One of our early expeditions involved working on a family project. Our son is building a house in Bow, NH, and had rented a house near the Merrimack River in Hookset, NH, to live in while building. Grandma and I took the MH to New Hampshire so she could live in it for two weeks while painting interior rooms in our son's new house. Because I still work about 3/4 time, I traveled to the New Hampshire project on weekends.

It was dark when we arrived in Hookset. I knew that there were overhanging oak and maple trees at the driveway to the Hookset house, and along the street there. I stopped while brushing some smaller branches, fortunately before getting into the heavier ones. One of the neighbors came rushing out to warn me about them. My son is now 39 years old and is a good driver and equipment operator. He wanted to back the MH into the driveway while I watched the tree branches. This was due to the fact that there were mailboxes and other obstructions and he had planned how he was going to get it in there. We made out fine, with respect to ground level obstructions and the tree branches, avoiding the larger ones. He had the coach almost to his chosen spot, when all of a sudden we heard a CRAACKKK!! He and I had not realized that the utility wires leading in to the house were lower than the height of the Air Conditioners on the roof of the MH.

My son stopped before tearing the wires off the house or the utility pole, but one corner of my rear AC shell was in pieces. Perhaps it was a good thing that this AC shell was already cracked and brittle. Considering its already poor condition, I was pleased that it was the point of failure. I had already priced new shells online at Camping World.

My son felt really bad about doing the damage, and he patched the pieces together with the very sticky wide tape that was being used to seal around the doors and windows of his new house.

When I got home, I checked again online and found the MAXair AC shells for Coleman air conditioners were on sale. I ordered a pair of them.

Lessons Learned: Always be careful to watch out for overhead obstructions, but be doubly careful at night, especially in an unfamiliar location.

We should have looked harder at the overhead situation before backing in!