Prior to today, which is Monday, we had these thoughts.
We arrived at Little’s Diesel on April 29. We’ve been parked with power and water, but no sewer. I used to think that I would like to try boondocking, assuming we could find a road our low slung dachshund-like RV could navigate. Hah! Double hah hah hah! I do not like being this gray tank constrained, it just wears on me.
Saturday we went to the dollar store and bought a 3 gallon dishpan. It’s amazing how much water goes down the sink just from hand washing, tooth brushing (with the water turned off), and dishes. We thought we had been conserving, until we put that dishpan in the sink. We let it get about half full and then Jim takes it across the street and dumps it in the weeds. He’s been out 4 times today, and we still have to get through dinner. So that’s 6 gallons right there in one day. We had to get through 3 days before the Party Pooper lady returned on Monday to empty the tanks. I do not like this lifestyle. My hat is off to people who boondock and enjoy it, but I am not ever going to be one of those people.
We have made peace with the fact that we are RV park people and we’re not going to worry about it anymore. That will leave more boondocking for the people who do like it.
We’re not as tired as we were when we arrived. Watching the RV being carried down the road was incredibly stressful. We’ve been sleeping in and telling ourselves it will all work out. I realize it’s not world hunger, but having the engine die like this with only 60k miles on it has been demoralizing. It’s supposed to be a 300k engine. It’s going to be awhile before we’re comfortable driving across the middle of nowhere again. I really like RVing, it’s good to change one’s location without having to pack and unpack. I like having my stuff. But I really hate engine failures.
Now it is Monday.
We have an undetermined number of bad fuel injectors. We have at least two bad pistons. Because our engine is a “wet sleeve”, the pistons can be re-sleeved instead of doing a short block replacement. However, all is not yet good. There is still the possibility of damage to other parts of the engine, which would require a new short block. A new short block is a very big deal. Re-sleeving will take at least two weeks.
All of this is exacerbated by a troubled tank clean out today. There was a spill. We don’t know why the spill occurred. There has been no leakage since the Party Pooper lady left, but there was spill during the clean out. So, tonight and tomorrow night we are in a hideously expensive Holiday Inn Express because we’re afraid to put anything else in the tanks.
I realize that this doesn’t meet the criterion of the awfulness of Nepal, or some of the other recent terrible things that have happened, but this is a very big deal in our lives. We’ve completely lost faith in this engine and are wondering if we should buy a house or a travel trailer, or something less complicated than a Class A. We’re not going to go RV shopping anytime soon, but it’s a possibility.
Your non RV rah-rah honesty is refreshing. And tho I empathize (we sat in a motel thru a complete tranny R and R and overhaul), these kind of things happen. It can be a great life on the road, but it is still "life," the good, the bad, and the ugly. Sometimes people jump in, spend most of the nest egg on an RV, and then aren't prepared to have to cough up more money. When traveling the remote west you are at the mercy of the roulette wheel, and there are good repair shops… and their are bad repair shops. Does make one think that a trailer or fifth wheel might be a safer choice. Hope you can get a round of golf in… if i remember the course is right next door.
ReplyDeleteSh** happens in an RV or not. Once you get back on the road and all is well this will be just a bad memory. I am still glad we decided against a diesel pusher:-)
ReplyDeleteWhen we were parked on a driveway above our house for six months, I tossed all kitchen sink water down the hill. We also showered at the house. I used to want to scream at Craig when he would brush his teeth. I swear he used gallons and gallons of water! We did manage to be able to go 7 days without dumping. We had to drive up a steep hill so we couldn't let the tanks get over full. I think we could have gone longer. Are you using paper plates and sands-hand wipes?
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