** A Vacation To Remember **

[Bill-N-Donna]

We bought our Monty last year in April. This is about a trip we made during the summer before we bought the Monty.

First of all we have had several other campers and other brands as well. To say or indicate that one is better than the other might be an in-justice in all fairness. So with that I will begin by saying when we started camping for the first time we had a small 19 foot single axle trailer made by Terry. We enjoyed it very much but before we could use it we had to do a lot of repairs in the bathroom area. After that we went and purchased an Airstream. We enjoyed it and it also brought extensive work after the purchase. The next two campers after that were also Airstreams. With each one of them we went to a larger and newer model with more room each time and a little less work with each one. We traded the A/S off because we still needed more room. Then came the money pit, wow I don’t even want to mention the brand name here but will say it was a 37 foot MH; however keep in mind that we got it at a price much less than expected and soon found out why. We did know that it would need some work also.

The MH came with the excitement of having something you could drive along with all of the MH conveniences. We also needed a tow dolly for our car. We bought this MH without even driving it. We did hear it run and I thought the engine sounded pretty good. I had never even driven a MH before. We took it home and started working on some modifications and repairs and simply tried to enjoy it. After a few trips we realized it used about a quart of oil for every 250/ miles.

I want to tell you about our enjoyment we had two summers ago. We went to Williamsburg, VA area that summer and we really found out just how much we enjoyed what we had. First of all we didn’t like the speed at which we finally overcame a long hill. I’m almost ashamed to mention that it slowed us down to nearly 20 MPH at times just to get over the top. Once we got on level ground we did ok at holding our own. The park we stayed at was exactly 500 miles from home when we pulled in. Prior to getting there we hesitated about stopping at a pull off rest area about an hour before. We were glad later as to why we didn’t stop there. We pulled into the office to register, stopped, got out stretched and signed in. After finding out exactly where we would be located. We got back in and proceeded to the camp site. As we were starting to move toward the site I noticed something was wrong with the brakes. I had no brakes; it was like trying to leg press several hundred pounds of weight. We managed to creep into our site and thankfully it was mostly level with a slight down hill grade for the most part. We got the MH positioned, put it in park and we had 5 days to get it fixed before we were scheduled to leave for home.

Wow what a great start for vacation this was. Oh, I didn’t mention that we had our 2-year old grand-daughter with us also. Once when we left a rest area her Nanny was trying to strap her into her car seat. I will never forget what she did as long as I live. She was not enjoying the idea of being strapped in and she was screaming and the usual crying 2-year olds will do. While this was going on she called out for “papaaaaaw” in such a pitiful voice that I knew she only wanted me to rescue her. Our hearts just about melted!

Well, I decided to relax a little after all we did have a vehicle now to drive if we needed to go anywhere……Well, there wasn’t much relaxing with the thought of what it was going to take to get this thing fixed. We had noticed a trail of fluid from the office making a path to our site. I opened the hood and noticed right away what I thought to be the main problem. The reservoir which holds the power brake fluid had in-plodded. Pieces of it were lying inside of where the fluid should be. Well, you should never assume anything but I did. I figured this would get replaced and take care of the problem.

When we had arrived it was on a Sunday so that left out some options until the next day. Now I’m realizing that I probably brought this on myself because I then remembered taking a plastic disc from a gas can and making a sealed lid for the reservoir where the top of it was open. Just my luck!

With the hood open I started feeling a little bit like we were being looked at like the Beverly Hillbillies had just arrived. I quickly noticed that we probably had the oldest unit in the park and it was only a 1990 model. We felt we had come a long ways moving up to a MH. Anyway, people were starting to notice we were having some sort of trouble. Some of them would walk by look and keep on going while others would inquire about it. However, a couple fellows which were camping next to us came back to their campers and seen we had a problem so they offered what help they could. I explained what had happened and we men decided to build a reservoir out of pieces of PVC. They showed us where the local Wal-Mart, Lowe’s, and stores etc…were located. We went to one of the stores and we all got our heads together and figured what was needed to make this work. We went back to the camper built the contraption which looked like a Tee with two hose inlets directly on each side going into a 2” piece of pipe which we thought would work as the newly made reservoir. My wife kept telling me this would not work! What could I do when we were all designing this thing; at least we were trying to do something. We added the fluid and discovered that we had fluid pouring out underneath the camper. One of my newly discovered neighbor friends crawled underneath the MH and found a line had ruptured on the hydraulic booster system. The line was not even made from a hydraulic hose. I found an auto parts store just before they closed for the day which had what I believe was their only piece of hydraulic hose. I took it back to the MH and later that evening one of my neighbors crawled underneath the MH again and helped with changing the hose. This was in such a tight place I had trouble seeing where it was at much less get to it and fix it myself. We finally got it all back together and added more fluid to find out the reservoir we made didn’t work. With the hydraulic system Out Of Service there was no way the MH would even move. This locked the park brake and kept it from even coming out of park. I didn’t even know how it could be towed without dropping the drive shaft but anyway I tried not to think about those kinds of options that would be left. I was more determined to get this fixed somehow.

Once we had fixed the hose and had fluid in the rigged up reservoir, we could at least get the MH out of park but it still didn’t have any brakes. It was spurting out the fluid at times so we proceeded to try and make certain all of the air was bleed off from the lines thinking this would help. Did I mention that my wife told me this wasn’t going to work?


Monday morning we started calling around to try and find if there were any mechanics that would even come and look at this situation. I went to the laundry area at the campground and was looking at cards on the bulletin board. Looked in the phone book and called about three service stations but no one was willing to do on site repairs or even come and look at it that I could find.

I believe that the park advertised on their web site that they had on site repair service available but I think that turned out to be more general repairs of which didn’t do me any good. I only envisioned at this point that I would probably be spending a lot of money getting this thing towed somewhere and repaired.

I also checked with the auto parts stores and a Ford dealership and the reservoir couldn’t be had. I started realizing again just how old this MH was when I couldn’t even get parts that I needed. Now I didn’t mention that it was a very difficult thing to explain exactly what I needed in the first place since the MH was made by one company, the motor another and the chassis was made by yet another company which had been sold a couple of times.

Anyway we finally had one garage tell us about someone who was an on site mechanic and they gave us the number. I won’t mention who this was because of the fact he wants to stay anonymous where he only works when he wants to with out any advertising. However, I’m sure all you would need to do would be to ask around. Anyway we called and got an answering machine. Not too long after that I received a call back from him and I tried to explain the dilemma we were in over the phone. I don’t remember exactly what was stated but he told me he would come and take a look at it.

Well the mechanic showed up in a small work van and after taking with him he wanted to work on it. He stated he felt this would be a challenge for him and I was thinking “Oh shoot, how is this going to go now!”

The mechanic looked things over we listened to the noises coming from the booster system and he felt that our main booster might be bad. I then explained to him that I had replaced the main booster just before the trip and there shouldn’t be anything wrong with it. He thought it could still be bad. However, since the only thing else left on the booster system was an independent booster pump. He felt the home made reservoir should work ok and he wanted to remove the power booster pump. I told him to take it off. He had it off in just a few minutes and gave it to me. Told me to take it to a parts store (NAPA) which was close by and have them check it out or replace it as needed. I was only imagining that this would take a week or longer just to get a replacement if that was even possible but off to the parts store I went.

I arrived at the parts store and told them a short version of the story and asked if they could help me. They took it apart removed the core, went to the shelf and got a replacement core. To shorten this part of the story it was rebuilt and ready to go in about 2 hours. They told me the cost and I could hardly believe it. I think I started to go into shock. It was going to cost me in the neighborhood of about $42.00. I imagine my jaw about fell to the floor. Well this part of the ordeal is at least looking up a little bit!

My mechanic, I call him that now because I’m very committed at this point and should I say I have no idea what he will even charge for his time and labor. He told me to call him back whenever I got it fixed. I called him back, he came back and put the rebuilt pump back in; now its time for the moment of truth. We added fluid again started it up. It came out of park but we still had no brakes. Back to square one. We talked about this. We reviewed everything that we had done and felt that everything should work, but it didn’t.

My mechanic mentioned that he smelled gas when he first listened to it while it was running. He found a leak around the carburetor. He said that he could fix that later on. I did tell him how that we had noticed the smell of gas on the trip down there. We also had just had a rebuilt carburetor recently put on. Right now our priorities were to get the brakes fixed. This was now going into the third day or so, I’m starting to loose track of each event that occurred on a daily basis.

My wife and I went back to one of the department stores and while browsing through the isles looked at a 1 gal plastic gas can which was about the size and volume of the original reservoir. We finally bought it and took it back to the MH. This was probably day 3 or maybe day 4, at this point I don’t even know. I got a drill bit and drilled two holes in the side of the gas can next to each other in like manor as it was originally. These holes were the exact size holes needed for the two fittings to thread into for the hydraulic system. I had mentioned to him about buying the gas can and he wanted to see it. He came back to see how it looked and also to make repairs the carburetor. He was impressed to say the least. I had a small leak on one of the fittings but he took care of that with some gasket sealer he had and an o-ring or two and we had it to where it wasn’t leaking.

Ok, we tried the brakes again and this time they seemed to work. I was overwhelmed and was finally starting to feel better about this whole situation we were in. I still didn’t know how much the mechanic was going to charge but felt better about it than I did at the beginning. Now its working and my wife said “see you should have listened to me in the first place. I told you that wasn’t going to work!”

Now came the day of reckoning so I asked how much I owed the mechanic. After I paid the mechanic and all of what I spent it was less than $400.00. I could hardly believe the cost again! We decided to stay a few extra days and tried to make up for the lost days we spent while working on the MH.

This isn’t the end of the story!
When we left for the return trip home I was a little jittery about the way we had rigged this up wondering how it would hold up. I was very careful when it came time to stop or slow down but the brakes kept on working. We were approaching the top of one of those long hills / mountains I was talking about where it had slowed us down so much on the way down. This is now about the time when the transmission started slipping. I was near an exit and instinctively took the exit. I had to choose to turn right and go toward a small town or there was a small campground somewhere to the left. I chose to turn right and pulled into a small station finding a spot just large enough to get off of the road. We didn’t have any transmission fluid showing on the dip stick. I added four quarts of fluid, left and it seemed to be ok. We were not far from the campground we were going to spend the night at anyway so we decided to try and make it there. We arrived there without any more trouble. I checked the fluid the next morning and added another two quarts of fluid. It was fine the rest of the way home.

After arriving home I was able to locate a replacement reservoir from a Freightliner garage. I didn’t drive it anymore until I had that changed. The next spring we started looking and traded the MH for the Monty we now have.

I will say that I enjoy towing much more than I do driving a MH. Maybe some day another MH might be in the picture but I like what I have now and I especially like all the room we have. The towing is easy and pleasurable.

Before we leave on trips we always have a family prayer. We have had a few close calls and wondered at times if things would have turned out a little different if we hadn’t had that simple prayer.

Tell us your story!
Bill & Donna

[boylanag]

Bill and Donna - That is a great story. It is great, hearing of people who overcome adversity and keep on going. We hope you will bring your Monty to Goshen this September to the 2008 MOC Fall Rally. You would add some real flavor to our campfires.

[HughM]

Bill & Donna, What a story. Up till now I thought I had problems sometimes but mine are mild compared to yours. A flat tire, blown fuse, or tail light burned out has been my limit and now I know that's nothing.
You are braver than me. I think I would have sold it and hitch hiked home.!!
Hugh

[bncinwv]

Bill and Donna,
Have to admit that I like the written expanded version of your motorhome travails. We drove down to Yatesville Lake a couple of weeks ago looking around and were going to head to Carter Caves but ran out of time. We are heading to Beech Fork ($19 a night for full hookups) for Easter and the week after. First trip out and as you know we are so looking forward to it. Still looking to camp a weekend together also. As always, blessings to you and yours,
Bingo and Cathy

[Bill-N-Donna]

On edit to my original post, the shock of what the total breakdown finally cost me was due to the fact that I was expecting much worse than what it was in reality. I would have never dreamed that I was going to get by without any more expense than what I did. I was thankful to say the least and that allowed us the extended stay.

I've heard and believe that about 90% of what people worry about never actually happens.

[Glenn and Lorraine]

Great story Bill, Asd far as worry, I try to live by Alfred E. Neuman's favorite phrase---

[Bill-N-Donna]

Here is another breakdown story we had. I don't remember exactly what year this was but I think it was about 10 years ago.

******
One summer we were in Indianapolis for our family re-union; and sometime after parting we started having a problem.

We were towing our 1975 International 27’ Overlander (Airstream) with our ¾ ton van. We were traveling south from Indianapolis on I-65. We started hearing a very un-usual noise in the engine. We pulled over to discover that our belt had come apart in shreds. I had never seen so many pieces of threads from one belt. Part of the belt remained intact, as strange as it may seem. I cleaned off the excess threads of belts and we were able to make it for a few more miles on a belt about half the width it should have been.

We got out our handy Woodall’s book and started looking for a campground. We found one not far away near Columbus, Indiana and proceeded in that direction. With this being a Sunday we knew nothing would be open for repairs so we spent the night. We located a dealership and the next morning (still driving the van) drove back into town to pay them a visit. I must say they were extremely helpful and accommodating. They graciously worked us into their schedule for repairs. As it turned out the tension arm was bad and needed to be replaced. This had allowed the belt to drift from the track while the edges of the pulleys were cutting into it. We went ahead and had some other work done while we were there also. They also told us that when the belt broke it had damaged the A/C and we needed a new compressor. Well they didn’t have one so we decided that we could endure the rest of the trip with out the luxury of air conditioning.

They had us ready to go about noon. We left the dealership and went around the block to a parts store so I could purchase an extra belt. I wasn’t going to have that happen again and not be prepared for it.

Well guess what? When we got back in the van it wouldn’t start! You’ve got to be kidding! Man, what now? With the sun blistering down on us we walked back over to the dealership garage and told them about our dilemma. They had someone go over and look at it while we waited back at the garage. In a few minutes they pulled back in with the van. We found out after that, that the starter was bad and it wouldn’t start unless we wanted to bang on the side of it to get it to work. I think something was sticking inside of it. Well we weren’t going to leave with it in that kind of shape so we politely asked them if they could work us back in again and they did!

We spent the rest of the after noon getting the starter replaced. Finally it was ready about closing time. What a day!

I must say that the dealership went out of their way to help us. They were extremely nice and I wouldn’t have wanted to have been anywhere else for all of that to have happened.

When we got back home a few days later, we had the A/C repaired. The total cost of that bad belt resulted in us spending about $800.00 after all repairs and work was made.