The Guppy Was A Real Adventure This Time

We left for AZ on the 27th. About 75 miles into the trip I noticed a vibration on taking off from a 4-way stop. After I got up to speed it seemed to go away. At first I thought maybe I had a tire out of balance or something. By the time we got to Iowa it was worse. We stopped for the second night at a campground in Missouri. In the morning I slid under and looked at the u-joints on the driveshaft. It has a three piece driveshaft with two carrier bearings and I couldn't find anything wrong. Decided to continue on and hope it would get us to AZ.

We got as far as around KC and we decided to stop for lunch. As I went to pull out on to the street to head for where the restaurants were the driveshaft fell out. I coasted to a stop on the shoulder. Because the driveshaft fell out we had to put something under the wheel to keep it from rolling. The Old Lady called AAA as we have the RV+ plan. First she had trouble explaining what kind of motorhome we have (Class C), but finally got told a wrecker would be sent. AAA recommended a repair shop, but when talking to them they said it was too tall to fit in their shop. They gave us a number for another shop and we got the same story. They recommended the local Ford/RV dealer.

The Ford/RV dealer said they were going close at 3 pm as it was a Saturday. And if we had it towed there it might be 2 weeks before they could get to it. Thought about having it towed to the Walmart parking lot that we could see from where we broke down. The Old Lady called The Kid to let her know we broke down and asker her to use her smart phone to check if we could park at Walmart. The Kid even called and was told a local ordinance banned overnight RV parking there. There was also a Super 8 motel in sight. I took the car off the tow dolly and The Old Lady went over and asked about parking The Guppy there and got us a room. After waiting all afternoon the tow truck finally arrived after several calls from AAA to see if it had come. The tow truck was one that they use for semis. (A bit of overkill).

The u-joint that worked its way out the side of the yoke below.

The yoke that slides on the splines of the second section of driveshaft and is on the front end of the last section of driveshaft.

The new yoke.

While waiting for the tow truck, I crawled under and removed the u-joint from the rear end and the yoke off the end of the second section of driveshaft. The section of driveshaft appeared to be OK, but can't say the same for the yoke.

Lunch turned out to be supper as it around 5 pm by the time the tow truck hauled The Guppy to over by the motel. After we ate we went looking for parts. At Autozone I got the u-joints and the u-bolts that hold the joint to the rearend. But they didn't even have a listing for the yoke. Went to O'Reillys down the street and they didn't have a listing either. Figured we'd have to wait until Monday and try the Ford/RV dealer.

Monday morning while at breakfast at the motel got to talking to another guest. Turned out she was originally from the area and she knew a shop that worked on her horse trailer. She called and passed the phone to me to talk to the guy. He gave me the name and directions for a place that did truck parts and service. I drove there (two exits back on the Interstate) and they didn't have the part in stock, but they ordered it and had it FedExed overnight. The next day I got a new yoke and that afternoon I put the driveshaft together and back in The Guppy.

The next morning we hit the road again. A couple hundred miles down the road I felt a shudder, but thought maybe it was just a bad spot in the road. A couple miles down the road we had to stop for construction and a guy pulled up alongside on the shoulder and told us we had lost a wheel on the tow dolly. I pulled over on to the shoulder and when I looked the tow dolly was not only missing a wheel, it was also missing the hub for the wheel. (The Guppy has a lot of power, I hardly noticed the extra drag from the missing wheel.) I pulled the car off and dragged the tow dolly around into the ditch as much as possible, basically pivoting on the side with the missing wheel. We only paid $400 for it a couple years ago and couldn't figure out how I could get it fixed there in the middle of Kansas. (I think I'll avoid Kansas in the future). 

From there on we convoyed. The Old Lady drove the car and I drove The Guppy. After we lost the anchor (tow dolly) the gas mileage improved on The Guppy. I haven't run the figures yet, but just doing it in my head it seems to have gone from less than 6 mpg to 8 mpg or better. That more than makes up for the gas used to run the car. The only problem was the car needs a brake job, but that was only a problem when stopping. It makes a horrible grinding noise when braking and when first starting to move. Am in the process of buying the parts I need to do the brake job.

Thru the windshield shot in New Mexico.

We finally got here over a week after we left home and are getting settled in the RV park. We were shooting for getting here on the first and got here on the fourth. We spent four nights in the motel, so if we hadn't broke down we would have got here as planned.

I Found It

It took some digging but I found the tow dolly last weekend. I had parked it behind "The Guppy" so I could find it easy without having to use a metal detector!! In a couple days I'll be hooking it up behind "The Guppy" and putting the car on it. We are about to head South in search of Spring. I have mixed feelings about this. If we weren't about to run out of firewood, I'd just as soon stay here. But we are down to the last of the firewood, so heading for a warmer climate might be a good idea., It snowed too much when we got back last Nov to cut any more firewood, so all we had was what I had cut and split before when went off to play campground hosts.

Besides next month I'll be able to do some stream fishing for trout, while those UP on the Tundra will still icefishing. I wonder if there will still be ice in the bay next June like there was last June??

Tow Dolly

Yesterday we drove almost 400 miles round trip to buy a tow dolly so we can pull the car behind "The Guppy."

We only paid $400 for it so the drive was worth it. We have been pricing tow dollies since we got the motorhome and most used ones are selling for about twice what we paid for this one. New ones are close to fifteen hundred and up. There's a couple of minor things I need to do to it to get it ready for travel. Noticed on the way home that the ramps were bouncing up and down a bit. Checked it out after I got home and the bolts that hold the ramps on are loose and may be worn. I will check them out and probably replace them. Also noticed a couple of cracks, but I can get a friend to weld them for me. The metal is too thick for my little welder to be able to get good penetration.

I just checked with the Secretary of State's (Michigan's version of the DMV) office and I don't have to get a license plate for the tow dolly. (Wait until the current FuckingRepublican Governor leaves the state broke again, they'll be licensing everything to get money to get the state out of debt like happened the last time. You used to be able to get a trailer plate for 6 months or a year. Now the only choice is a permanent plate for $75.)

On the way to get the tow dolly we stopped for lunch. We had crossed over into Central Time and it was close to when fast food does the switch from breakfast to lunch and The Old Lady decided she wanted a sit down restaurant. It's a good thing we aren't secret shoppers because that place would have gotten a very shitty review. (Sometimes I wish we were secret shoppers and/or reviewers) When the waitress brought out our orders, she went to the next booth and then finally ours. After I dug into my omelet I discovered it wasn't what I ordered. Instead of having sausage, onions and cheese, it was mostly ham with barely enough cheese to qualify as ham and cheese omelet. (Not only was the omelet wrong, it wasn't even a very good one. It was like fast food eggs wrapped around some ham and cheese and nuked to warm it up). I didn't feel like waiting to get the right omelet, so I ate that one. When the waitress was informed the order was wrong, first she said they gave me the wrong one, then later admitted it was her fault. I was in the bathroom when the waitress brought the check. She never offered to correct the error in any way shape or form. When the order was wrong, she should have deducted the wrong order from the check. The Old Lady didn't leave a tip. The waitress was an older lady, but if she is starting to suffer from Alzheimers, maybe she shouldn't be working there anymore. I may ask The Old Lady to do a thing on Yelp on the restaurant. (She has a way with words!!)

Like I said, sometimes I wish we were secret reviewers because we seem to get a lot of lousy service. We are just ordinary older people and for some reason some seem to think we don't deserve good service like the pretty people and the ones in suits!!

Next time we'll do Burger King. The eggs will be better quality.