ANOTHER BROKEN SPRING HANGER

I left to head to Rio Hondo, TX on Wednesday, January 7th.  We had decided to take my car on this trip.  It wasn't that far from where we were and Mr. W and I would each have a vehicle to be able to do things separately when we wanted.  The one thing that I struggle with time to time with this lifestyle is not having my own vehicle.  I think I've mentioned before that I'm the type of person that needs my "alone" time occasionally.  Sometimes I like to just get in my car and go to Walmart or Target or a mall and just walk around and look; at my own pace; not feeling rushed because someone else is bored; not having to carry on a conversation with anyone;.......you get the idea.

So, we're traveling down the road with me driving behind the 5W and Mr. W calls me.  He asks if the trailer looks like it is going down the road crooked.  I had noticed that it was a little but didn't think too much about it.  Of course he said that it wasn't suppose to be doing that even if it is "a little".

We are in Schulenburg, TX at this point and he pulls over on the side of the highway.  Sure enough, the spring hanger for the shackle on the driver side had broken off completely. This happened to us when we were in Virginia last May on the passenger side shackle. (You can read about that on Trailer Troubles ) When this happened back in May, we called the trailer manufacturer, who contacted Lippert (the company that makes the shackles/spring hangers), and Lippert shipped the new spring hanger and a mobile welder came out and repaired it.

So, Mr. W calls the trailer manufacturer.  The time is 12:10. They tell us that we are out of warranty so we need to contact Lippert directly.  We have a 2 yr. bumper to bumper and 5 yr. structural warranty.  Right? Well, yes we do but the shackle is not part of the structure. We are ONE month out of the 2 yr. bumper to bumper. Here's where the fun begins.

Mr. W called Lippert.  A young lady, Tara, tells him that she is going to find a mobile welder to come where we are and fix this on the side of the highway.  We wait.  She calls back and asks if we know a welder in the area.  We don't but Mr. W starts calling around. We wait.  She tells us to get a hotel room for the night because we are probably going to have to leave the 5W overnight.  Lippert will pay for the hotel room.  At 3:00, she calls back and says Lippert can't find anyone to fix it, they don't want us to drive it, and they want us to call whatever roadside assistance company we have and have them take care of it. 

Mr. W calls Coach-net.  The tech at Coach-net tells us that he is going to find someone to come take off the wheel and chain up the axle and wants us to "limp" the 5W 45 miles to Sealy, TX to the nearest RV dealership on 3 wheels.  Mr. W is not crazy about this idea.  They think they have found someone to do this but when Coach-net contacts Mr. W, with this person on the line, the guy says that he is not going to do that because it will be too much weight on the side with 1 wheel and if we blow the tire, we will be sitting flat on the ground on I-10. Makes sense to us.

The tech at Coach-net was very put out but he then says that they will have to find a wrecker service with a low-boy flatbed to come get us.  They find a guy in a neighboring town to do this.  Coach-net calls back with this guy on the line and Mr. W talks to both of them.  This guy mentions that he knows a welder in his town that will come out and fix it where we are but it will be the next morning.  The guy tells Mr. W that 2 blocks down the road is a parking lot that we will fit in.  We will be off the highway and it will give the guy plenty of room to repair it.  Mr. W asks Coach-net if they agree with this arrangement for repair and the Coach-net rep says yes they do.

Mr. W takes my car 2 blocks down the road to check out the parking lot.  It will work, so he very carefully drives the 5W the 2 blocks and pulls in the parking lot.  We then drive my car to the hotel and check in at 7:00. Thank goodness we had my car.

Did I mention that an arctic cold front was blowing in?  It was going to be 25 degrees that night.  Mr. W had pulled all the plugs to drain all the water but we wanted to try to find some RV anti-freeze to put in the pipes.  So, we drove 20 miles to the nearest Walmart which did not have any anti-freeze for the RV.  We are hoping for the best.

Next morning, we meet the welder at the 5W.  He starts the repair.  Mr. W gets on the phone to Coach-net to find out how we are suppose to handle paying this guy.  After waiting almost 30 minutes on hold, Coach-net then says that he is not an authorized welder so we need to stop him and they are going to arrange for a heavy-duty wrecker to come pick up the 5W.  Are you kidding me?  Mr. W tells them that the welder is too far along to stop.  He also asks them if they realize how much they would pay to get a tractor/trailer wrecker and possibly permits (because of the height with the 5W on the wrecker) versus the cost of the welder? They don't care.  Mr. W speaks with a supervisor and reminds them that they had agreed to this fix last night.  They don't care about that either.  Finally, after more conversation, they will pay part of the cost, maybe.  We will have to submit the invoice and see what happens.  Great.

Mr. W then calls Lippert.  We need to know who we need to send the invoice for the hotel to.  Their reply is that we are out of warranty so they won't pay for anything until they receive the part back and determine that it is a manufacture defect.  If it is, they will reimburse us, if not, they won't.  Do what? Have all these people had a memory loss since the day before? Again, we are ONE month out of warranty and we had the same problem previously.

The welder finishes his repair.  We travel to the nearest RV dealership and have them look at the repair.  Their repair guy says the guy did an outstanding job, better than the manufacturer.  The service manager calls Lippert and tells them that we had brought it in, it has been checked, and we are good to go.  We just wanted all of our bases covered that we had done what we were suppose to do.  We decide to head for Rio Hondo.  I've mailed the part back to Lippert and have submitted the invoice.  We are still trying to find out where to send the other invoice to Coach-net. I'll let you know what happens.

Before I close this lengthy blog, I have to comment about the town of Schulenburg.  When we were on the side of the highway, we were next to a day care center. The lady who owned the daycare came out and checked on us several times.  She offered us blankets and something warm to drink.  When she got ready to leave that evening, she offered for us to stay at her house overnight.  She left 1 building open that had heat and a bathroom in case we needed it.  We were concerned about the safety of leaving our 5W in a parking lot.  She called the chief of police and had him send some deputies over to talk to us and reassure us that they would drive by several times during the night to check on our 5W.  We also had a guy drive up to see if he could do anything to help because he had heard about us from the guys at the gas station in town.  We evidently were the talk of the town.  He couldn't help us, but he tried.  When the welder was through with the repairs, he gave Mr. W some of his venison jerky.  You've gotta love small towns.

I was really hoping 2015 would be the year of no problems with the 5W, but maybe we've gotten it over with for the year now.  We really were blessed that it all happened the way it did and the tires never rubbed or the axle didn't fall off.  Mr. W does think it is a design flaw with Redwood.  He has looked at the shackles on other 5Ws and they all have an extra bracket that ours does not have.  When it is all said and done, he is hoping to have all of the spring hangers either re-welded or have an extra bracket put on.  Thankfully, we did arrive safe and sound in Rio Hondo on Thursday evening.