While in Yuma this early spring Marc replaced some new tires on the Freightliner he was dissatisfied with with larger and heavier rated tires. He had noted quite a bit of wandering with the trailer so was hoping to mitigate that factor. Although he still noted the wandering during his return trip to Bend, of even greater importance was that the larger tires threw the rig into a bad nose-high towing angle. Hoping to correct this problem, he thought he might as well flip the axles to gain the needed three inches or so that would provide.
What we thought would only be one day’s work has turned into much more because when he dropped the axles and opened them up he found worn out bushings, bolts with their threads sheared, shackles and equalizer thinly worn through; even one spring which appears crushed. Why is it with RVs that nothing is ever as simple as it should be? Those of you with heavy fifth wheels take heed—this is what eleven years of punishing roads will do so check your undercarriage once in awhile!
Now we sit waiting for yet more parts to arrive (an entire wet kit) which will replace the worn ones, save for springs which we can’t afford to replace at this point in time. Our travels are delayed indefinitely until everything is fixed and ready to roll—if indeed we have any money left to travel on once all is said and done!
On another note, we spent another two hours at the Verizon store yesterday, returning and replacing the first express air card for one better suited for my laptop; one which has a PCIM and express card 2 in 1. Marc’s laptop doesn’t have a PCIM slot so he needs a USB type connection. It certainly seems to be working better hooked up to our Wilson amplifier and feels a lot more solid for the abuse I seem to put my electronics through. The first USB styled card was so flimsy we just knew it wasn’t going to last. Since we are buying this equipment outright so we didn’t have to commit to the two year data plan, we wanted something that will function with some longevity. This still isn’t an internet solution we are totally happy with but short of being somewhere we can jump back onto cable internet, it will have to suffice for awhile. The main thing we have to constantly be aware of is our usage, limited to 5 gig/month which effectively leaves out any downloading of music, movies, UTube or even streaming video ads on some news sites like MSN. Other than the forced limitations to my surfing, so far I find it tolerable.
