(#$%R&(@) Truck problems - Day 1147 (Year 4, Day 52)

Clarksville, IN / Louisville, KY

The saga continues.  You may recall that last week Mitch saw a message on the dashboard about "water in the fuel tank."  He brought the truck into a local mechanic (it took hours of research to find someone that could look at it in less than a week.  In fact one of the places we called said "if you can find someone, you probably want to avoid them," meaning all decent diesel mechanics in the area are swamped and the ones who aren't don't do good business.)  We should have heeded that advice.

Mitch brought the truck in the next day.  They drained the tank, the warning light went off and we were on our way, $350 later.  Next day, same warning light came on.  Mitch brought it in again.  This time they totally drained the tank (the 105 gallon one), allegedly did a few other things -- took an entire day and now Mitch had lost 18 hours of work.  Got it back and light went off.

Now, less than a week later, the light goes on again!  We are about to enter a very fierce battle with the shop now.  Mitch can't afford to lose more time off work, so we need to insist they either give us a loaner vehicle or pay for a rental car, then they can fix it at their own pace - and FIX IT they must!!!  Already threatening them with a report to the BBB and posting all over social media.

At the moment, we are waiting to hear back from the owner of the shop what he plans to do to accommodate us.  Most likely will rent a car out of our own pocket just so Mitch doesn't have to miss work and have to deal with this afterwards.  But who knows?  Will keep you posted....

Meanwhile, a nicer campground, 5 miles further north that we're on the waiting list for, just called me today with an opening this week.  But if the truck is in the shop, we have no way to tow our home over there without the truck!

UPDATE:  About 5 minutes after posting this, Mitch called to tell me his battery died!  He's ready to call it quits.  I said it's all just mechanical problems and for every problem, there's a solution. But - BIG SIGH!!!