It should have been a relatively quick and easy 2.5-hour drive. One minute, we were cruising along enjoying the scenery as we approached the South Carolina border, talking about Belle entering her 13th state. (She didn’t care, but we were excited for her.)
Not long after that image was taken, we turned toward the south and saw thunderstorms gathering. And then, as we cruised smoothly along at highway speed, the engine suddenly lost power. All Mike could do was drift and steer. Lucky for us, we were close to a side road. Mike managed to use the coach’s momentum to get us off the busy highway, but the coach died right in the middle of the side road. That was about 2:45 in the afternoon.
As soon as we opened the door, we were hit by the smell of diesel. Sure enough, fuel was leaking from the passenger-side rear of the coach. When we opened that engine compartment, diesel was still trickling out, but had clearly been spraying out when the engine was running. The hood, windshield, and entire passenger side of our poor little Mini were covered in diesel fuel.
We hurriedly unhooked the Mini and moved it to a nearby parking lot. Then I looked closely at the engine while Mike called our roadside assistance provider. I thought maybe I could figure out where the leak was coming from. LOL. I am no mechanic.
It looked to me like the thing pictured was the source of the leak. I had no idea what the thing was, but, based on the spray patterns I observed, it looked like the source of the leak. So I took a picture and told Mike to let the roadside assistance folks know to send one along with the mechanic.
The next picture shows where the coach died. Vehicles could get around us on the right, barely. Lucky for us, it wasn’t a busy road. Also, it was a Sunday afternoon.
When Mike called the roadside assistance folks — CoachNet — their first question was, “Are you in a safe place?” To which Mike replied, “No. We are in the middle of a road.”
The representative got our info and let Mike know she’d get someone out to help us. The wait began…
Remember, it was a Sunday afternoon. We were in a very small county near the southwestern corner of North Carolina. There was no large metro area nearby.
A nice highway patrolman — officer or trooper Kahl — stopped by around 3:15. We told him a tow truck should be on the way soon. He said he’d check on us again in about an hour.
CoachNet was not as communicative as they could and should have been. An hour or so went by with us hearing nothing and no help showing up. Mike called back only to learn that the were having difficulty locating a tow truck. The plan was to tow us to a safe place where we could spend the night. Then, they would send another truck to tow us to a repair facility the next morning. They never said anything about sending a mobile repair service our way.
A few more hours went by. At one point, CoachNet contacted the local authorities and were told that we were not in a dangerous location. That meant getting us help was no longer as urgent for them. So we waited some more…
There was a train track and railroad crossing just up the street and grassy areas to walk Belle.
At least it was sort of safe to get out and walk. (Mike managed to step on a small fire ant nest. Yes, he was bitten, but “only” got about 10 stings.)
By around 7:00, even I was getting tired of waiting. It’s not like we didn’t have a place to sleep, but we were not prepared for boondocking (overnighting in a place without hookups [electricity, water, and sewer], usually for free). Remember, we were expecting a short ride. We had no fresh water in the tank and our diesel was only just over 1/4 full. In this coach, the generator will not run when the tank reaches 25% or less. No generator not only meant no refrigerator (once the batteries ran out), it also meant no air conditioning.
I started calling potential towing services. One guy that I reached, Robbie of Rock Hill Towing, was actually on vacation in Key West, Florida, but talked to me anyway. As it turns out, he owns a Class A motorhome, too. He said that towing was not the best option, that we should be looking for a mobile repair service. Apparently, towing big rigs like ours can wreak havoc on the frame and body, causing issues like windshield breakage, or popping the windshield out of the frame. It might affect alignment of the slide-outs and cause other problems, all of which we would like to avoid.
Robbie gave me some other numbers to call. He also offered to send one of his guys, but his shop was an hour and a half away. I thanked him and let him I know I’d call back if we couldn’t find help elsewhere.
One mobile service I spoke to said they could help, but they charged $130 an hour and the clock started ticking when the tech left his house and stopped when he got back. The tech was an hour and a half away. The clock would continue ticking if he had to go get parts once he diagnosed the problem. So, at minimum, we were looking at a $400 bill. Just to get the tech to travel and diagnose the issue. Ugh.
While I was making calls, the highway patrolman returned. He told Mike he’d call a mechanic friend of his that only lived about fifteen minutes away to see if he could help. Lucky for us, the guy agreed to come. About an hour later, the guy appeared. He may have lived close by, but his shop and tools were not so close.
It didn’t take long to diagnose the problem… a cracked fuel filter housing. The other hurdle became where to get one of those on a Sunday night. By then, it was about 9:00 p.m. The mechanic, Wayne, wondered aloud if another friend of his had the part in his shop. So off Wayne went with our fuel filter housing to wherever his friend’s shop was. About an hour and a half later, he came back with the replacement part, installed it, and we were good to go.
Mike and I sat in the coach waiting with dread as Wayne wrote-up the bill. RVs are like boats in that repairs, parts, etc., can sometimes be very expensive. We were afraid it would be a huge bill, but were pleasantly surprised when he only charged us $205, parts included!
We really have been blessed in so many ways. What if we’d broken down when that officer wasn’t on duty? What if Wayne hadn’t been available? What if he’d been a shyster and charged an extra $500 for Sunday service? What if we hadn’t gotten off the highway? We would surely have been towed then because it was a really busy road.
Anyway… all worked out in the end. We did not continue to the campground that night. We found the closest Walmart and spent the night in the parking lot. Another first!
It wasn’t a restful night, since we couldn’t keep the generator running, but we did manage to get a little sleep. I went to Bojangles at 5:30 a.m., grabbed us some breakfast, which we enjoyed before setting off for the campground.
I had let the campground know about our delay the night before. The ranger station wasn’t open when we arrived, so we just went to our site. I called and let them know we’d arrived and let ourselves in, which they later said was fine.
Everything worked out in the end.
And, before I forget… remember that thing I had no name for, but diagnosed as the problem part? I was right. Apparently, fuel filter housings on Cummins Diesel engines are known to have issues. We will be buying a spare to carry along for future use, just in case.
As for CoachNet… they went “radio silent” around 6:00 p.m. Sunday (they couldn’t find us help), and we didn’t hear from them again until about 11:00 a.m. on Monday. That’s when they called to let us know they’d found a mobile tech available to come out to help. The jury is still out on whether we cancel that contract.
In the meantime, if you are ever in or near Peachland, North Carolina and need a mobile repair tech to help, call Wayne Morton, Jr. at Junebug Mobile Truck Service, (704) 465-4106.
Adventures galore these days! Glad you were in a safe spot (except for the ants – poor Mike). Extremely poor service indeed by CoachNet.
Wow! Glad you took matters into your own hands. Not cool, CoachNet. Not cool.
I appreciate how you put it—”While it may seem like we are living the dream, life in an RV is still life.”
That really seems to get lost in social media. 🙂
Life happens even when in an RV. But at least you were off of the highway. The challenge with the diesel pushers is there really isn’t anyway to tow them. They need to be put on a trailer after the driveshaft is removed. I’ve heard horror stories of tow companies trying to tow them with damaging results. At least you weren’t still on the highway. I always have around 1/2 a tank of water while traveling and, depending on the weather, fill up on diesel around 1/2 tank if it’s hot. If it’s hot, we generally have the generator running while traveling so we can run the A/C units. The dash air is useless.
I’m glad to see Mike chimed in to explain our unfortunate condition. He did it far better than I would have. Your “life happens even when in an RV” made me LOL. It sure does.
Oh my, but I must say also, “been there, done that”. Except ours was a high-pressure fuel line. And yes, a DP can be towed, but the air bags must be appropriately inflated to avoid damage to the front bumper. Ask me how I know 🤬
Glad it all worked out!
All part of the adventure!
@ RichardM – It was the perfect storm of sorts. We always travel with at least 1/4 tank of fresh water BUT, I had just sanitized the system while parked at the kids house. I couldn’t get close enough to their house to connect my hose to and I didn’t want to use their garden hose. It was a relatively short run to the campground so I figured we’d just run dry until we got there. Also, if you notice, we’re on a somewhat of a hill. I didn’t (still don’t) know what kind of impact the slope would have on the pickup tube in the tank that prevents the genset from using so much fuel that the engine may run out. I was concerned that if we sat there with the generator running, once we got fixed and underway on level ground again, we’d then run out of fuel in short order. We too generally start looking at fuels stops once we get to 1/2 tank and it was our intention to fill up before we got to the campground. Like I said – perfect storm.
I know now that towing a big rig like ours is something that should be avoided because of the problems that may result so, in a way I guess we were lucky that Coach.net failed us and we found a local guy to come out and do the repair. I do intent to seek reimbursement from Coach.net for our repair costs.