I had a call from the Dodge service manager this morning, just after our snowblower broke (but that's another story). He said that they have to remove some of the RV fittings underneath and, since they are not standard, it will take even longer (more $$), but they would continue if I approved. What was our choice? I told him to get started and, as soon as I plowed out (that other story), I'd come by to see what they meant.
The other story first—we had over a foot of snow last night. We have a parking area next to the street in front of our house. The town always plows the street in one direction...the direction that pushes the snow to our side of the street, leaving a rather large heavy berm of snow. In addition, they always seem to keep left in front of our house, so not only do I have to shovel out our parking area, but also about a six-foot wide section of the street parallel to the parking spot (including the snow berm).
A couple of years ago, I got tired of shoveling by hand and found a used snowblower that seemed in good working order. Last year we escaped before any major snowfalls, so it never got used. It worked just fine a few weeks ago when we had our first big storm and was infinitely easier and quicker than ever to clear our walks and parking. I asked myself why I hadn't done this a decade ago.
When we got up this morning there was over a foot of snow from last night's storm. We are on the south side of the storm's snow line. 10 miles north of here they had an inch or two. I got the snowblower out of the root cellar, fired it up and headed out of the back yard. Twenty feet later snow stopped coming out of the chute. This was dry snow, so it shouldn't have been a blockage. I looked in the front and the blade was not turning. After shutting the machine off, I looked a little closer. The housing of the gearbox where the engine shaft connects to the blade had cracked and the gears had jammed. So much for our used snowblower.
After a bit of a meltdown (not enough to actually melt any snow), I went in to call a neighbor to ask to borrow his machine. At this point the call from Dodge came in.
I successfully borrowed the snowblower, cleared the parking spot, got the car out of the root cellar and headed off to Dodge.
They had Speedy up on a lift with the rear wheels and brake drums off. It turns out that part of the problem was that the rear brake cylinders had frozen and had to be replaced, as did the lines and hoses leading to them. The line from the rear to the front had to also be replaced. That is where the leak is. Finally, the line to the ABS unit in the front also had to be replaced. They would have to fabricate the line to the ABS as that part is no longer made. Being the heaviest (and rarest) version of the Dodge Van, they had to be ordered and the wrong ones were delivered, so they were still trying to get the right ones.
In order to put in the brake lines, they would have to drop the gas tank. The line is routed right over the top of it. The 35-gallon gas tank is full as I'd topped it off only minutes before the brakes failed. They would also have to lower the fresh water tank (fortunately empty) to route the lines and they might have to lower the full propane tank.
It will probably be Friday before it is done and thousands in labor. But what is the choice?
This, of course, led to the question: "Is it worth it to keep Speedy?".
We bought the 2001 Roadtrek with 67,000 miles on it in 2009 and it now has 128,000. I ticked off the list of non-maintenance repairs to the service manager: distributor rotor and wires, coil (twice), front brake calipers, front brake hose, front wheel bearings, ball joints, shocks, alternator, idler pulley and and belt, water pump, rear differential, differential axle seals, rear abs sensor, both oxygen sensors, cam position sensor, and now brake lines and rear cylinders.
His reply was that the van was in very good shape, particularly for a Massachusetts vehicle, and that most of the items were once-in-lifetime (vehicle lifetime) replacements, which ought to be anticipated with that much mileage on the van—so, no definitive answer here.
After taxes and title, our cost for Speedy was a bit under $22,000. Including the current repair, non-maintenance repairs have been around $9,000 in four years. To do the same thing all over again, buy an eight year old Roadtrek (2005) with <70,000 miles on it, would cost around $45,000, based on those available on-line.
Economically, it doesn't seem to make sense to buy newer, but it is becoming harder to push back the nagging question of what will happen next. Every major trip seems to bring another on-the-road breakdown or a significant replacement on return from a trip. What to do???
Most likely we'll just get the van back, drive to Texas (hoping there are no other problems), enjoy our volunteer stint and revisit the question on coming back. There seem to be lots of RV places in Texas and Florida, maybe we'll take a look on the way home.
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