The next morning we started up the RV, pulled in the slides and headed down the road. Well we only got 3 miles out of town and the engine died AGAIN! Sigh. I somehow limped over to the side of the road. I got it started again so we decided it would be best to just to go back the three miles to the RV park and stay until we could have a tech check out the RV.
Here’s where it got interesting… As we started a u-turn to head back to Iraan the RV died again straddled across both lanes of the road. Fortunately this road was lightly traveled but still a few cars had to wait until I could start it again several times to inch our way back off the road.
The only solution now was to be towed to a service center. We contacted Good Sams Roadside Service and after about a four hour wait we had a tow truck hooking up the RV for the long haul (about 92 miles) to the Odessa Texas Cummins Service Center. Having your RV towed as a full timer is a very disheartening thing to have to do.
While waiting for the tow truck I found an Air BnB in nearby Midland which we booked for two nights assuming nothing would get done the day of our RV towing to Cummins since it would arrive near closing time. After watching the RV arrive and plugged in for power to the fridge we headed to Midland to spend a few nights hoping for the best.
The next morning we were informed that the lift pump had failed which was one of the cheaper options. That made us happy. What made us sad was they had to try and find the part since they didn’t have one in stock. A few hours passed and we were told they located a new fuel lift pump and hoped it would arrive the next day. Sigh…
Well the fuel pump did get to Cummins and they were able to assure us that they would have it installed by closing time so we checked out of our Air BnB. While we were waiting for word of the part’s arrival we made backup plans to spend a night in a hotel should it not be finished in time for us to make our way down the road to a suitable RV park.
We found a disc golf course in Odessa to play a round of disc golf while we waited. Happily Cummins called to say the part arrived and they were working on our RV. After our round of disc golf we started looking for nearby RV parks to stay at for when the RV was ready. We picked several parks at varying distances away.
They were able to get the repairs done by 5 PM, their closing time. With little daylight left we drove about 90 miles down the road and stayed at Water Valley town park in Water Valley Texas. It was a nice little park and we were the only one in it. When morning arrived we hoped our problems were behind us and luckily they were as we made it a few hundred miles further down the road into Fredericksburg Texas.
Whew, what an ordeal but such is life On the Road of Retirement…
We hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays this year!
NOTE: We are currently in TX for the holidays…
A round of applause for the Cummins service center for tracking down your part (no easy task sometimes these days due to supply chain issues) and for getting you back on the road as quickly as they did. Happy to hear that all is well now. All IS well now, right? There's no Part 3 on this one, is there?
ReplyDeleteI feel your pain as we have been stranded roadside several times and towed once. At least it was a simple and quick fix.
ReplyDeleteGlad Cummings was able to fix it up quickly and cheaply. On our recent misadventure we were thankful it wasn't any worse and we could soon continue on.
ReplyDeleteAlways good news when it is the "cheap" repair. Stay safe and healthy!!
ReplyDeleteFor sure not pleasant, but it could have been a really worse experience. Good to have the Cummins shop diagnose and fix the issue fairly quickly.
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