A Reminder That Murphy is Always Lurking

In addition to visiting with Karen and Tom in Ellijay, we wanted to get our very dirty motorhome washed, so early in the morning before it became stifling again, we got it done.  Jan did the roof as usual, and then together we finished the rest.

 

We usually pull in the slides when we wash to make it a lot easier and quicker.  Later after the concrete had dried we noticed a small puddle on the passenger side where the AquaHot lives.  Oh no, we checked the AquaHot and it was completely fine and dry.  Weirdly it felt oily, maybe like transmission fluid, what?!?  The only possible thing in that area is the slide mechanism for the front passenger side slide.  So we went inside, it could not possibly be in a worse location, absolutely inaccessible, and only in sight with the slide all the way in, and lo and behold we find the leak, whether it is a fitting or a leaking hydraulic ram is to be determined, at least it only leaks when the slide is moved.  The next is a poor picture of the leak, even getting a shot of it is difficult.

Ignore the dirt, it is in an impossible place to clean.  So we filed the leak in our minds and headed back down to Winding Water, our long term campground in Cartersville.

Then while we were getting situated in our site with me moving the coach per Jan's direction, my phone rang with a call I was waiting for so I am sitting there with engine idling with my foot on the brake talking on the phone and I start hearing this loud alarm!  I look down and see my air pressure is going down and since it is past 50-60 lbs, it sets off the low air pressure alarm.  Now what?  So I get off the phone, set the parking brake, stop pressing on the brake pedal and the air starts building back up.  Obviously we have a leak somewhere in the service brake system.  Luckily we are in our site in a campground.  I could just picture us either sitting at a traffic light for a while, or going down a road that required a lot of braking with it leaking down, what you have to understand on air brake vehicles, whether semis or RVs, when the air pressure goes down past the alarm, the spring brake or parking brake goes on, NOW.  It is air pressure that keeps it off.

So the next day, Jan and I decide to see if we can find the air leak, that way we would at least be able to tell a mobile tech what we had found.  We did not feel safe driving it.  So I cranked it up, built up the air, shut off the engine and pressed on the brake, we felt since it went down so fast, 15-20 seconds, it would be easy to hear.  We tried about 4 or 5 times and could not hear it.

We had used a mobile tech from a nearby shop about a month or so ago and were pleased so we went up to talk to the shop.  We explained what we had, the fact we could not hear it, agreed a leak that size should be able to be heard and they would send a tech to our site the next day.  He showed up right on time and we proceeded to find the leak, I would air it up, shut it off, he would crawl all around and Jan would relay when he wanted me to press the brake.  We did it 5 or so times and he had found nothing!  Now we were panicking as it seemed the only place left was up in the ceiling of our basement bays, another almost inaccessible place, but before we committed to that he decided to go back underneath and see if he could find it one more time.  This time when I pressed the brake, even I, in the driver seat, could hear him yell that he found it.  We breathed a big sigh of relief.  He found a split braided air line leaking right at the drive axle, and with the braided material around it, it muffled the sound.

He pulled the line off and the next day, had a new one made up and installed it, so we are back in business.  He did suggest replacing all the brake lines in that area since they were susceptible  to some chafing, and also he thought there was a small leak at the ABS valve in the same area.

The bad line in my hands while he is installing the new one

With the mobile rates so very high, and us with two problems now, we opted to go to our favorite chassis shop, Josam's in Orlando where we knew we could completely trust them to fix us up, as they have a lot more experience with our coach and coaches like ours unlike the shop here in Atlanta.  So now we are planning a trip to have the brake air lines replaced and whatever else needs it, and also we have an appointment down the road in Lakeland at a specific Monaco shop, Classy Motor Coach to fix our slide leak.

One more update with the house build, we have encountered yet another speed bump that we are trying to work through, so it will most likely be another week or so before an update:-(