Phoenix to Goshen, some of everything

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BernieD

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Joined
Mar 1, 2005
Posts
5,891
Location
Goodyear, AZ
We just arrived in Goshen, IN,  9 days and 2,000 miles after leaving home.

It was a most interesting mix of stops; 2 PA parks, 2 Casinos (boondocking), a return to a park we've enjoyed in the past with only an FMCA discount, 1 Walmart and 3 nites total at 2 Harvest Hosts locations.

Harvest Hosts is a membership club that we joined at QZ last January. It provides free overnite parking (usually boondocking) at host wineries, orchards and farms. It is somewhat like being a member of the Elks; after taking the tours and wine tastings, you can spend more on wines than staying at a CG. At both wineries we had very gracious hosts, enjoyable and informative tours and non-stop tastings. Luckily, it was only a short walk back to the coach :p . Check it out at harvesthosts.com. If you are interested, use me as a reference (Bernie Dobrin) and we'll each get a month added on to our memberships.

While we thought we left enough time to take it easy do a little sight seeing along the way, Jim Dick's black cloud moved over us :'( the next to last day. We developed a driveshaft vibration and had to pull over and call for help. Coach-Net sent a tow truck, but while his truck was heavy duty, he felt the coach sat too low and, having IFS, no good place up front to hook to and he refused the job. Coach-Net arranged for another tow truck but after further consideration, he declined also. Coach-Net wound up sending a mobile repair truck. Turned out we had two leaking rear airbags that had to be replaced. Like tires, the 9 year old bags just aged out. He drove back to Danville, IL and returned with 2 new bags. He did a good job of installing them and, after 11 hours sitting on the side of an interstate, we were traveling again. We were so beat that we just headed to the nearest Walmart in Crawfordsville, IN and fell asleep.

Fuel was interesting. Leaving Phoenix, we had 2 climbs to over 7,000' the first day and fierce head and crosswinds the first two days. We were lucky to achieve an 8 mpg average. The third day was mostly downhill with a tailwind and we averaged almost 11.5 mpg.

We had Sprint cell and Verizon broadband available all along the route when needed, tho I know that there were stretches when we lost signal. While we were stranded on I-74, the Sprint service was spotty and I usually had to get out of the coach to carry on a conversation, tho traffic noise a lane away made that difficult.

We made it to Goshen this morning for the FMCA-INTO Area rally and have 5 days to rest and recuperate.


 
Bernie,
While I know you and Marlene are not at the Moab Rally, I feel you should win some kind of award for that adventure.  Glad you are safe and sound.

Betty
 
How did the bad rear airbag situation manifest itself as a driveshaft vibration?
 
With the rear airbags not holding air, the rear end rides about 6" lower. The angle of the drive shaft from the engine to the transmission is critical since the U-joints are designed for a certain angle. If the angle is off, the angle is greatly affected since the drive shaft is relatively short and the U-joints "object" because of the stress and the vibration happens.
 

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