Bi-polar vacation

[Russell E Johnson]

We had a wondrous time on our vacation despite a total of 4 breakdowns.  The first I shared already and it was the only one going out to Montana.  Coming home was another matter, let me back up to our arrival.  When we got to my dad's place and parked, the next day I had a large puddle of transmission fluid under the mh, turns out one of the transmission lines ruptured.  So I added a quart of tranny fluid and headed over to the mechanic.  He replaced both tranny hoses and added a cooler because what I though was the tranny cooler turned out to be for the roof AC.  3 quarts of fluid, new lines, and a new cooler and that problem was solved--2 day delay.  On the way home, the serpentine belt broke and tore up one of my new tranny hoses, so a new belt another hose plus another 2 day delay and we are moving again.  The third breakdown on the way home was a combination of things, my sewer hose holder broke and it was flailing around going down the highway and we were flagged down by a fellow RVer.  So I stopped along side the freeway and got the hose stowed into one of the basement compartments.  Then the "fun" began, I tried to start the mh and nothing happened, no click, no grunt, just a very loud silence.  So I called Good Sam again and 3 hours later a wrecker shows up to take us into Omaha, NB--we are like 20 miles away from it.  The new starter, put on before trip started as old one was not functioning properly, had cooked itself.  So 1.5 days later with a new starter installed we made it the rest of the way home with no incident.

Then there was the problems that cropped up while we were in Montana, the Suburban furnace decides it will not function anymore, and the hot water heater tries to catch fire and melts all the wiring on the control panel.  And to add the icing to the cake, the water pump for the fresh water tank decides it has had enough and also stops working.  

So as far as maiden voyages goes, it was the best of times and it was the worst of times--apologies to Charles Dickens.  and to commemorate this ghoulish trip I enclose 3 photos of our new to us 87 southwind

[Russell E Johnson]

I was getting so frustrated that I  threatened Betsy, our SW, with renaming her The Titanic 2 :)

[Lakota Wolf]

I'm sorry you had misadventures, but you printed it in a very humorous way. You took the breakdowns in stride and did manage to had a brighter side to it. Sounds like *Uncle MURPHY was tagging along on your voyage. Im glad you made it home safe and still have a sense of humor. 

[Jim Stoltz]

Glad you maintained your sense of humor. My maiden voyage in my '84 went much better (sorry), but like you I was smart enough to get towing insurance just in case. I went with AAA's "RV Plus" - curious as to advantages/disadvantages over Good Sam? Does anyone know?

[Russell E Johnson]

I went with goood sam strictly because of the cost, aaa rv plus was more expensive and I have had good luch wiht good sam on this trip, i still have my aaa regular membership for when the van has problems.

[Jim Stoltz]

Thanks. I'll have to do some more research. It sounds like Sam's Club was good to you.

[R. Randall Halton]

 Thankfully you arrived back home to think if the vintage experience was worth it. There seems to be so many similar stories and you have to wonder about the next trip. Sure glad you didn't encounter some of this planets mental health intruders based on the "BP  " title. They must be the most intrusive persons I have encountered during my restoration on the RV. Finally wrote No Trespassing all over the coach due to folks climbing on it. Best legal advice given to me.  You know if we were all rich, our RV's would never have problem's. We could restore them to new vintage gleam's pay the fuel and maintained cost's of the RV.. And just cruise the wonders of camping opportunities that we all have hear in the America's.   Thanks' for sharing the experience.