The continuing saga, we are still plagued

As I stated in my last post, we normally take these problems in stride, but we both have to admit, we are getting very close to being absolutely demoralized.  Yes, our problems are continuing.

I already covered the messed up brake indicator lights on the braking system, yes, that I screwed up and fixed, the water drain pipe that broke, the slide lock breaking, and of course the biggy, the one that altered all our plans, the slide out rollers breaking.  Unfortunately, we have been besieged with even more issues!  And the fact that Jan and I both have colds that will just not let go, doesn't help at all.  It must be part of our testing as neither one of us has had a cold in 2-3 years!

So to catch you up on our travails.  First our U-turn took us to Branson, well actually outside of Branson in Oak Grove, AR right on Table Rock Lake to the Ozarks Luxury RV Resort.  We went there for a couple reasons, it was originally one of our stops on our original route, and we have run into many expensive challenges altering our plans.  In this day and age, more and more RV parks are requiring full payment up front for your stay, and have greatly restricted their cancellation, read refund policies.  In fact we have had to pay for stays we had to cancel with no refunds at all!  Well this resort was one with a tight cancellation policy so instead of completely cancelling we changed our reservation in order to keep our money.  And in all honesty, we thought a nice relaxing 2 days at a resort might allow us to calm down a bit after our abrupt change of plans.

The drive to the resort began as beautiful, green grass, green trees, rolling hills, gorgeous views as we wound our way up and down for miles and miles until we got to the point where we were both worn out from the up and down, and back and forth ad nauseam, and wondered if we were ever going to get there, but we did, and it truly was gorgeous, landscaped sites and grounds, right on the lake with killer views, and we were ecstatic right up to when we were escorted to our site.  Well the tilted, ramped up entrance freaked me out, we drag easily, I almost cancelled right there, but we were both exhausted, so I raised the coach as high as I could and very, very carefully pulled into the site, and thankfully made it.  We got settled in, made a couple drinks and sat outside enjoying the view.

Beautiful, right?

We were there just two nights and that night we heard the pitter patter of raindrops, that intensified and continued right through our only day there.  It was okay, we made soup and relaxed, and all we could think about was extricating ourselves from our site when we went to leave:-(

So morning comes with a much nicer day, and I go to fire up the coach, it starts, I press travel mode on our leveling panel and get a beep, no that's not right, the steps aren't working, hey what's this weird message ABS communication failure????  I shut it down, start it again and all the problems are still there?  I go into what we call our Front Run Bay, it holds all our chassis related fuses and circuit boards, 14 of them to be exact, and find that only 2 are lit up and powered, now what?  We shut it down and start troubleshooting.  We start in the Rear Run Bay where all the high powered items are and from where the FRB gets its power and all seems fine.  So back up to the FRB and yes we have voltage to all the supply wires that power that bay, so why aren't circuit boards powered?  In about the middle of the panel, there is an unlabeled relay that diesel mechanic Jan is convinced is the problem, I say I don't think so and anyway we don't have a replacement anyway, but she says she thinks we do and proceeds to find one!  We exchange the relay and voila, it all works, now I will admit I don't necessarily think that solved it, but I'm sure not going to complain.  So now we have to back out, and after at least 15 solid minutes of back and fill, wiggle here and there, raise the coach as high as it will go, we manage to sneak our way out, and it was so funny, because without any pretense when we stood together after getting out we both said in unison, "We are never coming back here again!"

So our day of travel across Kansas took us through bands of hard rain, and I turn on the wipers, or I should say I attempt to turn on the wipers as they don't turn on.  Oh wonderful.  We have a smart wheel and the wiper controls are in the wheel, so I frantically start pushing every button that has to do with the wipers, on, off, high, low, intermittent, and off.  And finally get them to go on intermittent, now it is raining hard and the wipers wipe once every what seems like eternity, just at the point where I think we'll have to pull over, we get a swipe, and then coming out of the rain they won't turn off, sounds pretty funny telling the story now, but believe me it wasn't too funny then.  So at a rest stop, one of the very few places to pull over along our 2 lane road I call the manufacturer of the smart wheel and he informs me he is 99% sure it is my clock spring.  I say okay send me one, and he says, they don't make the clock spring, just the wheel and the control module........  So after some research I find a company that does sell the clock spring and get one ordered and then we fight for a few more hours our very cantankerous wipers.  Finally the weather clears and we pull into the Wellington, KS KOA which was very welcome about that time.  We spend an uneventful evening.

The next leg is into Colorado, and whenever we head west we long to get that first sight of the mountains, and sure enough, we caught them in their snow capped glory.

Welcome to the West!

So we pull into our next stop at the John Martin Reservoir Hasty Campground which was pretty nice for a public campground, only electric large private site, and we could only get a back in site so as we are unhooking the truck we notice a lot of something all over, like oil?!?  The back of the motorhome has a bit on it as well, we look all over everything and can't find anything, but remember we went through several miles of brand new paving and figure it was wet enough to through some oil up on the truck.  We take a nice walk around, and settle in for the night.  The next morning dawns bright and sunny, Jan takes her shower, and then I go in for mine, and as I am all soaped up the water flow stops, and starts, and stops, and starts, and I frantically try to get all the soap off before our water pump totally craps out.  OMG, yet another thing.  Jan and I start talking about houses:-)

So on to Taos, we need to stop here on our way by for some very important family items, and of course to see Karen, Jan's sister, and Tom.  So as we pull into the Taos Monte Bello campground where we always stay, we notice now the truck and the back of the motorhome are soaked in something, oil, water, coolant, what?  This time we look things over and sure enough we have a leak under the motorhome.  The hydraulic pump is dripping, so we are covered in automatic transmission fluid, which is what is used in our hydraulic system which runs our power steering and radiator cooling fan.  Oh man!  We get in the site and crawl under for a better look and sure enough the pump itself is dripping at the front, not good, compounded by the fact we are in very remote Taos. So Karen comes down and takes me to a couple garages that might be able to help, one refers us to another, then another, and finally we find a guy who is knowledgeable of our problem, is willing to help, but can't for a week!  We decide to let things cool down from the drive and the next day crawl under, clean everything off real well, and see exactly what the problem is.  We do and find a part number on the pump and after much research find the company Sauer Danfoss no longer builds this pump, but another company QCC has bought the rights and still manufactures it.  After numerous calls we find out there would be at least a 4 week wait for a new pump, it would be horribly expensive, but we could get a rebuild kit for $30, but wait minimum charge is $50, and add overnight to it, well you get the idea.  So we order, are assured the kit will arrive on Friday, our last day in Taos, and we further decide to extend one day, even though we wouldn't be able to get any money back from our next destination in Colorado Springs and tackle the job ourselves.  And as all this is being done, I happen to walk into the coach and look up and see the cabinet above the driver's seat is falling down!  I'll tell you about now we really are ready to get a house.

Our clue all is not right:-)

Yup, it's leaking

This picture shows the pump leaking,
the red is the PTO off the transmission,
and its seal is dry

We had hoped it was the connection between the PTO and the pump as that would have just required a gasket.  This way when the pump has to come off to be rebuilt, the 55 quarts of ATF in the system has to be drained, one of the interesting challenges.

So while we wait we decide to tackle the falling down cabinet.  Funny while we were driving into Taos, we hit a bridge at the bottom of a draw at the same exact moment a semi hit it and we heard a very loud crack, we immediately figured we had caught yet another rock and had broken the windshield, again, but we couldn't find anything.  We now think that was the moment the screws, only 2 broke and allowed to cabinet to come down a bit.

There isn't supposed to be a gap

It's pretty big

So we get the cabinet doors off to see what we can see and find out only 2 screws have been holding this side of the cabinet up, and I should mention this cabinet extends all the way across the front of the coach and back about 4 feet on each side.

The 2 now broken screws

So we jack up the cabinets and put in numerous screws and as they say it is now better than new.

Jacking it up for repair

A few more screws this time around

Back where it should be, now to put the doors back on

Now just in case you think all is well in Mudville, hold your horses.  So as I said the rebuild kit was overnighted so as to be here Friday.  We made a list and went out to get the items we felt we'd need to do the repair, and waited til UPS made its delivery.  And, I'm sure you've guessed by now, it never arrived...........

Too late to get a hold of the company that supposedly sent it, so here we are Friday afternoon, a weekend ahead of us in which we can accomplish nothing, another week in Colorado Springs KOA all PAID for starting Saturday.  What in the world are we going to do!?!?!?

After we calm down a bit I call a truck repair facility in Colorado Springs and talk to them about our problem.  Could they do this, especially if I have the rebuild kit in hand?  Yes but they are a walk-in shop only, no appointments, first come, first serve.  Wow, don't know if we can handle that, but out of curiosity, do you think if I drove out 200 miles to COS, would I hurt anything other than make a mess.  He says as long as you make sure the fluid level stays up you should be okay.  Hmmmm.  I ask if he could recommend another reputable shop that does do appointments and he gives me another number.  I call and have a long talk with them, so right now we are driving it to COS, and have an appointment to have the pump removed, rebuilt, and remounted.  Monday we will find out where in the Hell is the rebuild kit and we will drive back here to Taos in the truck to pick it up if need be.  Keep your fingers crossed.

In the meantime we have had a very nice visit with Karen and Tom. And, oh yeah, we are still sick:-(

I'll leave you with the very beautiful view from Karen and Tom's porch