Tioga Won't Budge after long neglect. Help, please.

[211Racing]

Wife did something sweet but silly to help out a friend. Bought her 2002 Tioga 24d. Base is a Ford e350 Super Duty van. Apparently it has not been started or moved in over a year. (I'll post about my starting questions in another post.) Here I'd like to know why it won't budge. It will run for a few brief seconds on starting fluid, when I get it into neutral. Today I did put a tow strap between the RV and my 4Runner to try to move the RV a little before the tow truck comes tomorrow. Pulled gently until the T4R wheels spun. RV was unmoved. What am I looking at? The parking brake did not seem to be engaged, but was very stiff until I worked the pedal and then the release several dozen times. Do the brakes rust/freeze-shut on these things? Do I need to get it running somehow (fuel directly into fuel rail) to bring it to life? Would really like to have a game plan before the tow shows up. Thank you in advance for sharing your knowledge.

[211Racing]

I drained the tank (fortunately the RV upgrade tank had a drain plug at the bottom) last week. Just dropped the tank to the ground today. Easy Peazy if you've got a pneumatic impact wrench (finally broke down and bought one this morning), and a bunch of jacks to lower it. Two of the three fuel fittings on the fuel pump are fighting me now. Extraordinarily difficult to get two hands in there at the same time. Sprayed penetrant on those and the bolts securing the fuel pump and will let that work until tomorrow. Everything I read said I would find two fittings coming out of the fuel pump. Of course there are three. Reminder never to order/buy anything until you've got the old part off and in your hands.

[olfarmer]

Glad to hear that you finally got the tow! Have you been able to get it going yet? Thanks for keeping us posted on your results!

[211Racing]

AAA did finally go outside their contracted tow services and send a "Medium" size truck (Huge vehicle). Lifted the front wheels. Disconnected the drive train. Towed it 23 miles without incident. Final cost: $850 of which AAA paid the first $500.

[olfarmer]

It shouldn't be that hard to tow a 24' class C. I have had our 31" class A towed twice. They had a medium sized truck that could lift the front wheels off the ground. They did disconnect the drive shaft which would also disconnect the park brake if it is behind the transmission. The first time they towed us 70 miles, the second was probably about 20. I don't know what the first tow cost as my towing insurance paid for it, the second was around $350 if I remember right. I did get reimbursed for that after I got home. We had Good Sam towing insurance. Good luck and let us know how you come out!

[Bobbo]

The first post in this thread tells you how to post photos easily.

How to post pictures.

[211Racing]

Found the Problem!
Jacked up the wheels one at a time. First three were reluctant to move, but after a few rotations all spun easily. Did the left front last. Very little movement initially. I worked it back and forth until I heard something break free. Looked, and found the friction pad had snapped off the rest of the brake pad and was stuck to the rotor. I'd post images but I haven't figured out yet how to do that on here. Fascinating that the adhesive between the friction pad and the rest of the brake pad gave way before the rust-adhesion to the rotor. Definitely the first time I've seen that.

[time2roll]

Consider a mobile mechanic that will do chassis work.

[BFL13]

211Racing wrote:
Question(s) for all: Towing. 1. Does any part of the drive train need to be disconnected to tow this with two wheels on the road? Four wheels? Why would I ask? The fine folks at AAA have been unable to connect me with a tow service that is capable/willing to move this 24' vehicle. (Save one, that wanted $1000 for the 23 mile trip.) Which leads us to question 2. Am I limited to semi-truck heavy-haul tow trucks to get this tow done? Pardon the rookie questions, but at 24' and 11,000 lbs a mega-tow-truck hardly seems warranted.

Both RVs in sig had to be towed in last few years. Class C and then the truck with camper on it. They used a "medium duty" like here -scroll down-

https://www.totemtowing.com/our-fleet/

With the truck and camper, Good Sam asked if the camper was on it because they thought it would be too high on a flat bed to go under wires and bridges. Be too high with a Class C too maybe.

The tow truck has big bar things on each side out back to clamp the front wheels and lift them off the ground. They took the pins out of the drive shaft at the back underneath. (Makes sure the driver doesn't leave afterwards with those pins still in his pocket! 🙂 )

Had to pay extra per GS rules for going farther than the nearest garage, but it sure wasn't $1,000.

Watch they don't lift the front so high the back of the RV will be too close to the ground, depending on the terrain en route.

[Gdetrailer]

211Racing wrote:
Question(s) for all: Towing. 1. Does any part of the drive train need to be disconnected to tow this with two wheels on the road? Four wheels? Why would I ask? The fine folks at AAA have been unable to connect me with a tow service that is capable/willing to move this 24' vehicle. (Save one, that wanted $1000 for the 23 mile trip.) Which leads us to question 2. Am I limited to semi-truck heavy-haul tow trucks to get this tow done? Pardon the rookie questions, but at 24' and 11,000 lbs a mega-tow-truck hardly seems warranted.

Generally, not a bad idea to disconnect drive shafts on most automatic transmission vehicles unless specifically stated in the owners manual that it is OK to tow long distance at speed.. Dropping the drive shaft on most rear wheel drives is not all that complicated.. However being you have a 1 ton van chassis which has the potential for being stretched in length may be complicated a bit with a carrier bearing.

Most smaller tow trucks and flat beds are designed for smaller and lighter loads and may not have enough lift, engine, brake capacity to safely tow the combined weight of the wrecker plus your Tioga.. Wreckers and flatbeds are heavy when outfitted for duty. Matter of fact, once you do get this beast running you will find that the engine you have is going to be pretty much maxed out to haul it's self around when loaded for camping..

[211Racing]

so

time2roll wrote:
Did the truck get it to the shop?

Unfortunately, no. Dude rolled up with a 20' flatbed. Took pictures. Called his boss. Said "Sorry man, boss said no." and turned around and left.

[211Racing]

Question(s) for all: Towing. 1. Does any part of the drive train need to be disconnected to tow this with two wheels on the road? Four wheels? Why would I ask? The fine folks at AAA have been unable to connect me with a tow service that is capable/willing to move this 24' vehicle. (Save one, that wanted $1000 for the 23 mile trip.) Which leads us to question 2. Am I limited to semi-truck heavy-haul tow trucks to get this tow done? Pardon the rookie questions, but at 24' and 11,000 lbs a mega-tow-truck hardly seems warranted.

[time2roll]

Did the truck get it to the shop?

[211Racing]

There is zero -0- fuel pressure in the fuel rail. I'd be delighted if it was old gas, but I think its worse than that. I have no history of the vehicle before 2018. From 2018-2021 it was used to attend music festivals. No shore trips reported. Caliper pins ... I'll try to give those a closer look. I crawled underneath today and did see rust on the rotors. Gave them a good spray of CLP (works on rusted firearms). Will clean those rotors once the wheels move freely and the pads give them a little polish. I intend to jack it up tomorrow and try to move individual wheels so as to narrow my focus.

[John_Joey]

If you’re in hill county, how many times has the rig seen the Gulf?

Guessing your caliper pins are frozen. Probably old gas is the other problem.

[Grit_dog]

Was the parking brake set initially? It’s virtually impossible for brakes to “freeze stuck” otherwise, unless they were already had a sticking caliper or wheel cylinder or parking brake was set, when parked.
Starting? Ford V10s are fairly bulletproof. Does the fuel pump prime with key on?
And how long is “over a year?” That’s a pretty broad description. Running when parked, a year or year plus should still result in it starting.
If “over a year” means 5 years, different story.
Hope your friend appreciates your generosity. And hope you only paid for a non running rv.