This is a long blog.  I broke it up into separate posts.  What follows immediately is a short version:

It was a nice fall trip

We spent the summer near Champaign, Illinois – getting medical appointments, scans etc caught up.  We also spent some time working on the House/Home we don’t much live in.

We left the second week of September for Estes Park and spent ten days touring Rocky Mountain National Park and the surrounding area.  When we left, we headed south and 8 miles out of town, the engine spun a rod bearing.  Getting both a tow and a place to take it to that could work on it immediately seemed impossible, so we ended up spending a huge sum to transport the RV back to our hometown – partly because the Ford Dealer there, who had done all our oil changes, said he could not only work on it, but could get to it in a week or so. 

Hope for a repair

Fast forward two weeks – the dealer says, “yes, you have a lower engine problem and some loss of compression in one cylinder”.  Oh, and I can’t work on it; don’t have the equipment and please get it off my lot. We “discovered” Ford Roadside Assistance, because we are still under warranty, and they towed the RV to Indianapolis.  The dealer there started work about a week later, got the parts, repaired the engine, repaired the damage done by the tow company and returned our RV to us about three weeks later.  We spent a few days frantically getting the rig restocked, all our stuff back and hit the road.  We are now in Oklahoma City – wait for it – waiting for Covid to run its course, in the RV.  

So, now the long version. 

We are sharing our story – because it might help someone and so we can get the inevitable hindsight commentary.  Maybe (hopefully) we would handle this situation differently in the future.  Deb and I are retired, living full-time in our Tiffin 32SA since just before covid.  Previous to that time, we took long trips and spent winters in the south.

Well, after almost three years with the RV, we hit the first problem we couldn’t handle by ourselves.  And was it a doozy!  We’ve had suffered through melting DC power problems, a Jammed bedroom slide, a leak in the roof, broken steps and a milieux of loose screws, stuck drawers etc., but nothing I couldn’t get out a toolbox and fix.

We had spent 10 days at an RV park in Estes Park, Colorado, mostly visiting Rocky Mountain National Park. We had a good time and have hundreds of pictures to show for it.

We left Estes Park Monday, mid-morning, and headed SW on CO 36.  7 miles out of town there came a small knock in the engine, which got bigger and BIGGER over the next 30 seconds.  Fortunately, there appeared a large gravel parking lot (USFS trailhead) and we pulled over.  Deb let it idle while I got out to confirm what I already feared was happening.  I had a 2-foot-long screwdriver (aka mechanics stethoscope) and the knock was clearly coming from the lower front part of the engine.  I believed that indicated a rod going bad.  We had been going uphill, but not a particularly steep one, nor pushing very hard or fast.  My thinking is a rod bolt or rod itself cracked (I was wrong).  While my prior experience with rod bearing failures is from little four-bangers the sound was unmistakable. 

So that set the stage.  We didn’t dare try to drive back to town over the dozen or so modest hills.  As fast as it went bad, I’m thinking driving it back would result in a jammed engine or a rod being kicked out the side of the block.  From my experience, I felt that this engine might have still been saved so the less it ran, the better.  I still expect that if it hadn’t been under warranty, an engine shop would have replaced the crank and bearings.

Call for help

Our first thought: call our roadside assistance.  We have the one that came with the extended warranty we bought with the RV back in 2018 (and never used).  We also had Good Sam Roadside (never used either).  The short version was that both of them were terribly frustrating to talk to and in the end provided us with almost no useful service options.

The first problem: there was no cell: Zero AT&T.  We gathered up the paperwork and Deb and her cousin (our third traveler) headed back to town to make phone calls.  Meanwhile, I pulled out Starlink to try to make that work.  At the time, we weren’t comfortable leaving the RV alone in that empty parking lot.

When faced with this kind of problem, the first reaction is panic, then, dread, then thoughts of how to find some way out of the current dilemma and sometimes, eventually desperation. By the end of the day, we could see desperation coming over the hill.

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Deb made contact with our extended warranty company – and they pointed us to their “towing company”:Quest.  Quest, turned out to be an answering service out of Las Vegas, NV.  The guy was clearly filling in blanks on a computer form and did not understand the subject matter AT ALL!  One of the questions was “what model transmission?”.  How would anyone know that off the top of their head?  I realize some class A RVs need to have the drive shaft removed, but this isn’t a question most people would know the answer (we didn’t).  There was also great “fun” trying to get an address put in – he clearly wanted something of the form, “123 Main St, City, State “when all we had was 8 miles SE of Estes Park, Colorado on CO-36.  To compound the problems, we had no idea yet WHERE to tow it.  Eventually, we turned to Good Sam to see what they could do.  I believe it was Good Sam that found a shop that we could be towed to, that was “qualified to work on the RV”, whatever that means (It wasn’t a Ford truck shop).  It was a small shop, and however competent they might be, couldn’t work on it for three weeks and couldn’t accept the RV on their lot until two days before the appointment.  That led us to call all the RV camping spots in Estes Park to see if we could be towed in and sit for three weeks.  ONE, the one we just left, could fit us in, but because of scheduling, we either had to accept a 30-amp site or move around between 50’s.  Moving wasn’t high on my list because of the engine and 30 amp wasn’t either because of the forecasted temps.  By the way, the only Ford dealer in the area (Denver) that would work on a class A RV, said February was the earliest it could get to it.….. yes February.

I did post on Facebook asking for help.  One person reminded me the engine should be under warranty for 5 years or 60,000 miles.  I confirmed this was indeed true.  Up to that time, the thought hadn’t crossed my mind.  Stress can really screw up memory and thinking.  Another reminder to have all your emergency resources in one place and a clear understanding of coverage.  While often Facebook advice is often worth less than you pay for it, sometimes it is invaluable because it is helpful to get out of your own head and get advice from someone who isn’t living in the panic of the situation.  You just have to have a good filter on what you read.

Day two

By this time (Tuesday), we had made several different trips into town to make calls and the idea came up: “How much would it cost to just transport it home?”  It is a thousand miles back to central Illinois – we didn’t expect it would be cheap.  Yet, finding a place to stay for three weeks, then finding out it would take a month or several to get parts and repair – the costs would mount up quickly OR we would have to drive home and try to handle repair negotiations and any other hassles over the phone.  At this point, we were thinking it would be several thousand dollars for the transport. 

Thus, I did a web search and put in quote requests to about 5 companies, being careful to state the length, width AND height of the RV.  Quotes started coming in for $1800 – but when I RE-confirmed with them the RV dimensions – oops, not for that price.  People weren’t reading the quote request.  Then quotes came in for around $3,000.  Ok, we can do that.  Oops, upon double checking: not those dimensions for that price.   Except one company didn’t hesitate with the numbers, so I accepted their quote.  Now, the reality for shipping here is that if you google companies and request a quote, you are often only talking to a middleman.  They handle all communication UNTIL you make a down payment.  I made a down payment and immediately the trucker took my quote request more seriously and realized he could NOT actually provide the transport for the quoted price.  He wanted more than twice the price.  We bailed and went looking for another company.   ( A hassle and credit card dispute later, we did get our deposit money back.)

One company seemed to have its act together, quoting an appropriate price for the work, asking the right questions, etc.  At this point, the price was way more than we wanted to pay.  But we had also talked to our Ford Dealer back home, who has a commercial truck division.  We had used them for almost all our oil changes.  We had just gotten the engine serviced there before we left town.  He was willing to let us ship right to the lot and thought he could look at it in a week.  Done.  North of $7k  Ouch!  But done!  We could move into our house with our son.  We didn’t have to tow or transport twice (we thought).  And while there were zero promises on getting it fixed quickly, it could be looked at and parts (engine) ordered in short order (so we thought).  Maybe part of our winter could be saved.

Transport

The issue with shipping is my class A motorhome is 12ft 10 inches tall.  If one can get a low boy trailer, it still adds a minimum of 6 inches.  And you need a trailer where the sunken portion is not only 34 feet long, but long enough to allow the RV to be driven down into it without dragging the jacks, tail etc.  An alternative (we ended up taking) was to just use a low flatbed (about 24-inch deck) and get permits for tall load.  They add expense and of course extra care avoiding low bridges.  Once loaded our RV air conditioner sat at 14 ft 10 inches.  The driver seemed comfortable with that height. 

Prior to the transport truck arriving, we emptied the freezer and refrigerator.  We couldn’t find any dry ice in town, so we threw all the freezer stuff in a large freezer bag, dropped a 10-pound bag of ice on top, all the rest of the important refrigerator stuff when into another bag on top of a bag of ice and both sat in the back seat, covered by all our coats.  Other food stuff, some clothes, computers, cameras, vitamins, pillows and miscellaneous were packed into the pickup truck.  We didn’t know how many days for sure the transport would take at that point.  We couldn’t begin to take everything – just perishables, things we didn’t want to sit in a 100-degree RV as well as valuables and a few changes of clothes.  

It still took another day (Wed) for the truck to come to pick up the RV (which was actually quicker than most places estimated)  – so we spent two nights in the parking lot with the RV leaning quite a bit.  We had to swap the pillows and covers on the bed so we could sleep with our heads above our feet.  The truck/driver arrived mid-morning Wednesday, loaded up and we all left about noon.

Back in town

We (Deb) drove all night and hit home around 7:30 the next morning.  The truck arrived late that afternoon.  We had a cashier’s check ready and helped unload and park the RV.  We took one load of clothes and a few more things home.

The shop manager agreed it was probably a rod, but also said that if it was a rod, they would have to swap the engine, rather than try to repair.  He also said those engines couldn’t be had from Ford.  The last V10 he installed he bought from another dealer.  That wasn’t welcome news, but at least we are home, in familiar territory while we wait.  I still secretly hoped they could fix it without having to get a new core, just because of the wait time. I can dream, can’t I?

Ok, time to name names. The shipping company we chose to setup the transport was U Ship 4 Less . They destroyed my transmission mount, snapped 2 of 4 bolts holding the transmision support to the frame – and the company refuses to even answer my communications. Of course, their web site claims to have no liability for any damage resulting from them arranging for shipping. Thus I’m leaving bad reviews anywhere I can, including with the BBB. So, remember the name: U Ship 4 Less and choose someone else to transport your RV, large box or whatever anywhere.

Go to Part two here.