To Grant's Pass

Monday, Roadmaster.

6:00 AM we were awakened by Art's cell phone. Just time for a wash, coffee for Gillian and a pot of tea for Art, walk the dogs. . . on the road at 6:35.

We had been wondering how we were going to find the place as we didn't seem to have saved the location in the GPS but at the last minute Gillian found their address which we put into the GPS and we were away. On the road Art realised that we could have used the “recently found” function of the GPS as we had stopped in there in August. Ah well.

We arrived at the dot of 7:AM and were met by one of the techs. Art explained the problems: Brake lights on the jeep didn't come on while towing, the indicator light on the motorhome dash which should glow red when brakes were applied didn't work either. Also our tow bar was getting quite stiff one one side. We had tried to clean out the crud and probably road tar accumulated in Alaska with no luck. Roadmaster offers free servicing for their tow bars so that was a no-brainer.

The “Tow Defender”, a fabric arrangement that goes between the back of the motorhome and the front of the Jeep to keep rocks and gravel at bay, needed to be re-assembled. We had purchased a new piece of fabric after we had carelessly melted a corner of the previous piece on the hot exhaust pipe! Brother Bill and Art had tried to set it up some weeks earlier without success, the diagrams downloaded from the internet notwithstanding. Turns out that there was a new model!

Art had previously been on the phone with Roadmaster Tech Support for quite some time trying to sort out the brake light problem. The tech on the other end of the phone was stumped after Art had done all the voltage tests suggested and seemed about to send us to a local dealer to get it sorted. Art had then said that we would be coming south in October and would stop in at their plant in Vancouver WN on our way.

They spent the better part of a day messing about with the Jeep. The indicator light on the motorhome dash was traced to a not quite perfect install in the Jeep—a wire had come loose. Then connect the Jeep to the motorhome with the newly serviced tow bar and get to work on the reassembly of the “Tow Defender”. This turned out to be a bigger problem than expected—it was a tiny bit ( an inch or so) too short and was therefore far too tight. They finally pulled a new connector bracket from stock, painted it and all was well. That's the good part about going to the manufacturer!

They now said we were good to go. A final check before we paid the bill: everything connected, Art started the motorhome, stepped on the brakes. . . . no brake lights on the jeep! Brake lights on the motorhome worked fine. Back to square one. The tech went off and returned with whom we assumed was a supervisor. Art again explained: The tow vehicle brake lights do not work on the Jeep, nor on our previous tow car (the Chevy Tracker) nor on our boat trailer. The problem HAS to be in the motorhome. The supervisor slid under the rig with a test light and in a few minutes returned to say that the “box” (combiner) on the motorhome that combines the signal lights to the brake lights was not working. (The motorhome uses separate lights for turn signals and brakes while the Jeep uses the same bulb. The combiner makes the connection.) This is what Art had been saying all along! The problem had to be with the common element—the motorhome!

A quick check with their parts department located the required part and a few minutes to install it. Another ten minutes to pay the bill and we were on our way by 12:30. We were charged 2 hours labour which we thought fair all things considered.

About 10:30 AM Art had called Henderson's Line Up (A truck and RV Suspension specialist) in Grants Pass Oregon to see if by chance they had an opening on Tuesday or Wednesday. We already had an appointment for Thursday. We were told that we could come in Tuesday morning so changed our appointment.

Tuesday, Henderson's Line Up

We arrive at the shop at 6:00 PM to find Robert Henderson waiting for us. We were shown where to park and plug into the 30 Amp RV outlet, given a folder full of local information and told that he would see us in the morning.

We had a quiet night, watched the TV news from home and episodes of “New Tricks” and “Silk” thanks to our Starchoice (Shaw Direct) satellite connection and went to bed. The heat pump didn't come on until 6:00AM! Much warmer here. Things are looking up!

Again we slept in! We were expected at 8:00 AM but didn't wake up until ten to! By about 8:30 Gillian had the dogs in the Jeep and Art and the tech were out on the 15mile road trip diagnosis, the tech driving and Art riding shotgun. Marked sway and porpoising was noticed, (our main complaints). The rig also tended to pull to the right.

Back at the shop the rig was weighed at each corner. Then a thorough visual inspection below and tires were also inspected. The only mechanical defect found was a worn bell crank which was replaced. This took care of the play in the steering we had been noticing.

To fix the porpoising and sway Koni Shocks were recommended. Also a steering stabilizer was recommended (Art had been thinking about this for years!) After all the work was done, the final bit was a test drive.

Art noticed a big change in handling, the motorhome was no longer pulling to the right. . . it was pulling to the left! The tech got out and climbed underneath with his fine adjustment tools, including a large hammer. Ahh! That's better!

There was just enough money left out of Octobers' pension to have paid for our breakfast.

At Henderson's we had met another couple and after all was done here we all set off to the County RV Park, Art detouring via Fred Meyer's for fuel ($3.959 per US Gallon!) and Gillian via a Feed and Pet Food lot to get a large bag of grain free dog food for Trekker. $22.00 per night, but no internet or TV. Not a big loss.

By 5:30 we were parked along side our new friends, level, slides out and power connected. The many trees made satellite reception unlikely, we didn't even try. Once the dogs had been walked we each grabbed a drink and wandered next door for a pleasant hour or so visiting again with Tom and Mary Anne.

Back in the rig, dogs were fed, followed by ourselves, Art did a bit of blog prep using Open Office on the laptop to be posted when we again had internet access.

Dinner and dishes done by 9:00PM we took ourselves and books to bed. Daytime temperatures by the way in the high 70's. Happy, Happy, Happy!

Tomorrow, California: the land of poor highways, expensive fuel and cheap liquor. Fine by us, the diesel tank is full and Art's whisky bottle is empty :)