Brakes, water pump, tire issue

[jeffwelsh]

It's been some week. Went to pick up my camper at the dealer Wednesday where Its been the last 6 weeks for warranty work. Part of work was to fix the blown grease seals. That required new brakes. I go to pull out and no brakes. Had to leave it another day. Apparently they did not adjust the brakes. Picked up on Thursday and headed to Brown county Indiana.

At BC on Saturday night the water pump dies. Fortunately camping world was open on Sunday and got a new pump. The new shurflo pump runs all the time. The are some pressure adjustments, but I don't have an Allen wrench small enough with me to adjust it. At least we got showers.

Part of the planned trip was to go on down to Branson from there. On the way down the driver front tire throws the tread off an damages the fender and slide wiring. The kitchen slide won't come out. Thank you Westlake.

So here is the question : Do I put the spare on and hope I make it back home (about 600 miles home)? Or do I try and find 4 new tires in Branson,Mo?

 

[lcv800]

Logic says you're going to get new tires anyway, so why risk it for 600 miles? Just my thoughts.
Rusty

 

[jeffwelsh]

I agree I have 4 goodyears located.

 

[hddecker]

I agree I have 4 goodyears located.

If it was me I wouldn't pay a premium for the "GOODYEAR" on the sidewall. The Marathons are made in China now and I have seen plenty of negative comments about the Chinese GYs.

Regardless of the brand, look at going up in size if you can fit them in the wheel wells.

I am personally sold on Gladiator Tires, I replaced the 235 80 16 E tires with 235 85 16 Gs and am very impressed with how well they performed on the bent axles that shredded the stock tires in about 5K. It took a broken shackle and the tires rubbing on the frame to wear
them out. Have about 25K on the Gladiators when the shackle broke.

 

[jeffwelsh]

Unfortunately we leave to head back home Friday and my choices are pretty limited here in Branson. I am going to see if the level up will jack up one side at a time, so I can change tires. Anyone done this?

 

[RVNevada]

Jeff, maybe to late, but I have used the jacks to lift one side, and after one of the jacks started leaking, if I had to do it again, I would have used some wood, so the jack didn't have to travel so far....

 

[ATCguy]

Yep... exactly what I did when I changed my tires to the Goodyear G614s. Used the hydraulics to lift one side... remove wheels... have the tires changed... reinstall wheels... lower & repeat for the other side.

BTW... as a general rule, Wal-Mart carries the G614s in stock. If not at the store, can usually get in 1-day.

 

[jeffwelsh]

It gets better and better

I tried jacking up the camper on one side with the leveling jacks, but they must have added a safety feature because I got a message saying excessive angle before they were off the ground. The jacks were no where near out of stroke. Had a mobile tech out with a jack and jack stands to help change tires.


As we were getting ready to leave Branson, I notice the Batteries were only at 2/3 full after being plugged in all week. I also noticed the converter not running, so looks like we will add converter failure to the list. I am running over to Camping world in Cincinnati to swap out the bad new water pump I got from Camping world in Indianapolis.

I since the camper has to go to the shop for body work, I could get the converter covered under the extended warrenty. Its a WFCO 9875 converter. I have 3 group 31 AGM batteries and I'm thinking a better converter is in order. Does any one have any recommendations?

Here are the pics from where the Westlake tire tossed the tread. We saw the tread and fender on US65 about 15 miles from Branson on the way back home. I'm glad it didn't blow and cause more damage. The big problem is the pic that shows the slide control wire cut. Kitchen slide doesn't move on that side.

 

[MTK1946]

Been there done that too many times on my Teton.
After the last one that did over $4,000 worth of damage I switched to 17.5's
Twice having 2 tires fail within 50 miles of each other was no fun. Once it was 117 degrees & 100 + miles to a tire shop.
Yea it was quite a bit of $$ but the peace of mind has been more than worth it.
10,000+ miles with no tire problems!!