Not sure if this nail in our "new tire" was divine intervention or just an other issue. Exit #111 on I 8 in Arizona will go down in our history as a memorable 4 days. One half mile before exit #111 we had blue smoke exiting the back of our toy hauler. We pulled off to the side of the free way and examined the situation, finding nothing. We thought it was a stuck brake. Started running again only to see more blue smoke to appear again. On the second investigation we found the tire to be deflating. Because we were 3.5 miles west of Gila Bend, which is in the middle of no where, it took 4 hours for road service to appear for the rescue attempt. We could not get the lug nuts loose.
Road service finally totaled the stuck lug nut and changed the tire and sent us on our way. The escape attempt on our part, was a gain of about 1/4 mile. Road service now on the other side of the interstate called us saying, "pull over right away you have more blue smoke coming from the back of your rig. On closer examination, the second time, we saw that the shackles, frame and mount hangers were bent and completely kiddy-wompus. Our new tires were rubbing on just about everything underneath the RV. Also a new bend was also had in the side panel of the RV molding and beautiful paint job. We limped the final 1/4 mile to the exit ramp, as to not spend anymore time , from semis running 70 mph only feet from us. After the amount of time we already experienced this it was getting old.
Road service finally totaled the stuck lug nut and changed the tire and sent us on our way. The escape attempt on our part, was a gain of about 1/4 mile. Road service now on the other side of the interstate called us saying, "pull over right away you have more blue smoke coming from the back of your rig. On closer examination, the second time, we saw that the shackles, frame and mount hangers were bent and completely kiddy-wompus. Our new tires were rubbing on just about everything underneath the RV. Also a new bend was also had in the side panel of the RV molding and beautiful paint job. We limped the final 1/4 mile to the exit ramp, as to not spend anymore time , from semis running 70 mph only feet from us. After the amount of time we already experienced this it was getting old.
Driver side view of exit #111 was not especially appealing, but the passenger side was very pretty. After sitting on the couch, searching our brains for another 4 hours, we were at a loss for what to do, as the temperatures climbed to new highs. Finally after road service was at just as big of a loss of what to do with us also and just before the sun went down, we decided to unload the side by side in search of something or someone. At this time we decided to put the hood of the truck up to signal that we were not spending the night because we wanted to but because we had trouble. As I turned the key to start the Honda a truck turned up the wrong way on the exit ramp towards us and asked if we needed help. The three men were from the near by dairy farm (17,000 cows strong) and evaluated our situation and say," oh man you guys are toast. You aren't going anywhere. You can not be towed and you are too tall to put you on a flat bet." Long story short... they called someone they knew, who could weld and he called someone he knew that had a mobile welder and he called another mobile welder. They called and said they would be there in the morning, which was Sunday. Bless their hearts!!! The following is a barrage of pictures for those who want to see and a few good times in a horrific situation These people were fabulous and worked their butts off to help. They truly were angels. Calob, Brandon and Monia, we thank you and loved the pleasure of meeting you. May God bless you richly.
A variety of sun sets and sun rises were seen 🥴
Many of the farm's milk tankers went by each day. They were so pretty!
Bye guys. Thank you...from the bottom of our hearts. Y'all are good people!
Need I forget this bottom of the kitchen slide, issue that we had in January... not a very good advertisement for this 2020 Dutchman Voltage. This was basically our first trip and RV has been used less than 10 times. We have patched this in an unconventional way with a Slicker Slide to buy us time to fix correctly. We had a 3 year slide and frame warrantee ...we will see how Key Stone handles this...