$19.99 Wrench: You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know

"You don’t know what you don’t know until you don’t know it." Truer words have never been spoken, especially when you're sitting at a truck stop, sipping subpar coffee, and watching a mechanic grapple with the decorative hub on your RV dually.

The valve stem extender from the driver side interior tire decided it had had enough. So to the truck stop we went, in search of a repair. Little did we know, we were about to embark on a journey of enlightenment—or perhaps more accurately, a crash course in RV hubs.

The mechanic, wrestled with our hub like it was a bear at a county fair. And not only was the mechanic struggling, but he had others helping too. Together they applied collective pressure with a long lever to help loosen the nut but it would not budge and only tighten the nut further. Thirty minutes turned into forty-five, which turned into an hour.

With nothing better to do, we dove into the deep, dark abyss of Facebook Newmar groups and open forums like IRV2. If you ever want to feel simultaneously comforted and horrified by the collective RV owner experience, I highly recommend this activity.

About twenty minutes into our digital spelunking, we stumbled upon the answer: our hubcap was reverse-threaded. Yes, you read that right. Reverse. Threaded. Apparently, this little nugget of wisdom had eluded both us and our beleaguered mechanic.

To add insult to injury, our "coach comes with a plastic wrench" according to the seasoned sages of the forums. But, as you might have guessed, this used coach did not. So there we were, armed with newfound knowledge but lacking the magical plastic wrench.

So, now we’re going to party like it’s $19.99 (well, okay, technically $19.94) because that’s all it cost to get this new fancy wrench into our inventory of “special” tools for the RV and note the directions printed on the tool to boot. Sometimes, the smallest details—like the direction of a thread—can surprise you.

Safe travels friends and may your hubs always be easy to remove (or at least come with instructions).

What surprises you about your RV?