What are friends for. . . but to share your troubles with. . .

Well, our friends Janice and Dean have been posting about their troubles with their motorhome engine. At least it hasn't sidelined them for long. We felt so bad for them, we decided to have our own troubles. . . just so we could share their "joy."

We left "near" Indianapolis today for a 160 mile run to Goshen/Elkhart. We got to Wabash, which is about half way and several trouble lights lit up on the dash. Terry was driving as I was still nursing my aching hip and generally feeling sorry for myself. The "shift inhibit" light was lit, and sure enough, we were stuck in 2nd gear, running about 2500 rpms. So we limped into the new Wal-Mart with its HUGE parking lot and parked across the curb in front. . . well away from any other cars and right in front of the sign that read "NO RV OR SEMI PARKING." Well, we didn't have any choice, that's for sure. Rather than call Coach-Net, after our dismal experience in February with them, we thought we would start with Tiffin. Tiffin said to call Freightliner, Freightliner said to call Allison and Allison said to call the service center in Fort Wayne, the nearest one. We had not turned off the motorhome because it was in 2nd gear, would not go into neutral and we knew if it stayed that way, we would not be able to start it again. At this point, I went into Wally World and asked to speak to the manager. I told him we had a breakdown and knew they didn't want us there, but we most likely would have to be towed and no telling when that would happen. He was very gracious and said it was no problem and he would alert the night manager. Thanks, Ryan.

The service center in Fort Wayne gave us to "Mike" who just happens to be the trainer for Allison transmissions in the motorhome factories. Did he know his stuff? Hah. Imagine calling and 20 minutes later getting someone who KNOWS WHAT HE IS TALKING ABOUT. He told Terry we needed to shut off Phaeton Place and that when he did that, it would default to neutral and would start again, but would be stuck in first gear. He also said he had a tow service well qualified to tow the motorhome, but asked Terry to try something first. He had him read him the trouble codes off the transmission. Then he sent him out under the back end of the coach to find the sensor that was involved. It happened to be handy and LOOSE. Terry tightened it but was sure by the feel of it something was perhaps broken inside. It was the connector that was bad. Terry thought he may have tightened it up enough. We got back in the coach, started it up and started rolling. Mike said if it shifted into second gear, we were good to go. It did and we were! We called Mike back and since we knew the connector needed to be replaced, asked if his center could do it. He said yes, but not sure if it would be today or tomorrow. So we headed for Ft. Wayne, only about an hour away.

When we got closer, I called Mike to verify the exit number and we were only 3 miles away. He said, "Well, since you are so close, I will just hang around and fix it when you get here." What a class act. We got there, he came out and fixed it in about 20 minutes. The paperwork took longer. It was $157.00 which I will be turning in as it is under warranty. They don't do Freightliner warranty, but I wasn't going to be picky. I just cannot believe it yet. . . that he walked Terry through the fix over the phone, then stayed put for us and fixed it right then. We gave him a tip and will be putting up a review on rvservicereviews.

We made it to Goshen at 4:30, a little late, but not really stressed . . . and I forgot about my hip hurting most of the afternoon. Yay!

Till next time. . .

Dale