Marshall, TX & more Transmission news

Marshall, TX & Transmission Update

So for another update. Left Arkadelphia, AR yesterday. RV was still acting funny. I took it back to the mechanic, the transmission guy came out & we took the RV for a test drive. The transmission guy thought my problem was probably the cadallitic converter. That it was clogged. They stood beside the exhaust pipes & said the air blowing from them was really, really hot. It should not be that hot.

I'm not a mechanic, so I took their word for it of course. I asked if I could make it to Houston to get it fixed by a mechanic in my area, they thought so. All this time, it has been bugging me that there had to be an underlying reason why my transmssion got so severly damaged like it did. So I thought their reason made sense.

Well.....

I get about 20 miles down the road & have to pull over. I had been running the engine for several hours, so the RV was very hot. I didn't want new damages to the transmission. I let it sit for awhile, let the genny run so I could run a/c for the dogs.

Then I left there. Made it to the Texas Welcome Center in Texarkana. Wow, what a nice welcome center!! If you pass through welcome centers, stop & pay them a visit. They have great info on state parks, campgrounds in their states, points of interest & free maps. Yep, all free. I loaded up on Texas info. Yes, I live in Texas, but it's nice to have those for when I decide to take off for a few days somewhere.

Oh....

Back to my mechanical problems.

I BARELY make it to Marshall, TX. I knew with the city, there would be mechanics & transmission mechanics as well. There is still a HUGE problem! I can't make it to Houston without damaging my rig!

Actually, I tried to stop at two parks at towns before Marshall, but I could not find their RV parks, so I was quite grateful to find this one. I've been here two nights. Cypress Creek RV park on I-59. I'll do a seperate blog about it. Nice people run this park. There is no age limit on RV's like some parks. It's more or less a roadside park, but there are full timers living here. They have a really nice meeting/entertainment room, with cable TV. A huge big screen tv, meeting tables, even a little corner bar. The bathroom/shower area is really nice too. Only one potty & shower, but it's not a resort or a busy park, so getting to the shower is not a problem. They have one for men & one for women of course.

Oh yea, back to my mechanical problems. So I got up this morning & left the park. I drove to a transmission shop that helped me in May when my serpetine belt broke. Shop closed. Bummer, I hope the owner is ok. I asked about him at another place & they told me he's been in ill health. But he'd also been wanting to retire, so I'm hoping for the latter.

OK, so I went to anther transmission shop. They were very nice folks there too. They took my rig for a drive. Tranny checks out ok. So they sent me to an automotive place, they check my cadallitic converter, it's good. No problems. So now we're all perplexed. They sent me to Ford. Ouch, we all know how much dealers are.

(btw, JR's told me if the converter weren't working, then you'd not feel the air coming out of the exhaust hoses. That it would be clogged)

The Ford dealer is too booked, they can't take me in. However, he was kind enough to talk to me & ask questions. As it turns out, it's most likely the transmission cooler that is the culprit! They never put a new cooler on!! So I went back to the transmission place & they ordered me a heavy duty cooler & will be installing it at 9am. And they said I could plug in to run the a/c for the dogs. What great people!!

As many of us know, ClassC's are built on a one ton van chasis. As many of us don't know, they don't change out the stock transmission coolers, so we have no clue. So our rigs really work overtime on hauling their loads around. Mine finally took fault to the task. I hope once they put in the new cooler, then all will be good in Ellie's world again. It has to be! She is going to be all new before I'm done with her!

When I get back, I'll need to get an alignment too. Man-o-man, some of those roads were just too rough & they did their damages.

I will be soooo glad to get back home again. 12 days of being displaced & stranded is enough. But I am very grateful that I had places that took me & the dogs into consideration & provided us with power & water.

And I'm lucky that I was able to afford this extra time at this point too. Although it meant rescheduling a doctors appointment 3x's! Maybe I'll actually make that appointment next week???

~As always, be kind to your pets, clean up after them on your travels & respect your neighbor~