"please help us overcome a shitstorm of bad luck"
Ben and I are full-time RVers who love to share the joy of travel with everyone we meet, inspiring them to get out there and discover all the cool stuff that's right in their own back yards (the pic is from a stop in Racine Wisconsin on our very first road trip together). We've been parked in Los Angeles for a few years while we plan and execute our wedding (which we did in May!) Now that we're all married up and legal, all we want to do is get our rig back east (where I've got organizing clients and a gig designing a line of RV-specific cabinet/closet organizers for Airstream, and Ben has a prop-building job waiting for him at a local theater) -- but that has turned out to be WAAAAAAY flipping harder than we ever expected.
Seriously -- our attempts to get out of Los Angeles became a comedy of errors that eventually stopped being funny and made us think that maybe we were cursed. you know that old saying "we make plans and god laughs"? well in our case it's "we make plans and god craps all over your head"!
To summarize -- we tried, we failed, and we are now conceding defeat.
Ben and I have been plagued with stress and frustration and car/Airstream repairs, have had our bank account drained dry just trying to get things working again, have had our move delayed for a full month (during which we've essentially been homeless) -- and have finally decided to give up have our rig shipped east rather than continue dealing with more possible breakdowns on the road. I've been a full-time RVer for 11 years, and I have NEVER experienced such a run of problems with either our rig or our tow vehicle. Here's our timeline of disaster to date:
JUNE 22ND
two weekends before we're due to head out, we're returning from a visit to Ventura -- our car dies on us while we're driving (fortunately, it does so at the top of our freeway exit, so we're able to coast down the ramp and then get towed back to our rig) -- since it's Saturday afternoon with no shops open, we can't get towed to the mechanic until Monday
turns out our pcm (computer brain of the car) has died -- we recently had that replaced, so I presume it's still under warranty" -- but it's now 2-years-and-6-months past the 2-year warranty expiration date (yay!)
at the same time, we also find out that we need to buy 4 new tires because the mileage warranties on our existing ones are all expired as well (fun!)
and we still need to take the rig into Airstream for its "hitting the road" checkup, so there's no way we'll leaving July 1st as planned -- so we drop off the car, get a rental, and shift our itinerary to head out July 8th instead
***trying to see the bright side -- at least this happened before we left town rather than in the middle of nowhere along route 66, we broke down in the most convenient place possible (instead of ending up stranded on the side of the road halfway to Ventura), CoachNet covered the tow home and the tow to the shop, this gives us an extra week to see friends one last time and complete some creative projects we were trying to finish before hitting the road, and I've built enough padding into our travel agenda that we can easily lose a week without it hurting
JUNE 28th
literally the DAY we get the car back, we hear this weird rumbling noise at 20-30 mph as we decelerate -- we take it to the shop and discover that the transmission on our 175,000 mile vehicle has finally worn out (perfect timing!) -- fortunately, the repair is covered by our extended warranty -- the mechanic says he'll spend the weekend hunting up replacement transmission options, then it will take a day to do the actual work -- so if we get the car to him Monday or Tuesday we should be good to leave on the 8th
in the meantime, we still need to take our rig in -- the mechanic says we're fine towing that relatively short distance with our existing transmission -- our plan is to hit Airstream Monday AM, then drop the car at the shop, and have everything ready to roll by end of the week
***trying to see the bright side -- at least this happened before we left town rather than in the middle of nowhere along route 66, the repair is covered by the warranty, and our friend Trisha has offered us a place to stay while the rig is in the shop so we don't have to shell out money for a hotel
JULY 1ST
we pack the house and get ready to go, but the hitch jack ain't lifting -- the CoachNet troubleshooting mechanic helps us chase down a 30-year-old electrical wire on our 1989 Excella that snapped -- Benjamin drives across town, buys some supplies, comes back, and splices it back together -- but by then Airstream's service department has closed for the day (and of course, we can't do anything with the car until we get the rig towed to Airstream)
***trying to see the bright side -- at least this happened before we left town rather than in the middle of nowhere along route 66, it could have been something a lot more serious, and Ben was able to fix it fairly easily
JULY 2ND
when we try to hitch up again, we discover that our inflator-thingy is dead, so we make a trek to auto zone for a replacement -- we barely get one tire to the right psi before THAT inflator-thingy dies, so we go BACK to return it -- this time we get a heavier-duty inflator-thingy, which successfully fills every remaining tire (this has now eaten up half our day when it should have taken maybe an hour)
we hook up and head toward Airstream -- about 10 miles down the road, all of a sudden it feels like the rig doesn't want to go forward anymore -- we pull off on the shoulder and call CoachNet -- we're not sure if it's the transmission that needs replaced or if the trailer brakes have locked up or both, so they make plans to send one tow for the car and another for the rig -- we then sit on the side of the road in the blazing heat for 4 hours while they find the right vendor to dispatch, that tow truck goes to the wrong spot (thinking we're on the truck bypass rather than the regular freeway), and they try to figure out what the actual problem is
turns out, another wire was shorting out and causing the trailer brakes to lock up -- they have to cut the line to the brakes to tow it -- by the time they finally get things moving, I have a tremendous sun headache and it's also too late to drop the car at the shop for transmission repair that day
***trying to see the bright side -- at least this happened before we left town rather than in the middle of nowhere along route 66, CoachNet towed our rig all the way to Airstream and dropped it off without our having to follow them over, and we'd already arranged to stay with Trisha so I had someplace to go recuperate from my headache at the end of the day
JULY 3RD
we find out that our mechanic isn't going to be able to get the replacement transmission until and Airstream isn't going to be able to start work on our rig until Monday because of the long holiday weekend -- so we rent a car for the week and shift our leave date to July 9th
***trying to see the bright side -- now we can attend our friend's annual 4th of July party which we were going to be sad to miss, and I've built enough padding into our travel agenda that we can easily lose another day without it hurting
JULY 8TH
again, literally the DAY we get the car back, we hear that weird rumbling noise again -- we return to the shop and the mechanic discovers that as unlikely as it might seem, transmission #2 is just as faulty as the old #1 -- the warranty parts vendor says that it's going to take a full week to get the second replacement transmission -- so we renew our car rental, change our leave date to July 17th, and let Airstream know they have a bit more time to get the list of fixes on our rig done
***trying to see the bright side -- at least this happened before we left town rather than in the middle of nowhere along route 66, repair is covered by the warranty, yet another extended chance to see friends and get more work done, a Phoenix friend has to be out of town during our intended visit (and it's frigging 116 degrees there) so we can easily nix that part of our trip, I've built enough padding into our travel agenda that we can lose another couple days without it hurting, and Trisha says it's no problem for us to stay with her a week longer
JULY 17TH
we get the car back and everything is fine -- then as we're headed out to retrieve our rig from Airstream, transmission #3 starts acting up in the SAME EXACT DAMNED WAY as transmissions #1 and #2 -- we make a bee-line for our mechanic, who has done some checking and found out that there's some sort of inherent flaw in this make/model car's transmission -- he contacts the warranty company, insisting that they stop throwing defective transmissions at us and approve him rebuilding the fucking thing so we know we have a good working piece of machinery -- he says they should be done by Friday, so we rent another car and change our launch date to July 20th
even more fun! -- we find out the warranty is only paying the original replacement cost (half the final bill) leaving us to cover the rest -- (I muchly plan to fight this as well as report them to every possible regulatory agency once all is done)
***trying to see the bright side -- at least this happened before we left town rather than in the middle of nowhere along route 66, I'm too emotionally/physically drained to see friends at this point but we can still get more work done while we're stuck here, I'm skilled at compressing our itinerary so we can lose a bit more without it hurting, and Trisha says it's no problem for us to stay with her longer
JULY 19TH
we get a call from the mechanic that they're waiting on a valve being shipped from dodge that won't get here until Monday -- so we extend our rental and change our leave date to July 23rd
***trying to see the bright side -- same old same old
JULY 22ND
we get a call from the mechanic that valve isn't going to arrive from dodge until 4:30, so they'll finish the transmission on Tuesday -- we extend our rental and change our leave date to July 24th
***trying to see the bright side -- yadda yadda yadda
JULY 24TH
we've got the car back and this time no rumble -- but when we arrive at Airstream, we discover that after leaving our rig there for literally 3 weeks while we dealt with car repairs and even though they charged us for the work, they've not done one of the most crucial items on our list (installing the bracket for our second sway bar) -- we wait an hour and a half for that to get done.
THEN, we go to hitch up, and the damn hitch jack isn't working -- in addition to the fact that Benjamin specifically TOLD them we'd just had a problem with that, wouldn't you think that making sure the hitch jack is functional would be part of that basic "get ya road ready" service??????
THEN they tell us the problem is just that our marine batteries aren't charging right -- again, wouldn't you think that making sure our batteries are in good shape (or replacing them) would be part of that basic "get ya road ready" service??????
THEN we find out that the reason our marine batteries crapped out is because they never turned off the power switch inside and didn't hook us up to shore power while our rig sat on their lot (seriously??????)
THEN they tell us that they want to give us a new battery -- we say great -- but instead of giving us a battery, they decide to simply charge the existing batteries and send us on our way -- we stop off at a home depot a few miles down the road to adjust our torsion bars, and the fucking hitch jack isn't working AGAIN!!!!!!!
I've managed to keep a fairly good sense of humor and a moderately even temper (for me) thus far, but I finally hit a wall and spend a good 5 minutes bawling snot into Ben's shirt -- it's 99 degrees outside, I keep having to drag my cats in and out of the car, I'm NOT happy, and we're STILL not fucking going anywhere -- I call the service manager to complain while Ben takes the rig back to Airstream -- we then head back to Trisha's, and when she welcomes us "home," I burst into tears
***trying to see the bright side -- at least this happened before we left town rather than in the middle of nowhere along route 66, the service manager got his folks to drop everything and address our hitch-jack issues, he's also set us up with 2 free marine batteries and arranged to have our rig set out on the road ready and waiting for us to go at 8AM on July 27th, I have a couple of days to rejigger our itinerary and get back into a better headspace before we leave, and Trisha YET AGAIN like the saint that she is says it's no problem for us to stay longer
JULY 27TH
we head out at 7AM to retrieve our rig, only to discover that our lp alarm is going off inside -- I had put our refrigerator on gas when we hit the road, but since Airstream never hooked us up to shore power, it never got changed over to electric -- in the 3 weeks our rig sat there, it blew through all our lp and our tanks were almost empty, which causes a minor slow leak -- fortunately, when the guy called the service manager, he told them to fill our tanks for free to apologize
we FINALLY hook up with no trouble at all, and the thing tows like a DREAM in Los Angeles traffic -- we successfully maneuver a fairly tight gas station (first time in quite a while, so it feels like a big win) and do well all the way up the 15 to the Angeles National forest just before Hesperia -- then our engine starts to overheat -- we turn off the air and pull off on the shoulder of the freeway to let it cool
it doesn't seem to be cooling at all, so we call CoachNet for a tow -- Ben rolls the windows down a smidge for the cats, and with trucks whizzing by, I hike a ways up the road to find the mile-marker number -- as I'm walking back to the car, I see one of my cats on the side of the road between the car and a big hill going down into nothingness -- aside from wondering how the fuck she got out of the car in the first place, all I could picture was her getting freaked out and dashing out into traffic on the 15 and getting splattered (fortunately, it was the bumbly "what is this danger thing of which you speak?" feline, rather than her fraidy-cat-bolt-for-the-hills sister -- she just meowed hello, blundered right over to me, and let me snatch her up) -- turns out the back window had somehow gotten rolled all the way down and she jumped out -- that's the straw that breaks the camel's back
and before you RVing know-it-alls chastise me for having the temerity to try and drag our home around with a CAR when everyone knows you need a truck, the lovely folks at Can-Am RV Centre are the ones who convinced me that a 29-foot Excella is an easy haul with a hemi engine and the right tow package -- in fact, Ben and I did a test drive of the exact same size rig with pretty much the same style car, and it worked wonderfully on city streets and rural slopes in cooler temperatures (if we were driving on flat land or it was the middle of winter the entire way, I might trust that we would make it back east just fine) -- however, it seems that the two situations this car does not like are heat and hills
***trying to see the bright side -- at least this happened before we left town rather than in the middle of nowhere along route 66 (that's all I got this time around)
JULY 31ST
we realize that there is literally no way to get out of California without climbing a muthafuckin' MOUNTAINS or passing through a goddamn DESERT!!!!! -- we accept the fact that if this car is going to be taxed by an uphill grade or temperatures over 100 degrees, then we are screwed (and even if the engine doesn't overheat, we're now paranoid about running the air while towing on any sort of incline at all, as well as paranoid about rolling the windows down with the cats in the car, which doesn't mesh well with ye olde summer road trip plans) -- so we officially SCRAP this RV trip -- we find a company that can ship our Airstream back east and install it at the park where we're spending the fall, and make plans to go in the car, staying with friends and in hotels or air-bnbs along the way -- we're tired of beating my head against a wall for something that clearly is not meant to be, and so we're just NOT anymore
***trying to see the bright side -- we can finally stop screwing around with trying to make this work and move on to plan "b", which will involve a much less complicated travel itinerary
AUGUST 4TH
our Airstream is headed east (thanks the fabulous wonderful long-hauling Rocky and Jeanette), but I can not say the same for us -- on what we're now labeling "failure to launch #5" Benjamin and I head out, full of totally undeserved optimism -- we stop in Hesperia to get gas where we suddenly find our car shaking weirdly while idling, the check engine light comes on, and we get a code of "cylinder misfiring" -- fortunately, we're 11 minutes away from the Victorville AAMCO (rather than somewhere in the desert no-man's land between LA and Vegas) -- the initial tentative diagnosis is relatively minor (it's looking like "faulty fuel injector" after an injection code popped up to go with the cylinder misfire) -- however (and no surprise here) the Victorville shop is slammed with repairs, and can't even get us in until THURSDAY!!! -- so we head BACK to our regular Burbank repair guy, who says he can replace the injector in one day -- chalk up another delay, another blow to our travel confidence, and another cha-ching to the wallet (and I'm holding out exactly ZERO hope that this is just a simple one-day repair -- considering our STELLAR luck over the past month, I personally think it's going to end up being something FAR more complicated and expensive)
***trying to see the bright side -- at least this happened before we left town rather than in the middle of nowhere along route 66, and at least it's not a diagnosis of "you need to rebuild the engine" (as I feared when I was reading online that this could be a sign of a failing head gasket)
AUGUST 6TH
a SQUIDGE of good news -- the shop says it was not the fuel injector, nor do we need to replace the entire engine -- it was the wiring -- apparently, there is a nest of engine wires that was constricted and causing intermittent power problems to the fuel injectors -- they adjusted that "harness" and now, not one misfire (it also helped with the downshifting "thunk" in our transmission) -- they also cleaned out the injectors, did the leak-down test, and proclaimed our engine good -- when pressed, our mechanic refuses to ever say anything is 100%, but he's 95% sure our problems are at an end -- woot? (that's a tentative bit of optimism from a woman who's been through just too much shit this past month!)
but then later that day, everything falls apart again -- Benjamin does as the mechanic asked, and drives the car around all afternoon after picking it up (a good 75 or so miles) and everything is working perfectly, not a shake, not a shudder -- then he came to pick me up for a TINY celebratory date night -- and the MINUTE we are pulling out, the goddamned car starts shaking again, and the cylinder misfire error code comes on!
seriously, is it me? Ben always jokes about how I have a level of electromagnetism going on that shorts out gadgets and screws up the computer and would probably kill any watch I wore (if I wore a watch) -- he could prolly be in Atlanta by now with no car trouble at all if it weren't for me -- so we're right back at square 1, and he'll be taking the car back in again tomorrow -- for launch attempt #6 -- arggggggggghhhhhhhh!
***trying to see the bright side -- at least this happened before we left town rather than in the middle of nowhere along route 66 (again, that's all I got and I barely even care about that anymore)
AUGUST 9TH
so you remember that very first car problem Benjamin and I had WAAAAAAY back in late June, at the beginning of this whole "trying to get out of town" saga? (when we were driving back from Ventura and the car died at our freeway exit and we coasted down the ramp and then had to get towed to the shop to have the PCM replaced?) it turns out that the replacement PCM we were given was defective and THAT is what's causing our fuel injector problem (not the wiring harness)
so the good news is, it's under warranty -- the bad news is, the mechanic can not get one from dodge until SEPTEMBER 21st!!!! apparently every dodge car in the universe is having PCM problems, and the manufacture of these things is literally on backorder for more than a month -- there is not a dealer or a small mechanic or anyone in-between who will have access to a PCM until late September -- we, of course, can not stay in LA (especially not on our friends' couch) until late September -- road trip aside, we have commitments in Atlanta, Ben has a job awaiting him, and we need to get the fuck to the other coast
so here are the options as we see it:
1) have the car (and all the crap that's in it that we were taking with us) shipped east, then find a GA shop to do the repair once PCMs become available again in September -- the current quotes we're getting for shipping are around $1,000 (almost exactly the cost of the PCM that is under warranty and awaiting replacement)
this then also requires us to get a rental car and drive east (about $800 + gas) so we can still try to see at least a couple of our peeps along the way -- or toss the whole trip in the trash, get a plane ticket, and fly back east (about $500) -- and of course, we'll need a rental in Atlanta until the repair is done (around $700 for a month's rental if we drive, closer to $1,000 if we head to Atlanta earlier than expected and need to keep it 6 weeks) -- at that point we could see if the car seems to be running well enough to last us for the short time we need it, or sell the car
2) rent a vehicle that can tow the car (like a truck or SUV dragging a trailer behind it) and drive across the country -- this increases our complication/stress level (versus just driving the car), and to do any sort of actual roadtrip where we see people along the way will cost us at least $2,000 + an RV-towing-level of gas -- or the other more affordable option is to drive straight through in 4-5 days (which sounds fucking miserable to me and is still going to cost at least $1,000 + gas) -- as I type this, I know I don't want to do this, so pretty much cross this off the list
3) sell the car in CA without getting the PCM replaced (which seems like an instant $1,000 knock off the value) -- also, selling a car to an individual buyer is a slow process for which we do not have time right now, so I'm presuming we'd trade-in value on it -- and unless they give us a TON of cred for the recent repairs/replacements, at most without the PCM fixed (according to kelly blue book) we would get enough to pay off the remainder of the car loan with maybe a squidge leftover -- if we wait and sell it in GA, we'll get more, but it will also cost us a bit to ship it there, so I'm not sure how much ahead we'll be on the bottom line
of course if we decide to sell the car either way, we'll need to replace it -- we could look into doing that here in CA at someplace like a carmax that gives us a nationwide warranty -- the question is whether we want to say "fuck towing our rig," plan on staying in one place until we can sell the Airstream or renting a tow vehicle only if/when we decide to switch locations on the east coast, and get the least expensive thing possible with relatively few miles (which currently looks like something between a 2012 Nissan for around $6,000 and a 2012 Mitsubishi for $7,600, each with with 54,000 miles) -- or if we want to get something that CAN actually tow the rig (which is probably going to mean a truck, and which will cost about twice as much, and will annoy me to no end as I don't want to own a truck)
I'm currently leaning toward "cut our losses, sell the car in CA, and get something reliable" -- the question becomes do we buy something out here and drive it back, in an attempt to salvage the tiniest smidge of our trip, or just let all of it go, fly back, and start fresh with a decent car in Atlanta -- but as you can see, ALL of these options suck, we're just trying to land on the least sucky (and we're certainly open to ideas we haven't considered in this list, if you have other thoughts)
***trying to see the bright side -- at this whole saga is now OVER, even though our trip is completely fucked and we're looking at probably TWICE the expense we were initially planning on being hit with, if not more
WHERE WE STAND RIGHT NOW:
- our trip east has been delayed by more than a MONTH-AND-A-HALF, I've reconfigured our itinerary five different times, and now it's all swirling straight down the drain -- our world ain't gonna end, but it's still incredibly frustrating (a lot of wasted effort rejiggering things over and over, a lot of missed opportunities, unable to see friends than we were hoping to visit, not at ALL the way I was intending this trip go)
- we've been displaced and homeless throughout this ordeal, because our Airstream has been sitting at the shop since the beginning of July -- currently taking over some friends' living room and sleeping on their sofa bed
- we've headed out six different times thinking we were finally on our way, only to be thwarted by another complication -- the hardest part is having your optimism dashed to pieces, second hardest is the wasted time (sitting at a repair shop all day or stuck on the side of the road for 4 hours awaiting a tow) -- next comes the knowledge that there will be a big price tag attached to this bit of fun -- and finally, realizing how much more work and complication and stress another snafu is going to create
- I have actually developed some weird automotive PTSD with all of this -- seriously, just the thought of trying to hit the road again makes my heart pound -- and then the minute I get in the car, I become nauseous, so sick to my stomach that I can't eat and it's all I can do to not hurl all over the cat sitting in my lap -- this is not a good way for a full-time RVer to be
- I've come to realize in a way I never had before that full-timing is a much simpler existence than the brick-and-mortar life, right up until the point where it gets complicated (like when you're stuck on the side of the road or your home is in the shop) and then is WAAAAAAY more complicated -- there have been a couple of moments when it felt like all this was going to break me -- in fact, it ranks right up there amongst the six hardest times of my life (which included my mother dying, almost-not-graduating from my masters program because of an administrative error, and my marriage falling apart) -- and it's just as hard on Ben
- I know I should consider this a transitory spot in the beautiful, adventurous terrain of mountains and valleys that I call my life -- but I have never felt so kicked-while-down (and so ready to never own a car again and rely entirely on public transportation or my own two feet) as I do right now -- gotDAMN but taking off backpacking around the world is looking SO attractive to both of us at the moment!
The reason for this GoFundMe is that we've been dealing with an insane amount of repair and rental car and "household displacement" expense (over $5,000 to date), another chunk of expense shipping this rig east ($2,100 plus gas), plus figuring out whether to get a different car or try to ship ours back east for repair and how to get ourselves and our stuff back east well (which will have us a minimum $3,000 out of pocket) -- which is stressing us to our limit. Whatever we end up doing, we've come to realize that we can't do it without a little help.
When a few different friends have asked how they can assist and I've joked "rig it so we win the lottery," people have been sending us belated and "extra" wedding gifts to get us through this challenging time -- we've discovered that EVERY tiny little bit helps. They've also encouraged us to create an easy way for others to do the same. And as much as it PAINS me (especially as an independent woman and entrepreneur) to grovel for cash, I am prepared to swallow my pride in service of practicing what I preach with my organizing/coaching clients -- about recognizing your limits, allowing loved ones an opportunity to feel good about being of service, and encouraging others who are struggling to see that it's okay to ask for help.
So we're hoping a few kind souls out there (those who've been following our adventures over the years, who appreciate and want to support the full-time-RVing lifestyle, or who just feel like paying a little bit of their good fortune forward to a couple that's feeling pretty damned cursed at the the moment) might take pity on us after this ordeal and help us out. Please feel free to share this with anyone and everyone you think might be interested -- and THANK YOU in advance for any little bit you can contribute!
(Oh, and if you need to reach one of us, holler at [email redacted] or [email redacted] -- thanks again!)
