Disaster Averted. I WAS WRONG

Yesterday, while driving from Salt Lake City to Mountain View, Idaho to watch the eclipse, Deb noticed the 5^th wheel was leaning far to the driver side. I thought it wasn’t a big deal; she did. I was wrong. Let me repeat that – I WAS WRONG. One of the leaf springs had broken off the suspension.

We were only 2 miles away from the RV dealer/repair shop next to the RV park we had camped in, and we were able to get there before anything else happened. Further inspection found that a bracket on one of the leaf springs had broken and the leaf spring had twisted. That surprised me because we had replaced the leaf springs the week before. From talking to the person who replaced the springs and the head of the repair shop at the RV dealer, I realized our suspension was not strong enough for our trailer. The trailer weighs around 18,500 pounds, and the suspension was designed for a maximum of 14,000 pounds. That explained why we had had so much trouble with parts of the suspension breaking.

We have to replace the suspension. It will take about two weeks for the parts to get here. We are upgrading to 20,000 pound independent suspension. During that time we will remain in SLC. Have had to cancel our stops fpr the next couple of weeks. I t looks like we will not make it to British Columbia this trip.

We are fortunate on many fronts. (1) We could move the trailer to the RV park next door by replacing the leaf spring. (2) The RV park worked with us to find a space for our trailer for two week, so we can stay in our trailer while we waited for the part. (3) We didn’t break down in the middle of the nowhere, and are safe. (4) We can afford the cost to replace the suspension.

Trying to figure out if we can get up to Idaho to see the eclipse. It looks like hotel prices have started to come down. And we have a parking pass in Smiths Ferry to watch the eclipse. We may drive up to Boise on Sunday, then to Smiths Ferry the next day. Won’t decide until later today.