Oregon - RV Issues

 

Our camp site with Hart Mountain in the background

When I started this Beyond the Big Left Turn blog, I decided that I wasn’t going to bore you with our adventures of owning a used RV and being rookies at it.  We’ve had several adventures, but to hear them, you’ll have to provide the wine, or rum!  Instead, this blog was to be, and will be about the places that we visit, and the sights and images that I find appealing.  Obviously, as life goes, there will be a different sort of story for you.  This is one of those.

Upon arrival at our campsite at Hart Mountain, we had trouble getting our slides to open up. They didn’t.  Tom futzed and played and checked all the wiring.  We added more hydraulic fluid and bled the lines. Still no go. Rather than getting the slides stuck in the out position, and being 75 miles from any sort of town, we opted to keep them closed and returned back to Lakeview to see about repairs.

A large part of our trip plan was to travel with Tom’s sister Sue, and husband Jeff. We haven’t been able to spend much time with them since leaving Seattle in 2011, and had hoped to do that on this trip. Since they only have a month to do this travel, they continued towards Yellowstone, as we were now uncertain of our timing for the fix. We will hope to meet up with them for some camping together later this week.

 

We were able to drive towards town to get cell coverage and call for a mechanic to take a look at it in the morning.  Ray at Max’s Garage, came highly recommended for RV repairs, even though his specialty is big rigs and farm equipment.

One out of three slides.....

After looking at it, the mechanic felt that our hydraulic pump was not getting enough pressure and needed to be replaced.  He made many calls to his contacts in between fixing other trucks and gear. Being frustrated by just sitting, I got on the internet and was able to source a replacement pump/motor.  It was ordered and was to arrive from Portland the next day.  

It arrived too late in the day for the mechanic to install it, so Tom and I removed the old one, and got the new one in place.  Wiring hooked up, and the tank full of fluid – and still no go. We could have taken the rig back to Max’s the next morning, but really felt that it was time to see an RV specialist.

Since this was Thursday and we really couldn’t get anywhere to a repair shop until the first of the week, we headed north to the Malhuer National Wildlife Refuge, our next planned stop, about 120 miles away. 

Even with the slides in, we still have access to the bed, bathroom and the refrigerator by climbing over the kitchen island.  A bit awkward, but we can do it, especially with cooking outside on our campstove. We did have to stop and buy a skillet, as my pans are in a cupboard that isn’t accessible.  So, we spent the weekend exploring a good portion of the 187,000 acres of the refuge.  You can find my images of Malhuer on a separate post.

While searching for a pump, I had spoken with a couple of RV shops regarding assistance.  Wilson’s RV in Boise was helpful and called me back. I made an appointment with them for Tuesday morning.  

It’s now Monday night, and we’re in Boise at a very full RV park, right next to I-84 freeway and about ¼ mile from the Boise airport.  No worries about noise from the planes… we couldn’t hear them due to the noise from the highway!

We’ve been to the shop the check out the route and their parking.  We’ll be there at 7:15am for our 7:30 appointment.  We’ll let you know how it all turns out.