Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Oklahoma City, OK

Our day started out great! Beautiful sunny weather, no wind, a great day for traveling. Had my route all figured out, knew which city came next, etc., etc. Well, you know what they say about "the best laid plans".......

We were traveling East on Interstate 40 from Amarillo, TX on into Oklahoma. When we got to Oklahoma City, I was going to take Interstate 35 north so we wouldn't have to take the toll road 44. Well, we didn't quite make it to Interstate 35. A very nice young lady (wish I'd gotten her name), got along side of me & motioned toward the trailer tire & said to pull over. I didn't feel anything (other than the darn rough road), but when I pulled off on the shoulder to stop, I saw the smoke. It wasn't the tire. They were in good shape & not hot. We use nitrogen to keep them running cool. But it was smoking somewhere. Bill finally figured out it must be the wheel bearings. So I called Good Sam ERS & told them what we thought. She talked with the tech & he suggested since we were right by an exit to get off & check it out. Then we decided to look in our Trailer Life Directory & find an RV Repair shop. Found one 4 exits down. I called Motley RV Repair on Reno Ave. in Oklahoma City & they said I should be able to get there okay. Well, I made it all the way until I got off Exit 142 & the wheel started wobbling. I made it to the corner where we had to turn going very, very slow with the 4 ways on, but when I turned the corner, I got around it, but the tire came off. Fortunately everyone was aware something was wrong & no one had an accident. I just Thank God that I wasn't going 65 down the Interstate, that the girl stopped me & that I was only going about 5 mph when the tire came off. The crew at Motley came right down, blocked us up off the road & drove the truck & trailer in for us. The pictures tell the rest of the story.

This shop is Immaculate!!!! The staff is friendly, courteous & I've never seen anyone start a job as quickly as they did. They certainly know how to run a business. The shops floors are so clean you could almost eat off them. Every tool has a place & is in it's place. Check out this web site:

Motley RV Repair

www.motleyrvrepair.com
There are pictures on their you wouldn't believe. In the lounge, there is a 3 ring binder of letters & commendations for the work they perform. I think we found the right place. Bill had them replace the wheel bearings in all four wheels. They found a wire that was bad in one of the other wheels for the brakes. Thank God we had them do all of them. We might have had something else happen with the brakes down the road. He said apparently the manufacturer hadn't left enough slack in the wire & it had rubbed the insulation off. So with all four wheels done, we are camping outside of their shop tonight & tomorrow they will start the exterior repairs. Tomorrow may be another long day.

Tonight I'm glad I bought a Park Model in Arizona & am going to be leaving the 5th wheel in NY!!!!

So all you Happy Campers & Full Time RVer's, this is another day in the life of...............
The Traveling Cardinal's

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Oh wow, what a lucky/unlucky break. Metal damage probably cost more than the axle/wheel repairs. Hope insurance helps out.

Peggy & Bill said...

Yes, insurance was a big help! Thank goodness, plus we have extended warranty too. That has been a God send! I'm just so happy that Angel told us to pull over! I'm glad we picked the right repair shop as they do the body work right there too. Can't even tell anything happened!