The Breakdown Event

Tuesday morning arrived like any other morning. The Cochiti Lake U. S. Army Corps of Engineers campground was nicely appointed and quiet. We both slept well the night before our scheduled departure. After coffee and a light breakfast we started the pack up routine for our next leg of the journey. Karen on the inside and me on the outside. Coolant level in the truck was topped off and the oil was checked before I hooked up the RV. By a little after ten on the morning of September 16 we were back on the road with a plan to make it to San Jon Village Park, New Mexico not far from the Texas border. Our route would take us south on U.S. Hwy 285 to the historic Route 66 in Clines Corners.

It was around 50 miles south of Santa Fe when things really started to unravel. In addition to the already existing engine warning light, low coolant alert and DPF filter full message the engine seem to get stuck at 3000 RPM. It wouldn't automatically shift to a high gear and come down from edge of the RPM red line. I had to shift into neutral and manually shift to a higher gear to bring the RPM down. We also couldn't drive faster than 55MPH which led me to believe that the engine's computer had finally put us in limp mode.

The posted speed limit on this section was 75 MPH and we had vehicles closing in on us so I moved as far to the right side of the road to be safe and turned on the flashers. We drove like this for about 45 miles until we got to Clines Corners at the junction with Route 66. There is a large service station at that location so we began slowing down to get off the road and rest up. As the truck started to automatically downshift the truck would violently jerk. I shifted to neutral to minimize the violent effects of downshifting and coasted into the parking lot. Had we damaged the transmission attempting to continue driving the truck?

We stopped, rested the truck and considered our options. We decided to continue driving if the truck would start back up and try to get to Amarillo, Texas about 227 miles away. We called ahead to the Dodge RAM dealership to try and schedule a day to bring the truck in to be fixed. We thank God the service department could fit us in the next day! In prior weeks when we checked with local dealerships, we couldn't get an appointment for 2-3 weeks. When we started driving the violent jerking would occur as the vehicle accelerated through the gears. To mitigate this I resorted to shifting into neutral then back to drive. That appeared to solve this immediate problem and allowed us to get back on the freeway and drive at 70 MPH. Once we were at speed the problem went away until we had to climb any grade. The truck would slow down when we had to go up hill so I would shift into neutral and back into drive at a lower gear to get the torque we needed to return to speed. I did this all the way to Amarillo for three and a half hours.

When we finally reached Amarillo the engine temperature alerted us to an overheating event so I exited the highway and was able to find a parking lot quickly. We let the engine cool down and I added more coolant to the reservoir. We only needed to drive about three miles to the Big Texan RV Park. We slowly navigated surface streets to the park and checked in. Thankfully, they could accommodate us even without a reservation and were very understanding.

Our appointment to drop off the truck was at All Star Dodge Chrysler Jeep Ram Fiat for Wednesday morning, September 17. We decided to wait on renting a car and got a ride back to the RV park to wait for their phone call. It wasn't until late in the afternoon we found out what we were dealing with this time around.

It was a good news and bad news scenerio.. The good news was the diesel mechanic determined that the EGR Cooler had a crack in it and this was the ongoing cause of all the problems with the DPF filter message and the mystery coolant leak. The bad news was it would take two business day to get a replacement EGR Cooler from another dealer in order to make the repairs. Thankfully, the transmission wasn't the issue causing the violent engine shifting issues. This was caused by broken engine mounts that would need to be replaced but considerably less expensive than a transmission repair. But, even so, this whole repair would cost us another $8000 and we wouldn't get the truck back until late Monday, September 22 at the earliest.

We made arrangements with the RV park to stay for a week. They had to move some reservations around and were wonderful to us. We had our E-bikes to use to get to the Walmart and run errands. We used Uber and Lyft to get to and from church on Sunday. We spent much of our time in Amarillo planning the logistics for our big trip to Turkey in October. Since we would be "stuck" for a week, we were disappointed to have to cancel some upcoming plans for a baseball game and visits with people. But we pressed into to our motto "Semper Gumby"....Always Flexible!

The truck was completed on Tuesday, September 23 around 3 PM. We were picked up by the dealership and took care of paying our $8286.50 repair bill. As we drove away from the dealership my eyes were glued to the dash looking for any engine light or coolant light warnings. Joyfully I drove back to the RV park with no warnings or indication of any remaining problems. We hooked up the RV, pulled out of the park and headed in the direction of Smithville, Texas.

We spent the next two days driving back to our lot in the RVICS Village finally arriving on Wednesday, September 24 in the afternoon. During this final leg of our journey we experienced no issues with the truck or RV. It was the most relaxed I've been in weeks! When we backed the rig into space #24 it really felt like we were home.

Karen and I are so grateful for our Heavenly Father's watchful eye and caring provision during this ordeal. Just image all the desolate places where we could have broken down. It was by God's grace we made it to Amarillo and were able to get the truck finally repaired. The cost is what it is. I'm thankful we have the financial resources to take care of the repairs. A friend of mine recently shared that they were spending $50,000 to replace the aging roof on their home. So, it certainly gave me a perspective on what we were spending for our truck repairs.

Back in the Village life is easy and predictable. Dairy Queen on Monday at 4:45 PM with the gang. Coffee on Tuesday morning at 8 AM with the guys. Ladies prayer on Tuesdays at 1 pm. Game night on Tuesday and Friday. Lunch at a different restaurant in Bastrop every Thursday at 11:45 AM. Church on Sunday. This is the routine until we leave on October 10 for the next chapter in our retirement adventures.