What's wrong with this picture?

I've seen a lot of RVs get damaged when RVers are getting set up in their camping space.

Maybe it's to be expected. After all, after a long day of driving, we're somewhat exhausted and not as mentally sharp as we were when we started the day.

RVers usually have someone helping them and watching as they back into their campsite. The person watching makes sure that they are not backing into a tree or a power pole.

The two most common problems with the person helping you back into your campsite

• #1. They are only watching one side. Don't even start backing until the person is standing behind the rig. That way, they can see if you're about to back into anything, and they can also see both sides of the RV. Too many times, I see someone standing beside the RV and telling the driver to come on back. They have no idea how close the RV is to something on the other side.

• #2. They are only watching the side of the RV and are not watching the top or the bottom corners. I recently saw someone telling the driver to come on back, and the top corner of the RV was rubbing against a large tree limb. It didn't do a lot of damage, but it could have. I had someone telling me one time to come on back, and I heard a scraping noise. I stopped and got out to look. The bottom corner of my RV was rubbing against a railroad crosstie that was being used to mark the campsite. The guy said, "I wasn't watching down there." Duh, I've heard this comment more times than you can imagine in my ten years as a full-time RVer.

Back to what's wrong with this picture

The RV was too close to the water pipe, and when they let the slide out, the slide hit the water pipe and pushed it over.

This RV backed in beside me today. He hooked up his power and water. Then he was almost done. That's when he went inside and pushed the buttons to let his slides out.

As you can see in the picture at the top of the page, the slide pushed the water pipe over. It didn't push the pipe over enough to break it or cause a leak. And it looks like it didn't damage the side of the RV (maybe it did, I can't tell). If he had been an inch or two closer, he could have done a lot of damage to both his motorhome and the water pipe.

A lot of water pipes are damaged this way. When I do my daily hikes through the campground and up the mountain, I see a lot of campsites that have the water pipe leaning over. It's evident that someone has pushed them over one way or another.

Bottom line: Make sure the person who is helping you back into a campsite is paying attention and can see the back and both sides of your RV. Also, make sure they're watching the top and bottom corners of the RV.