Ford sucks.

I love my truck. When I bought it, I was so happy. It was the nicest vehicle I had ever bought and I expected it to last forever. It is a diesel after all. With a 100,000 mile warranty, picking it up with 47,000 miles on it meant the warranty would be good for a long time.

Of course, I never expected to put the miles on it while working for LoneStar Transportation. I put almost 50,000 miles on it during my tenure there. Just a mere 14 months. When I was laid off in February, it had over 95,000 miles on it and I had already started having problems.

At 87,000 miles, the EGR cooler developed a leak. This resulted in steam out of the tail pipe and a strange noise emanating from under the hood. I took it into the dealer for repair and they fixed it under warranty. However, once I got it back, it was still making the strange noise from under the hood. It was a whine. A moan. That was the only way I could describe it. I knew it didn't sound good. I took it back to the dealer a couple of days later and they told me it was normal. I knew this wasn't true, but what could I do. I continued to drive it.

At about 99,900 miles, I took it in again for one last ditch effort to have the techs at Ford find the noise from under the hood. While it was there, I had them replace the door handle because of damage from being broken into, but that is a story for a different time. They were unable to get that right too, by the way.

I had done my research and found that the 6.0 liter Powerstrokes were suffering from a manufacturer defect which was causing the trucks to blow head gaskets. As is always the story of my life, I knew this would haunt me someday. I brought the truck in, told them of the noise and asked them to fix it along with the door handle. I get the call a couple of days later. "Your truck is ready" said the service manager. Great. That was fast. I go to pick her up and ask what the noise was coming from under the hood. "Awe, that is normal. Nothing to worry about. We flashed the computer and you should be good to go." Yeah, right. I'm sure I'll be back.

As I knew before I took the keys out of his hand, I would surely hear that stupid, whining noise that had been driving me insane for months. I did. They didn't do a thing. We were heading out of town for the 4th of July weekend. My truck was expected to pull one of the floats in the Leakey parade.

We didn't even make it all the way to Leakey, TX before my truck began to over heat. What in the world could that be about? My wife suggested maybe it was low on coolant. We stopped. I added about a gallon of water and we were on our way again. Then I had to stop and add more. This kept happening for the next 5,000 miles. But I would go for weeks at a time without needing to add coolant.

Finally, with another mini vacation coming up, I brought my truck back to the dealer for the same problem for the THIRD time. Still making the noise from under the hood and coupled with the coolant loss, I was sure I knew what the problem was. Thank goodness I had brought it in a couple of times before while it was still under warranty for this exact issue.

Halfway through the state of New Mexico, on our way back home, I get the call. "I have bad news. Your truck has blown head gaskets." Really? Wow, that does suck. I guess you guys should have caught that on of my previous trips to your shop. This will be covered under warranty, right? "No sir, you are 5,000 miles out of warranty. It will be between $3,500 and $5,600 to repair it."

Wait, what?

You are telling me, that on the other THREE occasions I have brought my truck in for this problem, starting RIGHT AFTER the EGR coolant leak was repaired... you are telling me that this is not going to be covered? Ford knows this is a problem with this engine. They are aware of the situation. Yet they are refusing to cover it? "Hey, you're preaching to the choir" is what I was told.

The next day, while still on our vacation trip home, I get a call from a new guy. He tells me that Ford is willing to cover $1,462 of the cost. I have to pay for the rest. Up to $4,200 if it needs heads... (come on buddy... I can already see where this is going. Of course you are going to tell me it needs heads. Duh!) By the way, where is my service writer? Why are YOU calling me and not him? "Uh, he is no longer employed at this company."

Fishy.

That pretty much sums up the next 2 weeks of phone calls to Ford executives, service managers, and anyone else I could get on the phone. They all told me the same thing as if they were reading from cue cards or something. They just about told me that I was just one person. They couldn't care any less about me or my plight. I was out of warranty. Suck it up.

So, now we have to start selling some stuff to try and fix my truck. Ridiculous. Ford's customer service at this point is inexcusable. I was looking for that one person... the one who would say, Mr. Beard, I hear what you are saying. Yes, we do have an issue with our 6.0 Powerstrokes. Yes, the techs should have caught your problem long before you went out of warranty. Yes, the EGR leaks are what is causing this problem to begin with. I apologize for you not having your truck for 2 weeks. We'll get it repaired and get it back to you as quickly as possible. Thank you for buying a Ford.

But no. I got it stuck up my ass and broken off. Thanks Ford. You guys are awesome.

Ford sucks. I think I'll paint that on the side of the motorhome and drive it around for the next few years.

You wanna hear about my customer service experience with Whirlpool now? I didn't think so...

As if we hadn't had enough...

After arriving home from our almost 2,200 mile trip home in much less time than we liked, we had to hop in the car and make a 740 mile round trip to New Orleans for work. It was difficult, but it was part of the plan we knew we had to complete.

After leaving New Orleans, on the way back through east Houston, we stopped at an RV shop that has sold me a lot of gear for all of our various campers we have owned. We couldn't help picking up just a few things.

Saturday morning we decided to do some additional work on the new coach. To begin, we needed to transfer all of our gear from our fifth wheel camper into the basement storage and cabinets of the Dolphin. Turns out, this was actually very similar to moving. What I expected to be a 15 minute exercise turned into a 2 hour fiasco and a whole lot of garbage. We did manage to get just about everything out of the 5'er and get it ready to be put on the market. Not the best time to try and sell a camper, but it needs to go. That one will be missed.

All of the new goodies we had purchased still needed to be put on the new coach. CeeJay and I decided it was boring doing things in storage, and it would be easy to just start up the coach and head to a campground. We chose Huntsville State Park. We are all about saving money right now, and the $12 to stay the night was cheaper than just about anything else we could do. The gas tank on the Dolphin was already full, so all we had to do was get there.

We went to the house, the real one, and got some clothes to take with us, and headed for the woods.

They had 4 spots to choose from, and none of them had electricity. As it turns out, the one we chose had nothing. Not even water. Fortunately for us, I had about 100' of water hose, so I was able to run water from the campsite next door. Once we were set up, CeeJay put away all of the dishes and food and other items pilfered from the fifth wheel and I started working on the outside of our house on wheels. I swapped out the four belt line running lights (two yellow, two red) for LED replacement units. These were not cheap, thus the reason I only bought four at this point. I'll replace more on each trip we take. Not only are they brighter and cleaner looking, they are much more energy efficient. The less battery drain, the better off we are.

The biggest change we made to the coach was a wash. It was filthy. It still is, but just not as much of it... We were able to get all of the storage compartments cleaned. They had to be scrubbed with Simple Green and lot of elbow grease. I am actually still a little sore. We cleaned the wheels and as much of the back as I could reach from the ground, which is not a lot.

Just cleaning the storage compartments made a tremendous difference in the look of the coach. The wheels, front end, bumpers, headlights and windshield were just a little icing. I guess we'll do the rest on the next trip, but we'll need a ladder for sure. That thing is large.

2,150 miles down, zero to go...

We made it.

We stopped at a really nice rest area last night, just 10 miles from Luling, TX. We wanted to make a stop at Auntie Carol's this morning. so we pushed ourselves to make it all the way there. It was tough, but we did it. When we pulled into the rest area, it was completely packed with tractor trailers and other RVs. We were very fortunate to find a place to park the behemoth. It was 2am. The only thing I remember about going to bed is the phrase, "baby, you're snoring." Heh.

We were up at 8:30am and moving again.

The new coach was magnificent. It was a real trooper. No major issues at all. A couple of scares here and there, what with new sounds, smells and vibrations happening all the time. Once we were used to them, they weren't much to pay attention to.

2,150 miles.
6 trips to Walmart.
6 fill ups.
5 days.
4 nights.
0 major incidents.

We did it.

Through San Antonio....

We made it through San Antonio last night and found another rest area to crash. Another 2am night. Luckily, the bed in the coach is super comfortable, although last night, I probably could have slept on broken glass.

Driving in the nasty, foggy weather with no windshield wipers has been a treat. Yes, another thing that is broken. HAHA. The driver's side wiper arm is broken at the base and must be replaced. Someone pulled the fuse so they couldn't be used, which is probably a good thing.

Okay, time to push on. We have to be in New Orleans later on this evening.

Getting closer to home...

We are currently sitting in a rest stop just outside of Eden, TX. They have free wireless internet, so I figured we would take full advantage and take a little break. CeeJay just made us some dinner while I was able to take a shower. The generator is running well and is providing us with plenty of power while we sit here, eat and blog. It is amazing what a quick shower will do to rejuvenate the body.

I should start at yesterday's trip from Moab, UT which was quite simply... amazing. After waking up to a breathtaking view of the surrounding area, we stopped at a place called the "Hole in the Rock." This is where a couple, back in the 40's, built a diner right into the side of the cliff. Figuring that wasn't enough of a feat, they decided to build an entire 5,000 square foot house right into the mountain. It was done with nothing but dynamite, sweat and brawn. We took a tour through the house and decided that these people, being quite eccentric, were made of much more than we are... they make everyone I have ever met seem extremely lazy. Oh yeah, the man was also a sculptor, painter, taxidermist, chef and all around talented human being. I recommend stopping in for the tour if you ever get the chance. Very impressive.

Once the tour was over, we were able to get back on the road and start our journey to the UFO capital of the world, Roswell, NM. But first, we had to make a quick detour to the ever famous, 4 corners. This is the place where Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah all meet. Some say it is technically not accurate, but eh, we didn't really care. We were there. $3 to get in, take a photograph, buy some stuff from authentic, Navajo Indians and head back out again. Totally worth it.

One fairly large hiccup in the trip was the development of a hole in the filler tube of the fuel tank. I noticed while we were filling after our detour to the 4 corners. The rubber hose that connects the filler neck with the gas tank developed a leak on it and was pouring my $2.65 gasoline all over the ground. Well, not a lot, but enough that it made me take notice. This looks like it had been there for a while and was now coming to light after a fairly poor attempt to repair it. I should have taken a photo and posted it on www.thereifixedit.com. Heh. I figured out that if I fill on the slowest setting, it doesn't leak at all, so I can at least get home without too much worry.

So, after the little detour to 4 corners, and the leaky gas fill tube, I was unable to update because we tried to make it all the way to Roswell. However, by 2am, after fighting a very impressive headwind we were just too tired to continue, so we simply pulled over to the side of the road and went to sleep. We had covered a lot of miles, and this made it easy to wake up at about 7:00am to finish our trip into town. The weather had turned a nasty shade of gray overnight and it was extremely foggy. The last bit of ground was covered while CeeJay continued to sleep.

After arriving in Roswell, I went back for another hour of sleep in the parking lot of the UFO museum. Once we got up and were ready, we went inside for a quick look around and another souvenir sticker for the back of the coach. Gotta have one from every place we visit, right?

So, we left New Mexico behind and have now traveled about 400 miles today. We decided we should pull over, eat some dinner and take some showers. That should catch everyone up to where we are at this moment.

Oh yeah, CeeJay wanted me to tell everyone that I broke the AC panel in the dashboard this afternoon... Oops.

Hoping to be home sometime tomorrow afternoon. So far, this new home on wheels of ours has been just a dream to be in. Time to get back on the road...

We are in Moab, UT...

This is going to be a long post.

First of all, I was unable to update last night because we were both so worn out by the time we made it into Salt Lake City last night at about 9pm. So I will have to pretty much start at the beginning...

We landed in Boise yesterday afternoon at about 12:15pm, giddy with anticipation. After calling the sellers to let them know we had landed, they said they were running about 20 minutes late. Being late for pretty much everything ourselves, we figured this meant about 45 minutes. We were wrong. An hour or so later, our new coach pulled up to the airport, squealing and squalling. Sounds like it needs brakes. Great.

The seller hopped out and greeted us and helped us throw our luggage in to head to a different location so we could look it over and learn all of the features. We pulled out of the airport and headed toward the local truck stop. It started immediately as he turned the key and I could hear a distinct exhaust leak in the area of the engine. Weee. As we headed down the road, she creaked, groaned, bounced and rumbled along, with doors inside swinging open and closed. The steering wheel jostled back and forth. I looked at CeeJay and she looked at me. Great. What in the world had we gotten ourselves into? At the truck stop, we met the seller's wife and kids and then proceeded to learn about the features of the coach we were planning on driving all the way back to Houston. 2,200 miles. A really, really... really long way.

After a once around of our new home on wheels we decided that it really couldn't be THAT bad. I mean it only has 35,000 miles on it. The stuff that we were letting sway us in the wrong direction were all things that could be fixed relatively easily. The generator wouldn't start. The bathroom door has no handle and won't stay shut. Several cabinets won't close properly and open when driving. The refrigerator doesn't seem to be operating correctly and is missing a handle. Then of course there was the exhaust leak. The squealy brakes. Many lights didn't work. The left windshield wiper is broken. They don't even turn on when the switch is actuated. Not to mention, it was dirty. Really dirty. However, again... it only had 35,000 miles, didn't leak and had a solid floor. The roof had just been redone as well.

After a quick thought, we decided that all it really needed was some good owners, some TLC and a good cleaning, and it was still a pretty good bargain so we made the deal. The seller handed us a copy of the clean title (we will get the original after the check clears) and sent him on his way. We spent a couple of minutes walking around it and through it, sort of soaking in the whole experience. Still a little bit numb, we decided we had better get it filled up and get on the road. We drove around the truck stop and found the gas pumps. This thing is huge. It is a house. On wheels. Again... what were we thinking?

$100 didn't fill her up. Another $50 topped the tank off and we hit the road having no idea what we were doing or where we were going.

Have I mentioned it is huge?

Five minutes behind the wheel on the freeway, the massive pressure of driving a 31 foot, 10,000 lb vehicle began to fade. The view out of the enormous windshield of the southern Idaho scenery was so worth the whole trip. Like the seller said, it is almost like watching IMAX. He was right.
CeeJay immediately broke her sunvisor and then wanted to stop at the local Walmart to buy some cleaning supplies, but I was able to talk her into getting a little further down the road. We stopped in Jerome, Idaho.

After doing our part to make sure that Walmart doesn't go out of business, we walked back to our coach parked in the parking lot. Man, it really is large. We got back on the road quickly and CeeJay began cleaning up the inside while I drove. 30 minutes later, our new coach was already becoming just that...ours. A few more hours on the road and things really started to go well. The jostling steering wheel was 100 times better. The brakes no longer squealed when used. I was starting to think maybe it just needed to be driven.

We crossed the border into Utah and kept rolling. No need to stop to pee. Hungry? We got food right on board. We pulled into Salt Lake City well after dark and once the sun went down, I realized just how dirty the windshield was. The construction in SLC, coupled with oncoming headlights was amazingly difficult to drive with. If only the windshield wipers worked. Heh.

We made it to Alissa and Blake's house by about 9:30pm. We were exhausted. It was cold. We turned the behemoth around in their parking lot, and got it put where we would stay for the night. No electricity, no water. No battery power. What? No juice? Another Walmart trip. But first, we needed to eat dinner. Thanks to Alissa, Blake, Cody and Sheena for taking us to Sconecutter for some food we can't get in Houston. Great stuff. They even bought dinner. It was awesome. After dinner, we made our second trip of the day to Walmart. I need to have stock in that store by now. I went ahead and gambled on some tune up equipment for the generator too, including a new spark plug. I had no idea which one to buy. I love having the internet on my telephone. After replacing the "house" battery, we had enough juice to power the heater for the night, which we were going to need, because it was cold. The fridge still wasn't working properly, so we set our food outside for the night. So ghetto. HAHA. We tumbled into bed, exhausted and just passed out.

Friday am, and a pretty good night's sleep brought a new perspective to the whole experience. We were able to look the coach over in a non rushed, open area. I was able to get the generator running (it won't power the coach though) I got the fridge working, the burner valve was clogged. We cleaned the windshield and other windows. (Alissa and Blakers let us borrow a few things...thanks guys!) I tightened the passenger side mirror so it would quit shaking and I could actually see out of it. We adjusted a few of the latches so the doors would stay closed. We found an outside shower. Figured out the dump system. We even found a couple of lawn chairs in the basement storage. There are lights in a lot of the basement compartments. All in all, it was a pretty great day.

We stole some water from Alissa and Blake and headed out of town. Oh yeah, yet another stop at Walmart... good grief. After spending more money, we got on the road. The newly cleaned windshield and windows was a HUGE improvement. The entire coach took on a new look and feel. Today it drove even better than it did yesterday. I was right... it just needed some miles on it.

We made it all the way to Moab, UT tonight and that is where we are bedding down. The water heater works well and the showers were wonderful. Clean and tired, we are going to bed again...this time in a much different mindset. Today was one of the neatest things I have ever done. We saw some scenery today that was just amazing. There is nothing like seeing it through the gianormous windshield of an RV.

We are heading out bright and early in the morning. More to come tomorrow.

~Wade

Currently at 32,000 feet....

We got on a plane that has wireless access, so I am updating the blog from 32,000 feet. It is freezing up here. I think it was 41 degrees here in Utah. Probably colder in Idaho. We should be on the ground in another 20 minutes. It is a 40 minute flight from SLC to Boise. It will be a 4 hour drive back to SLC. Heh.

I should upload a photo, but we are crammed in here pretty good. I am lucky I can type on my laptop.

~Wade

Time to jet....

We are sitting at the gate. We are tired. We have our warm clothes and can't wait to get up there. It will take two flights to get there. Houston to Salt Lake City and then a connection from there to Boise. There were no problems getting through security and checking a firearm with Delta, so that is a bonus! If you want to fly with one, it was very easy to do.

We will be boarding in about 20 minutes. Update when we arrive.

~Wade

We are off...

Yes, it is 1am. 0100. We went to bed at 8pm last night and woke up a few minutes ago. We were supposed to get up at 4:30am anyway, so we figured, eh, we can sleep on the plane.

Our flight leaves in 7 hours.

Are we crazy?

The crazy meter is registering about an 8.5 on the crazy scale. Yes, we are crazy.

More to come...

We leave in the morning...

So we are in the last stages of getting everything collected and making sure it is all taken care of before we catch our flight first thing in the morning. I still have to drop my truck off at the dealer so they can work on it while we are gone. We still have a few hoops to jump through before we begin this completely unprecedented trip of ours, but we are getting close.

Insurance cards... check.
Clothes and luggage... check.
Cashier's check... uh... check.
Map to get us home... check.

On a fun note, we will be trying to fly with a firearm for the first time. I have never tried this, but I have seen people at the airport with long rifles and shotguns and it didn't seem to be that big of a deal. We will give it a shot. Heh. Punny.

Our flight leaves at 8am. I'll likely post something up in the morning before we leave. Heck, I'll probably post something else tonight before we go to bed as well. So far, so good. I spoke with the Sullivan's (they are the folks we are meeting in Idaho to purchase their coach) and they are ready for us. They will be meeting us at the airport with our new home on wheels. Elizabeth took the coach down for a wash and filled the propane for us so we won't have to worry about freezing in the 30 degree nights we are expecting up there. I thought that was pretty nice of her.

All in all, this should be a lot of fun.

As of 4:20pm

The funds to purchase our new (to us) coach are finally available to us. Phone call after phone call after phone call finally got the bank to get up and do what I asked them to do LAST WEEK. So, after much fretting and worrying that they wouldn't get that part of the deal taken care of, the bank finally pulled through with literally hours to spare.

A cashier's check in hand, we should depart on schedule bright and early Thursday morning.

~more to come I'm sure.

Got the refrigerator in...

I got home from work last night to a large puddle of water on the kitchen floor with Cee Jay telling me that the stuff in the freezer was beginning to thaw out. After fixing this refrigerator twice already, I decided it was time to find a replacement. Of course, we leave for Idaho on Thursday and every dollar we spend now is a dollar we won't have to spend on the trip... thus, Craigslist.

We quickly found a 4 year old, stainless steel Whirlpool that looked pretty good in the photos. I called the owner and set up a time to head over there and pick it up. It was just Cee Jay and me going to get it so it would be a lot of fun loading it, and rest assured, it was. The Whirlpool was quite a bit smaller than our refrigerator, but being just the two of us, and still having a working fridge in the garage, it wasn't a big deal. We just needed a working, decent unit. At only $400, I think we found the right one.

Getting it in the truck did prove a chore, but we did it. A big thank you goes to our neighbor, Jonathan for offering to help as he passed by and saw us struggling. With his help, we lowered it out of the truck and got it in the house with no problems at all. Hooked up the water line, plugged it in and pushed it into place. Another task checked off the list.

Oye.

Got the insurance done...

Just got the call back from the insurance company. They gave me their estimate and it was an awesome deal and included free roadside assistance. That is probably a good thing since we are making a 2,200 mile road trip in a vehicle we have never even laid eyes on.

Oh yeah, the refrigerator in the house went out last night. We cleaned it out and put everything in the outside fridge which is almost as unreliable as the one in the house because of the weak GFI it is plugged into. We are buying a used one today.

We also just found out that the broken fridge is covered under a recall. We have an appointment set up for October 19th. Wow. Good stuff.

2 days and counting

Wade ~

So I am trying this blogging thing for everyone. We can post up our daily trip home from Idaho so everyone can enjoy this insane trip. We are laying in bed going over the lists in our heads and trying to make sure we are going to think of everything.

Tomorrow, I'll get the insurance in place and make sure the monies are available to us...

That is pretty much it for now.

Edit:

Okay, I have decided that we will likely be documenting more than just the trip home in the new coach. There is just too much going on in our lives that is pure comedy. It must be documented...