Took our new Glacier Peak out this past weekend for its first trip, and our first ever camping in an RV. Before we left we watched "RV" with Robin Williams just to keep things in perspective.
Learned a few lessons along the way and thought I'd share.
Yes you can laugh privately
1) Arrived, setup, and plugged into electrical service. Nothing. Measured ok at the power pole, but not at the power center. Remembered that I had just installed a hardwired EMS, so that must be the problem. Turned off the power, opened the EMS and double checked all of the connections and they were good. Only then did I notice that the power cable connected to the inlet connector on the side of the GP was a bit loose and upon further inspection saw that two conductors had come out of the external connector.
Lesson Learned: Always, always check your work before expecting it to function on your next trip. We don't have electrical service at our storage facility so I had assumed all was good. Also - don't assume the factory tightened anything properly as I didn't touch this end of the connection....
2) In order to reattach the conductors to the power inlet connector I needed to unscrew the connector from the outside. The screws initially looked like a 6 point torx, but they some 8-point thing. Even this was hard to tell as they are small and my eyes aren't what they used to be. I was fully prepared with a toolbox and most any screwdriver bit. However, in this case I didn't have the proper bit to unscrew the connector, and it was impossible to reconnect the conductors from the inside only. After much
and time wasted trying to find the right bit it dawned on me that a square bit might work. Yep - worked like a charm, and too simple.
Lesson Learned: Turns out the bit is a 8 spline double square bit which is now sitting in my toolbox. Looks like these are used in various places around the GP. Have no idea why as this doesn't seem like a common bit.
3) After arriving back from the nearest town in a desperate search for the rare 8-point bit which was preventing me from connecting power and continuing our first camping experience, I proceeded to back up to the GP. I left the tail gate up and just looked through the rear camera to see how close I was getting. Apparently the view from the tailgate camera is optimized for seeing things down lower and not for seeing a rapidly approaching fifth wheel kingpin at chest height
Tailgate to GP contact was avoided by less then a fingers width.
Lesson Learned: From this moment forward I will always backup with the tailgate down to never even tempt fate again. I have an in-bed camera which works great for this.
The rest of our first ever camping weekend went absolutely fantastic without any further "learning moments". I can look back and laugh now as it all ended well.
We are really enjoying the GP and looking forward to our next adventure.
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