Another Exciting Episode in Audrey's Great RV Adventure

[audreyh1]

They sell special protective shoes for this instance, I am certain.

Uh - unfortunately no!

I would love to see someone outside their RV wearing a contamination suit while they dump their tanks. Just in case! Wouldn't that be a hoot!

Disposable Coverall Splash Contamination Suit

Audrey

 

[Nords]

Uh - unfortunately no!
I would love to see someone outside their RV wearing a contamination suit while they dump their tanks. Just in case! Wouldn't that be a hoot!

That's ridiculous. I've sloshed around in sanitary tanks that are eight foot high and ten feet square with just regular ol' coveralls and a pair of rubber boots. I don't think even NAVOSH goes that far today.

Of course I was also vaccinated for hepatitis, tetanus, diptheria, and typhoid. But that wasn't for the tanks-- it was for my shipmates...

 

[Janet H]

Uh - unfortunately no!

I would love to see someone outside their RV wearing a contamination suit while they dump their tanks. Just in case! Wouldn't that be a hoot!

http://[url]http://www.respirex.co.uk/products_detail.asp?id=12&catID=14[/url] Audrey

Now that begs an interesting question... How much would you tip or pay to have your tanks dumped? A staffed dump station might be an interesting side line for a park host.....

 

[audreyh1]

Now that begs an interesting question... How much would you tip or pay to have your tanks dumped? A staffed dump station might be an interesting side line for a park host.....

I suspect many RVers would love to pay for such service. It's always been "self-serve" as far as I have ever seen.

Heck, we'd gladly pay to have someone else pump our diesel! It was really nice in Oregon when we pulled into a non-truck stock and had a gas attendant do the pumping.

Well - there is a dump service where a "honey wagon" truck will come by and pump out your waste tanks. These are sometimes available in areas where people do a lot of boondocking and there is no dump station available. A famous one is Quartzite AZ which is some wild free BLM winter camping/carnival/flea market "RVers Woodstock". Something we have absolutely no desire at all to witness in person even though fellow RV owners seem to think it's great. Free Quartzsite BLM RV Camping

But as I've never been in this situation I have no idea what kind of tipping ettiquette there is.

Audrey

 

[Nords]

Now that begs an interesting question... How much would you tip or pay to have your tanks dumped? A staffed dump station might be an interesting side line for a park host.....

I think most of us shoveled more than enough of that stuff during our working years...

 

[HFWR]

I think most of us shoveled more than enough of that stuff during our working years...

And they don't even issue coveralls and rubber boots...

 

[audreyh1]

Well, believe it or not, we experienced a sequel!

We got to Little Rock, AR with no apparent problems. Beautiful weather and very nice camping. We decide to stick around for a week as the weather forecast was looking fabulous. Planning to return to Kerrville TX (our home base) after the nice break.

The day before we get ready to leave, we realize one of the front wheels is leaking brake fluid! Arrrrrrrgh! Obviously some fallout from overheating our brakes - one of the seals was damaged after all. But it sure was a delayed failure.

It was a Friday, and it took all sorts of scrambling including 12 phone calls to find a place that would take care of us - a Kenworth Truck facility. And of course, nothing available until Monday, which meant we had to wait out the weekend. Top off with brake fluid so that we could "make it" to the service facility.

Got to the service facility OK Monday morning. It took all of Monday and part of Tuesday morning to figure out the part number, and then two more days just to get the part - they had to jump through all sorts of hoops. After three nights spent boondocking at the service facility, we got the part, thank goodness it was the right one, they fixed us up, and we finally got out of there mid-afternoon, after which we made a beeline for TX (checking several times, of course, that everything was operating properly).

Interesting place to spend several nights. You would not believe the kinds of things that come in on big tow trucks in the middle of the night! You never knew what might be backing in right next to you at 3 a.m. But seriously, this is not the first time we've had the experience of "living" at a commercial truck service facility.

So we are back in Kerrville where we planned to be 5 days ago. Drove 410 miles today (which is a really long one for us) including several hours of rain to make up for at least one day lost.

This is the downside of owning an RV. Of course they always break at the most inconvenient times, you might have to wait around for several days, and sometimes it can be a real bear to get something fixed!

The service place (MHC Kenworth in Little Rock, AR) did a great job even though they spent 3 hours on the phone getting the part. And we are really lucky they were willing to help us out, as they rarely work on motorhomes. Not being at full capacity probably helped too - one "upside" for an economy in recovery.

OK, so all please keep your fingers crossed that we have no more issues with our brakes!

Audrey

 

[REWahoo]

Audrey, I sure hope you're done with brake problems. What a PITA...

Is Buckhorn 'home'?

 

[audreyh1]

Audrey, I sure hope you're done with brake problems. What a PITA...

Is Buckhorn 'home'?

Yep! That's it!

And I forgot to mention that this little job cost 4X our original repair - ouch!

Audrey

 

[Disappointed]

How old is your motorhome?

How often do you experience such inconveniences?

RVing is no longer appealing to me. I hate to be stuck anywhere unplanned. I would be all stressed out dealing with mechanical problems as I and my wife both are clueless when it comes to anything mechanical.

Hope it does not happen again.

mP

 

[Meadbh]

Ah yes. This reminds me why RV-ing is not for me.

 

[REWahoo]

If you think what Audrey has been telling you is bad, ask her how much a set of new tires for her rig will set her back.

Psst....Audrey, you're doing great, keep it up! Nothing is more discouraging than a crowded RV park.

 

[audreyh1]

How old is your motorhome?

How often do you experience such inconveniences?

RVing is no longer appealing to me. I hate to be stuck anywhere unplanned. I would be all stressed out dealing with mechanical problems as I and my wife both are clueless when it comes to anything mechanical.

Hope it does not happen again.

mP

Our motorhome was built in March 2005, which makes it about 4.5 years old. Not that old.

Well, I would say this was the second worst experience. We had a radiator start leaking at 18 months, and were stuck in Albuquerque for 1 month over the Xmas holidays. Fortunately Albuquerque is a lovely city, and Xmas there was no great sacrifice, until, that is the 50 year snow storm decided to arrive!

So - one major one every 2 years on average? But there have been less major issues at least once a year that have caused some travel delays. You have to be aware that you can't expect to maintain a tight travel schedule. There is also quite a bit of annual preventive maintenance that has to be done on these complex monsters.

You hear these stories on most brands of diesel Class A's. Some individual motorhomes have more problems than others, but across manufacturers you hear similar stories.

If you are not that mechanically inclined, you might want to avoid a Class A motorhome as they seem to be the most complex. The more bells and whistles, the more things can go wrong.

But RV trailers are very simple. The worst thing we ever had happen on our Casita was needing to replace some broken cabinet latches! You did have to learn about braking systems and sway bars, etc. - i.e. all about safely towing a trailer.

And class B and class C motorhomes built on standard van/truck chassis are probably much less of an issue as they would be much easier to service the automotive part. If something goes wrong with "the house" you can usually put up with it until seeking repair at a convenient time, and the wider the dealer network, the easier it is to get service. If something goes wrong with the chassis - you usually have to address it immediately.

Audrey

 

[audreyh1]

Psst....Audrey, you're doing great, keep it up! Nothing is more discouraging than a crowded RV park.

We knew it was part of the territory. You have to be willing to take this on if you want to spend a lot of time RVing. And there really is no point in buying an RV unless you plan to spend a lot of time using it!

But it does seem to snowball at times and that can get really discouraging. But then you do get issues resolved, and you are back on the road enjoying all the benefits of this lifestyle.

Audrey

 

[REWahoo]

We knew it was part of the territory. You have to be willing to take this on if you want to spend a lot of time RVing. And there really is no point in buying an RV unless you plan to spend a lot of time using it!

But it does seem to snowball at times and that can get really discouraging. But then you do get issues resolved, and you are back on the road enjoying all the benefits of this lifestyle.

Audrey

Uh, Audrey, you're not getting with the program. Keep telling everyone all the horror stories you can dream up so they won't want to buy an RV. No reason to increase competition for the good camping spots....

 

[W2R]

Uh, Audrey, you're not getting with the program. Keep telling everyone all the horror stories you can dream up so they won't want to buy an RV. No reason to increase competition for the good camping spots....

I'm convinced! I doubt I will ever even think about getting an RV. So, that's one more camping spot available for you braver-than-I RV folks.

(But then, I have always been such a homebody...)

 

[Rustward]

And all this excitement started with a sticking brake pedal -- which you said in the other post had happened to other units?

Does the manufacturer post service bulletins noting things (like a sticking brake pedal) that may occur and are likely to cause problems? Seems like they should.

 

[kowski]

Audrey, we are just part timers, but i thought you might find this link interesting. this full time couple is in kerville right now also. RV-Dreams Journal if you read their past posts they just got over mega brake issues.

 

[audreyh1]

And all this excitement started with a sticking brake pedal -- which you said in the other post had happened to other units?

Does the manufacturer post service bulletins noting things (like a sticking brake pedal) that may occur and are likely to cause problems? Seems like they should.

We owners keep each other informed via a web forum.

Our motorhome manufacturer went out of business 1.5 years ago - which is part of the reason we had so much trouble figuring out our brake part number.

But as most of our motorhome components are made by third parties, we don't sweat being an "orphan" too much.

Audrey

 

[audreyh1]

Audrey, we are just part timers, but i thought you might find this link interesting. this full time couple is in kerville right now also. RV-Dreams Journal if you read their past posts they just got over mega brake issues.

Yep - they're here at the same RV resort! I noticed a rally when we came in yesterday, but didn't know who it was. Buckhorn hosts a lot of rallies in October.

I recognize the inside pictures of "The Barn" from that web-link.

And this is a rally for wannabee fulltimers. Interesting.

How about that!

Audrey

 

[haha]

I am glad so many seem to enjoy this so much.

I can't think of anything worse that one would be tempted to voluntarily do than to buy and use an RV. Just driving one down the street would give me hives.

It just shows how different people are.

ha

 

[Westernskies]

Great post Audrey, especially for us RV wannabees. Tough break on the brakes. Glad to hear you got your broken brakes back to braking and were finally able to break out of there and get home. Did the KW facilty identify what caused the brakes to break?? Let's hope you catch a break on those brakes breaking in the future, it might break the bank if you have to deal with broken brakes again.

 

[audreyh1]

Great post Audrey, especially for us RV wannabees. Tough break on the brakes. Glad to hear you got your broken brakes back to braking and were finally able to break out of there and get home. Did the KW facilty identify what caused the brakes to break?? Let's hope you catch a break on those brakes breaking in the future, it might break the bank if you have to deal with broken brakes again.

OMG! You're breaking me!!!!

Audrey

 

[Nords]

RVing is no longer appealing to me. I hate to be stuck anywhere unplanned. I would be all stressed out dealing with mechanical problems as I and my wife both are clueless when it comes to anything mechanical.

Yeah, I'd much rather be doing yardwork, painting the house, and paying property taxes...

 

[brewer12345]

I am glad so many seem to enjoy this so much.

I can't think of anything worse that one would be tempted to voluntarily do than to buy and use an RV. Just driving one down the street would give me hives.

It just shows how different people are.

ha

Indeed. But I think I would rather livein my 16X7 trailer than inhabit another apartment. Different strokes...