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View Full Version : The Trip From HELL!



jabird56
08-02-2008, 05:05 AM
Well,..,.we finally made the move from Nebraska to Maryland; however, if I'm ever in a room where somebody starts talking about moving I'm going to breakout into heavy sweats.

Last Sunday we drove out to Kearney, NE to meet up with the wife's family one last time prior to our departure on Tuesday. Driving out in her Mariner I realized that her tires weren't up to snuf for the drive to the east coast (I hate Continentals). So first thing Monday morning we get the Mariner set up with new Goodyear rubber.

After dropping her off to pick up the Mariner, I drive home in the MM. Getting to the house I temporarily park the MM in the street to move the SuperDuty out of the drive to put the MM into it. NOT SO FAST Kimosabi, engine running it wouldn't come out of PARK. The BOO switch went bad, again. Called our friendly neighborhood L/M dealer (right at 5PM) and my service writer checked to see if any of the techs were still around (since he knew we were hitting the road first thing the next morning),..no such luck. He said that they would be waiting for me first thing on Tuesday. Got there at 7:30 and was out by 9:00. We got our convoy on the road finally about 10:30 Tuesday morning. Our convoy consisted of the MM, Mariner, and our SuperDuty pulling a 28ft camper and a Honda RINCON in the bed.

Now around dinner time we were hit with a major thunderstorm with wind gusts of 60 MPH (not fun pulling the trailer), so we get off the highway at Galeburg, IL. We eat and the storm front moves on, so we start to get back on the road when the wife radios me that my right front tire on the SuperDuty has a BIG blister coming out of the sidewall. So we stop (in a safe area) and call AAA to change the tire,...we're back on the road in 2 hours.

We finally make our first destination for the night at a KOA campground just NW of Indianapolis at 12:30 in the morning, NO...make that 1:30 in the morning...we crossed over into the eastern time zone.

Later that morning when we get up, I got to the local Goodyear store an inquire about a new tire and they said they didn't have one in my type/size, but that their store in south Indianapolis did and they would be waiting for us to show up. A good thing about this south Indianapolis store was the fact that they service tractor trailers 24 hours a day in drive up lanes, so I just had to put the SuperDuty and camper up and took care of me...didn't have to disconnect the camper and park it. The bad news was when they went to put the spare back underneath the truck they highligted to me that both of my rear shocks were blown. So after doing some searching we found a Ford dealing in our eastern path that could help us, and they were waiting for our arrival thou they had to send a driver for the 2 new shocks at a central warehouse.

Got back on the road again later that afternoon and made it to Zanesville OH vice our intented stop of Washington PA. Oh well.

Thursday 2 hours behind schedule, we finally got to our friends place in southern MD around 7:30 Thurday evening.

Hopefully the bad car parts omen has left us, I don't want to go through that fiasco again for a very long time.

So, we're back in Maryland and the house hunting continues.

Bluerauder
08-02-2008, 05:44 AM
Jay,

Glad to have you in the area. Good luck on finding that special house. :up:

All in all it sounds like you were able to get all the fixes in quick order without losing too much time. All the shops were waiting for you and got you back on the road quickly. If it was me, I'd still be sitting in Nebraska waiting on the tires for the Mariner. ;)

BTW - time to change your location from Omaha, NE to CAMarauder Land. :D

DEFYANT
08-02-2008, 08:08 AM
Welcome nOOb CAMmer.

Ms. Denmark
08-02-2008, 10:06 AM
Welcome to CAM Land!

Rocknthehawk
08-02-2008, 11:08 AM
I was born in the great state of Nebraska. Traveled to Kearney a few times as a kid.

twin03
08-02-2008, 01:25 PM
Welcome to the mdv area, hope to see you around............

Haggis
08-02-2008, 08:27 PM
Hope you left those gremlins at your last stop before Maryland.

GordonB
08-02-2008, 08:41 PM
Jay,
Welcome to the land of CAM.
Do you have any definite ideas where to look/no look for a house? PM me if interested in housing in Northeastern Montg. County. I could fix you up with my house. Where will you be working?
GordonB

3rdcoastmrauder
08-02-2008, 08:48 PM
will never put oem shocks on any heavy use truck I ever buy.

My dad killed all 4 of his in his 95 F150 at about 60K

has had the second set on since then and were at about 270K now.

Just got the tires rotated and the front driver shock is starting to give.

not too shabby for 210K

Black_Noise
08-02-2008, 08:56 PM
sounds like an extra $500+ that sprung up on that trip!

jabird56
08-02-2008, 09:01 PM
will never put oem shocks on any heavy use truck I ever buy.

My dad killed all 4 of his in his 95 F150 at about 60K

has had the second set on since then and were at about 270K now.

Just got the tires rotated and the front driver shock is starting to give.

not too shabby for 210K


Had Trailmaster SSVs on the SuperDuty.....