The pup from hell part 2
After getting the trailer parked where we wanted it , I walked up to it and quickly realized the campsite was on a slope and getting it level would be a chore . No big deal though right ? I have had other trailers and gave myself a crash course on leveling before I left , so I figured I could handle it . Minor glitch don't you think ? Well I reached in the front compartment for leveling blocks and only found two pieces of 2x4 .... not enough to do the job for sure 😞 now what ? I called the owner to find out if we were missing anything or if the blocks or somewhere else , but we were not. I was told that if they were not there then he didn't know what happened to them ... I had read on the Facebook group that you were not supposed to level a pup with the stabilizer jacks , and ruining someone else's equipment what's the last thing I wanted to do! So again I call the owner back and ask them what to do , to which they replied "use the stabilizers to level the trailer that's what we do "
😱😱😱 noooooooo !!!!!! My luck the darn things would break ! After some re arranging the trailers location , I was able to get it in a position a little further up the hill to where I could get it mostly level but Inot completely . I sadly had no choice and had to use the back stabilizer jacks to do the rest of the job. Once we had that done we quickly followed their instructions that they had neatly typed out with the rental contract . It was nice because it had step-by-step directions for set up and take down. Mom reading the instructions , and me doing what she said we quickly got the pup set up . I then went to plug in the trailer to the power pole and went inside to set things up. I was SO EXCITED ! I was talking up tent trailers forever , trying to get my 72 year old mom convinced that this was the way to camp now that my step dad had passed away and they sold their 36 foot motorhome . I now had my moment to prove it ! And boy did that backfire !
It was starting to get cold and dark and I knew I wanted to get the heater going before it got too cold. I fired it up and it blew a fuse😞no problem .... I got this ! I quickly located the fuse box, switched out the fuse and tried again.... no luck . It ran for a minute or two and then it blew a fuse again - well crap ! Cold and now dark and starving , I went to grab the lantern out of the drawer that he indicated it was in , and the battery was dead . 😡I looked for the charger and could not find one 😞 so again I called the owner asking where it was , to which she replied if it's not in the drawer then it's not there. Oh no !!!! No light , no heat , no power and it was in the 30's . By this point I had banked on having a trailer with electricity so I had not packed my own camping stuff , and now I was paying for it DEARLY !!!!! No light , no heat , and definitely no hot water or water jug and the closest bathroom was pretty far away. But I knew how to start a fire and I did bring things for that , so I went to the fire pit and undid the bundle of wood that the campground sold us . Much to my dismay the wood was soaking wet from a previous storm. All right he then ! Plan A failed , Plan B failed And plan C? Plan D ! I'll go inside throw the sleeping bags on the beds , have mom drive us to the bathroom to get ready for bed in the heated bathrooms , sit in the truck and eat a PB and J and Pop a DVD in the laptop when we got back . I figured any of these problems I could tackle in the morning , and for sure I could change out the fuse and not try to run the heater and hopefully I will at least have power for my coffee maker . So off to the bathroom we went to get ready for bed and eat " dinner " and shortly after that we came back to the trailer and set up the beds. I had two sleeping bags but they were only rated for 40° weather and since I had banked on having a heater I really didn't worry about packing extra blankets. Well by the time we got back to the trailer it had dipped into the low 30s , and for anyone that's a native Californian that's darn cold!!!! We freeze when it's 50! I quickly ditched the idea of sleeping in separate beds , zipped both sleeping bags together and made one sleeping bag . We threw it on the queen size bunk , and I made a bed on the floor for my Guide Dog since he is not allowed on furniture. Fast forward about 30 minutes and we've now got a DVD in the DVD player , we are freezing cold, the dog is shaking he is so cold , and to top it off the mattress on the pup is not even a mattress at all , but rather a piece of foam , and when we laid in bed we bottomed out on the board on the bunk . So I broke the cardinal Guide Dog rule and put my dog on the bed between the two of us . I figured the body heat from three instead of two would be better than nothing . Just as we started to drift off to sleep miserable and cold , I went to roll over to try and relieve the pain on my hip and shoulders from laying directly on the board, when I heard a beeping noise ! Oh good lord I'm almost to sleep and now this !!! I didn't have the energy and I was too cold to deal with it , so each time one of us would roll over this dumb thing would beep ! I figured it must be something to do with the battery , and sure enough the next morning I posted on the Facebook Page where I quickly got the answer that it was the battery connection .
I walked out to where the battery was plugged in and quickly realized that there was a spot where the wire was barely hanging on to the connection part . Having had a house fire before I knew electricity was nothing to mess with , so I simply disconnected the battery. I figured I might as well anyways since we had a shore power cord , and I was determined to get the fuse situation handled, make my coffee and go to town and at least get some lanterns and a space heater . I fiddled with the fuses again and plugged in my coffee maker it started up and then it blew a fuse ! Ughhhh are you kidding me???? At this point I decided to give up on the electricity altogether . I went outside yanked the cord from the pole and put it back in its cubby . The last thing I wanted to do was ruin someone else's trailer. I took my coffee pot walked over to the power pole, set it up on a Rubbermaid tote and brewed my coffee! I was determined to have my coffee and have a good day ! Rather proud of myself , coffee now in hand for me and mom , I walked into the trailer and mom notified me that the bathroom wasn't working ! What do you mean it's not working? To which she pointed to the puddle on the ground.... oh no !!! I quickly examined the cassette toilet and realized the flapper seal was broken . Well at this point we had no electricity or heat an uncomfortable bed , so why have a toilet? All you can do is laugh when it gets this tough , so that's exactly what we did ! We laughed so hard we cried.
After some cereal and coffee and a good laugh we made our way into the tiny town of Julian. We went to the hardware store first since they would likely have the supplies we needed. We picked up some flashlights, a space heater . The heaviest extension cord they sold was not heavy enough at ALL , so I Facebook message to a friend that I knew lived in the area , and we borrowed one from her . It too was not heavy enough but it was heavier than the heaviest one they sold in the hardware store. I knew we could probably get by . We spent the rest of the day in Julian eating apple pie and browsing through the shops. After a full day , We were ready and armed to go back and brave the cold ! I got a fire going with some of the firewood I bought in town , Ran the extension cord from the Power pole to the space heater , had my flashlights ready to go by the side of the bed , and took the cushions off the dinette for extra padding as well as the extra double bunk cushion . Tonight I would beat the pop up from hell !!!! Well , I'd like to tell you I did but I didn't ! Although the situation on the bed was a little better we still pretty much went numb after laying on one side for a half hour. The cord was not heavy enough for the space heater which I suspect it might not be , so I had to get up and down all night to turn it on and turn it off so that it would not cause a fire or get too hot and melt. After another sleepless night I was thankful I had the coffee figured out at least , and the next morning I had my coffee and went about my day . One more night left I thought to myself one more miserable night. ! That night with much like the night before and by the time it came time to leave and pack up I couldn't get out of there fast enough ! I wanted a hot shower, I wanted A bathroom that wasn't so far away we had to drive to it , and I wanted my own bed ! I wanted to be warm and not go numb at night from sleeping on a board. I wanted to go home and never see another pop up again in my life !!!
And so we returned the pup , only to be told they had another couple coming in one hour to pick it up 😱 I told her she could NOT rent that pup out in that condition. She said she would try to get her husband to work on it before it went out . They did give us a refund of one night , which was nice since it was a craigslist listing and they could have not given us anything and just been jerks. They truly the nicest people and felt bad. I left her with some suggestions for items to keep in the trailer at all times like extension cords, space heaters, extra batteries and flashlights etc. before bidding them farewell.
I sure did change my mind a lot about the whole experience of owning one ! I definitely didn't want to see one again for a long long time ! And I didn't want to look on craigslist ever again ! But somehow I got home, had a hot shower slept at n a great bed , and was quickly reminded that this is NOT how it should be . This is not how it will be when I have my own pup ! It just couldn't be . So after the shock from the ordeal wore off I continued searching craigslist , lurking on the facebook page and scanning the internet for as much information as I could gather to learn from the things on this trip .
That's a wrap for this one . Thanks for reading ! In the next post I will talk about floorplans since I learned a LOT from the floor plan of the pup we rented . See you soon 😎
😱😱😱 noooooooo !!!!!! My luck the darn things would break ! After some re arranging the trailers location , I was able to get it in a position a little further up the hill to where I could get it mostly level but Inot completely . I sadly had no choice and had to use the back stabilizer jacks to do the rest of the job. Once we had that done we quickly followed their instructions that they had neatly typed out with the rental contract . It was nice because it had step-by-step directions for set up and take down. Mom reading the instructions , and me doing what she said we quickly got the pup set up . I then went to plug in the trailer to the power pole and went inside to set things up. I was SO EXCITED ! I was talking up tent trailers forever , trying to get my 72 year old mom convinced that this was the way to camp now that my step dad had passed away and they sold their 36 foot motorhome . I now had my moment to prove it ! And boy did that backfire !
It was starting to get cold and dark and I knew I wanted to get the heater going before it got too cold. I fired it up and it blew a fuse😞no problem .... I got this ! I quickly located the fuse box, switched out the fuse and tried again.... no luck . It ran for a minute or two and then it blew a fuse again - well crap ! Cold and now dark and starving , I went to grab the lantern out of the drawer that he indicated it was in , and the battery was dead . 😡I looked for the charger and could not find one 😞 so again I called the owner asking where it was , to which she replied if it's not in the drawer then it's not there. Oh no !!!! No light , no heat , no power and it was in the 30's . By this point I had banked on having a trailer with electricity so I had not packed my own camping stuff , and now I was paying for it DEARLY !!!!! No light , no heat , and definitely no hot water or water jug and the closest bathroom was pretty far away. But I knew how to start a fire and I did bring things for that , so I went to the fire pit and undid the bundle of wood that the campground sold us . Much to my dismay the wood was soaking wet from a previous storm. All right he then ! Plan A failed , Plan B failed And plan C? Plan D ! I'll go inside throw the sleeping bags on the beds , have mom drive us to the bathroom to get ready for bed in the heated bathrooms , sit in the truck and eat a PB and J and Pop a DVD in the laptop when we got back . I figured any of these problems I could tackle in the morning , and for sure I could change out the fuse and not try to run the heater and hopefully I will at least have power for my coffee maker . So off to the bathroom we went to get ready for bed and eat " dinner " and shortly after that we came back to the trailer and set up the beds. I had two sleeping bags but they were only rated for 40° weather and since I had banked on having a heater I really didn't worry about packing extra blankets. Well by the time we got back to the trailer it had dipped into the low 30s , and for anyone that's a native Californian that's darn cold!!!! We freeze when it's 50! I quickly ditched the idea of sleeping in separate beds , zipped both sleeping bags together and made one sleeping bag . We threw it on the queen size bunk , and I made a bed on the floor for my Guide Dog since he is not allowed on furniture. Fast forward about 30 minutes and we've now got a DVD in the DVD player , we are freezing cold, the dog is shaking he is so cold , and to top it off the mattress on the pup is not even a mattress at all , but rather a piece of foam , and when we laid in bed we bottomed out on the board on the bunk . So I broke the cardinal Guide Dog rule and put my dog on the bed between the two of us . I figured the body heat from three instead of two would be better than nothing . Just as we started to drift off to sleep miserable and cold , I went to roll over to try and relieve the pain on my hip and shoulders from laying directly on the board, when I heard a beeping noise ! Oh good lord I'm almost to sleep and now this !!! I didn't have the energy and I was too cold to deal with it , so each time one of us would roll over this dumb thing would beep ! I figured it must be something to do with the battery , and sure enough the next morning I posted on the Facebook Page where I quickly got the answer that it was the battery connection .
I walked out to where the battery was plugged in and quickly realized that there was a spot where the wire was barely hanging on to the connection part . Having had a house fire before I knew electricity was nothing to mess with , so I simply disconnected the battery. I figured I might as well anyways since we had a shore power cord , and I was determined to get the fuse situation handled, make my coffee and go to town and at least get some lanterns and a space heater . I fiddled with the fuses again and plugged in my coffee maker it started up and then it blew a fuse ! Ughhhh are you kidding me???? At this point I decided to give up on the electricity altogether . I went outside yanked the cord from the pole and put it back in its cubby . The last thing I wanted to do was ruin someone else's trailer. I took my coffee pot walked over to the power pole, set it up on a Rubbermaid tote and brewed my coffee! I was determined to have my coffee and have a good day ! Rather proud of myself , coffee now in hand for me and mom , I walked into the trailer and mom notified me that the bathroom wasn't working ! What do you mean it's not working? To which she pointed to the puddle on the ground.... oh no !!! I quickly examined the cassette toilet and realized the flapper seal was broken . Well at this point we had no electricity or heat an uncomfortable bed , so why have a toilet? All you can do is laugh when it gets this tough , so that's exactly what we did ! We laughed so hard we cried.
After some cereal and coffee and a good laugh we made our way into the tiny town of Julian. We went to the hardware store first since they would likely have the supplies we needed. We picked up some flashlights, a space heater . The heaviest extension cord they sold was not heavy enough at ALL , so I Facebook message to a friend that I knew lived in the area , and we borrowed one from her . It too was not heavy enough but it was heavier than the heaviest one they sold in the hardware store. I knew we could probably get by . We spent the rest of the day in Julian eating apple pie and browsing through the shops. After a full day , We were ready and armed to go back and brave the cold ! I got a fire going with some of the firewood I bought in town , Ran the extension cord from the Power pole to the space heater , had my flashlights ready to go by the side of the bed , and took the cushions off the dinette for extra padding as well as the extra double bunk cushion . Tonight I would beat the pop up from hell !!!! Well , I'd like to tell you I did but I didn't ! Although the situation on the bed was a little better we still pretty much went numb after laying on one side for a half hour. The cord was not heavy enough for the space heater which I suspect it might not be , so I had to get up and down all night to turn it on and turn it off so that it would not cause a fire or get too hot and melt. After another sleepless night I was thankful I had the coffee figured out at least , and the next morning I had my coffee and went about my day . One more night left I thought to myself one more miserable night. ! That night with much like the night before and by the time it came time to leave and pack up I couldn't get out of there fast enough ! I wanted a hot shower, I wanted A bathroom that wasn't so far away we had to drive to it , and I wanted my own bed ! I wanted to be warm and not go numb at night from sleeping on a board. I wanted to go home and never see another pop up again in my life !!!
And so we returned the pup , only to be told they had another couple coming in one hour to pick it up 😱 I told her she could NOT rent that pup out in that condition. She said she would try to get her husband to work on it before it went out . They did give us a refund of one night , which was nice since it was a craigslist listing and they could have not given us anything and just been jerks. They truly the nicest people and felt bad. I left her with some suggestions for items to keep in the trailer at all times like extension cords, space heaters, extra batteries and flashlights etc. before bidding them farewell.
I sure did change my mind a lot about the whole experience of owning one ! I definitely didn't want to see one again for a long long time ! And I didn't want to look on craigslist ever again ! But somehow I got home, had a hot shower slept at n a great bed , and was quickly reminded that this is NOT how it should be . This is not how it will be when I have my own pup ! It just couldn't be . So after the shock from the ordeal wore off I continued searching craigslist , lurking on the facebook page and scanning the internet for as much information as I could gather to learn from the things on this trip .
That's a wrap for this one . Thanks for reading ! In the next post I will talk about floorplans since I learned a LOT from the floor plan of the pup we rented . See you soon 😎
What a nightmare! Those people should be ashamed of themselves not disclosing this stuff on their ad. They know nothing is working! Glad you got one night fee back, but they should have given it all back.
ReplyDeleteI am soo sorry about your bad luck. I think we have only had one issue since we started full timing. The trailer jack broke. No big deal I just used a jack and a log to get it set-up until I could get another jack. I am sure thing will get better when you get your own. Good Luck!
ReplyDelete