We’re on the road now in the motorhome, enjoying ourselves and dealing with whatever obstacles come our way.
That’s the thing with RV’ing: problems start to appear as soon as the rig leaves the driveway.
We have a well-built Class A motorhome that has a million bits and pieces and a lot of technology, not to mention the Cummins 400 HP Turbo diesel engine, the Allison transmission, a Firestone Itelliride air ride system. an 1800 Onan generator, six huge tires, four “slides”, a smart TV, a satellite Dish receiver, a Starlink dish (for WiFi), a two-door refrigerator, a washer-dryer combo, a total of eight batteries, an inverter, a Queen-sized Sleep Number bed, and much more. We also tow our Jeep behind the RV using a Blue Ox system.
Did I mention that our motorhome is 18 years old?
So, as soon as we head away from Mesquite toward our first destination, all these items are subject to wearing out, breaking, or failing. Every nut and bolt in the chassis and living quarters is, while we’re heading down the highway, under attack by potholes and rough roads, which have the effect of loosening everything up.
Imagine putting your home on wheels and driving down the road: something’s bound to fail.
We’ve had many unexpected “surprises” over the 8 years that we’ve been traveling in this RV, so we’ve become used to rolling with the punches, so to speak.
This season has been no exception.
On our pleasant drive through Nevada, we hit a large pothole. At our next stop, I realized that I had a water leak at the rear of the motorhome, dripping from the rig to the ground. Eventually, I figured out that the impact of hitting the pothole had jostled our washer-dryer unit off of its pedestal and had cracked the water line that supports the unit. That is not something that I can repair myself, as it is too cumbersome and I’m not an RV plumber. We will have to wait until our stop in Coos Bay to have an expert fix it.
Last year, on a trip to Denver, we lost the driveshaft. It was an expensive tow and fix but, luckily, insurance paid for 90 percent of the job. Also last year, our refrigerator gave up the ghost and we had to replace the cooling unit. That cost us a few thousand dollars.
RV living is not cheap, particularly in a sophisticated rig like ours. The parts are typically specific to an RV and the labor (for qualified RV repair guy) is expensive… if you can find a good repair tech when you need him.
I can fix most of the stuff that comes loose or breaks (due to bumpy roads or old age). Our RV has large storage compartments under the living quarters, and I keep a lot of tools and parts there. One thing that I have done (to simplify living in the RV) is to disable some of the features that we don’t use. When we bought the RV, it had a CB radio set-up, a 5-disc CD changer, a macerator (for the septic system), an outdoor shower set-up, a roof-top antenna, and a bedroom TV. I’ve gotten rid of all of those things because (a) we don’t need them, and (b) they are just another piece of equipment that can break.
It takes a lot of patience to travel and live in an RV for months on end.
Things are going to break (you can count on that!) and there’s no use getting too excited when the inevitable happens. It’s all part of the great adventure. As Charlie and I know, an RV’er needs to “Improvise, adapt, and overcome”, and we’re in some stage of that continuum (it seems) at all times.
I was repositioning my portable satellite dish onto the top of the RV the other day, trying to obtain a good TV signal in the midst of campground with a lot of tall trees. I’ve done this many times, but never after having a couple of strong Margaritas. I fell off the ladder after putting the sat dish on the roof, and I ended up with bruised ribs, a deep thigh bruise, and lots of scrapes. I’m lucky, as I could have been severely injured. “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”, right? Anyway, no more roof work this week: I had a mobile fix-it guy come by and reposition the sat dish, and now it works great. (What a nice guy, too: he didn’t charge me! I think he felt sorry that I fell off the ladder.)
Thanks to a salesman at Fred Meyer (supermarket) here in Florence, Oregon, I was able to figure out the secret to “streaming” programming from our “smart” TV. Had I been a ten-year-old, I would have known instinctively how to do it. However, I am an old geezer who’s pretty confused by new technology, so I really appreciated the “heads up” by the young salesman. Now, we’ll have the option to watch Dish TV and streaming programming from Netflix, Amazon Prime, and YouTube whenever we want.
There is a great RV repair shop called Gib’s RV in Coos Bay that we’ve patronized several times. They are capable and fair in their pricing. I am looking forward to seeing them in about a month, as I have the washer-dryer issue to resolve and also a speedometer cable “whine” that annoys the hell out of Charlie, the dogs, and I when we are driving between 45 and 55 m.p.h.
As I’ve said, there’s always SOMETHING that’s on the blink. No need to get excited; there’s always tomorrow or the next day when I can tackle the “emergency”.
Patience, in an RV, is definitely a virtue.