When Your Full-Time RV Dream Becomes a Nightmare
There’s a moment in every full-timer’s life where something goes catastrophically wrong. For us, it happened on a Friday before Christmas at the Pensacola Elks Lodge—a loud BOOM underneath our brand-new 2026 Alliance Paradigm fifth wheel.
We were parked and packing up to head to the dump station, which sat literally across the parking lot. We’d dumped countless times before. This time? Everything changed in an instant.
The Moment of Panic
When Barry heard that boom and ran outside, he found our kitchen gray tank literally on the ground, with liquid pouring everywhere. In those first few seconds, there’s pure panic. Is it the black tank? (Spoiler: thank God it wasn’t.) But even a gray tank failure is a serious RV problem that shakes you to your core.
“Your tanks shouldn’t fall out. No matter how full,” Barry said in the video—and he’s absolutely right. A holding tank failure like this isn’t just inconvenient; it’s a safety hazard and a major repair that no RVer wants to face.
The Domino Effect of RV Problems
What started as a tank falling out quickly spiraled into multiple issues:
The tank’s wires got yanked, which damaged the electrical connections. That electrical damage caused a short in the 12-volt system, which then affected the hydraulics. The hydraulics power your slides and your jacks—essentially meaning we couldn’t move the RV at all.
Suddenly, what looked like “just a tank replacement” became a full emergency. We had our daughter flying into an airport 2.5 hours away in the morning. We had to get mobile. We had to figure this out, fast.
How We Handled the Crisis (And You Can Too)
Here’s what we learned in those panicked hours:
Step 1: Assess the Actual Damage Don’t panic and assume the worst. Get down, look at what actually happened, and identify what needs fixing first. We realized it was the kitchen gray tank—gross, but manageable. If it had been the black tank, the situation would have been exponentially worse.
Step 2: Get Professional Help Fast We called every RV tech in the area. Nothing. Then we tried an unconventional approach: we called a nearby RV resort and asked if they knew any technicians staying there. That one question led us to Brian, who showed up within 45 minutes and worked his tail off to get us mobile.
Step 3: Prioritize What Matters Most We couldn’t fix everything that night. But we could get the jacks down and the slides in (at least manually). We could get on the road. Everything else could wait until we reached our destination.
Step 4: Have a Backup Plan The worst-case scenario was hiring an Uber to pick up our daughter from the airport. We were prepared for it. Sometimes the solution to an RV disaster isn’t fixing the RV—it’s adapting and surviving.
The Root Cause
After working through the problem, we discovered that something had happened with the tank’s mounting system. Whether it was a design flaw, improper installation, or wear and tear—we’re still investigating with Alliance. But the lesson is clear: one failure can cascade into multiple issues that are just as bad, if not worse. When that tank fell, it yanked the electrical wires, which caused a short in the hydraulics, which disabled our jacks and slides. One problem created a domino effect of additional problems.
We’re so thankful this happened while we were parked. If this had happened while we were driving, the consequences could have been catastrophic—damaged underbelly, potential accident, or worse. The timing was fortunate, even if the situation felt devastating in the moment.
The Bigger Picture
This experience taught us something critical about full-time RV living that you don’t see in the YouTube highlight reels: things break. Things fail. And sometimes they fail in ways that create multiple problems at once.
But here’s what also happened: we called for help, we got it, we adapted, and we got on the road. Our family made it to the airport. We didn’t let one disaster turn into a complete catastrophe.
That’s the reality of full-time RV life. It’s not always beautiful sunsets and adventure. Sometimes it’s gray tank liquid, mysterious hydraulic shorts, and making desperate phone calls on a Friday before Christmas. But it’s still worth it—because you handle it, you survive it, and you become a better RVer for it.
What’s Next?
In Part 2 of this disaster series, we’ll show you:
- How Alliance stepped in to help resolve the issue
- What we discovered was actually causing the problem
- The other TWO major disasters that happened in the same two-week period (yes, really)
- What we learned that could save you from similar RV failures
Because apparently, the universe decided we needed to learn about RV problems the hard way in December.
Stay tuned—and if you’re thinking about going full-time, make sure you have a plan for when (not if) something like this happens.
