Exciting day

[wmw999 2,116]

Over the weekend  I was jumping at Skydive Carolina; great place, good people, good jumping (and a friend I hadn’t seen in over 40 years). Drove in the evening to NC to visit my godmother (94 and still going strong). Decided to take the scenic route on the way to Thursday in Mississippi, where we have some RV service scheduled. 
So here I am in the middle of nowhere, between two ridges, no cell service, and all of a sudden the van starts making the thudding sounds upshifting that says “this is bad.” I make it to the top of the very winding and steep hill, because did I mention there was basically nothing in The Valley? And try to downshift on the way down, but the engine just races. And the engine light comes on. I coasted the next few miles until I came to a wide spot, and now after a tow I’m in a small town, in between the two closest dealerships for service.

Im glad we have towing insurance; this would not be a cheap tow, and tomorrow’s (the service departments were closed already) wouldn’t be cheap either. Of course, neither will the service, but that’s just the way it works. 8 years and 100,000 miles on this van, and this is the first issue.

G’night, all

Wendy P. 

[NewGuy2005 51]

Good luck!  What kind of van?

[wmw999 2,116]

Roadtrek RV conversion of a Mercedes Sprinter. I’m really, really, hoping it’s a shifter or external linkage of some sort instead of the whole transmission.

Wendy P. 

[SethInMI 145]

11 hours ago, wmw999 said:

I am in the middle of nowhere

so...did the opening lines of "Dueling Banjos" pop into your mind at any point?

[gowlerk 1,903]

11 hours ago, wmw999 said:

Im glad we have towing insurance; this would not be a cheap tow, and tomorrow’s (the service departments were closed already) wouldn’t be cheap either.

Look on the bright side. It happened on a Monday, service dept. will be open for the week. It is likely to be a computer/wiring issue.

[wmw999 2,116]

Nope. Much more likely to need a new transmission. I’m at the shop, the guy here said I should most likely just keep on going to the dealer in the next noticeable city, because it’s probably the planetary gear based on what I described.

Wendy P.

[TampaPete 35]

1 hour ago, wmw999 said:

Nope. Much more likely to need a new transmission. I’m at the shop, the guy here said I should most likely just keep on going to the dealer in the next noticeable city, because it’s probably the planetary gear based on what I described.

Wendy P.

Can you use planetary gear to jump on Mars? 

[billeisele 122]

On 10/17/2022 at 9:19 PM, wmw999 said:

Over the weekend  I was jumping at Skydive Carolina; great place, good people, good jumping (and a friend I hadn’t seen in over 40 years). Drove in the evening to NC to visit my godmother (94 and still going strong). Decided to take the scenic route on the way to Thursday in Mississippi, where we have some RV service scheduled. 
So here I am in the middle of nowhere, between two ridges, no cell service, and all of a sudden the van starts making the thudding sounds upshifting that says “this is bad.” I make it to the top of the very winding and steep hill, because did I mention there was basically nothing in The Valley? And try to downshift on the way down, but the engine just races. And the engine light comes on. I coasted the next few miles until I came to a wide spot, and now after a tow I’m in a small town, in between the two closest dealerships for service.

Im glad we have towing insurance; this would not be a cheap tow, and tomorrow’s (the service departments were closed already) wouldn’t be cheap either. Of course, neither will the service, but that’s just the way it works. 8 years and 100,000 miles on this van, and this is the first issue.

G’night, all

Wendy P. 

It was great to meet you and make some fun jumps. The last second change from 4-way to 5-way with a new dive flow was much more successful than expected. Then to do the 4-way on the next jump, icing on the cake.

I just got back from the mountains to see your driving adventure. Hopefully it's taken care of by now and you're off to more fun.  

[wmw999 2,116]

That’s the hope. I hope you had a good time in the mountains — the weather has been spectacular

Wendy P. 

[gowlerk 1,903]

It's been a week now. Any word on the repairs yet?

[wmw999 2,116]

They haven't looked at it yet, but we knew that. Pretty much all garages around where I live are backed up. They're hoping to at least diagnose this week.

Wendy P.

[wmw999 2,116]

Good news and bad news. The good news is that it was a $300 linkage. Fixed already. The bad news is that it was an expensive trip to get there. But had I taken it down the road to Joe’s Transmission and Bait Shop, he might have told me it needed replaced and then messed it up.

Best news is that we have enough resources that this is a discussion, and not a worry. That, and that my husband isn’t starting to think that the van is reaching the end of its life.

Wendy P. 

[JerryBaumchen 1,047]

15 minutes ago, wmw999 said:

Good news and bad news. The good news is that it was a $300 linkage. Fixed already. The bad news is that it was an expensive trip to get there. But had I taken it down the road to Joe’s Transmission and Bait Shop, he might have told me it needed replaced and then messed it up.

Best news is that we have enough resources that this is a discussion, and not a worry. That, and that my husband isn’t starting to think that the van is reaching the end of its life.

Wendy P. 

Hi Wendy,

That reminds me of a story that I read back in 1963.  About 1961-1962, a Brit was driving his Rolls-Royce in France when he suffered a broken axle.  He called back to Rolls & told them about his predicament.  The next day a fellow showed up, put on some overalls, got out his tools & a new axle.  A few hours later, the Brit was back on the road again.  It was all fixed and no charges to the owner.

After he returned home, he wrote a letter to Rolls thanking them about their tremendous service in a foreign country.  Rolls wrote back that no Rolls-Royce in any part of the world had ever experienced a broken axle.

Jerry Baumchen