Tomorrow marks day 20 of constant, non-stop, moving every-other-day at most travel, and I think we've come to the conclusion that we are DONE! I've been working hard to try and get us back into the RV, but frankly, I'm feeling discouraged. Let's go over a re-cap of all that has happened in the last 21 days...
We left Ventura County, CA on January 20th. Our heater was
working only intermittently, but no one around us could get us in to fix it in
a timely manner, so we took off with that working poorly. Two days out, on
January 21, our jacks started slipping. I called the dealer (they were close)
and they told me that an additive has been suggested, and gave me information
on obtaining that additive and I picked it up and added it to the fairly empty
reservoir tank (nothing was registering on the dipstick, while jacks were
extended or retracted).
We left the following day for a larger town Nellis AFB, (in North Las Vegas) with an eye toward getting the jacks inspected at a repair shop
there. No one could get us in, that I could find and one repair shop suggested
that since we were heading toward the greater Phoenix area anyway, that we
might have better luck getting them looked at in a larger town. So off we went
(January 28th).
Only, on the way across the desert, the engine started making a flapping noise whenever I asked it to accelerate. I found a sweet spot at about 45 mph where the noise stopped (just trying to get out of the middle of the desert at this point), so I traveled along at this speed. Until... just as I started seeing city lights for Kingman, AZ the engine died completely. I was able to get off of the road, onto the breakdown lane, and called roadside assistance through my insurance company, Progressive. They towed us to Kingman, to Colorado River Ford, and we found a hotel there for the night.
Fast forward, a week later (February 3rd), the RV has been towed, yet again, to a larger facility in North Las Vegas where I was told it would get a new engine. That engine took a week and a half to arrive, and was put in within a matter of a day or two. Only problem now, is that the catalytic converter was damaged at some point as well, and there are no “spare” catalytic converters in the United States, available for our coach. They are currently back-ordered and the ETA is March 11th.
My four children (three of whom are diet controlled diabetics) and I are supposed to be traveling across the country, seeing all of the amazing things that this country has to offer, while my husband is in Djibouti, Africa with the US Navy for the coming year. Our goal was to see the sights and keep our minds off of his deployment, while in the comfort of our new RV (with access to healthy foods to ensure their diabetes is kept in check). Instead, our dream adventure is a tearful nightmare and I am exhausted by the frustration.
I have been told by Ford claims that they will cover “some” of our expenses while we are out of our RV, but could not tell me how much we were “allowed.” I was told that if the coach required a new engine and that it would take three weeks or more we should “go home.” Unfortunately, the claims guy could not understand that our home is the coach that has the faulty engine. Our things are in storage and we have no home to go to. He said that Ford would pay to fly me home, but honestly, five tickets to fly anywhere, and then nowhere of our own to stay? And then having to come back to Las Vegas? Didn't make sense to me, so we took a different path, as I am want to do at times.
Meanwhile, we are eating in restaurants that do not provide the foods that are the best for our dietary requirements (eating in our own kitchen is a large reason we chose an RV) and staying in hotels with no idea how much, if any, of this expense will be covered by Ford. And we are facing nearly another MONTH of these expenses. Can you imagine living in hotels for three (plus) weeks with four small children, who don’t have their ‘stuff’ and are out of their “normal?”
I finally got in touch with a representative from Thor (our manufacturer), who is going to work with Ford to see about expediting the catalytic converter, even if it means pulling one from the Thor factory and overnighting it to our coach.
A few things I am contemplating... I need to figure out how much of our bills Ford will be paying, specifically, will they pay for our food as well as our lodging? It is MUCH more expensive to eat the way we have been the last few weeks, and honestly, I think the food has been nearly as big of a heartache for me as the lodging, just the expense of restaurants, and knowing we aren't eating as healthfully as we do in the RV is frustrating. While I like to think Ford will do right by us in terms of lodging, as that is fairly straightforward, food is trickier. For example, just before we left the RV we had loaded up the fridge and freezer with foods from the local commissary, so we wouldn't need to do much other than shop milk, eggs and produce. This had to be tossed when the RV went in the shop and the fridge and freezer were emptied by the dealer in Las Vegas. Add that to eating out so often, well, we're just over budget for food! But how much of that will Ford pay? I wonder.
Keep watching for more on this whole drama, and I'll let you know if I feel Ford has done right by us in the end. I think that will largely depend on how soon we're back in our home, and how quickly they pay our claim.
In the meantime, we're heading back to Vegas, where we will either a) camp out in the Ford lot until further notice, and let the kids use their lot as a playground or b) find an Extended stay type hotel with a kitchen that will allow us to fix meals at home, grabbing dishes from home, if needed/possible. In any case, the Bratmobile inhabitants are settling in for the long haul, or preferably short haul, until we are back in our home.
One last note, I have been told that if the RV is not repaired within a fixed amount of time, Ford/Thor will be required to replace it. No one seems to know how long that time frame is, and I'll investigate that as I investigate the amounts of compensation. Hopefully answers will be coming in the next few days. We're ready to return to our regularly scheduled programming!
