We are dead in the water :(

Last Monday we were on the way to Elephant Butte, NM to attend the RV-Dreams rally.  About 20 miles from Elephant Butte in the middle of nowhere the bus lost power and expelled all of it's radiator fluid.

Shad got on the line immediately with Good Sam's roadside assistance and after going back and forth with them for about two hours on the shoulder of I-25 we decided to head on into Elephant Butte and check into a hotel.  Thank goodness we had decided that I should follow the RV in our Honda Pilot or we would've been totally screwed.

Good Sam's was having trouble finding a roadside mechanic in the area and we spoke with people from both Albuquerque (2 hours north) and Las Cruces (2 hours south).  The mechanics we spoke to kept telling us that we need to take a picture of the problem and send it to them which would've been great had we actually known what the issue was.  We were feeling really green and a little dumb for buying an engine we knew very little about.

The mechanic in Las Cruces finally said that we would need to be towed into him and he would then diagnose the problem.  We had done a little leg work of our own and had found someone willing to tow us to Las Cruces that was local.  We arranged through God Sams to meet the tow at the rig the next morning.

We met the tow guy the next morning at our bus and were greeted with bad news.  Because of the  bus was so low to the ground we we would need a special tow truck, one of the ones that can tow you up onto a flatbed, and at 40' feet there was not one in the area that was capable of the job.  He suggested that he and his mechanics were however capable of checking the engine out at the side of the road.  Great!

After looking at the situation the mechanic told us that we had overheated the engine and that had caused the antifreeze to dump.  He asked what type of oil we were using.  We had the RV checked out by a local Detroit diesel place and had been advised to use straight 30w or 40w in our engine.  This mechanic said that we had been told wrong.  That we needed to be running 15w-40 and that the wrong oil was likely the cause of the cause of the problem.  So Shad and I took off to shop for anti-freeze, oil additive, and oil while the mechanics would empty out the old oil and we could start out fresh with what he stated was the right oil.

It took us over an hour round trip, but we finally found the quantities requested and were back at the bus.  The mechanics started emptying the fluids we got into the bus.  Things seemed to be looking up for us.

Then...

The previously dead engine started right away and was very smoky.  The engine was shut down quickly.  I sat nervously in the car with the dogs, waiting for Shad to come and give me the verdict.    We had a cracked head and the bus is going nowhere.

We got as much of our stuff as we could crammed into the back of the car and headed back to the hotel to let what had just happened sink in and decide where we are going to go from here.  We still have a 40' bus sitting on the shoulder of an interstate and no way to get it moved.  What is Good Sam's going to cover and how much is this going to end up costing us?

Shad called back to the major cities to inquire about the costs of tow and repair.  We were quoted that this would run us up to $1000 for the tow and the repair would be anywhere from $8,000 to $12,000.  We don't have that kind of money right now; we had just dumped a big chunk of our savings on the rig about 3 months ago.  What were we going to do?

Shad called around to the local storage places and found someone that we could be towed into and had room to store us in Elephant Butte.  He met with the local mechanic to see what he thought our best options were to get the rig off the road.  The mechanic said that he could find a way to tow it to the storage facility but there might be damage to the front and rear bumpers in the process.  We decided to go for it; at this point we really didn't want it spending a third night on the interstate.

It managed to make it into storage just fine with no damage to the bumpers!  Good Sams Roadside covered the majority of our expenses.  Whew!

We have decided that we are going to have to try and sell it.  We called around and the best offer we could get for it was to scrap it at 14 cents a pound.  We think that there is still enough value in it that we can do better than that.  If we could afford to fix it we would; the shell is in such good shape and the interior is functional.  Maybe someone out there would want to fix it or have it towed somewhere to live in?

In the next day or so I will be posting ads to Craigslist and probably e-bay as well at less than half of what we paid for it 3 month ago.  I have never sold anything online before in my life, so I'm trying to figure out what exactly it is I need to do.

We are not giving up on our goal to live full-time in an RV.  We've just hit a major bump in the road that will set us back at least a year.  We learned a lot in the short time that we have had it, and while we are sick and heartbroken over what has happened we have learned so much.  We are feeling discouraged, but not defeated. 

Our two nights in Austin!

Sorry I haven't updated since we got home.  We've been busy with life, work, home, etc.

We stayed at the Austin Lone Star RV resort for two nights after our freezing stay in Abeline.  The weather was much warmer and easier to deal with there.  The park was a nice, clean, and friendly place and we were happy with our choice to stay there.

Between visits with my brother-in-law and his future wife we made our way to the Camping World in New Braunfels and picked up a new sewer hose, a good space heater, and a few other vital supplies. 

I came home a bit discouraged because of how our sleeping situation worked out.  At home we have no problem with our 3 dogs crowding into our king sized bed; in a queen sized bed in the bus on the other hand... not so much.  I spent the two nights feeling really cramped and without good sleep.  I know what you are thinking.. "Why not shut the dogs out of the bedroom or shove them out of bed?"  I freely admit that our dogs are spoiled brats and had we shut the door there would have been endless scratching and whining and if we had kicked them out of bed they would've been back as soon as we dozed off.  It's our own fault and we know it. 

We are headed to Elephant Butte, NM for the RV-Dreams rally in 14 days and think that this time we will just have to let the dogs win and split up.  We will take turns sleeping on the sofa hide-a-bed.  It is not ideal; but I think it will help to keep us sane and rested.

We have started a list of things we need to do to make the bus more liveable.  Before we leave we are hoping to have a functioning horn (we have the fuses replaced and have the new solenoid, we just need to do some wiring) and stereo.  We could never figure out why we couldn't get the cable to function when we were in Austin so we would like to figure that out as well.   We still need to get a current state inspection sticker and hopefully with the horn fixed we can get that taken care of.

It might be nice to find a toad in the next two weeks as well. 

I will update later this week as we get things accomplished!

Tracie

It was really cold in Abilene...

We got off to a late start yesterday; the rig wouldn't start.  We finally got things going about 1:30pm and decided to spend our first night in the rig at the Abilene RV park at our $30 Good Sam's rate.  It was a decent enough park right off I-20.  We pulled in near dusk and just had time to get plugged in and hook up the water before dark.  We had some traffic noise from the interstate, but we are both pretty solid sleepers so the noise didn't bother us one bit.

We knew it was going to get chilly last night, but we had no idea just how chilly.  We haven't got the furnace up and running yet and were relying an a ceramic heater.  It did not nearly put out enough heat.  We woke up freezing our butts off and with a bed full of beagles about 7:00 am and decided it was probably best just to get farther south as soon as possible.  We started on our way to Austin.

We stopped for diesel along the way and calculated our mpg.  We hit right at 6.5 mpg and had been travelling between 60-70 most of the way so we were very happy since we were expecting to get no more than 5.

We are now in Austin at the Austin Lone Star RV park.  It's really pretty here and the park has way more amenities than where we were yesterday.  We have spent the afternoon just trying to get the hang of some things.  We still haven't figured out how to get the cable to work, but did find the fuse box today!  Shad's brother lives here and is going to pick him up later and take him on an outing to Walmart to pick up some new fuses and a few essentials we forgot.

This park has a really nice off leash pet play area and the dogs seemed to enjoy that quite a bit.   We haven't figured out the hot water heater yet either so we used the shower facilities at the park which were very clean.


I'm about to take a break from it all and watch one of my favorite RV movies inside the RV!  I'm a big fan of  "Race With the Devil" starring Peter Fonda and Warren Oates.  Is it weird to be watching a movie about people in an RV traveling across the state of Texas being stalked by satanists when you are traveling across Texas by RV?  I don't see us pulling off on any random dirt roads to dry camp where we might witness a satanic sacrifice, so I think we will be in the clear!  ;)

We don't have a horn, but...

We were not able to get the bus moved from storage to the house until yesterday afternoon.  This morning we get a knock on the door from our local police department.  It seems that one of our neighbors had called the police to report the bus had been in front of our house since before Thanksgiving.  We didn't even have the bus until last month!  Aaargh!  We explained to the officer that it had been there less than a day and he was cool about it and said that legally it can sit there for 24 hours so it ended up okay.  He did point out our still expired inspection sticker though...

So back to the horn...  We were unable to find the solenoid locally, so it is on it's way to us from J.C. Whitney. It wont be here until sometime next week.  We have spent hours with help from family members searching the bus inside and out and have still not been able to find the 12v fuses anywhere.  It's been a really frustrating and disappointing search.  

Yesterday we decided to take a chance and call the company that did the original conversion to ask if they might have some idea of where else to look.  To our surprise Shad was transferred to the person that actually did the conversion 18 years ago!  He too had no idea where that fuse box might be, but told us if we could bring the rig to him he can find it for us!  So we are leaving tomorrow to visit Texas Custom Coach in Pipe Creek, TX with our expired inspection sticker in hopes to resolve the whole horn issue without getting caught.  Wish us luck...   

We were already thinking of spending a night in Kerrville on the way to Austin if we were going to get out this week.  It turns out that Pipe Creek is just 30 miles from Kerrville, so that works out well!  Then we are thinking we can swing through New Braunfels and visit Camping World and  head to Austin for a night or two.  Since everything has been up in the air we don't have any reservations yet and are going to start calling this afternoon.  We still need to switch out the mattresses today and have a ton of shopping, packing, laundry, and cleaning to get done.  I'm already tired just thinking about it.  My sister is also in town visiting from Vermont so I need to make some time to go by my parents house and visit.  It's going to be a really long day and I have a feeling my out of shape butt is going to be really tired by the time it's all over.  Thank goodness I'm super excited!

We hope to be on the road on our first trip early tomorrow morning!  

How hard can fixing a horn be?

We were really planning on going on our first outing in the RV this next week.  I had taken my weekend shifts off months ago when we were planning to attend an RV show in Houston, so it seemed like the perfect time to get on the road and try her out.

Well, our horn does not work and our Texas state inspection sticker is out.  No horn = No inspection = No trip.  :(

Shad spent the day with an RV technician trying to get it working, but to no avail.  Tomorrow he plans to spend the day seeking out a new solenoid for the horn which should help, but the solenoid is probably not the only problem.

We have figured out the wiring for the horn was done through a 12v system that also controls the stereo, CB,  and the back up camera.  None of these items are working either, and from what paperwork we have they all appear to be wired into a 12v fuse box.  Easy, right?  Just replace the fuse and see what happens, right?

Well...  the fuse box is hidden somewhere in our rig.  Today Shad and the technician looked over the rig inside and out and they were unable to find it.  So now the plan is to go ahead and bring the bus to our house on Monday and Shad and I will play a big game of seek and find and try to locate the elusive fuse box.  I was kind of relieved after a google search to see that we are not the first ones to have this problem and others have found their fuse boxes anywhere from in the basement, under the sink, to under the bed, but they have found them eventually.  This gives me hope that our search on Monday could be difficult, but eventually successful. 

So, hopefully we can get the solenoid replaced and the fuse replaced and all will be right with our horn and we may get a bonus of a working stereo!  Fingers crossed!

If we can get everything in order we are still going to try to go somewhere later next week, it just may not be the 5-6 day trip that we initially planned, but we are thinking we may get to go spend a couple of nights in a campground somewhere. 

That's really all I have for now; hopefully I will be posting in a couple of days and let you know that everything worked out well!

Thanks for reading!
Tracie

Dead batteries and a botched service attempt

It got really cold here last weekend and Shad and I were both overloaded with work so we had left the rig plugged in for a few days.  When we went out to start it on Tuesday our batteries were completely zapped by the cold.  We tried to jump off each battery one at a time and were getting a little juice, but the Honda's battery was just not cutting it.  We ended up calling an RV technician on Wednesday and juiced the batteries with his chargers for about half a day and we were running again!

We were able to get out and drive around a bit and enjoy the rig for the first time just the two of us.  It was a fun ride and we even stopped and parked at Walmart and ran in for some "doggie crack" aka Beggin' Strips.  

Every day is going to be a learning experience for us and yesterday we learned a big lesson... Watch out for trees with low branches!  We managed to damage the grate area on the side of one of our AC units; it's a bummer, but it could have been much worse.

We had called around last week looking for a place to get the rig in and get a once over of the engine, fluids, etc.  After many calls we were referred to our local Buick dealership.  Shad called the service department and the assured him that they could look at our engine.  We found our way through construction areas to the service area (Shad is getting good at this driving thing..) and were told to wedge our 40' beast into a small area leading to a service bay.  Shad nervously made his way to the bay and then we were turned away because the technician said he didn't realize we had a Detroit diesel engine.  He referred us to a big-rig place outside of town.   Greeaaat...  So for the first time Shad got to guide the beast through a maze of new cars in reverse.   The whole time he was thinking our insurance was going to LOVE us if he swiped a row of new trucks.  He handled it like a pro and I stood behind and guided him and it all turned out okay.  We both agree we need to get the backup camera installed asap!  

Today we checked all of the plugs and they are all functional.  So far the only things we have found that aren't working are the bus horn, and two lighting fixtures.  Hopefully those will be easy fixes.  We also measured the bed frame and it looks like we can replace the mattress with a residential queen..  this made us very happy!

We cleaned all of the surfaces and exposed areas today and it wasn't too dirty.  We still need to attack the kitchen floor, fridge, ice maker, and bathroom, but the most of it is done.  I start a four night work stretch tonight so the rest is going to have to wait until next week.   Hopefully we can get it into the shop and find out more about the engine next week as well.  

Thanks for reading!  

We finally have it! Yay!

The last week has been nothing but ups and downs with the seller and there were a few times we were very close to walking away.

He wasn't happy with our offer, despite the fact that we had found it listed for our exact offer online.  We aren't sure if that is what started the weirdness, but things were just a little bit sketchy last week. 

We showed up to see the rig with his guy so he could show us all of the systems and his guy never came.  We waited over an hour and called the seller who told us that he had forgotten to tell his guy he was meeting us... Huh?  He told us that he would call us over the weekend to set up another time.  When that call never happened Shad finally gave him a call on Monday and we were to meet with his guy today. 

The initial deal was we were to go over the systems then go to the bank and complete the transaction.  Well, we showed up today and evidently the seller had decided we needed to pay for the unit before we could get a demo of the systems. He was quite rude about it and had we not already seen all of the vital systems in action we would have absolutely walked away.  We decided to go ahead and do it, went to the bank, met with the mechanic, and the bus now sits in front of our house.

We are quite happy with the bus and it handled just fine on the way home in the rain and Shad managed to get it home without popping any curbs.  We are glad to be done with the seller and to be moving forward with our new project.  It's really surreal to be looking out the front door and see a bus, our bus!

It appears there is a manual for every single appliance that is on board so I figure that will come in handy and give me lots of reading to do!  Tomorrow when there is some sunlight I will go out and take tons of pictures and get them posted. 

I'm so excited.. it's REALLY here!