Last Thursday: We were planning to leave on Sunday morning for our trip to Seattle for a gathering of some of Bob's good college buddies. We were then going on to Portland for a visit with our son and grand daughter. We decided to do the final check of the hook-ups to make sure Gus (the motorhome) could pull the jeep and all of the wiring for lights worked. It didn't! Here is a quick run down of the next few days . . .
Friday: In the morning, we took the motorhome and jeep back to the RV dealer who did the installation to see if they could find the problem. We were still planning to leave early Sunday morning. They couldn't find a quick fix, but felt the issue was with the motorhome wiring not the work they had done. So, we decided to just drive the regular car and "hotel it" for our planned trip. One of our good friends who is a master electrician and long experienced "trailer puller" came to see if he could help in the evening and found the problem with the motorhome wiring issue, but there was still a problem with the connection to the jeep. So we then decided to take the motorhome and leave Sunday morning and just rent a car as we needed while in the Seattle area and/or Portland.
Saturday: Bob and our friend found the issue with the jeep in the late afternoon after the football game and we were on to take the motorhome and pull the jeep.
Sunday: We were ready to leave home about 10 am - oops - no left turn signal on the jeep or break light on the left side. So, Bob did some reworking and got it to work. We headed out about 1. Then Bob didn't like what he heard. Oh, no - the jeep had locked up and we were dragging it rather than having the wheels "freewheel". We stopped - Bob found the problem - lost some rubber on the front tires, but we headed out. We traveled 300 miles through the worst wind and rain we had seen - stayed overnight near the top of the pass between Montana and Idaho.
Monday: Jeep light not working again. Bob tried his magic, but no luck so we went into Coeur d'Alene where we found an Auto Zone open and Bob worked and worked for a couple more hours and we got the problem solved. We continued on towards Seattle. About 50 miles out we hit the rain and wind again and got in to our friends place about dark.
Tuesday: We woke to water on the floor in the kitchen. Bob worked on that and found the problem and got it fixed. He also decided he would be more comfortable with new tires on the front of the jeep so we unhooked and headed to Les Schwab. Now Bob could hear a problem with the right rear brake when he backed up. Well Les Schwab found a small bend in the base plate protector from a rock we had hit or something. It was an easy fix and new tires were mounted and we were off to the ocean with our friends. We then drove Gus pulling the jeep through heavy Seattle area traffic. It was quite a learning experience. We arrived late that night at the RV park near Hoodsport after stopping at a social gathering for the group having the reunion.
Wednesday: Great fun with lots of old friends. We had a wonderful dinner cruise around this little inlet and all seemed to be fine.
Thursday (today): Our friends headed back to Seattle for some other obligations and we are staying put for a couple days. We are in an older RV park right on the water - not too bad. It is a good place to "exhale" which we need. We are heading to Portland, OR in a couple days. For now, we are just thankful to have everything working as expected.
So glad to read that all of the snafus have been worked out. You are surrounded by good friends--a huge blessing. I hope the rest of your trip will be smooth and no need to do anything but enjoy yourselves.
ReplyDeleteTeresaL