Today we leave for Colorado! There have been a couple of mishaps prior to leaving but we're finally ready to go.
On Thursday night while getting ready, I hooked up the water to fill the tank but made the mistake of hooking the water hose to the black tank clean out and ultimately flooded the trailer with black water when the black tank overflowed and the water started coming out of the toilet. It wasn't terrible but certainly gross and required a thorough cleaning of both the inside of the trailer and the storage bin.
Today, we were finally ready to go but when I tried to bring in the slides I found I had no 12 volt electrical. The first issue was that while loading things into the storage bin, I inadvertently bumped the battery disconnect switch which killed all the 12 volt power. OK, easy fix. Turn it back on. But no, still no 12 volt power. That turned out to be a burnt 30 amp fuse. I didn't have a 30 amp but put a 15 amp in and that got the 12v working again.
So after an hour and a half figuring that out, we finally hit the road at 6:10pm. We left later than we wanted but we are only going to Winnemucca which is just about five hours away and shouldn't be an issue. All we plan to do is get some time out of the truck and sleep before heading on the next morning. However, both of us have a slight, lingering fear. They say things come in three's. We've had two. What might be next?
It only took an hour to answer that question... We almost got as far as Blue Canyon when all of a sudden, we had no power. The engine was running fine but stepping on the accelerator only increased the RPMs. We weren't going anywhere and decelerating quickly since we were headed uphill. I used the last bit of inertia to coast over to the shoulder and barely got out of the right lane. We were stuck and not going any further.
There was only the white line separating us from the oncoming traffic but thankfully, we'd gotten far enough past the previous curve that other drivers had a chance to see us. Most were quite courteous and moved into the left lane before passing but we knew we were in a dangerous situation. It would take only one driver fiddling with a cell phone, adjusting a radio, or yelling at kids in the back seat to plow into us.
OK, we need help, either in the form of a tow truck or a mobile mechanic who might possibly get us back on the road. But here we are on Saturday night of a holiday weekend and finding help might be difficult. Fortunately, we did have cell service, not a given in the Sierra Nevada mountains.
I called all of the nearby mobile mechanics but none were willing to work on a Dodge Ram 3500. They only worked on the big rigs. OK, tow truck it is. I was able to find one willing to come out and tow us back home to Citrus Heights for the low, low price of $1500.
The good news was that he arrived in about 25 minutes. To tow both the truck and trailer home requires the same big tow truck which is used for the big rigs. This is not an easy thing to get into. In addition to the large step from the ground to the first step, each of the two steps on the side of the truck are about 18 inches apart. This is going to challenging for both of us between bad knees and back issues.
First, let's get Shannon into the truck and safe. But there are not much in the way of handholds down low and to make that first step from the ground up is nearly impossible. Shannon asks me to go back to the truck and get the step stool she uses to get in ours. However, the tow truck driver (who is quite the character) kneels down on one knee and wants Shannon to use his other thigh as the first step. He begins referring to us as "Momma" and "Dad". "Come on Momma, you can do it!". Shannon politely declines and says she'll wait for the step stool. He persists. "Come on Momma!". I leave Shannon to argue with him about using his leg as a step and head back to the truck as quickly as possible to get the stool.
I get back with the stool and he's still persisting. But now that argument is over because I have the stool. I support her from the ground so she doesn't feel like she might fall backward. She gets to the top step but there isn't much room in the cab to swing her leg in and get into the seat. I'm sure with practice, one learns exactly where to place one's feet, where to grab, and get in much easier. But for a first time, on a hill, and in the dark, it wasn't easy.
The next problem... There are only two seats. But it's a sleeper cab so there is room to sit on the bed. After Shannon's ordeal, I decide I'll climb into the back and spare her the additional climbing around. And I'm not about to ask her to get out of the passenger seat and climb up again with only the help of the tow driver. She'd had enough getting in with me pushing from the ground, the driver pulling from the drivers seat, and getting her hair caught in the CB radio microphone cord in the process.
So now my turn... I start up the driver's side but there are plenty of obstacles, the first being the steering wheel. With the driver helping push me up, I do manage to get into the driver's seat as if I were going to drive. Once I got up there, I was happy to see that there was probably enough room for me to drive such a truck as this would be the ultimate tow vehicle for us from a safety and durability standpoint. The light duty pickups that most use to tow large 5th wheels are barely adequate for the job. As such, I've often thought about investigating getting a heavy duty truck for the task. But that's a different issue to be looked into some other time... Back to the task at hand.
The next issue was getting past the manual shifter and between the seats to the sleeper. I ask the driver to ensure the tow truck will not move if I inadvertently either knock the shifter into gear or some other thing. The last thing I want to do is something that starts the truck rolling downhill and into mine. Or worse, into traffic or over a cliff. He secures the truck.
Now between the cup holders at the side of each seat and the shifter, there is very little room. The seats are maybe a foot apart? The cup holders make it even narrower. And then there is no leg room between the bed and the backs of the seats but somehow I manage.
We sit there for the next hour while the driver hooks our truck up to the tow truck, drops the driveline (because it will wreck our truck's transmission to tow on the rear wheels with it connected), and get everything ready for the tow.
Some good news... While under the truck to disconnect the driveline, the tow driver noticed that our issue was likely a blown transmission cooler line. OK, at least the transmission itself was probably fine. Just get a new line, replace the old, and refill with automatic transmission fluid. That should be a fairly easy fix to get completed once we're home.
Finally, we're ready to head home. During the ride, the driver tells us about how he was in Desert Storm in the Air Force as just a regular guy but gets recruited for some special ops. He's very animated and loud. This morphs into the government and how he has friends that have buried railroad cars underground on their property to create bunkers in case they have to fight the government. And how they've booby trapped their property so if government agents come to get them, they have defense. We just let him talk and agreed.
As we passed Gold Run where he lives, he lays on the horn to say hi to his significant other at home. We get a little further down the road and she calls to inform him there is a dead bear cub in their driveway. I don't recall what else was discussed but it was a very uncomfortable ride home, both with the conversation and the jerking of the truck which caused me to repeatedly smack my forehead on the wall of sleeper. I finally learned to put my forearm up there so I'd have a cushion.
But eventually, he got us home. It was pretty amazing that he was able to get this large monstrosity down our residential street. We live in a typical '70's era suburb with relative narrow streets. With cars parked on both sides of the street, it's basically a one-lane road and there is a curve between the start of the street and our home. It was tight but he made it. Five hours from our departure and we were right back home where we started.
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