Where’s the randomness when you need it?

So after writing about ‘randomness’ and the little quirks of the rv, we had a major quirk.

We had scheduled a visit to the manufacturer to have some minor maintenance done on our ‘06 5th wheel. Simple stuff like new brakes, new slide rubber seals, some caulking repairs, and slide realignments. Some cosmetic fixes as well to make it all look new and shiny.

We stopped for the night on Saturday about 50 miles north with plans to drive on in on Sunday evening so they could start work on Monday morning. Work starts at 6 am….ugh!

Unfortunately as we were pulling into our Saturday night campground we hit a big dip, bump, and bang. When we stopped and unhooked I thought the hitch looked a little strange, but didn’t realize how strange until I opened the bedroom closet door to find the cabinet wall in pieces and the floor bowed up about a foot! Yelled for Lee and out we ran to look at the hitch. The welding on the pin box had broken and the box had rammed up into the belly of the fifth wheel. (That is my explanation however not technically correct).

We called our road side service and they began looking for someone to come and help us out. However, none of the welders were interested in tackling our problem due to the potential for a fire hazard with the welding inside the fiberglass belly. Eventually they gave up and called the sheriff’s office to see if they could help. We were in a very small town where everyone knew everyone and thankfully they passed our information on to a young man who was home for the weekend. So on Sunday he came and spent several hours giving us a temporary fix so we could limp on down the rest of the way.

We arrived at the service center on Sunday evening and Monday morning at 6 am we were ready with our ‘surprise’ for the service crew.

 

 

They jumped right in and took the front off our rig, the pin box and frame apart and began the fix.

We left on Friday with all our wishes completed as well as a new pin box!

However, the excitement was not yet over. We drove only 150 miles as we needed to stop and retorque the pin box.  We stopped in the small town of Seneca at the Stallbaumer’s RV Park. We planned to do some cleaning on the rig, some laundry, and retorque the bolts. I started the laundry and Lee got out the tools to do the torqueing. While I was inside considering dinner options, Lee was outside working. Until he came running to the door with blood running down his face! I grabbed my purse, the town map, the keys and off we went to the emergency room. The wrench did not fit properly and slipped off causing Lee to land face first in the iron pinbox!

Thankfully it was a very nice emergency room with no waiting. The nurses cleaned him up, the doctor stitched him up, and we were sent home. ( I suggested a picture, but he declined!)

Today we have chilled and rested and tomorrow we hope to move on. We plan on leaving all the excitement  behind us and again make jokes about the little random events of rving!