RV Trip to Michigan - July 2007
We had originally planned to leave Oregon for Michigan in late June, but a malfunction with one of our
"slide out rooms" grounded us for an extra week in Oregon. Two of the eight aircraft steel cables which
move this room busted when we were showing it off, and a repair kit was not quickly forthcoming to our local
dealer. Glad it happened in Oregon and not on the road! We finally hit the road on July 1. We planned a
route to mimimize time on the road and drove between 250 and 450 miles per day, arriving in Michigan in a
week. The details of our route can be seen iwth Google Maps.
Along the way, we enjoyed our second major RV technical problem. After fueling up on exit 179 on Highway
80 in Nebraska, Maria noted that the "engine seems to be laboring" as we drove away. Our transmission
would not shift out of 1st gear, which we discovered after getting onto the freeway on ramp, but not quite on
the freeway. Calls to Monaco resulted in a monster tow truck being summoned to take us to the nearest
Allison transmission center, located 100 miles away, in Kearney, Nebraska. At least it was in the right
direction. We had no idea where the repair center was, but the tow truck driver said "No problem, just
follow me!" We had unhitched our towed car and left it behind the RV with emergency flashers blazing for
half a day as we waited for the tow truck. So just as our motorhome disappeared over the horizon, we
turned the ignition key in our Subaru to find that the battery was nearly dead! Nothing like trying to push
start a car by hand on a 95 degree day in the middle of a Nebraskan freeway on rampl. Happily, it started,
and with a steady application of 85 miles per hour, we caught up with our motorhome just as it was being
towed up the Kearney off ramp.
It turns out that if you repair Allison transmissions in Kearney Nebraska, most of your clients own things like
combines, 4-wheel drive tractors and other massive powered farming devices which smell like a delicate
blend of cow manure, diesel fuel and burned steel. So did the parking lot where we spen the night in our
disabled RV. The next day, we learned that Allison transmission experts are not fond of $#%#@$%
motorhomes because they are poorly documented and you "never know where to find stuff in a
motorhome." It took half a day to find the transmission computer (yes, it has its own computer) but once
found, the problem was quickly diagnosed and determined to be a short in one of two possible wires of the
120 wires in the internal wiring harness (inside the transmission). Upon removing the offending harness
and testing each wire, no short was found. As Friday drew to a close, we were faced with the option of
waiting for a new wiring harness (5 days in Kearney Nebraska during a heat wave) or taking a chance by
resetting the computer and trying the old harness again. Reflecting on how Control-Alt-Delete had become
my 3 fingered salute to Microsoft, we quickly chose the latter option. 45 days and 2500 miles later, the
transmission still works fine.
"slide out rooms" grounded us for an extra week in Oregon. Two of the eight aircraft steel cables which
move this room busted when we were showing it off, and a repair kit was not quickly forthcoming to our local
dealer. Glad it happened in Oregon and not on the road! We finally hit the road on July 1. We planned a
route to mimimize time on the road and drove between 250 and 450 miles per day, arriving in Michigan in a
week. The details of our route can be seen iwth Google Maps.
Along the way, we enjoyed our second major RV technical problem. After fueling up on exit 179 on Highway
80 in Nebraska, Maria noted that the "engine seems to be laboring" as we drove away. Our transmission
would not shift out of 1st gear, which we discovered after getting onto the freeway on ramp, but not quite on
the freeway. Calls to Monaco resulted in a monster tow truck being summoned to take us to the nearest
Allison transmission center, located 100 miles away, in Kearney, Nebraska. At least it was in the right
direction. We had no idea where the repair center was, but the tow truck driver said "No problem, just
follow me!" We had unhitched our towed car and left it behind the RV with emergency flashers blazing for
half a day as we waited for the tow truck. So just as our motorhome disappeared over the horizon, we
turned the ignition key in our Subaru to find that the battery was nearly dead! Nothing like trying to push
start a car by hand on a 95 degree day in the middle of a Nebraskan freeway on rampl. Happily, it started,
and with a steady application of 85 miles per hour, we caught up with our motorhome just as it was being
towed up the Kearney off ramp.
It turns out that if you repair Allison transmissions in Kearney Nebraska, most of your clients own things like
combines, 4-wheel drive tractors and other massive powered farming devices which smell like a delicate
blend of cow manure, diesel fuel and burned steel. So did the parking lot where we spen the night in our
disabled RV. The next day, we learned that Allison transmission experts are not fond of $#%#@$%
motorhomes because they are poorly documented and you "never know where to find stuff in a
motorhome." It took half a day to find the transmission computer (yes, it has its own computer) but once
found, the problem was quickly diagnosed and determined to be a short in one of two possible wires of the
120 wires in the internal wiring harness (inside the transmission). Upon removing the offending harness
and testing each wire, no short was found. As Friday drew to a close, we were faced with the option of
waiting for a new wiring harness (5 days in Kearney Nebraska during a heat wave) or taking a chance by
resetting the computer and trying the old harness again. Reflecting on how Control-Alt-Delete had become
my 3 fingered salute to Microsoft, we quickly chose the latter option. 45 days and 2500 miles later, the
transmission still works fine.
Somewhere in Wyoming...
Monster Tow Truck pulls our
motor home...
motor home...
First landing in Michigan -
Maria's mom's house.
Maria's mom's house.
Cattle guards on freeway ramp