Car breaks down on a trip. What to do with your camper?

Every case is different.

That said, been there, done that. On the road from home in Virginia to professional conference in Las Vegas to start annual vacation when the oil supply line to the turbo blew out in Russell, Kansas. Discovered the problem when I stopped for lunch in a rest stop, and seeing the front of the TT coated in black diesel oil, I investigate. Of course, this was lunch time on Saturday.

Fortunately I had just purchased the oil for a planned oil change, so I had enough oil on hand to fill up the crankcase. It hadn't dropped enough yet to set off the oil light, but it did take half the oil-change volume. Managed to limp the 2 miles to the nearest campground for the weekend, and it took the rest of the oil-change oil to refill when I got there. Monday morning, I got the truck towed to a dealer in the next town over, and they tracked down the only replacement part west of the Mississippi, and got me back on the road by Wednesday afternoon. (herewith a shout out to the Lewis Chrysler/Jeep/Dodge/RAM/Toyota folks in Hays, Kansas. Thanks, guys, you did good.)

And yes, had the truck died completely, I'd have been buying a new truck from that dealer to continue the trip. But a new oil line is a lot cheaper.

We had problems with our Ford truck/Lance camper in Ohio when we were returning from spending a winter in Texas. We were able to limp to a Ford dealer who were excellent to deal with. Of course this happened on a Sat. am when the shop was closed. The dealership allowed us to stay in the camper in their parking lot and put the truck in the garage. We were provided with electricity and water + they rented a vehicle for us so that we could travel around the area and also store the stuff we kept in the truck. Security came and checked on us regularly and always asked if we needed anything.

It turned out a spark plug had blown through the engine and it took a couple of days before we could continue home to Ontario. A bad situation was made bearable thanks to the kindness of the service mgr. at the dealership.

I was on a trip to Florida from my home in Minnesota, planning on about 6 weeks. When in Kentucky, my 1993 Dodges flywheel (flexplate) broke and left me stranded in the middle of a winter cold snap. I was also pulling a trailer loaded with a car. AAA got me towed to a garage, arriving Saturday evening. The shop owner met us there, and opened the gate for my trailer to go in, but I chose to stay out in the parking lot with the camper. At the time, I didn't know what was wrong with the truck, but the shop owner said they would check it out monday. I thought maybe the crankshaft was broke, so sunday I searched craigslist looking for a truck to buy, or maybe a used Cummins to swap in. I found there are no good deals when you really need one! I also checked out rental cars in case I needed to leave the truck there long term for major repairs or for sale as a repairable. I figured I could drive the car to FLorida, enjoy my vacation in motels, then drive back to Kentucky for the truck when it was fixed. Or See if I could store the camper there long term while I flew home and searched for a truck and came back when I had one. SO I had lots of ideas.
As it turned out, on monday they figured out it was the flex plate, and they had it replaced by tues night. So I was able to load the camper back on it, hook up the trailer and resume my trip. The shop, Markhams in Princeton Ky was awesome, and everybody was so kind to me.



Camping in the lot sunday:


Broken flexplate:


Fixed and ready to go:

I’ve heard many times where the repair shop allowed people to stay in their RV on the property. Some even provided electricity and water.
Probably more likely with a small independent shop vs a dealer.