First foray with our T@b not so good!

imacfrog

We eager awaited the day when we (spouse and myself) could both get time off together to have our maiden voyage with our new to us T@b camper. Finally the day arrived and we set off only to enter into a series of misadventures. First (yes they do come in threes), a bridge the GPS tried to route us over was being repaired, so we were routed to detour down a very bumpy dirt road (gotta lave Maine!) 3/4 hour to our trip.

Next we arrive at the Mattawamkeag Wilderness Park and the GPS could not seem to get the directions straight! We took a left at a fork and proceeded to travel around for the next hour down what seemed endless dirt roads of varying smoothness. Finally, we emerged on the opposite side of the park and back on paved road. So being intrepid travelers, we figured we would go back to the beginning and take the right at the initial fork!

Well, taking the right turn was not only wrong but the finishing touch to a camping trip that seemed never want to start. we went down the road, which was full of rocks, bumps and an exposed culvert until finally the truck became stuck in a mud puddle! We called AAA who tried their best to locate us (were out in the woods!) but then deferred us to a local tow company.  He eventually figured out where we were but could not get his flat bed truck down to our location to extract us. So, he offer to use his off-road four wheel drive truck if we could wait until his finished his services calls. Having little choice, we agreed.

He located us and then the fun began. To make a long story short (we were "trapped" from 7PM until 1:30ish AM) we were finally freed but not before one cell phone took a dive in a puddle, his 4wd stopped working thus becoming a rear wheel drive (thanks for extra large tires!), at one time his truck was stuck, all were covered in mud (never mind the vehicles!) and the black flies were ferocious. But, finally the two vehicles and camper were freed and proceed back to tarred road.

We decided that we had had enough adventure for one day and headed home. We arrived home just in time to turn our alarm clock off (5:30 AM). We crashed into bed waking up in the afternoon to to start the process of rinsing off the mud from the vehicles and wherever else it was found. Five hours later we had eliminated most of the mud but a hazy still covers a good portion of area that was affected. Not an enjoyable experience!!!

We are making plans for our next "adventure" hoping it goes off a bit smoother but planning it a little closer to home! Anyone else ever have a camping trip that did not go so well?

jgram2

Dear @imacfrog Years from now, you will look back and laugh, but right now, you and your DW deserve the most terrible, no good very bad day T@B university badge. I am so glad you made it home safely. And I hope never to achieve that badge. I wanted to give you a LOL reaction, but worried you would be offended. 
Judi

Mouseketab

Wow!! That's why you should have multiple sources of directions for unknown destinations. I have my truck navigation, Google maps on my phone, a Mapquest map printed before I leave home, and a good old fashioned Atlas in my seat back pocket. While I LOVE GPS navigation, it can take you down some strange roads, and even though you should eventually get where you are going, they are not fool proof, and us humans rely on them too much, and we don't know where we ARE.  I'm so sorry your first trip was a stressful journey to nowhere :(

ScottG

"Maine" + "Wilderness Park" = Ditch the GPS and carry one of these!  :-)

Glad it turned out okay. At least now you are virtually guaranteed that your second trip will be be better than your first!

Sharon_is_SAM

Sorry for your misadventure.  Why use the GPS when they provide directions?  http://www.mwpark.com/directions.htm. We never trust GPS in an area of limited roads.  We use a gazetteer which is helpful.  

Ratkity

Wow! As @jgram2 said, you totally deserve that T@B University badge!!! I'm glad you made it home safe.

I earned my "stuck in the mud" badge with my T@B at a camp site near the Ohio production plant. I was to get there at 7am for warranty work. Well, when I woke up, there was a lake!!! A full lake outside my door. I knew it rained the night before, but geeeesh.

No problem. I have tall boots and a 4x4. Alas, yes, there was a problem that I was soon to find out.....

I didn't unhitch because the site was level, but there was a slight upward incline to the paved road. Both my truck and my T@B had SUNK overnight in the mud. Imagine if I had unhitched and put stabilizers down.

My predicament was overseen by some hikers readying to get an early start. One sleepy guy had a 4x4 Ford. A "seen better days" white Ford F150, but beautiful right then. Uh.. until he pulled out a tow rope that didn't fit my front bumper tow hooks and he tied the other end to the ball hitch on his side. OMG... I couldn't look. He easily got me out of my stuck mire. Yup, I was a mud puppy as well as the vehicles. That's how I got my T@B Quagmire University badge. I couldn't believe my GMC with fancy 4x4 gizmos couldn't pull me out (probably nothing could). Guess what I own now? A new Ford F150 lol. BTW, I got a better site when the warranty work was finished.

Sharon_is_SAM

I will add that the gazeteer does not always distinguish paved vs unpaved roads.

ScottG

SAM said:

I will add that the gazeteer does not always distinguish paved vs unpaved roads.

Agreed. Well, technically it does make a distinction, but it is not always correct! However, it will give you a better sense of where you are and where you are headed when you are out in the willy-whacks!

Sharon_is_SAM

Willy-whacks!  I guess we can’t say boonies because that’s where we want to be!

rkj__

What an adventure!  

I’m sorry you had struggles trying to reach your destination. 

Im sure you will be even better prepared for your next outing. 

Did you take any pictures?

rkj__

Ratkity said:

Wow! As @jgram2 said, you totally deserve that T@B University badge!!! I'm glad you made it home safe.

I earned my "stuck in the mud" badge with my T@B at a camp site near the Ohio production plant. I was to get there at 7am for warranty work. Well, when I woke up, there was a lake!!! A full lake outside my door. I knew it rained the night before, but geeeesh.

No problem. I have tall boots and a 4x4. Alas, yes, there was a problem that I was soon to find out.....

I didn't unhitch because the site was level, but there was a slight upward incline to the paved road. Both my truck and my T@B had SUNK overnight in the mud. Imagine if I had unhitched and put stabilizers down.

My predicament was overseen by some hikers readying to get an early start. One sleepy guy had a 4x4 Ford. A "seen better days" white Ford F150, but beautiful right then. Uh.. until he pulled out a tow rope that didn't fit my front bumper tow hooks and he tied the other end to the ball hitch on his side. OMG... I couldn't look. He easily got me out of my stuck mire. Yup, I was a mud puppy as well as the vehicles. That's how I got my T@B Quagmire University badge. I couldn't believe my GMC with fancy 4x4 gizmos couldn't pull me out (probably nothing could). Guess what I own now? A new Ford F150 lol. BTW, I got a better site when the warranty work was finished.

All a fancy truck can do is rotate the tires, right?  

4ncar

Someone told me a long time ago, “it’s not an adventure until something goes wrong!” 

Learn from it, and enjoy the ride!;)

Michigan_Mike

I agree, these episodes although less than desirable are learning adventures and do make people stronger.  I've traveled well over 50K miles and more pulling teardrops across the US, on remote/deserted backroads areas and have had GPS directions take me into the face of mountains.  Look at it this way, there will come a day after some successful outings where you will look at your wife and say, "remember the time we took the first trip into the great abyss and even the wrecker driver got stuck, etc, etc, etc!?" and then it's followed up by a good belly laugh!  

We all hsve these stories, we learn from them, we forge ahead and we grow as a result of these harrowing and scary episodes.  I'm glad you both are safe and I applaud you for sharing it with the forum as I could feel your pain, yet also can tell you are both good sports and that a great and fun trip will come your way soon!  

imacfrog

Thanks for the encouragement.  We are already making jokes but we were really looking forward to the fishing on the Mattawamkeag. C’est la vie.  Like I keep telling the wife, “it could have been much worse.” Live, learn and bring on the next adventure.

c2seaside

I can totally relate! My first trip in my t@b (alone) I accidentally pulled off a highway onto a rutted dirt road, couldn’t get turned around, and ultimately sat in the dirt and cried a bit before unhitching and manually turning the trailer around. The next day hit snow and ice...in May...in the south. Finally I had a tire blow 100 miles from the nearest town in the Nevada desert at 7pm with no cell signal. Force of the blowout bent my frame so after AAA replaced my tire, upon returning home I had to surrender my brand new t@b for the whole summer to have the frame replaced. Now I giggle when I tell the story and show pics from my saga, but I seriously thought my trailer might be cursed for a while 😉

Ratkity

yep @rkj__! Dem fancy trucks just rotate those stock tires 'round and 'round. They are good for slinging mud everywhere, however! 

Luckyj

In our neck of the wood, people regulary get lost with street gps and Gps application on side roads.  And they get stuck and stranded until someone drives by. Closed winter roads are not indicated.

my cabin is on a main road, CAA /AAA , UPS, fedex, etc, can not lokate it, cause they always want to use google maps and apps, and on the app, that main road change name 3 times, when on the street sign, it is the same "Rue Principale".  I keep telling them not to use google and give them specific easy direction.  400 m left on the dirt road after such intersection, they tell me thanks, they will be fine, and end up calling me sometime the following day asking again for direction cause they could not find me with google maps! Daught!!!.

A GPS is good to give you general and sometimes specific info, but those directions needs to be challanged all the time before the trip.  specificaly for side roads.

rkj__

Luckyj said:

In our neck of the wood, people regulary get lost with street gps and Gps application on side roads.  And they get stuck and stranded until someone drives by. Closed winter roads are not indicated.

my cabin is on a main road, CAA /AAA , UPS, fedex, etc, can not lokate it, cause they always want to use google maps and apps, and on the app, that maine road change name 3 times, when on the street sign, it is the same "Rue Principale".  I keep telling them not to use google and give them specific easy direction.  400 m left on the dirt road after such intersection, they tell me thanks, they will be find, and end up calling me sometime the following day asking again for direction cause they could not find me with google maps Daught!!!.

A GPS is good to give you general and sometimes specific info, but those directions needs to be challanged all the time before the trip.  specificaly for side roads.

In the neck of the woods I live in, Google Maps and GPS works quite brilliantly.  So, it's easy to see why people grow extremely dependent on it. 

imacfrog

Campground is in the middle of the Wilderness park so all gps did was get us to the entrance of park. Signage was lacking and not helpful once in park. Live and learn.

Luckyj

rkj__ said:

Luckyj said:

In our neck of the wood, people regulary get lost with street gps and Gps application on side roads.  And they get stuck and stranded until someone drives by. Closed winter roads are not indicated.

my cabin is on a main road, CAA /AAA , UPS, fedex, etc, can not lokate it, cause they always want to use google maps and apps, and on the app, that maine road change name 3 times, when on the street sign, it is the same "Rue Principale".  I keep telling them not to use google and give them specific easy direction.  400 m left on the dirt road after such intersection, they tell me thanks, they will be find, and end up calling me sometime the following day asking again for direction cause they could not find me with google maps Daught!!!.

A GPS is good to give you general and sometimes specific info, but those directions needs to be challanged all the time before the trip.  specificaly for side roads.

In the neck of the woods I live in, Google Maps and GPS works quite brilliantly.  So, it's easy to see why people grow extremely dependent on it. 

They are good here as well in most area, just good enough that confidence level grow too much into them.

rkj__

imacfrog said:

Campground is in the middle of the Wilderness park so all gps did was get us to the entrance of park. Signage was lacking and not helpful once in park. Live and learn.

Navigating in a park can certainly be tough without good signage.

Often, park maps can be pretty poor too.  I notice on a lot of park maps, they print on them "not to be used for navigation."  Umm, ok.  If a map can't be used for navigating, what good is it?!

imacfrog

Precisely!  🤔

ChanW

If you haven't already done so, search Google for "death by GPS"... Gruesome and sad stories! A bit of a reality check.

jkjenn

Google led me astray on this trip, for the first time and it was largely because we were making a spur of the moment decision. We ended up on the actual Oregon Trail!

rkj__

ChanW said:

If you haven't already done so, search Google for "death by GPS"... Gruesome and sad stories! A bit of a reality check.

In one of the famous stories, the bad decisions happened at night.  No doubt, it is harder to get the lay of the land, and really analyze your surroundings in total darkness. 

N7SHG_Ham

GPS in itself is an accurate tool, however the underling map database has errors especially in very rural areas because humans created that map data. Almost all car navigation units have the latitude and  longitude as one of the displays, learn how to find that menu! That info will tell your rescuers where to go even on unnamed roads.

I work professionally as a surveyor and volunteer with our local SAR, there certainly are cases of relying on the magic box too much, sorry for your misadventures.

KAR

Nothing as bad as you're describing has happened to us but I did want to ask a question. First the scenario: we were driving Hwy 14 with an 18 wheeler and another truck behind us. We rounded a corner to see a car totally stopped on the road to take photos of bighorn sheep! Our first thought was (bleep bleep bleep) will we be able to stop?!

Good news is we could but we were really worried about getting rear-ended.

I wondered if this should happen again - is that the time you would hit the brake booster on the T@B? Or best to keep two hands on the steering wheel?

I thought as the passenger I could have at least hit the emergency blinkers to alert the drivers behind us.

Loved seeing the bighorn sheep too but the view wasn't to die for.

Thoughts?

Thanks, K

Sharon_is_SAM

Not sure about what brake controller you have, but our Prodigy RF controller specifically says not to use the “boost” with a trailer the size of the 320.  I think you need to have a correctly sized TV and set your brake sensitivity accordingly.  I think we drive slow enough that no one stays behind us for long and there is rarely anyone in front of us either😂

gulfarea

Might try if you have a Garmin GPS set it up as a class A rv if you are in a questionable area as it will not take you threw the bushes as it thinks you are a big rig. Might add extra mileage but no horror stories. Art

nhmike

I don't mean to be flip, but...I have a tendency to make some pretty lame decisions.  I have learned (or perhaps I am trying to learn) to laugh at myself and move on.  Fortunately for me my wife is extremely tolerant.  We just celebrated our 47th anniversary and I guess she is not surprised when things don't always work out quite as I planned.  The best part of your experience is that your already planning your next adventure.  Sounds like life.  Enjoy.

cmac

Our Garmin could not find Mt. Vernon last fall while we were in the area.  By the way, all current updates were downloaded and installed.  Fortunately our T@B was at the campground and we were sightseeing solo.