Top 6 camper van fails

We’ve had Camper Van Beethoven for nearly 4 years, and we’re still learning about her.

When we added Camper Van Beethoven to the family in spring 2021, we were completely new to RVing. So, we were bound to do a few dumb things as we learned how to use the van.

We thought we’d fess up and share them with you. That way, you can learn from our camper van mistakes, just like we did.

Here are the top 6 camper van fails, in no particular order

1 Parked under low branches

The second time we visited Scout & Scholar Brewing in Bardstown, Kentucky, we remembered to avoid the low-hanging tree branches that line the street.

The first time we visited Bardstown, Kentucky, we were delighted to find street parking just down from a brewery.

We wanted to pick up a growler to take to our campsite.

Perhaps in our excitement to find parking so easily, we didn’t notice the low-hanging tree branches.

Until, thwack! The branches hit the top of the van and scraped across the roof.

Oooofffff, not a great sound.

A few weeks later, we were driving home from a different camper van trip when some guys in a pickup truck pulled up alongside us on the freeway, the passenger waving his hands. He pointed toward the roof of the van.

We thought, uh-oh, waved a thank you and pulled off at the next exit.

J-Wo got out the exterior ladder to take a look.

Turns out, one of our solar panels was loose. It must’ve been flapping in the wind on the freeway.

I got out the trusty fix-all we had thankfully included in our emergency camper van supplies: duct tape. That held us over until we got home and were able to get an appointment at our van repair shop to reattach the panel.

We assume the tree branches had knocked it loose.

Lesson learned: Consider the vertical clearance before you park — you’re in a tall vehicle with valuable things on the roof.

2 Backed into a tree

The sun sets behind the tree line on a summer evening at Little Grassy Lake Campground and Marina in Southern Illinois. The site of our infamous tree bump.

Now, we have a backup camera, so this one really should’ve never happened. However, the dashboard display for the camera is pretty dang crappy. So, maybe we can blame that.

Anyhoo, we had just arrived at a Southern Illinois campground for a weekend of paddle boarding. We found our campsite and were excited to settle in.

As J-Wo slowly reversed into the site, we heard, thud! What the?!

We both got out to see Beethoven nice and tight up against a tree. The lighting was just right for us to not notice the tree in the dashboard display.

What a way to arrive at your campsite, right? I’m sure the neighbors were impressed.

At least we didn’t damage anything this time. (The tree was also fine.)

Lesson learned: Before you back or pull into your campsite, get out and take a look around. Note any obstacles or potential concerns. Then, proceed with caution.

3 Drove up a mountain with full tanks

The morning after we struggled up the mountain in Colorado, I-70 was smooth sailing across Kansas.

Our first camper van trip to Colorado was during a stormy weekend in late July. We visited friends in Colorado Springs, then headed farther west for a wedding in Glenwood Springs.

By the time we were heading home, our gray water tank and cassette toilet were quite full. We hadn’t dumped them once.

We’re pretty sure we noticed the extra weight while driving I-70 east of Denver. The inclines on the freeway were like nothing we had driven before.

In a torrential rain, there we were struggling up a dang mountainside at 35 mph. That’s as fast as Camper Van Beethoven would go!

Even tractor trailers were flying past us, as we hugged the far-right lane with our emergency flashers on. (That’s the only time I’ll describe the Super Cool fam as far right, by the way.)

It sent my nerves through the roof. I went into full-on irrational mode with thoughts like, are we even going to make it up this mountain? Maybe we’ll have to pull over and live the rest of our lives on the side of this freeway.

But, make it we did. And, we even made it to Kansas to sleep at a rest stop for the night.

Glorious Kansas. So nice and flat. So easy to drive.

Glorious Kansas. With dump stations at their rest stops.

Two humans had never been so glad to arrive in Kansas.

It all left us wondering, would the drive have been easier if we had dumped our gray water and our cassette toilet? Was it our pee that made the van struggle so?!

Lesson learned: Dump all your tanks before embarking on a long drive. The added weight makes your camper van work harder, which is a great way to lower your gas mileage.

4 Deflated our tires trying to inflate them

A tire shop in Danville, Kentucky, was kind enough to top off our tires for no charge.

Keeping your tires properly inflated is good camper van hygiene. It helps to optimize your gas mileage and helps your tires last longer. Two big wins.

Yet, time after time, we struggled to inflate our tires at gas station after gas station. Sometimes we couldn’t even try — the pump was broken or some jerk was parked in front of it.

When we could pull up to the pump, J-Wo struggled to get the air to flow in the right direction. More often than not, we lost air. Not great.

On one trip, we even had to pull in a tire place and have them air us up.

That’s when I revisited my idea to buy a travel air compressor. That’s also when I came across a nugget of wisdom I hadn’t yet encountered: Most gas station air compressors don’t have a high enough psi to handle large vehicle tires.

How did we not know this?! Maybe because we had never owned a large vehicle.

That sold me on having our own compressor. And, now we do.

J-Wo tops off the tires before we leave home and before we leave the campsite.

Lesson learned: A travel air compressor isn’t a nice-to-have for your camper van. It’s a must-have.

5 Overloaded a wall outlet

Blowing a fuse at Santa Rosa RV Park in Navarre, Florida, put us a little behind check-out time, which the staff not so kindly pointed out.

Camper Van Beethoven has plenty of electric outlets. Even USB outlets.

We learned the hard way not to plug two power-hungry devices into the same one.

We were in the Florida panhandle, on a chilly, overcast January morning. The space heater was going.

J-Wo plugged the hair dryer into the same outlet and turned it on. Then, all fell silent. The space heater was no longer humming. The hair dryer wouldn’t come on.

We had blown our first fuse. Thank goodness that, along with duct tape, our emergency camper van provisions included extra fuses.

We replaced the fuse just in time to hear a knock on the van door. It was 11 a.m., check-out time, and we were told, rather rudely, to get going.

Lesson learned: Don’t run the space heater and hair dryer from the same outlet. Also, don’t stay at Santa Rosa RV Resort in Navarre.

6 Relied on a space heater in below freezing temps

An early March stay at the Nashville KOA saw the temps drop below freezing overnight.

Camper Van Beethoven has a propane heating system.

However, when we’re plugged into shore power, we use an electric space heater to stay warm. My dad taught me this trick to save our propane supply.

On a recent night in the van, the temps got down to 27 degrees Farenheit in Nashville, Tennessee. We didn’t think much of it when we turned on the space heater and went to sleep.

Fast forward several hours later, and we all wake up with a chill. Turns out, our space heater is too small to heat the van when it’s that cold out.

We just hadn’t yet spent a night in the van when the temps were that low.

Lesson learned: A small space heater is great for temps above freezing. For temps at or below freezing, we need to use the propane heat.

There you have it, our top 6 camper van fails.

Were all of these things dumb? Yes. Did they make us feel dumb? Oh, yeah. But, at least they were all easy to fix.

And, they were all a valuable way for us to learn.

There’s a huge learning curve getting started with a camper van. It’s basically a tiny home on wheels. You have both vehicle and home components to learn about and care for.

No matter how much you try to learn before you start traveling in a camper van, you’ll always learn more as you go. In fact, we’re still learning things about the van.

We just try not to learn the hard way.

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