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steveh27's avatar
steveh27
Explorer
Apr 25, 2016

Large rodent attack leaves me stranded.

I was boondocking in the woods while turkey hunting last week. When I returned to the motorhome at 4pm Thursday, I showered ate & was watching a movie at 6 pm when I heard a noise in the engine compartment. I almost took my gun as I went out & thumped on the hood. An animal jumped down and ran away to a small brush pile. I had seen him sniffing around on Monday. I opened the hood and saw wires chewed through at the CPM. The started turned, but not the engine. I had AAA (with my RV plus service) come on Friday late morning. They had a hard time getting in to tow me, but finally took me 70 miles to a Dodge dealer in Ann Arbor. The mechanic removed the engine doghouse cover and all the sparkplug wires and almost every other wire were chewed through, even some insulation on the fuel line. I was shocked at how much damage was done. I took a rental car home with some of my stuff. They will start work on Monday. The spark plug wires are easy, but splicing all the others will be difficult if not impossible. Some new CPM plugs may need ordered. He said if they need the entire wire harness it may not be available and would cost $1,000. My comprehensive has a $500 deductible. Money is not the problem. I need to get this baby back in fine running condition, and I'm driving it to PA on Saturday to turkey hunt there the following Monday. What a bummer of an end to my Michigan hunt. I'm not sure what the creature was. It had a grey body with a bushy striped tail which seemed much shorter than a raccoons. It was very fast, not an opossum, but about that size. I thought maybe badger, but no.

34 Replies

  • I would immediately switch to Butterball turkey. Wild is just too damned expensive.
  • Although they don't move very quickly (they don't have to!) porcupines can do the kind of damage you describe. They are addicted to salt in any form - road salt will do just fine, thank you very much...
  • IDK, but sounds like a bit of mother nature payback, directed at a hunter.:B

    Yes, those critters can do a lot of damage, in a short time! Even something as small a mouse will chew through many a wire.

    Hope you get it all back to normal!

    Jerry

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