A Disturbing Discovery

Monday, October 17 was departure day from our Doran Beach campsite back to Healdsburg, CA prior to our departure to San Jose Del Cabo on Wednesday, October 19.

I was getting the rig ready to travel and went underneath to check some patches I had installed the prior evening. I noticed something odd about the underbelly liner near the rear axel. I could see a tear on the edge next to the leaf spring on the driver side. Upon closer examination it appeared the front edge of the fresh water tank had dropped and was resting on the interior of the underbelly liner. Was it safe to drive with the tank loose?

I called the customer service department at Alliance and told them about my situation. In the meantime I tried to dump all the remaining fresh water from the tank to reduce the weight in the tank and on the liner. After talking with Stephanie in customer service we decided to take the slow road back to Healdsburg. Semper Gumby time!

While en-route, Karen was calling a local mobile RV repair technician to see if we could get an appointment to have the damage assessed. Fortunately, by the grace of God, we made it to Healdsburg with the tank still attached. We set up the rig with electrical, water and sewer service on site and continued working the problem. By days end we had an appointment with Atlas Mobile RV Repair for Tuesday afternoon.

Tuesday was a work day for me. I had another scheduled deposition at 10 AM and it lasted 7 hours and 15 minutes. Fortunately, Karen got home from work and met with Stephen the mobile RV repair technician. He removed the underbelly liner to get a closer look at the situation. My deposition over, I talked with him about our circumstance and he was extremely informative and helpful. He took pictures, which we forwarded to Stephanie at Alliance, of a broken steel frame bracket that was holding the tank in place. He jacked the tank up so it wasn't putting pressure on the electrical conductors and propane gas lines to the oven/stove appliances.

With the tank jacked up and no propane gas leak detected we got ready to follow up with Stephanie at Alliance who was running point on our situation opening a case and arranging reimbursement for the mobile service call. A few more emails back and forth and that was all we could do for now. So, we left on Wednesday morning for Mexico for a five day, all expenses paid trip with the crew from Total Concepts (Karen's amazing and generous employer). She and I needed a vacation after a couple of trying days. Everything could wait until our return on Sunday, October 23.