Setbacks

Or...Disaster Strikes

This weekend, for the first time ever, I've suffered a setback large enough to make me feel like the RV plan was a mistake.



One of the big realizations that I've come to over this project, is that the man who sold me the RV, took me for a ride. I was had, and I bought a lemon. I've known this, though I haven't talked about it here. I haven't written about it because I felt like putting it out there for everyone to see would make it more true, but this past weekend has brought home my predicament far better than any blog could.

It started on Friday.

Friday night, I had intended to invite a couple friends over to my house, and we would all take the RV for it's first test run since I've finished the engine tune up (I finished the engine tune up, by the way). Before anyone could arrive though, thanks to some shoddy work, either by myself or one of the previous owners, a short in the electrical system kept the RV motionless, and unable to start. By the time I had tracked down the problem and repaired it, it was too late to get anything done.

Saturday, I got up early to make sure I got the test run taken care of. I almost wish that I hadn't. Yet again, just like when I drove it last year, the RV started to struggle and chug at 50mph, but was fine at slower speeds. Twice I tried to get up to interstate speed, and twice, the only time it was possible was when going downhill.

In my denial, I came to a decision. You see, the plan had originally called to take the RV to the show that Tinderbox Circus Sideshow was going to perform at, in Indianapolis, to give it its first real leg stretch. With the power starved engine however, the wise thing would have been to leave it at home, and take one of our cars instead.

We decided to take the RV anyway. We are not the brightest folk sometimes.

We would take the back roads, adding an extra hour to our trip, but allowing us to stay at speeds that the RV could easily handle.

The mistake was almost immediately apparent. Not more than 45 minutes outside of Lexington, we ran into our first problem, hills. If the engine was starved for power at 50, it was positively choked for it going up any serious incline. Many of the hills of central Kentucky dropped our speed to under 20, and cause the RV to lurch like I was tap dancing on the brakes. I deduced that we had a fuel pressure problem.

We stopped at a little gas station, not far from nowhere at all, to put some fuel in the second, and empty, gas tank, to see if that made a difference. This is where our problems started getting serious.

After putting a relatively small amount of gas into the empty tank, it was pointed out to me that I had a flat tire. And indeed, a tire on the passenger side was indeed flat. I hadn't noticed, because it was one of the tires on the duel axle, and was being supported my it's mate, but with just a little inspection, it was absolutely clear that the tire needed to be changed.

There's your problem...

Immediately, it became apparent to me that these tires hadn't been changed in a very long time. An hour after I had begun, with the help of two locals, and after breaking a tire iron and two ratchet wrenches, as well as doing some serious damage to the muscles in my back, I had changed the tire, and when I disengaged the jack to lower my RV onto it's new wheel, it too was flat, and with the load pressing down on it, immediately came off the rim.

Again, with the help of the locals, and a spray can of ether, we got the tire reseated, and filled up with air, and I was finally able to drive away from the gas station, excepting of course, that somehow in the process, the battery had gone flat. We were now a full hour and a half behind schedule.

After a quick jump, and only a few minutes on the road, I realized that my solution had failed, as the RV still struggled, even when switched to the second tank, and I realized this only moments before disaster struck again.

Chugging up another hill, with the speedometer slowly dropping, the starved engine finally gave up the ghost, and with no fuel getting to the engine, and the battery critically low, I was unable to restart the RV. We were stuck. Only an hour or so's drive out of Lexington, and we were precariously parked on hill in nowhere Kentucky.

To shorten an already too long story, it took an hour's worth of phone calls to find a tow truck that could manage the RV, and several more hours waiting for said truck to arrive. We had to cancel our show, a first in Tinderbox history, and my the time the RV was back in my driveway, it was near 2 in the morning, and I was penniless.

With so much coming to a head on the RV plan, the disaster of this last weekend has seriously damaged my morale for this project. It's been hard to do any work to it at all, because this whole trauma has really made me feel like so much that I need to do is over my head. I'm a fair shake with a wrench, but I'm no mechanic. I fix problems as they come up, and just this moment, it feels like everything's a problem.

Your encouragement, if you have any to send me, would be most welcome.

-Z