I have to say that my focus on our travel blog as well as most of my Facebook posts are on the positive and wonderful experiences we have while on the road. And for the most part, the vast majority of our time is this lovely bliss. But the reality of traveling and living 24/7 with your spouse in 315 sq feet of space has its challenges as well as all the miles we put on our rig, Liv.

Our first year, 2018, taught us quite a bit about traveling for extended periods of time. The following two years taught us quite a bit about running into problems on the road, like serious problems with the rig.

1. I don’t like the GPS in the truck. I have been known to call her bad names as I don’t like how she provides directions. BUT, she is totally integrated to the truck, provides a big lovely display of where she wants to go and talks to Tom through the stereo system. My GPS (Google Maps) and Tom’s GPS have different algorithms and often they don’t agree. As Tom says, he has 3 women in the truck telling him where to go and he can’t ever make a right turn! Here is what we have learned…

• We need to load the GPS with directions BEFORE we start moving AND let her actually start providing those directions.
• Tom’s GPS must rule, unless I can communicate a clear alternative plan ahead of when Tom’s gal starts giving directions.
• We need to both look at the overall way to get to our destination on our computers so that we can see the potential problems. Neither GPS tells us about roads that are pretty much impassable with a 35′ RV or bridges that are too low for our 13’6″ clearance.
  • TIP: Apps like RV Parky, RV Life or Truck Map capture some potential obstacles, but I have found them lacking with low clearance warnings. We talked about getting a profession truck GPS, but then we feel that we will miss travels off the beaten path that we enjoy as the truck GPSs pretty much take you on direct highway routes. Trust me, we have had close calls on low clearances!
  • TIP: I keep my Google Maps up in “satellite view” and often can anticipate problems with various parking lots, gas stations, campgrounds and the like.

2. Tom pretty much does all of the driving…he is much more comfortable with his driving the rig than he is with me driving, although I have on occasion and am fine driving. That being said, he is usually exhausted by the time we roll into the campground and get set up, as the set up is mostly his chore as well. As he pushes back on the recliner with a beverage in hand and ready for some R&R, I am ready to head back out for some adventures and sight seeing. I finally realized that I can and do go exploring on my own when we land and don’t expect him to go with me. This usually includes a walk around the campground, checking out the laundry facilities, talking to anyone who will talk to me and perhaps an outing to a local quilt store.

3. TIP: In general we only travel during daylight. We plan all our days to leave once it gets light and definitely are in our campground and set up before dark. There are too many things that can go wrong trying to get parked and set up or leave in the dark, especially in tight campgrounds. The only exception is when we stay in a Walmart parking lot or somewhere that is completely open and we aren’t fully setting up.

4. Between the two of us, we check out the rig and truck pretty thoroughly before we start driving after a stop.

• TIP: Tom often checks the rig tires to see if they are hot. He also has a torque wrench that he will ensure that the wheels are securely bolted to the axel.
• TIP: I walk around the entire rig before we leave a campground to ensure we haven’t left anything behind (good thing, as I have caught a few things) and make sure we don’t hit anything as we pull out. I did notice that our trailer tires were wearing unevenly while we were in Mississippi. While you don’t normally rotate trailer tires, we did get the rig in and have the tires rotated so that the uneven wear would be more distributed until we got home a month later and had them replaced.

4. Warranty work is the bane of most RVer’s existence, mostly due to RV Dealers putting it on the back burner as far as priority work. Our first warranty issue was a hole from a rivit about a 1/3 of the way up on our water tank. We did not realize it we had that problem until we were boondocking (camping without hook ups) at Joshua Tree National Park as we watched half of our water leak out of our tank. Since we don’t need our water tank to be full when we have hook ups, we were able to work around it until we got into the dealer to replace the water tank. But that still took a couple of months, which is very common for warranty work.

Additional Warranty Work and Major Welding

We have had additional work done that was eventually covered by the warranty. Our Lippert frame that is the structure for our rig has had its share of problems.

• Sep 2019 in Drum, PA off I80 – We had a shackle, the piece of metal that holds the leaf springs onto the frame (I am getting VERY familiar with the frame work of our rig, as you well see in this blog) break as we were about to get onto I80 in Pennsylvania, which ripped into the back axel tire on the rig and caused it to blow—BOOM! Thankfully, we were only a block from trailer repair shop and managed to have the owner drive his truck to us, get the rig to a point that it could be backed into his shop and they were able to weld the new shackles and let us know that we had additional welding issues that would need to be addressed.
  • TIP: TAKE PHOTOS of any problems you have while you are on the road. This was a pricey fix, but it was mostly covered by the Lippert 3-year warranty because we took photos of everything and we could prove the deficiency.
  • Tom had additional welding done on the rig once we got home as well as had the axel that experienced the problem replaced. He also thought that replacing the axel would help with the uneven tire wear we were experiencing.
• Sep 2020 driving into Nebraska on I80 – The wheel fell off the bus…well it went rolling into a farmer’s field and thankfully didn’t hit another car. While losing a wheel on the rig is quite serious, we had 3 other wheels in tact and were able to safely pull off the road into a rest area. Another excellent experience with a small welding trailer repair shop outside of Ogallah got us to a KOA campground near by and back on the road the next day.
  • We ended up with replacing the axel we had replaced last year and upgraded the leaf springs on that axel. The shop did not have extra upgraded leaf springs to upgrade the second axel, which potentially lead us to our next problem…
  • Two days later, we were about 90 miles from our campsite in NY when we noticed the wheels weren’t lining up on the rig. Tom did a quick assessment to determine that we were OK to make the final stretch to our campsite where we discovered one of the leaf springs on the other axel broke. Danbury, CT provided another great welding/trailer repair shop that took care of this problem with upgraded leaf springs on the second axel.
  • Needless to say, Tom was ready to leave the rig in NY and drive home after this trip.
• Additional welding work under warranty was done on the frame in 2020 to include beefing up the original welding, which was mostly spot welded. Also the living room slide mechanism needed rewelded to keep the slide moving in and out evenly.
  • TIP: As you can see, we have had significant frame and welding problems with our rig. It was suggested to us that we may be carrying too much weight for the rig. So we had the whole rig and truck weighed at a Cat Scale at a truck stop for less than $20. While we were carrying on the high end of our range, we shouldn’t be over taxing the rig’s frame.
  • We put a lot of miles on our rig and while we don’t do a ton of dirt road travels, the inerstate roads are often very bumpy themselves and probably cause a lot of wear and tear on the rig.
  • If and when we buy another rig, we will look into rigs with beefier frames, axels, leaf springs and tires (which we have replaced on this rig except one axel and the frame) or have them all replaced as soon as we purchase the next rig.

Additional Work and Repairs to the Rig

• Aug 2019 (New Brunswick): Leak in the basement (under trailer storage) turned out that the caulking from the shower drain dried and cracked allowing water from the shower into the basement. Tom disassembled the pipes and then resealed and recaulked the plumbing.
• Sep 2020 (Chelan, WA): I watch the slides on the rig (the kitchen is on a slide and the dining area and two recliners are on another one) go in and out with almost every stop as we want access to the fridge, pantry or are setting up for the night. The kitchen slide moves in and out on a pully and cable system that I was convinced would wear out at some point. Indeed it did while we were in Lake Chelan, WA. The cable frayed and Tom was able to get a local trailer repair shop in Wenatchee fix it for us.

Moral of the repair stories…

• Experience your problems on major interstates as there are plenty of trailer repair shops, even in rural remote areas as so many trucks drive those routes, the repair shops always keep busy.
• OR have your problem in a major recreational area that needs to provide services for campers, boats and other recreational toys. It helps to get problems fixed in a timelier manner…
• It helps if it isn’t warranty work and you are paying out of pocket. The shops like real money that they get on the day of repair!
• Despite our set backs while on the road, we continue to be excited about our RV travels and have plenty more scheduled for 2021 and the years to come.
• Don’t let your husband sell or get rid of the rig on the road…work through the problems and watch them fade away in the rear view mirror!