Woe is me...

[Schneewittchen37]

I'm literally 3 weeks away from my family's first trip back to WDW in more than a year. Covid cancelled our last 2 trips.

When I first booked this Spring Break 2021 trip we were going to fly down and stay at Boardwalk. Then we were going to drive. Then DH donated our old unreliable motorhome and bought us a new travel trailer about two months ago. So I rebooked everything for a Premium Meadow site at the Fort. Was so excited to go back to the Fort.

We got the trailer inspected, got the bearings repacked, dragged all of our old RVing gear to the new rig, bought a bunch of new stuff too (linens, command hooks, etc.), installed a bunch of upgrades as well. This past weekend was our first shakeout trip. Big fail. It was just an overnight Saturday trip to a KOA about 100 miles from our house. When we pulled in to the campground, the bearing cap had blown off one the wheels and it was smoking. DH was able to get us a replacement cap and repack it, but the bearing is shot. He checked all the other wheels, as far as he can tell, the shop didn't put enough grease on any of them. All we could do was limp to a local RV dealer with a shop. The dealer seems to have a big backlog of repairs and I don't think they'll get to us until sometime in April. So we might not make it down to the Fort.

We did find some other issues during the shakeout that DH was able to address right away, I guess that's good.... First he couldn't find the switch for the water pump when he was de-winterizing. That took a long time to find. And then the hot water heater was full of stink bugs, lady bugs and a little wasp nest. Jeez. On the bright side, I put a pizza stone inside the oven to help with diffusing the heat. Ended up making fantastic brownies. (The previous rig only had a microwave and stovetop. RV ovens are a mystery to me.)

The good thing? I have a Dreams Unlimited travel agent. Contacted her yesterday to let her know what was going on. Within a couple of hours she had me set up with a booked backup plan to stay at Yacht Club instead. I'm grateful. She figured out some things with the various specials going on right now. The trip she booked saves me about $600 over what I thought it would cost to stay at Yacht Club.

Reflecting on this, I've actually managed to rebook our cancelled April 2020 trip. I've booked the same beach front hotel in St. Pete and Yacht Club. I take this as a sign that when we start this spring break trip the clock will finally start again and 2020 will finally be over.....

Anyway, I'll let you know how things pan out. Now there's a good chance there will be a Premium Meadow site available soon.....

 

[Teamubr]

Congrats on the new camper. Sorry to hear a repair shop didn't do the bearings right.

Here is an option to get the bearings back to new. There is nothing special about the bearings on a trailer compared to a car. Check out your local tire/muffler/repair shops to see if they would be willing to do it. If they have a big enough floor jack and the space, I'll bet they will do it. The bearings (and races) are readily available from almost anywhere. E-trailer is always a quick on-line option too. I know the RV places are usually booked on repairs since their primary focus is usually to sell and not fix.

If you or a friend are handy, repacking/replacing bearings is fairly easy. If you lived close, I'd be happy to do it.

j

 

[Schneewittchen37]

Congrats on the new camper. Sorry to hear a repair shop didn't do the bearings right.

Here is an option to get the bearings back to new. There is nothing special about the bearings on a trailer compared to a car. Check out your local tire/muffler/repair shops to see if they would be willing to do it. If they have a big enough floor jack and the space, I'll bet they will do it. The bearings (and races) are readily available from almost anywhere. E-trailer is always a quick on-line option too. I know the RV places are usually booked on repairs since their primary focus is usually to sell and not fix.

If you or a friend are handy, repacking/replacing bearings is fairly easy. If you lived close, I'd be happy to do it.

j

Appreciate your thoughts.

DH is pretty handy. He even graduated from automotive school back in the 80s. I think working for a transmission shop for a few months convinced him that he wanted something different for a career.

Anyway, in the future he'll be handling the bearings himself, it's just a matter that we were stranded more than 100 miles from home without everything he needed to do the job. The closest shop that was picking up the phone was the RV dealer. Good Sam wanted to tow us. (omg, that's not going to help) The local roadside assistance guy wasn't picking up his phone...... the roadside guy that did pick up his phone was 50 miles from where we were.

At least we weren't stuck in the middle of an Iowa cornfield with a blown transmission... that's a story for another day.

 

[Sjm9911]

Sorry to here it. But hope you enjoy your new, although diffrent trip. You did remind me of what was in my last camper when i bought it used, a set of bearings and races just in case. I will be buying a new set for the incase of senerio.

 

[Schneewittchen37]

Hi everyone, minor update! All is not lost. The shop sent us a quote for the work. I'll take that to mean they've looked at it and might get to us at some point.

My hope is that if they do the work by next weekend, we'll be able to stay at the Fort.

 

[friendofeeyore]

Praying it will happen. No better place to camp than the "FORT". Keep us informed on the progress.

 

[Paulaparm]

I'm so sorry to hear that! Fingers crossed that it gets repaired. And if not, the Yacht Club deal sounds great!

 

[rideswithchrist]

Whew! Our last trip, we went to jack up the camper to hook up to head out...and the jack was frozen. We had to make two runs to Tractor Supply and it took a lot of hammering to get the old one off. My hubby almost cancelled our trip but I am glad we went.

I hope it all works out and now you will have new bearings! And maybe we will get some extras now that it was mentioned here.

 

[Schneewittchen37]

Minor update: Things are looking up. We heard from the dealer, the repairs are done. We're heading down to pick up the trailer tomorrow. Fingers crossed. And DH bought a thermometer gun doodad so we can check the temperatures as we drive home. It's about a 120 mile drive, so if all goes well on the drive home, I think we're a go for Fort Wilderness.

 

[Schneewittchen37]

Today's update:

First the good news, we successfully retrieved the trailer from the dealer. The bearings are repaired and everything looks good. Also, the dealer was kind of awesome and didn't charge us for it. They're saying their shop should have noticed the issue and repaired it before selling us the rig. That was a relief.

And then the bad news, this morning before we left for the dealership, DH noticed a low tire pressure warning on the pickup. He aired up all the tires and found a nail in one of the tires. It seems to be a slow leak and we were able to do the round trip on it with no issues, but now we're going to have to get new tires in the next 5 days.... Of course I'm not panicking. I think our local tire shop can handle us in one day.

But I won't be cancelling those backup plans for Yacht Club just yet, in case something else goes wrong and we all have to squeeze in my sedan for the drive down.

 

[Schneewittchen37]

I can't get a break. DH just found a water leak coming from the light fixture over the queen bed.

 

[bama_ed]

But I won't be cancelling those backup plans for Yacht Club just yet, in case something else goes wrong and we all have to squeeze in my sedan for the drive down.

Man that would too bad if you couldn't stay at the Fort and had to down shift to the Yacht Club.

Bama Ed

 

[Sjm9911]

Sending good vibes your way, hopefully that helps some.

 

[Schneewittchen37]

Whelp. We're getting new tires on the truck today. Fingers crossed there are no mishaps there.....

Regarding the water intrusion, we have a working theory: We used the TV antenna while we were doing the shakeout trip a few weeks ago. We didn't rotate it into the travel position before we left it with the dealer. We suspect the trailer was stored kind of ****-eyed/unlevel and the antenna in the "open" position and somehow let water drip in. We got up and took a look at the roof. There weren't any other obvious problem areas. Anyway, we test that theory tonight. We've got the antenna stowed properly and we're due for some rain tonight/tomorrow. If we stay dry, odds are looking pretty good.

 

[Schneewittchen37]

I think we're finally a go.

Got nice new tires on the truck without incident. And so far so good with the water in the ceiling issue. The antenna is stowed and I'm not getting any signs of water in the hole in the ceiling where the light fixture is attached. Everything's nice and dry.

Just started cancelling all the backup plans.

 

[tripleb]

... And so far so good with the water in the ceiling issue. The antenna is stowed and I'm not getting any signs of water in the hole in the ceiling where the light fixture is attached. Everything's nice and dry.

Just started cancelling all the backup plans.

Schneewittchen37, If the water leak "leaked", it will do it again. The very worse issue with RV's is water intrusion. I would suggest, you find and fix that leak before roof issues raise their ugly head. Replacing a roof on an RV is very expensive and the initial warranty does not cover roof issues that are caused by caulking issues. JMHO

 

[Schneewittchen37]

Schneewittchen37, If the water leak "leaked", it will do it again. The very worse issue with RV's is water intrusion. I would suggest, you find and fix that leak before roof issues raise their ugly head. Replacing a roof on an RV is very expensive and the initial warranty does not cover roof issues that are caused by caulking issues. JMHO

Understood. Water was definitely an issue off and on with the old rig. We'll be heading to Camping World soon to get the supplies for the next caulking party...... just not during spring break.

 

[Schneewittchen37]

Final update. We made it! Very uneventful drive down to St. Petersburg. Bearings are good. Truck is doing fine. Nothing else broke.

Spent a couple of lovely days at the beach. Today was an easy drive across I-4 to WDW. Checked in around 11 am. Got a nice spot in the 800 loop. Had Cuban leftovers for lunch. Headed over to the Meadow pool, it's a mob scene with a wait list, etc. I got on the list almost 2 hours ago and haven't been called back yet. So we're over at the Wilderness pool now instead. No wait to get in. There's even a few empty chairs.... Heading to Disney Springs tonight for a bit of shopping and dinner at Jaleo.

So happy to be here, we'll just have to make some allowances for covid....