The wheels are back on our wagon…now if they’ll only stay there!

 

The springs look the same but the new one is lighter and the leaves are shorter. 

The one in back that Eric had made in Mazatlan has longer leaves, is heavier and the leaves are much longer. 

It’s 9am and Eric is getting started.  I’m sitting outside ready to get things for him and ….to take pictures.  He has already hooked the trailer back up to the truck so when he jacks one side up it won’t damage the legs which have been retracted.   

Eric is using his 20 ton jack to lift the trailer so he can get the back wheel off.

Wheel is off and now it’s time to try and get the new one on.

The front stationary end is connected first and then the end where the shackle allows you to move the spring.  It took alot of jacking of the frame and lowering the back axle to get the shackle on. 

The equalizer has to be close enough to the spring eye so that the shackle will fit.

Stationary end connected.

Lifting the equalizer to connect the spring.

It worked.  Now the U bolts have to go on to attach the middle axle to the new spring. 

U bolt is going on. 

In the process of lifting and lowering the band around the back spring snapped.  It isn’t structural it just keeps the leaves aligned, Eric will fix that tomorrow. 

Middle Sailun tire is back on….note the damage from rubbing on the front tire which didn’t sustain any damage. 

The wheels are back on and now for the other side which will get the heavier Mexican spring that was bought in Mazatlan a few years ago.  It is the heavier side of the trailer as the bike and slides are on the driver’s side. 

Now that the the passenger side is back where it should be Eric doesn’t have to take off the rear tire on the driver’s side. 

Jacking up to attach the spring.

Same procedure with less jacking and it’s all back together.  Now for the tire.

For those of you who don’t know the easiest way to this is with a shovel.  Easy as pie to raise and lower the tire, by yourself, into the right position.  Tip of the day!  The whole procedure took about 4 hours. 

So…it’s all back together and as long as we don’t move it will all be fine!   We do at least have one spare spring to get us to Mazatlan along with one more spare tire.  No wonder some people are overloaded.  You have to carry so many tools and spare parts it’s bound to get heavy.  Our 5th wheel has a huge GVW capacity and we aren’t even close.  So why are the springs breaking….underbuilt and probably Chinese. 

Tomorrow is another day. 

P.S. -  Just as I was making dinner the propane ran out.  No problem Eric would just switch to the full tank but when he turned it on no propane would come out.  What now?  In the end he had to get out the 20lb barbecue tank and it worked fine.  What the heck we just bought a brand new $100 regulator at home so that we could switch back and forth.  What the hell else can go wrong.   Enough already. 

So how did Saturday go?

Eric started his day by troubleshooting the hot water heater issue. 

First off it was out with the meter to make sure he had power everywhere it was supposed to be.  He thought it might be the wall switch inside the rig but it was fine. 

He checked outside and he had power but it still wouldn’t work.   Turns out there is another switch at the hot water heater.  When we first bought the rig we couldn’t get the electricity to run the water heater even when we turned it on inside the rig.  Why you ask…well they have an outside switch that was originally turned off and held with a cotterpin.  Of course there was no manual to tell us this but Eric did find it.  So this switch had corroded over the years and was now burned and not working.  When he looked on line it said the outside switch was so no one could accidently turn on the heater if there was no water in it.  Go figure.

No problem as Eric had the right wire and connectors in his tool box to fix the problem.  He removed the switch (not a neccessary item) and fixed the wiring.  Voila!  All working again.  That husband of mine is just so darn handy! 

To amuse ourselves for the rest of the morning we decided to run into San Carlos.   We needed to refill one of our five gallon water jugs and I wanted to stop at Ruth and Rudy’s bakery for bread.  We took the ocean road from Miramar and this is a picture at the north end. 

Coming into San Carlos and you can see Tetakawi in the distance.  For those of you who don’t know…that means “goat tits.”  As a former goat owner…it would be a pretty rough looking udder!

There is a huge amount of grass and brush that needs trimming all the way in.  Lots of rain this summer.

We stopped at Ruth and Rudy’s bakery and I picked up a couple of loaves of bread.

Next a stop to get water after the bread and then I saw the shrimp truck parked in front of Ley’s so I went to have a look.  Huge frozen shrimp for 250 pesos a kilo or about $17 Canadian.  That will give us three meals so I bought some.  Then it was off for a scenic drive over to Mirador on the north end of San Carlos. 

Pretty area with some huge houses and condo develpment. As you can see the hills are very green here, even the cacti.

We spent a month in a condo in San Carlos back in March of 2008.  Eric and I went down to that little beach you can see with Sheldon and Holly who were from Okotoks, Alberta and our next door condo neighbours in the Marinaterra for the month.  Nice people with two little Shitzu’s that we called Tommy and Dickie as they were brothers and just like the Smother’s Brothers as one was much smarter than the other!  Sheldon had invested in phase three of the Pelican Cove condo development which was being promoted by a friend of his from Edmonton (Pelican Pete.) It was right on the water and he thought he’d invest money in the third phase so that if nothing ever happened, which it did never did he’d get his $30,000.00 deposit back.   Hmmm….I wonder if that ever happened.   Every year we drive up to the development and nothing was ever built and now even the sign has fallen down.  Anyway he and Eric went swimming that day and it was brutally cold.  Memories. 

So that was our morning and we headed back for lunch and to await the arrival of Louis the mechanic who was bringing our spring at 2pm. 

We’d just had lunch when a couple of motorhomes pulled in next to us and it turned out to be John & Anita from Kamloops and their friends Gord and Donna.  They’s spent the night at Edgar’s and were their way south as well.  We’ve known John and Anita for years as they’ve wintered in Las Jaibas many times.  They are on there way to Rincon de Guayabitos and will spend a week in Mazatlan on their way down.  Eric popped out to say hi and they were quite surprised.  Eric noticed that the side of Gord’s towed vehicle was quite damaged and that is quite the story.   Turns out he hadn’t stopped at San Emeterio because he had all his paperwork done and had gone around the cones on the highway and gone right by the check point so they chased him down with flashing lights.  He stopped and they made him turn around but as he went over the edge of the highway to go back the spare tire must have dragged and come loose.  They decided at this point that they weren’t going to make him come back so he continued on and not far ahead on the highway the tire fell out, the car hit it and then flipped over on it’s side and we was now dragging it!  Yikes ! He dragged the car which was now on it’s side down over the bank, off the road and a Mexican and his wife along with a truck driver stopped to help.  They attached a strap to the motorhome managed to pull the car back onto it’s wheels.  The car didn’t come off the tow bar…amazing and he unhooked it and took it for a quick drive to make sure it was okay.  Hooked it back up and was off down the road.  John and Anita were behind him and when they were passing by saw him over the bank so they travelled on together.   I told Gord later that it was the strangest RV accident story I’d ever heard.  How about you?  He checked with his insurance company and they will cover the damage and he’ll have it looked at by an adjuster in Mazatlan.  Hope I got your story right Gord!

While we were all chatting Louis showed up with Eric’s spring and ….it was just after 1pm.  It is a little lighter gauge than the one we got in Mazatlan but it will have to do.  Also,  Eric had asked them to bore out the eye to fit the pin which they didn’t do but Eric didn’t notice until after Louis had left.  That meant that Eric spent the next two hours filing out the eyes after he made a trip to Home Depot for some round metal files.  Not a fun job.  Another 400 pesos for Louis in addition to the previous 100 along with 1000 pesos for the spring. 

Later in the afternoon I popped over to John and Anita’s for a quick happy hour hello.  Had a nice chat with them and Gord and Donna… all very nice people.  They are all off to Los Mochis and Pemex 4925 tomorrow morning. 

So ends another day and tomorrow ….the wheels go back on our wagon.  Keep your fingers crossed.

Chapter two….

 

Yesterday morning Eric came to his senses and changed his mind about the spring.  It wasn’t the money it was the “ they will make the spring” part.  So he was off to the office before breakfast and had the guys on the front desk (who speak good english) call the nightshift lady who was still in bed.  She is just so nice and said”no problem I will call the mechanic and ask him to come back.”   The message came back that he would be here at “9am” and from waiting all the previous day we knew that was not going to happen.   But…Eric couldn’t leave in case he actually did show up. 

So now what to do about beer and grocieries which to us are the same thing….right Rusty!   The axles that have tires are sitting against the frame so the whole trailer is sitting much lower than it normally is and Eric didn’t think he could lift the trailer high enough to get it off the hitch.  But he did!   Good news as I could now head up to Walmart to restock us.

After driving myself in Mazatlan last year I now have no issue driving in Mexico as long as it isn’t in tight areas.  A quick run to the Walmart and I got everything I needed except good bread which will have to wait until Mazatlan unless I can get to Ruth and Rudy’s bakery in San Carlos.  I admit to being a bread snob and buy whole grain bread from a bakery at home.  I’m sorry Americans but I hate your commercial bread too.  It’s okay if I can get it from a bakery but the rest of it is not appealing to me. 

So, when did Luis the mechanic show up….well six o’clock of course.  The lady from the office (must get her name) came with him to explain cost if we had it made.  So 1000 pesos for the spring and 900 pesos for him to put it on.  Eric had decided that he could do the work himself so 400 pesos for the mechanics services bringing the spring in addition to the 100 pesos we gave him last night.  The word was that the spring would arrive at 2pm tomorrow.  We were sceptical but apparently he gets off work at 1pm on Saturdays and it might happen. 

So Louis went off with the spring after Eric explained that he needed the eyes to be bored out to a certain size to fit the bushings.   

Just to add icing to the cake when I was cleaning the pots up after dinner (Eric does the dishes) the water was luke warm.  The hot water heater had stopped heating.  Just freaking dandy!  Eric had a quick look and then turned it onto propane which worked fine.  Another repair for tomorrow.  How much can one man take!  This is really is the trip from hell this year. 

A day of waiting for parts in Guaymas

Eric was up early yesterday morning (Thursday Nov. 8th) as the mechanico was supposed to bring us a new spring between 9 and 10 am.  Well, if you’ve ever had work done in Mexico you know how that all went. 

Eric started by jacking the RV up by the frame high enough to get slack in the axles so that he could actually remove the center tire as the tires were tight together.   All jacked up and blocked up and we pulled in the slides so it could be ready for when the spring arrived.

Broken spring.

Hard at work.  At this point Eric had jacked the trailer up high enough that he could get the broken spring off. 

You can see the end of the spring on the right is broken off.  The piece is broken and twisted which is very unusual.  We really didn’t hit anything hard enough to do this and it is very unusual to break springs on both side. 

Two broken leafs on the drivers side. 

Eric has done all he can do without parts.   It is very frustrating for him as he is ready and can do no more.   We have the truck hooked to the trailer to take the stress of the front legs as the trailer is jacked from side to side and it will pivot on the hitch but not the legs.  This means we can’t go anywhere to get beer and groceries. 

So we waited, and waited and…..waited.   At 3pm the lady from the office was coming to work and she stopped by to tell us the mechanico would come at 4pm.   We waited, and waited and at 6pm he showed up with no spring.  Turns out they have to make one which concerns Eric and the cost would be 1000 pesos or about $70. canadian which is of course expensive.  Eric decided to scrap the whole idea and just put the 5 leaf spring on the driver’s side and 4 leaf on the passenger side.  We were both tired and stressed.  Eric had sat outside all day waiting and I’d been in and out doing the same.  No way to communicate with the mechanic and the lady on the desk really doesn’t speak much english and we don’t speak enough Spanish. 

Stay tuned for chapter two. 

P.S. -  I am using a new camera for the pictures as my Canon has become so scratched from using it on the bike that I had to buy another new camera.  A Panasonic Lumix ZS50 that has 30 zoom and less pixels which should help with low light photos.  I will use the old camera on the bike and hopefully the new one won’t get damaged.  Eric says I’m going to need a suitcase for my old cameras.  This is number 4 in the last 10 years. 

Another disastrous day!

We were up early and ready to roll around 9am.  We didn’t need an early start as not too far to go.

First order of business a tire check and Eric spotted the start of a separation in the right rear passenger side tire.  It did not extend the whole way round but luckily it was in a spot that Eric could see it. 

Off with the old and….

on with new.  Eric brought two spares this time just in case. 

This is the dog next door who was intently watching.  I called “ bueno perro to her”  and she wagged her tail but dashed away if I tried to get close and then came right back.  A sweetie. 

All done.

The large sign is still out front but Edgar is not waiting in his chair to greet people as they arrive.  Sigh.

Paving going on south of Santa Ana.

The passing lane is good and truck lane is not so we drove in the passing lane.  No one complained they just passed us in the slow lane and then travelled on in the fast lane…just like us.

Nasty. 

Nice and green here too.

Eric says it looks like the Serengeti…and no we haven’t been there.

Coming up to the first left turn coming through Hermosillo and the road is atrocious as usual.

Some new pavement here.

Turn left.

This area has huge rounded topes and you have to go really, really slow.  We know they are there but they are hard to see.

Look how green the hills are.

Ugly.

You have to stay in the far right lane so you can go down under the overpass to turn left for Guaymas.

An odd set up for a major southbound highway especially when doubles have to go this way. 

Following a double tanker truck.

Got a little tricky here as they are concreting the northbound lane and this sign came up quick.  Luckily in Mexico people are not  surprised if you dodge in front of them.  They just get out of the way!

It’s going to nice when it’s finished.

We crossed over to eat lunch at this Pemex station

Most of the road is done it’s the bridges or puentes that they are working on.

It was a very pleasant drive with no bumps or humps like the old pavement.

This is new but already looks a little rough.  It will be a disaster if the concrete breaks up.

Close to Guaymas and we head left as they are still working on the highway and constructing a huge overpass.

Soon to be all concrete.

Coming into Guaymas.

Seems every town has it’s own colorful sign.

We have turned right at the overpass and are heading down to Miramar and the hotel Playa de Cortez RV park.  At this point we are going very slow as there are huge ugly topes through here.

We dropped off the first tope and there was a bang.  It felt like someone had run into us.  No where to stop.  We continued on slowly and in minutes a young guy on the back of a moto was pointing at the RV.  We could now see smoke in the passenger mirror.   What the hell!  A blown tire?  We put on the four ways and got out to have a look.   A broken spring….well actually a broken spring on both sides of the middle axle and the tires on the passenger side were rubbing together and creating smoke because the shackle on that side had flipped.   Now what?  We had to continue on the mile or so down the hill to the RV park at about 2 miles an hour so as not to heat up the tires.   We managed to get parked and then we had the desk call for a mechanico.  Eric has parts with him but he brought an original new spring and a Mexican spring never thinking we would break two.  To replace springs on the same axle they should be the same.  

See those back tires rubbing together.  The middle one is the new Sailun from last spring and the front one was new at home.  Hope they are okay.  At least we weren’t out on the highway somewhere as we would have been dead in the water and we don’t know what we would have done then.  If it was only one spring Eric could fix it by himself but it isn’t. 

Spring hanging down. 

At this point it was time to sit on the patio and drink beer!  The weather is lovely and we were a tad stressed to say the least.  Good news is that Eric doesn’t panic because he can fix almost anything himself if he has the parts.   About 5:30 the mechanic showed up with a lady from the front desk to have a look.  The nice lady from the desk speaks some English and we speak a bit of Spanish so between us all it was explained.  He left with the new Mexican spring that we had made in Mazatlan the last time we broke a spring and he’ll try to match it.   He’s supposed to return tomorrow morning aroung 10am.   Ah Mexico.  They are always ready to help and ever so nice about it.