Reading a post in the Camping Earth blog (http://campingearth.com/) about checking to make sure things work BEFORE you go camping reminded me of an experience we had a year or so ago at Goose Hollow Campground up in Campton, NH.

I have a terrible memory for names, but I remember that the folks next to us were a couple with children and when we backed our Citation travel trailer into our site, they were fussing with their Hi-Lo trailer. Deb and I figured at first that they were simply getting ready to crank up their camper’s roof and set up their site. We went ahead and took care of our hookups, extended the awning, got out the bag chairs and moved into RE-LAX-ATION mode.

We soon realized, however, that the folks next door were in OH-MY-GOSH-WHAT-DO-WE-DO-NOW? mode. It turned out that they had gotten a good deal on a used Hi-Lo camping trailer. You’ve seen them; they’re a hard-side trailer whose top section drops down for towing much like the roof of a pop-up camper trailer. And, like a pop-up, the lift mechanism is made up of a cable and pulley system.

Well, they had backed their Hi-Lo into the camp site and started to crank the top section up, when a lift cable broke and the top section came crashing down! No one was hurt (good thing the cable didn’t break when someone was inside), but now they couldn’t get into the trailer. Of course all their food was inside the trailer, much of it in the refrigerator. Most of their clothes were also inside the now inaccessible rig.

Well, fortunately they came with friends who had their own trailer and they were able to stay with them. At least in that respect, their weekend wasn’t a total loss. They left their trailer plugged into park electricity so their food wouldn’t spoil and made the best of an otherwise disheartening situation. Good for them!

Deb and I had a pop-up camper trailer before we bought our Citation. Quite honestly, I didn’t make a habit of checking the integrity of the lift cables. In fact, as I remember the cables in our pop-up were contained within solid cable runs (conduit-like piping), so I’m not sure how I could have checked for fraying or wear even if I had wanted to. Even so, this is a reminder to check everything you can prior to each camping trip. It could save you (or me) a lot of grief and a disappointing camping outing.