DAMAGE

I can’t recall a caravan trip that has seen as much vehicle damage as this one.  Some of it has been the Alcan’s fault, and a LOT of it has been driver error.

Like the fella who drove off without lowering his tailgate – which is now bent because of the kingpin on his 5^th wheel.  Or those of us who decided to save a few hundred dollars by not buying a padded cover for our tow cars, and now have pits and chips all over the front end of our “toads”.  Or how about the guy who drove his tow car into the side of another guy’s tow car?  Two fellas have hit signs with their fifth wheels. One couple had their awning ripped off by high winds.

The surprising stuff isn’t driver error.  One guy has a new diesel pusher (read: very classy, very expensive).  While out in the middle of nowhere, his exhaust pipe breaks, causing the airlines to overheat and burst.  With no air, his airbags (suspension) deflate and his brakes come on.  It took road service five hours to drive to his location (one way), after they drove to a place where they could get phone service to call him!

Or the guy who’s sun roof exploded out of the top of his tow car.

Brakes failing on 5^th wheels, which then cause the truck brakes to overheat (in mountainous driving)!

My RV windshield has a seam down the middle.  The right side got broken about a week ago and Sheila and I were discussing today whether or not to replace both sides of it when bang, the left side was broken by a stone thrown by a truck.  No more discussion!  The surprising part about that is that we were on a paved road, we were moving slowly through a small town, and the truck was moving slowly too! 

Oh yeah, the PT Cruiser windshield is also broken now.

Bill