught fire.
Not being able to see the fire, they drove for at least 35 miles with a fire spewing hot ash behind them. They eventually stopped and quickly put out the fire with no damage to the unit. But, they did manage to start three brush fires which had to be put out by the local fire departments.
That’s one of the reasons why manufacturers discourage use of hitch racks. If anything with gasoline, like a generator, would have been stored there, it could have been a disaster.
The dealer noted that a quick fix to prevent problems like this from happening would involve installing an extension device on the exhaust pipe with a turn down that would direct the hot air toward the ground, rather than straight out onto anything being towed close to the vehicle.
Woman falls from moving RV
As you drive the highways and byways this summer, remember to drive safely--the life you save may be your own. Pictured above driving in the fog in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.© Rex Vogel, all rights reserved
Indio, California: A woman landed on her head when she fell out of a moving motorhome in Indio. The woman fell around 10:45 a.m. as her husband was making a left turn from Jefferson Street to Highway 111, said Ben Guitron of the Indio Police Department. The woman was trying to secure the door of the RV so her dog would not fall out, but lost her balance during the turn and fell. The woman was taken to Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs for treatment. Officers initially had a hard time understanding the woman because she had reverted to speaking German, which was her first language, instead of English, according to Guitron.
Shouldn’t the door have been secured BEFORE takeoff?
Remember, Safety First, and Happy RVing!
Worth Pondering…
One needs only two tools in life: WD40 to make things go, and duct tape to make them stop.
—G. Weilacher
You May Also Like
- RVers Who Do Bad Things
- On the Road Again…Safely
- Preparing Your RV for a Summer Road Trip
- Are You Ready for the Road?
- Bring your home with you this summer…on a budget
- Is Your RV Ready for the Road?
If you enjoy these articles and want to read more on RV travels and lifestyle, visit my website: Vogel Talks RVing.
![[del.icio.us]](http://images.del.icio.us/static/img/delicious.small.gif){kind=small}
Borrow an idea from the aviation industry and do a pre trip check of the rig, Check tire pressure, secure and lock all hatches. Secure and lock the entry door. When approaching a physical obstacle drive slow-very slow. It is a growing trend for mall management to install vertical barriers to keep out large vehicles ie motorhomes. Electronic devices are fine but nothing beats a good up to date atlas for checking clearances, load limit bridges etc. Do a map route reconnaisance in conjunction with your gps gear. They should work hand in glove with each other. And my favorite personal rule-NO alcohol 12 hours before driving.
I agree about the pretrip check from catchesthewind. We have a checklist printed out which one of us reads while the other checks. We also have a checklist for load up at home so we don’t forget anything (and we’re continually adding something we forgot!!) We have checklists for the inside of the house if we’re going to be gone lone, the inside of the RV, the outside of the RV, as well as what to put in the laundry (towels are often forgotten), sheets, pillowslips, pajamas etc).
I have all my checklists in a sheet protector and use an erasable marking pen to check of each item as it’s finished.
Despite all the best intentions and pre-planning safety checks just remember that Stupid is Forever !!
Re: the pics of the RV into the garage are a hoot !
The only small addition I would add on knowing your size is to know (or at last post) your dimensions in both Imperial and metric. This would apply to anyone in Canada, and any Americans that may consider coming to Canada. Not all places in Canada post their restrictions in feet and inches or pounds, some only have it in metres or kilograms. You’ll find this most common inside National Parks or other federal government areas in Canada.
Related to knowing your size: know the performance limits, specifically how fast you can get up to speed and how fast you can stop, and plan accordingly. Motorhomes and vehicles towing trailers don’t accelerate or stop as quickly as a regular passenger vehicle. That means looking further ahead in traffic, and planning your actions in advance when you can. It’s not like a 40-foot Class A with a dinghy can just dart from one lane to the next. A one-ton dually with a fifth wheel will take a long time to get up to highway speeds compared to that minivan you’re trying to merge in front of.
After a couple of pucker up moments with our first self contained RV on back roads I went home and taped a 2X4 level across the top of the bolted on carry box and measured the height then the width and placed both measurements on the speedometer glass (yes it was that far back) and started reading the height signs along the road. Only had to make a couple U turns but the roof remained intact for over a decade until the unit was replaced and the measurements were repeated for this one. Much less embarrasing to block traffic for a moment than wait for a wrecker while people from both directions fume. Our current A will not even fit any of the quick lube operations so am back to getting oil up to my elbows when that time comes around.
this was a interesting website and the post was really awesome…
Thanks for sharing superb information. Your web site is very cool. I’m impressed by the info that you have on this web site. It reveals how nicely you understand this subject. Bookmarked this website page, will come back for extra articles.
Superb blog! Do you have any suggestions for aspiring writers? I’m planning to start my own blog soon but I’m a little lost on everything. Would you suggest starting with a free platform like WordPress or go for a paid option? There are so many choices out there that I’m completely confused .. Any suggestions? Thanks a lot!
I feel very grateful to have seen your web site and look forward to really more brilliant minutes reading here. Thank you again for all the details.
Blogs generally need lots of good, interesting and fresh content. I think that the best way to accomplish this is through a mixture of content curation and content creation. Ever since the latest Google updates, sites that use good curation strategies have managed to rise to the top. If you want to take a look at a good curation tool then check this out…