Mike's Grins & Gripes
By Mike Levitt
YOUR WITH LIST COULD BE DEADLY
There’s an old saying that goes something like this: Be careful of what you wish for–you just might get it. RVers: Take heed, this reeealllly applies to you.
No matter the size, shape or price tags they carry, we want our RVs to be just like our RV lifestyle, rugged but refined. We want to “get away” but not too far away (hence the Wi-Fi-at-all-sites RV park promotion).
We want to be able to sit around a campfire burning marshmallows right after we reheated our leftover dinners in the microwave. We want to sit out at night and be amazed at the number of stars in the sky then go back inside and switch on the TV.
In short: We expect the RV Guys to give us what we want.
And, in most cases, they do. Therein lies the problem. Let’s face it, a motorhome may be our way to get away from our house for a while, but it is definitely not a house. Even a housetrailer is more like a motorhome than a house. But to satisfy our wish for a house-like experience while on the road getting away from it all, those RV Guys have to compromise. They have to take a vehicle that experiences a 6.5-or-greater earthquake every few minutes (even more often on one of those washboard roads) and equip it with appliances that were designed for a stationary home that rarely bounces.
How serious a problem is this? The following incidents are true. Only the names and RV brands have been changed to protect the dummies who might have been partially responsible.
Three times in the nine years since my motorhome was new, the under-the-counter coffee maker has turned into an unguided missile. Not just the carafe but the entire coffee brewing machine! One bounce or jolt too many and the damn thing unhooks itself from the cabinet––and on the first wide turn flies across the galley. One time, Coffee Airlines barely missed my wife who was headed aft for a bathroom break. (And she doesn’t even drink coffee.)
Ed was piloting his 42-footer around a curve when his wife suddenly screamed for help. He looked over in her direction and noticed that their overhead TV was now in the co-pilot’s lap. Pulling off to the side of the road with the rest of campground-bound caravan, he discovered that the screws used to hold the TV’s wooden frame in place had chewed their way through the wood due to the constant bouncing and swaying, coupled with the heavy weight of the old-fashioned boxy TV...
The complete article can be found in the current issue of RV Journal, available at quality campgrounds, RV dealers, parts, and service suppliers. Subscriptions are also available for this quarterly publication.
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