Rental RV's - Gotta Love them

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Rental RV's - Gotta Love them

July 05, 2016, 12:42:49 am

So I was sitting outside my rig in St George, Utah tonight and a guy came up and said he saw the jerry can on my Jeep and did I have any gas? He said he had a rental RV and was out of gas. I told him it was empty but I'd be happy to take him and fill it up. We got back and I went to the gas fill and started to remove the gas cap ( Ford E450 just like mine). He said wait, isn't that the water fill? I said no, that's the gas. He looked sort of glum and I asked him if he had put water in it. He said Yeah. I asked how much and he said maybe 30 or 40 minutes worth. I told him any gas we put in will just float on top and perhaps he better call a wrecker or find a mechanic.

He went off to call his wife and I sort of faded from that scene. The rental is still sitting there.

Bob
2003 23.5 FD

Re: Rental RV's - Gotta Love them

Reply #1 – July 05, 2016, 09:39:23 am

Many years ago when I was a young pup I was told by an old salt that the definition of an expert was someone who made all the mistakes -- well looks like I'm not an expect rv'er yet.

Re: Rental RV's - Gotta Love them

Reply #2 – July 05, 2016, 09:56:25 am

Re: Rental RV's - Gotta Love them

Reply #3 – July 05, 2016, 10:07:38 am

That is just scary. Sad but scary.

Re: Rental RV's - Gotta Love them

Reply #4 – July 05, 2016, 10:28:36 am

Not enough training from the rental people for newbies. Soon there will be labels everywhere on the rental units

Re: Rental RV's - Gotta Love them

Reply #5 – July 05, 2016, 11:04:19 am

After a long day in the saddle of a Honda VFR750f I managed to put about 2 gallons of diesel into the gas tank. Needless to say that my pit-stop took longer than usual that day. I never did that again!

Re: Rental RV's - Gotta Love them

Reply #6 – July 05, 2016, 01:08:53 pm

So many rentals are driven by people from other countries. I admire their courage to fly to the US, rent an RV and head off for adventure. We travel in Europe a lot, but the cost for rental RVs is greater than what we spend on gites.

This story reminds me of one of those trips. We had a cool little Peugeot 205 I think, a tiny little van the size of an old VW bug. It had automatic sliding doors on both sides. Very practical! And of course, it's little diesel had huge torque, so a joy to drive.

Anyhoo, I found myself unable to get it to run one day as we stopped for lunch. We were in Burgundy, admiring the vineyards. A call to Europe Car, and a wrecker was on site in a little while. The guy asked if I filled it with gas. "But no!" I exclaim, I know my diesel, we drive a big diesel truck at home. All the pumps are color coded- green for diesel. He pulls the filler cap and offers me a sniff. Not a good vintage, non, mon dieu! It was gas. In France diesel is Yellow! Lead free is green. A quick tow to a Peugeot dealer. I am seeing beau coup € and an unplanned hotel night here in an industrial zone. The mechanic tells me no, about an hour, no engine damage, there is a sensor that shuts it off if other than diesel is detected at the injection. No cost. We were on our way in45 minutes. Shocked. Happy. Sheepish.

It is a decade later, and I still sweat a little and triple check what I put in the tank over here. I empathize with this guy.

Re: Rental RV's - Gotta Love them

Reply #7 – July 05, 2016, 01:48:52 pm

Years ago I got to talking to a guy at the dump station. He was from Europe who rented this rv. He said he was turning it in and flying back later that day. At the time I didn't know much about dumping. Turns out he was filling the water tank from the hose that was used for cleaning the toilet.
Dave 04 PleasureWay Excel

Re: Rental RV's - Gotta Love them

Reply #8 – July 05, 2016, 02:23:36 pm

I had the reverse situation once. I had rented a diesel U-Haul truck to move a bunch of stuff that a friend had shipped in by rail freight. Drove to the Newark, NJ train station--a saga in its own right, as this was before GPS, I have a lousy sense of direction, and I was driving a 22' truck for the first time in my life. (In a crowded downtown area, to boot!) Loaded up several pallets of stuff... and the truck wouldn't start. Turned over enthusiastically, but just would not catch.

Called U-Haul, and they sent out a wrecker who towed the truck to a mechanic. Turned out there was gasoline in the tank--the idiot who rented it before me had apparently topped it off with gas before returning it, ignoring the prominent "DIESEL FUEL ONLY" label at the filler. I had to wait around for hours while they drained and refilled the tank and tinkered with the engine to get rid of the nasty stuff.

The most annoying part of it from my point of view was that when I returned the truck to my local U-Haul place, they insisted that I must have added the gasoline. I pointed out that the truck's fuel tank was full when I picked it up, and I was only driving twenty or thirty miles, so I had no reason to add anything. They were still suspicious. It took a lot of talking to convince them that I didn't owe a whopping service charge for the fuel screwup. (And I'm sure the previous renter got off scot-free. Grrr.)

Re: Rental RV's - Gotta Love them

Reply #9 – July 05, 2016, 05:21:38 pm

Yeah, our big black tanks and dumping procedures are unusual for foreigners. The RV lifestyle has boomed in Europe in the last 10 or 15 years. Almost every little town has a designated over night parking area for RVs at little or no cost now. Grey water is normally sent down the street sewers ( which are more and more routed through water treatment), and the tanks are miniscule to save weight. Potable water is usually available in the designated parking area near the sewer.

Toilets are cassette types, also saving weight. Each day the designated dumper pulls the tiny cassette out of the side compartment and looks for a public toilet down which to dump it. Sometimes this is restricted.

My mother in law was involved in an RV group a few years ago. She invited some of the gang over to her apartment for an apertif. To her chagrin some showed up with their cassette in hand, wanting to use her facilities. This request was denied.

Re: Rental RV's - Gotta Love them

Reply #10 – July 06, 2016, 01:24:14 pm

I was walking today and ran across this dump station. These are a new thing here. Apparently one signs up to use them and then access is given via a pin number.

I stood for a bit puzzling it out. There is a potable water faucet on the side at the bottom. Water is €5 for 10 minutes. There is a little panel at the bottom in the front for dumping the cassette tank and a spigot to wash and flush. The drain across the cement pad is for dumping grey.

I can see myself making some foolish mistake using this dump!

Re: Rental RV's - Gotta Love them

Reply #11 – July 06, 2016, 06:17:33 pm

We RVed for 5 weeks around Iceland in a European RV. There were some dump stations similar to what you've shown here, but they were free. We were supposed to pull up the RV so that the grey water valve was on top of the grate. Then we could just kick the valve with a foot and it would let loose the grey water, no hoses necessary. Once we got used to it, we actually really liked that style of dump station. The casette tanks weren't bad either, except that one had to empty them so often. In Iceland, it wasn't problematic at all, because there are free dumps all over the place. Potable water was plentiful, too, and free. Oh, whenever the RV got blasted with volcanic grit (one time it was so bad we couldn't even see out the side windows and the white RV had become BLACK with it), then we could find a free RV wash in lots of places, too.

I'd highly recommend RVing around Iceland, although it was expensive and I did wish there were a Lazy Daze available. The floor plans just weren't as nice as a Lazy Daze.

Re: Rental RV's - Gotta Love them

Reply #12 – July 07, 2016, 05:33:39 pm

I would be interested to hear more about Jan's RV trip to Iceland as we are thinking of doing a similar trip. For example, what RV rental company did you use? Was 5 weeks about the right amount of time to do the ring road at a relaxed pace? I've heard the weather is always cool even in July/August. Was that your experience?
Paul H.

Re: Rental RV's - Gotta Love them

Reply #13 – August 10, 2016, 07:51:58 pm

Hi, Paul, sorry about the delay in responding; I just figured out that you had asked these questions today. We used a company called McRent. Funny name, but good company:

McRent

Five weeks was a delightful amount of time to be there and go around the entire ring road. I have some relatives who only spent a few days in Iceland and that would have driven me nuts. It takes me a while to really settle in to a place and get used to their ways of doing things, the food, the wildlife and scenery. That's what we were really there for, the photography of birds and landscapes.

It was super cool temperature-wise almost everywhere in Iceland. The only exception was in a thermal area up north, where it actually got quite warm during the day. I enjoyed the cool temps. The wind was another matter; it was extreme and often. We saw one RV that had literally gotten blown off the road and down into some volcanic rocks.

We got there on July 5th and stayed on into August, with the total of 5 weeks. The main reason for that timing was so that we could photograph puffins bringing fish to their young, and that did happen. They are adorable. You can see my photos here:

Iceland Galleries

Gosh, the scenery and the wildlife were phenomenal. The food took some getting used to. It was very bland. We cooked most of our own meals in the RV. Next time, I will take some spices from home, as we both like our food kicked up a notch. Bakery goods were excellent. They have a lot of sweets there.

Prices were high for just about everything. One interesting thing is that gas prices are regulated, so you'll find that they are the same throughout the country. No need for a GasBuddy app up there. You see a gas station and you just stop and buy the gas there. No need to agonize about saving a penny or two on down the road.

Iceland Air was an airline to be emulated by all the others. They made the flights so pleasant.

Feel free to ask more questions about Iceland and RVing there.

Re: Rental RV's - Gotta Love them

Reply #14 – August 11, 2016, 04:13:18 am

Fabulous photos, Jan!

Re: Rental RV's - Gotta Love them

Reply #15 – August 11, 2016, 08:07:45 am

I could spend a day just looking a the photos. Very nice pictures. I also must compliment you on how you have the photo site site organized. Very easy to move from gallery to gallery giving a better idea of where things are located even though I have never been to Iceland.

Re: Rental RV's - Gotta Love them

Reply #16 – August 11, 2016, 10:37:06 am

Quote from: paul banbury - July 05, 2016, 01:08:53 pm

All the pumps are color coded- green for diesel. He pulls the filler cap and offers me a sniff. Not a good vintage, non, mon dieu! It was gas. In France diesel is Yellow! Lead free is green.

There's a gas station brand here in the U.S. that uses a yellow handle for diesel (I don't remember which one). When we stopped there for the first time several years ago with our diesel truck, DH was reaching for the hose with the green handle when I noticed that it said GAS! Fortunately, we discovered the error before any gas was pumped into the diesel tank!

Re: Rental RV's - Gotta Love them

Reply #17 – August 11, 2016, 12:52:15 pm

Quote from: dreed917 - July 05, 2016, 01:48:52 pm

Years ago I got to talking to a guy at the dump station. He was from Europe who rented this rv. He said he was turning it in and flying back later that day. At the time I didn't know much about dumping. Turns out he was filling the water tank from the hose that was used for cleaning the toilet.
Dave 04 PleasureWay Excel

We have seen that twice recently. One was a rental. Not sure about the other one.

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