On the road breakdown stories..
I'd be interested in reading your on the road breakdown stories and how you got back on the road. I'll share two. I have been RV-ing on and off since 1987. I guess we have been very lucky to have...
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March 2018, not even 25 miles from home after a 2500 mile trip, pulling out of a tollbooth and headed to an uphill exit ramp, on the 1-2 shift end up with idle power only. Torqued up the ramp off the toll road at idle creep, because getting towed off that in a Class C would have been an expensive experience. Then continued at that pace a mile up the next freeway, remembering there was a Ford dealer not far from the next exit. Crawled there, where they panicked seeing an RV pull-in. Since I had creep power, I was able to maneuver it out of the way while waiting for a tow truck they'd called for me to haul it to my local in-town Ford dealer. This was all transpiring at about 11am. I had to be on a plane at 6pm that night for a work trip, with a stop into the office before, as well as winterize the unit before leaving as it was still very much winter in the northeast. Tow truck finally shows up, gets us to my local dealer about 2pm, they take my wife home to come back with our truck, and the 4 gallons of pink stuff, to unpack and so I can winterize in the dealer lot. I get the arrangements made and start dumping water, and the tech comes out right away to see what he's in for. I was thinking transmission, since it happened right at a shift. Plugs in the scanner. No accelerator pedal signal. This is a DBW throttle. The pedal is a rheostat that has fried itself at only 48k miles. Turns out I could have limped it home via using the cruise control buttons on the steering wheel as a hand throttle. Got the RV winterized, food and clothes unpacked, stopped at home and showered and packed a different bag for the business trip, was able to stop at the office and made my plane.
The next time was October of last year. Second day out, driving down the eastern shore of MD and VA. Headed to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge/Tunnel and points further south. Slowing down for a red light on US 13, feel a skip. Taking off on green, I'm now clearly driving a V9. After a few minutes, a flashing CEL starts. We try to count flashes as sometimes they will morse code you the problem, and internet via phone a diagnosis. No help. Put-put along, as this happened about 50 miles north of the bridge and Virginia Beach. There is an Advance Auto Parts no more than a couple of miles off the end of the bridge, and they'll read codes. I'm suspecting coil and this store even has a few OEM Motorcrafts in stock. Sure enough, the OBDII reader says #8. Have some Advance bucks on my account so even get it at a discount. This is my first time diving into the hell of Mod motor coils and plugs. The cylinder code is via firing order, and #8 is center of the left bank. Yay. The airbox and snorkel had to come out all the way to the throttle body, and the electrical connections to the coils back of #8 removed as well. This was also the first time my wife had ever seen the doghouse off, where upon I was able to point out the proximity of the right bank exhaust manifold and downpipe as to why she complains how hot the passenger footwell gets. Anyway, the R&R working from both the front and back of the motor in the Advance parking lot, including lunch and a bathroom break, took about 45 minutes. Starting up, no more skip! I suspect this coil had been on its way out for sometime, as the first few years I owned this RV from new a couple of times a year it would misfire on deceleration. That went away, but mileage had deteriorated about 0.5-1 mpg. After the coil replacement, there was a bit more seat-of-pants power, and the fuel mileage now is better than ever, getting 9 mpg tanks with the cruise on 70.
The next time was October of last year. Second day out, driving down the eastern shore of MD and VA. Headed to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge/Tunnel and points further south. Slowing down for a red light on US 13, feel a skip. Taking off on green, I'm now clearly driving a V9. After a few minutes, a flashing CEL starts. We try to count flashes as sometimes they will morse code you the problem, and internet via phone a diagnosis. No help. Put-put along, as this happened about 50 miles north of the bridge and Virginia Beach. There is an Advance Auto Parts no more than a couple of miles off the end of the bridge, and they'll read codes. I'm suspecting coil and this store even has a few OEM Motorcrafts in stock. Sure enough, the OBDII reader says #8. Have some Advance bucks on my account so even get it at a discount. This is my first time diving into the hell of Mod motor coils and plugs. The cylinder code is via firing order, and #8 is center of the left bank. Yay. The airbox and snorkel had to come out all the way to the throttle body, and the electrical connections to the coils back of #8 removed as well. This was also the first time my wife had ever seen the doghouse off, where upon I was able to point out the proximity of the right bank exhaust manifold and downpipe as to why she complains how hot the passenger footwell gets. Anyway, the R&R working from both the front and back of the motor in the Advance parking lot, including lunch and a bathroom break, took about 45 minutes. Starting up, no more skip! I suspect this coil had been on its way out for sometime, as the first few years I owned this RV from new a couple of times a year it would misfire on deceleration. That went away, but mileage had deteriorated about 0.5-1 mpg. After the coil replacement, there was a bit more seat-of-pants power, and the fuel mileage now is better than ever, getting 9 mpg tanks with the cruise on 70.
