Hiking, Biking, Golf & REPAIRS!!

As most of you know, I prepared for this adventure. I read RV forums for 3 years trying to learn everything I could before we hit the road. Several times I read the suggestion to buy a gently used motorhome so that all the bugs were worked out by someone else. I scoffed at that, thinking “how bad could it be”. Ha! Ha! Ha! That’s the RV gods laughing their butts off.

Well we bugged out of Virginia Beach to avoid the winds from the hurricane. We were in Roanoke Rapids NC riding out the storm when the adjustable bed decided to stop moving into the up position and stopped moving all together. So this bed is stuck up so now what? I ended up sleeping crosswise and Kean was on the couch. We decided to let it go until we reached Myrtle Beach. We would be there almost a month and would have time to work on it. So we get ready to leave the next day and the bedroom slide will not come in. The bed did not go all the way up when it stopped so there is a safety feature that prevents the slide from coming in. Fortunately the bed was up just far enough that when we circumvented the safety feature there was just enough room to bring the opposing slides in. At least now we could hit the road.

We stop in Fayetteville NC for the night and only put out one slide and keep the same sleeping arrangements. We spend lots of time that afternoon there checking road conditions to make sure that the roads we are using are not flooded out. We were on the NC & SC Department of Transportation websites checking road by road. We only had to make one adjustment to our original plan. Fortunately all was well and we made it safely to the campground in Myrtle Beach. We got a really nice site facing into the lake so have a nice water view for the duration.

We are planted here for a while so time to get this bed fixed. Kean was able to peek under the bed and thought he saw the problem — a wire had come loose from the bed tilt motor. Now the teardown begins. The bed has to be completely disassembled in order to get to the motor.

It’s an air bed, so all the air had to be removed, all the bedding stacked in the living area, the plywood taken up, and finally the metal railing. In the last photo above you can see the detached wire. It is so poorly made that another wire comes loose right away when removing it from the frame. To make matters worse, the wires are soldered on. So Kean goes online and finds an electronics shop about a half hour from the campground and off we go. We drop off the motor and head back. No sooner were we back that we get a call that it is repaired. Kean heads back out and picks it up. He gets back and begins to hook it up to make sure that this was in fact what the problem was, and bam! another darn wire comes loose. Now it is too late as the electronic shop guy said he was leaving for the day. What a mess. We have to pile all the stuff back on the bed. Fortunately I had bought a 2″ memory foam topper a couple of weeks ago so I doubled that up and slept on the floor next to the couch where Kean was still camping out. The next day Kean was pretty down so I suggested that we drop the part off and go get some breakfast. We went to Cracker Barrel and Kean got french toast smothered in apples, cranberries, pecans and syrup. He was in a much better mood after all that sugar. Being married 26 years, you learn how to make the other feel better. So after breakfast we pick up the motor and take it back. We also secure it so no pressure is put on the wires. We don’t want to go to the electronics shop a third time. Here is how it looked:

Now we reinstall the motor, put the bed back together and Kean is hooking up the hoses to the air pump when he breaks one of the connections. Talk about cussing. Hopefully no one was walking by our place when this happened because they would have gotten an ear full. So I go online and start looking for a replacement part. Not seeing one, I get into an online chat with a customer service person. He tells me what part is needed and asks if we have someone that can replace it. We open up the motor and Kean decides he will try to repair it.

So off to Home Depot we go. He comes up with a way that he thinks will work. Kean makes the repair, we hook it up, fill the bed and go about our business. Time for bed comes along and we go in and it is obvious I have no air in my side. The fix did not work. I sleep on Kean’s side and Kean is again on the sofa. Next morning he makes an adjustment and we fill the bed. It looks like it is holding air. Friday night we got to sleep in bed again.

Now it is Saturday. We have been in Myrtle Beach a few days now and most of that time has been taken with repairs. Since rain is forecasted for today, Kean is tackling another chore. The half bath door sticks so he is out sanding that down to make that situation better.

One thing I can tell you — we are sure learning how our new home is put together and how it works. Nothing like hands on experience. We don’t think we got a lemon but we do know we are sure working the bugs out. Now if it would stop raining and dry out, we can get on to the golf course before something else breaks.