Car breaks down on a trip. What to do with your camper?
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โApr-23-2020 10:05 PM
What do you do? Find a place to park the camper? Pay to transport the truck and/or camper somewhere? Buy a cheap used pickup truck and take you home? Rent a used pickup to take you home?
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โApr-26-2020 09:38 AM
iwanttoretireearly wrote:
Worst case scenario happens let's say. You live in your truck camper full term or almost full term and you are on a long road trip far from home and your pickup breaks down (and not able to be saved)! You have AAA premier so you can at least get yourself towed 200 miles. Let's say you were not towing anything to keep it simple.
What do you do? Find a place to park the camper? Pay to transport the truck and/or camper somewhere? Buy a cheap used pickup truck and take you home? Rent a used pickup to take you home?
I posted in one of the other multiple threads you started, but you appear to have a healthy budget because you talk about buying a new Cirrus or similar. That's $30-40k and you talk bout a "cheap" used truck at $25-35k iirc.
First, $35k will get you a relatively new, low mile HD truck of your choosing provided it doesn't burn diesel. And there is no single catastrophic failure that will render the vehicle "not able to be saved". Whatever that means. Presume you are alluding to the repair cost not being worth spending on the particular vehicle. Which while subjective, is reserved for older vehicles where a repair costs more than the vehicle is worth.
On the flip side, you'll gain little to no real world value in a new $30-40k camper vs a good used camper that costs 25-50% that much. And campers don't have catastrophic instant failures that render them unusable. Aside from the fridge, water heater or heater in the winter, everything else is relatively easy and or minor to fix.
Again, with your severe paranoia about vehicle breakdowns, spend as much as you need to to negate that fear and spend the rest on a nice used camper.
2017 Heartland Torque T29 - Sold.
Couple of Arctic Fox TCs - Sold
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โApr-26-2020 09:29 AM
2011 Big Country BC 3250TS 33ft 5ver
2005 Fleetwood 26ft 5ver
2005 Sun Lite Truck Camper
Ron - 29 yrs HS Tech Teacher (ret) 24 yrs USN/USNR Chief (ret)
Sheila - 29 yrs HS Home and Careers Teacher (ret)
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โApr-26-2020 03:33 AM
When my suburban needed a sensor I was able to tow to a GM dealer unhitch leave everyone in the TT then waited all day for the repair. Then we were on our way. I think that if you can get to a reliable repair place you could leave it there until repaired. If it takes to long perhaps stay at CG would be my choice if its going to take more than a day.
2015 F250 4x4 6.2L 6 spd 3.73s, CC Short Bed, Pullrite Slide 2700, 648 Wts Solar, 4 T-125s, 2000 Watt Xantrax Inverter, Trimetric 2030 Meter, LED Lights, Hawkings Smart Repeater, Wilson Extreme Cellular Repeater, Beer, Ribs, Smoker
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โApr-25-2020 06:59 PM
For me it's going to be a simple choice. Sell the entire rig or buy a replacement vehicle that will allow me to continue on my journey. This is one of my worries I'm planning ahead to just deal with it as an adventure. Hard for me because I've repaired my own vehicles and campers for 30 years so having to break down and pay someone what I consider an exorbitant price is going to be hard. Just part of life's adventure.
2004 Lance 815 (prev: 2004 FW 35'; 1994 TT 30'; Tents)
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โApr-24-2020 11:27 AM
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โApr-24-2020 08:33 AM
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โApr-24-2020 08:28 AM
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โApr-24-2020 08:05 AM
If youโre that worried about breaking down away from home, Iโm not sure how it will be enjoyable and not nerve wracking to be away from home.
Answer to you question is as variable as all the potential scenarios. But in general, find somewhere to unload the camper and stay in it while vehicle is being fixed.
2017 Heartland Torque T29 - Sold.
Couple of Arctic Fox TCs - Sold
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โApr-24-2020 07:53 AM
Or Call your closest friend and have them come a get you.
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โApr-24-2020 07:42 AM
Local truck repair shop (huge one) took like 5 days to charge me $1500 and tell me old diesel is not repairable, while finding replacement engine is impossible.
So I rented minivan, took family to friends and family for 2 weeks and then bought another motorhome in Baltimore.
When that made nice dent in my savings, we still remember it as adventure.
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โApr-24-2020 07:11 AM
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.
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โApr-24-2020 06:43 AM
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.
towing a 2016 Jeep Cherokee TrailHawk
Berkley, the amazing camping cat missed dearly (1996-2012)
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โApr-23-2020 11:00 PM
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:
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โApr-23-2020 10:31 PM
Probably more likely with a small independent shop vs a dealer.
07 Ragen 21FB
12 Yamaha Super Tenere
14 Suzuki DR 650