Where did those keys go?

[davido]

A week ago I opened my pup to get a sleeping bag out of it, and to retrieve my camp chairs to use at an event. After opening up the PUP, I also did an oil change on my tow vehicle (1995 Ford Bronco 5.8L; a sturdy classic).

A few days later I noticed one of my sets of RV keys was missing. I searched everywhere I could imagine. Nothing was found.

Yesterday I went to an emissions testing center to get my tow vehicle's biannual emissions inspection. As part of that process the garage opens the hood.

I was standing near the vehicle as they opened the hood. There, to my amazement, sitting on top of the radiator shroud was my missing set of trailer keys.

The moral of the story: Never open your pup in close time proximity to doing an oil change. I must have had the keys in my hand when I opened the hood, set them down, added the five quarts of synthetic, checked the dipstick, closed the hood, and left the keys in there.

 

[PopUpSteve]

Good tip.

And never lay your keys on the roof of the camper before raising the roof.

 

[p]

....or place your wallet on the roof of your car....

 

[NLB]

....or place your wallet on the roof of your car....

That was a bad day.

 

[NLB]

Good tip.

And never lay your keys on the roof of the camper before raising the roof.

Unlocked the outside shower door, swung it down…looked for keys for 30 minutes.

 

[davez26]

Good tip.

And never lay your keys on the roof of the camper before raising the roof.

Yeah, did that. More or less boondocking, looking all over in the grass and rocks, then…oh…oh crap.

 

[popup-flyer]

Good tip.

And never lay your keys on the roof of the camper before raising the roof.

LOL... OR... after a harrowing experience at an RV park with a couple of insane owners we were invited to leave after I asked the owner to quit calling my wife a liar we had to find last minute accommodations out of town.....

After all that we found an RV park at 9pm and I started setting up. I am still frazzled from the owner of the last place... I opened the storage door to get the hose, power cord drain hose etc.... Popped up the roof set up the bunks was most of the way through setting up inside when I went out to hook up the water as my wife wanted to get dinner going.

Where is the water hose?!?!?! I look all around, under.... Its on the roof over the slide-out and me with no way to get up that high on the outside of the slide-out. I had to kick everyone back out, wife stops working on dinner food still sitting on the flipped up cook top and I drop the bunk end roof poles and swing down the ends. Lower the roof with everything still deployed far enough for me to get the hose off the roof.

That was my last camper, it also had the fill tube on the cassette toilet flush water tank with that special funnel you need to fill it.... put that on the roof at a campground dump station. Dumped, put everything up and guess what is on the side of the road somewhere in NW Texas?!

Lesson learned... never put anything on the roof even for a second!

 

[bondebond]

There are so many "very specific" things not to do here. That kind of pain is associated with being human.

I'll throw in...never put your keys in the rolling tool chest the night before you're looking to head out for a weekend trip.

 

[MNBound]

Thank you all for the chuckles and forewarning. Lesson of the day: keep your keys in your pocket. My story:

Day 2 of a 7 day trip a few years ago to Nebraska to see the eclipse. Stopped for gas along the way and wanted to get into the camper to top up ice in the cooler … not a key to be found anywhere. Arrrgghhhhh. No F’ing idea when/where they got lost. Dial like mad to find a key smith (at 5:30 pm) and had a guy take my call in Rapid City, SD. Happy to help when he got back into town about 8. After a nice leisurely dinner, had 12 keys cut…

 

[generok]

Yep, key pain makes for interesting mental scar tissue.

I left my PUP keys on the PUP when towing out of Denali NP. I called up there, they FOUND them and mailed them to me! Yay!

But, after that my wife made me a 550 cord keychain with a carabiner on it. I have the rig keys on it. Now I am so disciplined on keys. They are either in my hand, clipped to my beltloop, or hanging on the hook at home. One might say I am a bit anal about it. But I will admit, the system broke down once, and it was this year too! My DW opened the rig the morning of a trip to pack (usually I am up hours before her, but I was working). She, not being the keymaster, simply hung the keys back on the house hook. I came home, did my thing in the OPEN rig, hitched up and left. Got to the site, reached for my keys... D'oh! Eh, I have a spare in the TV, and one hidden on the rig (shhh!), but it was sooooooo unnerving not to have those keys hanging off my beltloop all weekend!

Good times!

 

[Tarkus]

I put my keys on a big fob (tennis ball) or tag (like a big reflective ribbon) so they are easier to spot from a distance.

On my car and motorcycle (electronic immobilizer) keys, I also I add a dog tag with phone number with reward if returned. They are too expensive to replace these days.

 

[Sjm9911]

I left the spare keys in the camper , not a great idea. Lol. Now with the TT when I arrive at a campsite, I make sure to unlock one window just in case. I will probably need to break the screen but it will be easier then going through the door. Addtionally, I carry a second set of keys for the TV. Unfortunately, sometimes I forget where I hide them. The spare set for the tv were in the camper since the november trip. So, I looked everywhere, untill I remembered they were allready in the camper.

 

[jeepster04]

I try my best to train myself to not put stuff where I need to remember it or it will be lost. Always put stuff in plain sight and where it wont matter if I leave it there.... I still lose stuff though.

I recently found a set of keys that I lost last summer in a pair of shorts that I put on this summer....

 

[Econ]

Keys are highly overrated. Decades ago I figured I was within 500' of my vehicle most of the time so I took all the keys off the ring I thought weren't needed and put them on a separate ring in the glove box..I didn't use them for 2 years.Now 20+. I bet my Mother's key is still on it.

My TV key, house key and the lock on the hitch pin key is all i carry. Correction, also the baggage key. That;s the only way to get them open. There on my carabiner on a belt loop.

My wallet yield the same results. Most of the "important" stuff wasn't needed. Its in a separate wallet in my vehicle.

My wallet: Its a business card holder. Finally had a guy at a craft show to make one out of real leather and mail it to me. I picked out about 6 things I really need. DL, 1credit card, CCW, medicare card, Old goat park pass and Costco. and a little spending money. can you think of anything else

Camper Keys: The spare set is in the TV.

I had a camper lock fall apart on me that was 4 years old and i put it back together. You are fool if you are depending on that to keep your camper safe. You have a deductible on you homeowners insurance?.

I went to a sale were the guy was selling out everything moving to Peru. Most of the stuff was junk . Why was he keeping it? How much in your camper would be considered junk by someone else?

Rant over.

 

[PopUpSteve]

I keep spare keys for the camper in the TV and vice versa.

 

[kcsa75]

I had a set of camper keys, keys to the camper door and storage bins, the padlocks on the storage gate etc. that I on a keyring in one of the cupholders on the F-150.

A few months ago, somebody decided to have a look around the cab of the truck while it was sitting in the driveway. Only thing that was taken was that set of keys. Seeing how the camper is 65 miles away I'm not too worried but it's kind of pain -- with just one key to the gate on the same ring was the car keys -- getting the camper in and out of the storage barn.