First major issue in the RV on the road. We’ve dealt with trouble getting the water to work, dealing with no air conditioning, a crappy battery that had to be replaced, new tires, oil change, and some other minor issues. Well today we hit our first major roadblock.
This morning, we were in Elizabethtown, KY, had breakfast with my family, then went back to sleep. We headed south around noon and all seemed well. The engine was running well, we had a full tank of gas, traffic was light.
We stopped for gas in Bowling Green, got off the highway and everything was still fine. Got gas, filled the tank and got a whopping 6.5 mpg. Good day. We decided to head to Walmart before going to our location to stay for the night.
And that is where everything went to hell.
I was driving towards Walmart and the engine was revving up, but the RV was not accelerating. We were at a stop light, I put it into 2nd gear, put it back into Drive, and it was working again. Then it started revving with no acceleration, so I pulled into a shopping mall. Started slowing. I pulled into a turn lane, through on my emergency flashers, shut the RV off and swore a bit. I let it sit for a second, thinking, hoping, maybe it was just a glitch. I turned it back on and it seemed to be going again, so we kept going to Walmart, figuring that if we did have a problem, at least we could stay the night there.
We didn’t make it.
About two blocks later, while trying to find Walmart in a maze of stores and malls, we ended up completely dead in the water. The engine runs, the transmission seems to work, but there is some sort of disconnect between the transmission and the tires. It simply will not move.
Three and half hours later, we got a two. They took us about a quarter mile down the road to Walmart, because I figured again, at least we were somewhere we could stay for the night. We parked it in back, under the watchful eye of a camera, and sat for a few minutes.
I decided that maybe the transmission was low in fluid, I checked it and it looked low, so we went inside, bought some, came back out and poured some in. I turned the engine on and it moved forward! And then in reverse! All was saved!
But I wasn’t done yet. I was getting anxious and worried about everything that was wrong, so we went back inside to get dinner. We came back out, ran the RV for awhile to make sure the fluid had gone where it needed to, and tried to move it again. Nothing. Not a damn thing, the engine revs, but the RV does not move. I shut it off, swore some more, and started doing research.
Now, from my three hours of searching online, talking to people, and trying to call transmission shops in Bowling Green, I’ve found out a few things. First, it might be the transmission filter. Its possible that our 1000 miles of driving with lots of hills today may have dislodged some gunk that clogged the filter. That might be why it works sometimes and not others. It might just need to be replaced and get a transmission flush. That’s not terrible. Its more than we want to spend right now, but we’ll figure it out.
Second, there aren’t very many places in Bowling Green that can both work on a vehicle our size AND work on a transmission. I finally found a truck mechanic that is open 24 hours, called them, and they only work on diesel. And they also don’t work on transmissions. But they did have a place that they send trucks to for transmission work. So I look them up, and they are closed.
Now, I’ll have to call them in the morning, figure out how to get the RV, and hope to hell that it just needs a filter replaced and a flush. We might have to sell a kidney to get it done, but we’ll figure something out. I just have to call them at 8am and make sure they can look at it, and if they can’t look at it right away, maybe they can at least let us stay in their lot for a few days while we wait for it to get fixed.
Now, this also all throws our upcoming schedule out of whack. We have reservations to be in Alabama on Monday. Is that going to happen? I’m not sure at this point, so we’ll see what happens. Hopefully we get some answers tomorrow.
