Oh, Nuts! Another Maintenance Challenge

 We were trying to leave Stoney Creek campground, near Greenville, VA, on the 4th of October (my birthday, hoo ra) when we noticed that our air bag on the front of the motorhome was not filling properly.  Our air gauges wouldn't come up, the front of the motorhome wasn't raising up. 

Blown out Air Bag

 We had some "Gorilla Duct Tape" and used it around the base where the leak was.  It must have slowed the leak enough to form a little bit of a seal, because the bag filled, but was still leaking.  The engine compressor was keeping up with it though.  We limped into Roanoke, VA to a Freightliner sales and service company.  They ordered in two new bags, because since the leaking one was dry rotted, then the other one would be bad also.  Trouble was, the new bags wouldn't be delivered until the next Monday.  This was Thursday.  They graciously let us stay on their repair lot with an electric hook-up.  

But however, we couldn't stay after 3 PM on Saturday because they were locking the gates from then until 7AM on Monday!  So...on Saturday we went looking for a place for a couple days that wasn't far from the repair facility.  We went to Camping World lot, less than 2 miles.  We had water on board, and there was a dump at Camping World.  So by running our generator a lot, we got by pretty well.
 

New Air Bag

It took two half-days to install the bags because the technician had lots of trouble getting to the bags, and then getting the bolts loose.  The tech said he broke 3 ratchets, and finally with a snatch pipe broke the 3/4 bolt instead of the nut coming off. 

Truck Maintenance Pit

 When it was all over on Tuesday afternoon, we had racked up:  
Labor: $759  (truck rate instead of MH rate, and reduced the number of hours because they quoted less hours)
New Bags:   $715.76
Shop Supplies: $15.00
Tax: $38.73
Total:  $1528.49 

The new bags seem to be working well now.  Thing is, our living room slide went Skagway (as my good buddy Rusty would say) as we were trying to leave Freightliner.  We got it retracted, but I believe the motor gear got stripped.  I've priced them on-line anywhere between $450 to over $900.  So we're going to head to Red Bay Alabama where the Tiffin Motor Home factory is for repair.  We are also heading west in order to stay out of the way of hurricane Michael. 
  
Ahhh, life on the road. So challenging.