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Part Two:

Recap: we transported the RV to our hometown.  It sat on the local Ford dealer’s lot for two weeks before he could look at it.  Reminder: we paid a fortune to ship the RV to this lot because we were told he could “look at it”.  We had gotten most all our oil changes done at this dealer, so I expected he knew what he was dealing with.  Two weeks.  We get a phone call:  1.  Yes there is a knock low in the engine.  2.  There is a drop in compression in one cylinder (as expected if rod bearing going bad) and 3.  They can’t work on it, don’t have the right equipment to drop the engine……. Crap!

Oh, and 4 – call your manufacturer and see where they can work on this RV.  So, we called Tiffin – and they pointed us to the Ford Motorhome Assistance line.  What?  Somehow, we missed knowing about this place.  It “might” have helped us out in Estes Park.  We (Deb) called them and they said they’d tow the RV to the nearest place that would/could work on it.  That was 90 miles away in Springfield, IL.  But they didn’t want it on their lot for – you guessed it – three weeks.  And the local dealer wanted the RV off his lot (couple of days).  We went back to FordMA and had them look around – there was a shop in Indianapolis – 120 miles away, that could not only work on it, but would accept the rig right away.  They would still need a week or two to get around to diagnosing, but they sounded like they were on the ball and would take the rig.

Off to Indianapolis

The customer service person at FordMA had to get special permissions to tow it (at Fords cost) a little farther to Indy. A tow bid was put out and the next day, a local towing firm called and said: “he accepted the bid but realized (after the fact) he couldn’t begin to move it for the bid price”.  I don’t know what that was all about, I can guess, but they were dropped like a hot rock, thus another call to FordMA, another bid went out and was accepted by a company that could and would do the work, but by then it was too late in the day, so the tow was set up for the next morning.  Bright and early, Rover left hooked to the back of a very large tow truck.  

We did winterize the RV before it left.  As the black and grey tanks were nearly empty, we just put several gallons of antifreeze into them.  We removed all the water filters; we blew out the water lines and filled them with antifreeze as well as emptied the freshwater tank.  We also loaded more stuff up we felt we couldn’t live without. 

Meanwhile, we are living in our house nearby, with our son and his family.  My “spare time” is mostly taken up catching up on the maintenance and repairs around the homestead that I didn’t get around to during our summer stay.  We went out to Colorado, hoping to see the Aspens turn yellow.  They were just thinking about turning when we left.  But, in our back yard, we have a rock garden (incidentally called Colorado) that has three Aspens in it.  Thus, we were able to sit in our sunroom and watch the leaves turn bright yellow and fall off in the Midwest rain.

An interesting, probably fact.  While talking to the tow truck driver, we asked how far he could tow the RV.  “As far as you want.”, was the answer.  I asked: “1000 miles?”  Sure, was his answer.  So, I wonder, what would a tow from Colorado (instead of a transport) run?  IF we could have found someone, it might have been cheaper than transporting.  Another reason FordMA might have helped us.  On the other hand, FordMA would have found us someone within 150 miles or so, and our rig would have to have been winterized while we were out there and we’d still be managing via remote control. And, we would have had a heck of a time packing everything we didn’t want to leave behind.   If the first place it was towed couldn’t actually do the work, then we’d be going through all this from 1k miles away. 

After you read the next part, you’ll be taking the Tow Driver’s statement with a large block of salt.

The company in Indy pulled the RV in, in less than a week – pulled the oil filter and discovered lots of metal, confirming a bearing spun as it turns the bearing into aluminum foil thin slivers of metal that get sucked back up out of the oil pan.  Then they pulled the engine and confirmed the number 7 cylinder shredded a bearing.  The #2 right next to it, was fine, as was the valve train which would be moved to the new short-block.  They got warranty approval from Ford, ordered a short-block and just over a week later, the engine was going back in.  And I so wish that was the end of the story.

The dealer also informed us that there was over $1300 of damage to the RV that would not be covered under warranty.  It seems the tow driver used a large sledgehammer to remove the drive shaft u-joint and damaged the transaxle yoke beyond re-use. After some discussion and a closer look at the pictures, we agreed that the transmission damage was done by the original transport company.  He hooked massive come-alongs and chains to the transmission crossbar, snapped two of 4 bolts and destroyed the rear transmission mount.  We are in discussions with the tow company and will shortly be doing the same with the transport company. I’ll update this part when negotiations are complete.

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.

The tow to Indy was accomplished by Feldcamps towing. When we arrived at our local Ford dealer the morning of the tow, the driver was under the RV banging away, I presumed at the U-joint so he could remove the drive shaft. I didn’t give it a second thought as often those parts stick. HOWEVER, there are right ways and there are lazy ass, no good for nothing ways to remove stuck parts. The driver had a socket wrench, a two-pound sledge and no patience, thus he did $1300 damage to my drive train. Feldcamps refused to pay up. The Better Business Bureau was no help. Thus I’ve accessed EVERY online review I can and continue to leave bad reviews for the company.

So, Rover was picked up – but the stairs didn’t work.  That turned out to be easy.  In the shop, they put wooden stairs in front of Rover’s stairs and the controller, if it can’t operate, goes catatonic (good thing).  I disconnected the unit and when plugged back in, it was happy.

Steering

On the way home, Deb noticed the steering “made a noise when turning left”.  I confirmed it did, and it sounded like the steering pump.  I looked under the rig for more tow truck damage and couldn’t find anything.  Later and went down again and realized the ball joints and kingpins had not been lubricated in – a really long time – as in probably NEVER. What grease on them was petrified with dirt.  We bought a nice (we thought) grease gun from a name-brand car parts place – and it of course leaked grease in three places.  But it worked well enough that I was eventually able to lube everything – and as well, the steering pump stopped whining about the work we were asking it to do. As a side note, I brought all this up to my daughter and son-in-law – and we checked their Class A and it was dry as well. Apparently, not all oil change places actually lube the steering.

Of course, there was de-winterizing to do.  The PEPwave modem had stopped working just before the rig went to Indy.  It still doesn’t work right and Pep is telling me, there is no way to repair (they don’t do repairs) and I should have kept up on my expensive warranty and hey, they will give me a discount on a new $1200 router.  I don’t know how this will resolve yet, but when I spend $1200 on an industrial quality piece of electronics, I don’t believe $200 a year for repair service is warranted, nor is not having any way to get bad units repaired. UPDATE The long story can be found here. The short story is something was corrupted in the PEP by the dying battery and I was able to finally resurrect it.

Sigh…………

Go back to part one here. Go on to part three here.