A Sh and S Kind of Week

Not bad words that begin with sh or s but the kind that starts with shocks, shackles, springs, sleeves, shims.  When we first arrived at this campground in Sequim almost a month ago, the host - Russell - said as we were parking the rig, "I know what your problem with the RV is, I'll come by later and tell you."  Didn't know we had a problem,  just knew the RV made squeaky noises when you walked around inside and the tires on the outside squeaked when we were pulling it down the road.  We have had the RV looked at by the dealer and we felt that what ever it is, it isn't bad.

Russell came by later and talked with Dave and together they discussed the fix.  Since we have our warranty still in place on the RV, we decided to go to the Jayco dealer to discuss when, if possible, we could bring the RV in for service - in a month?  We would live in the RV at their premise while it was worked on - we have done this before.  Well, no, the earliest the dealer could work on it was more like November.  We could tell the dealer was slammed - RVs waiting to come in for service were lined up on the road to come in.  Back to the campground we went and to try to figure out what to do, if we were going to do anything.  Russell seemed to think we could get along, but he didn't recommend it.

Russell and Dave came to an agreement - we buy the parts, we pay for Russell's labor to do it.  Russell built horse conversion trailers in his past and said he knew exactly what needed to be done, and, when they winter in Quartzite, Arizona every winter, he makes enough money on this type of job on others' rigs, that he goes home with more money than what he started with.  Okay, let's do it.  Got the blessing from the campground that we were 'down' and couldn't move if we wanted to, I even extended our stay a couple of extra days, 'just in case'.

And as every automotive job goes, once you start, there are more things to be fixed or replaced, or, you don't have all the tools or parts you need.  Which is exactly what happened.  Russell and Dave started Tuesday with the job and found that one of the springs was broken.  Now new springs would need to be added to the original scope of the job.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday were spent with Dave and Russell laying on their backs under the RV, hammering, sawing, pounding, and got the job done.  A one day job that was predicted took 3.  So we were ready on Friday to go out and play again. But, rain.  First rain in 39 days.  The northern Peninsula was in a drought situation.  Had a nice gentle rain all day, but clearly they need more.  But we now have a new suspension under our RV and it feels good - and quiet!