What was your best DIY road side repair?

[MagillaGorilla]

Here is mine.

While traveling at night my alternator belt blew. I was able to get off the highway and into a parking lot. I don't have a toad and there was nothing around me that I could walk to.

I keep a battery charger in my MH. So I hooked it up to my chassis battery, ran a cord through the "dog house" on my gasser, fired up the gen set and plugged the charger in. Not only was I able to get all the way to my destination that night, I was able to drive the MH to a shop the next day and had all new belts put on it.

I have a few more stories but that is the best of my road side repairs.

[xctraveler]

Spitfire story reminded me of a TR-4A story. It was a snowy day (in Rochester NY that was just normal) and I was driving in 8 to 12 inches of snow on a back road. The gen light came on and the lights went dim. When I looked under the hood, I could see a wire hanging down beneath the generator (this was a while ago - I had a generator, not an alternator) figured the wire had come off the bare spade lug I could see on the bottom of the generator. Ended up replacing it two or three more times before I got home. The snow kept knocking it off. In the comfort of my garage I got underneath and drove a screw through the connector so it couldn't be pulled off so easily.

I hated everything to do with the Lucas electrics on that car. In the rain the spark plug leads would get wet and the current would leak to ground.

[RLS7201]

MrWizard wrote:
not if the relay is energized by the weak chassis battery
and may RV's have weak converters that do not charge well, with very low amps
the 40amp or more converters NOW common, did not use to be common

an RV with a Diode isolator is not going to charge the chassis battery period
the jump start function is only momentary
although with a good converter, a jumper cable between house positive and chassis positive, would do the trick

It depends on how the diode isolator(s) is/are configured. Some will charge the chassis battery.

Then there are jumper cables to tie the two battery banks together.



Richard

[Thunder_Mountai]

In 1972, I bought a 1965 Triumph Spitfire from a college professor where I was in grad school. I hadn't had it too long and wife to be and I were riding around on some back country roads outside of Commerce, Texas. All the sudden the lights went dim,the generator light came on and the generator was making some noises. I banged it with a beer bottle which broke. The sound stopped and the generator light went out. Kept the car till 1991 and the light never came on again.

[Ivylog]

Daughter called that their Freightliner FL70 TV had stopped running fortunately at a truck stop. Engine would spin but not start. Decided it was the fuel transfer pump so stole one off a spare 8.3 and drove the 100 miles and put it on. Cranked right up and headed home, but 10 minutes late she called... stopped running before they got out of the truck stop. Went back, scratched my head awhile... went over and slapped the two fuel tanks. The one with the fuel gauge was fairly full and the other was empty. Walked around and found a stiff piece of wire on the ground and crawled under and cleaned the clogged vent hose on full tank which was passing enough fuel to the tank that feeds the engine for it to run briefly. With two tanks, just because the gauge says you have fuel that does not mean the enginee is getting enough of it.

[Farmerjon]

ferndaleflyer wrote:
Hook us old f rts get it done because when we were young there was NO road service----it was DIY or not at all.......

Exactly

[ferndaleflyer]

Hook us old f rts get it done because when we were young there was NO road service----it was DIY or not at all.......

[MagillaGorilla]

RLS7201 wrote:
While in Phoenix traffic I smelled hypoid rear end grease. The next morning, while in the campground, I pulled the RR hub and replaced the hub seal. O'reilly had the seal and the special socket to remove the hub nuts. Had to scrounge up two 5 gallon buckets. One to sit on and one to rotate the hub and rotor on to. The bucket caught all the grease.

Why all the talk about buying a battery charger when the alternator or belt fails on a MH? The Generator/converter will charge the chassis battery when the engine is running. Think about it. When the engine is running the isolator relay is engaged.


Richard

My MH was a 1993 Damon and the gen set did NOT charge any of the batteries. True story. From the day I got it, it never charged the house batteries or the chassis battery. That is the reason I had a 50 amp charger with me. Whenever I ran the gen set I would hook it up to the house batteries and charge them up. Because this was my first ever MH I did not know that this was abnormal. I thought every MH had the same issue of not charging when the gen set ran. Looking back I am not proud to say that I did not know but I am honest when I say it.

[Hook]

In July of this year about 40 miles south of Raton Pass, New Mexico, had a flat on the inside rear dual. Called road service and after about and hour called us back and said it would be about 6 to 7 hours to get to us.:M Well here we were on the side of the interstate,
104 degrees F. I told the wife to her dismay that I'am changing it myself. Broke out the jacks, breaker and spinner bars, spare tire and after 30 minutes was done. This 74 year old man can still get-er-done.

Hook

[Jagtech]

My previous MH blew a radiator hose in the middle of nowhere, Alberta. Managed to duct tape it up, went to a nearby creek for water, and managed to drive it all the way home without the rad cap (to keep pressure from building up).

[MrWizard]

my first class A, dodge chassis, 413 engine
20yrs ago east of Alberqure New Mexico, in HW rest area
dead electric fuel pump, mounted on frame rail
about 11 miles from the nearest town

took the 50cc two stroke honda express moped off the rear bumper mount,
rode it down the shoulder of the interstate back to town, found a NAPA store
bought a pump, rode the shoulder back to the rest area, installed pump, loaded the moped, and went on my way, btw i waited all night sunday night for a tow truck that didn't show, thats why i did it the next morning (a monday morning)

[acker1]

Driving Hwy 2 in Montana in a very deserted area, my DP engine started derating. We were new to RVing and diesels so wasn't sure what happened. It had overheated. Radiator was empty. Crawled under and bottom hose had blown off. Everything was still there so I reinstalled the hose. Had water in my fresh tank, hooked up a hose and filled the radiator. Next town was a Cummins repair shop. Had him (the owner--no other workers employed there) drain, flush and refill with the correct antifreeze. While this was going on, my wife walked to the nearest gas station/convenience store. It had some slot machines. She won more than enough to pay for the radiator service.
Since then I make sure I always travel with water tank at least half full.

DICK

[Farmerjon]

We pulled into the KOA in Green River.Utah and checked in with our 1969 F250 with a truck camper and when we tried to start the truck to go to our campsite the starter wouldn't work.
It was a stick shift and some boys helped us push start it. We drove it to our site and then walked across an open field to an auto parts store and swapped our bad ( parts rattling inside) starter for a good one and repaired it while in our camp site.
I know it's not a story about a repair on the side of the road.

[slickest1]

I changed an alternator in a Walmart parking lot once but really no big deal.
When we had our fiver we stopped for the night in Chowchilla Ca. and I realized something was terribly wrong with my trailer suspension. I found an auto parts store and bought a new set of spring hangers and bolts etc. and changed them in the campground.

[J-Rooster]

I had a leaky heater hose I was able to find a small rock on the roadside that fit into the hole. I used black electricians tape to wrap around the rock to stop the water leak. That road repair got me into town where I could buy and install a new hose.

[MagillaGorilla]

Not many RV road side fixes