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New person to this site - Valerie

Will L stopped by where Valerie is semi-stranded and looked the situation over thoroughly. He has lots of knowledge, suggestions and bad news, but she is still alive and well and that's what is most important to me. You can always get more money, you only get one Valerie in life. Her next challenge is to weed out the bad guys from the good guys and find a mechanic in or near Las Vegas that is able, and will do the work. I can't say enough times, thank you ALL for your help, suggestions and encouragement. Since you all know what you are doing, you probably don't realize how scary it is out here in the world for us newbies and how just knowing someone(s) gives a darn helps a lot. Thanks again.
Will and Valerie
 
Valerie said:
Will L stopped by where Valerie is semi-stranded and looked the situation over thoroughly. He has lots of knowledge, suggestions and bad news, but she is still alive and well and that's what is most important to me. You can always get more money, you only get one Valerie in life. Her next challenge is to weed out the bad guys from the good guys and find a mechanic in or near Las Vegas that is able, and will do the work. I can't say enough times, thank you ALL for your help, suggestions and encouragement. Since you all know what you are doing, you probably don't realize how scary it is out here in the world for us newbies and how just knowing someone(s) gives a darn helps a lot. Thanks again.
Will and Valerie
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Welcome to The Truck Stop, Will and Valerie.

I see this great bunch of knowledgeable guys have already been helping you. There is a lot of knowledge on this Forum and the people here try to help as much as they can. Unlike some other websites they don't try and be little anyone, they go the extra mile, its kind of like a big family on here.

Good luck on your engine issues.
 
Valerie and Will, Welcome to The Truck Stop! We have most likely the best group of people on the internet forums. We're glad you found us before things got more dicey.

Mike
 
Will / Valerie,
At this stage of the game, it does not seem like the RV is really trek worthy (pun unintentional) in the near term.

Here is my vote:
- Step-back from get-home-itis. This is what plane tickets are for ;)

- Narrow down the shop selections and decide which one you want to do the work.

- Once the shop selection occurs, work with them to decide on a 6.5 replacement or swap over to Cummins. There are pro's and con's of either path.

- Winter is coming, and despite Will L claiming that it does not snow in Vagas, I'd winterize the rig to keep the plumbing from freezing and adding to the repair list. Am sure that you can talk the shop owner into doing this.

Chances are good that given the amount of work I am suspecting the Trek needs, delivery this coming Spring is a reasonable time frame (maybe even a little optimistic). Also, there is a good likelihood that the shop might store the Trek without charging seeing as you are about to hire them for a significant project, *but* this is best left as a nice question rather than a demand as part of the deal.
 
Jay,
The thing I appreciate MOST about you is your CPA mind. You analyze everything and put them in order before you act. Your game plan sounds great to me. Including the winterizing because if it does get done before spring, she will drive it back here and we live 30 miles from you in Columbia, MD where it has been my experience for the last 3 years, it does snow and freeze. When she finally DOES get back, we'll take you for a ride and a coffee.
Will
 
Might want to reconsider taking delivery before Winter passes even if the rig is ready:

- Mother Nature will mess with the best plans, throw a snow / ice storm in the path, and she has ~2,500 miles worth of playground to do it. Only way around this is if you happen to work in the airline industry, can get a last-minute non-rev seat, and have a reasonably clear one-week weather window; but, consider the next comment.

- Even if you do manage to get ahead of a snow storm, many States now pre-treat roads with some sort of 'brine' solution just like Maryland does. In 1997, States only used salt which is corrosive enough. Now, that 'brine' might contain extra chemistry which is even less friendly to exposed metal parts.

- A thunderstorm passage is much easier to wait-out. Just say-in ;)
 
Will (Valerie's husband) here,
I gotta stand up for the MD CPA on this one. Winter has come as early as July 2 in the southern half of the U.S. and the minute that happens, states like ours (Maryland) spread all sorts of corrosive stuff everywhere to keep insane Maryland drivers from killing each other in the snow and ice. I know Montana and Nevada have a winter, but I have seen 5 weather changes in one day since I have been in this state. Sun to rain to sleet to snow back to sun in one 10 hour period. The drivers here are insane because everything else here is too. Sorry Jay if you happen to be a Maryland lover. I'm not converted yet.
 
Will L. said:
Snow? Winter? Come on guys- quit making up words!
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Peep-show at whats coming down the pike... (For some reason snow plowing is something I enjoyed for the 8 years I did it).

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Somebody around here, at some time in history, really peeved-off Mother Nature as the weather is not all that great.

Unless, that is, if you like rain at 22*F, snow at 40*F, and frequent bouts of tropical level of humidity (both warm and cool temperatures). Shoot, Florida is typically cooler and less humid during the Summer. Oh, and then there is the Summer drought which usually kills a chunk of the lawn. I guess the up-side to that is that it makes for less grass to mow . . .

And, Yes, Maryland apparently throws a little extra chemistry in the Winter road pre-treat. Not that they want to admit to it, but had read a Washington Post article which begged to differ that it was *just* salt and water. My vehicles beg to differ too. Oh, well, driving during a snow / ice storm is apparently one of our Constitutional rights :eek:


Toward loving it here, I have looked elsewhere and there really is no paradise. Just greener grass in the neighbor's yard :D
 
JayTheCPA said:
Somebody around here, at some time in history, really peeved-off Mother Nature as the weather is not all that great.

Unless, that is, if you like rain at 22*F, snow at 40*F, and frequent bouts of tropical level of humidity (both warm and cool temperatures). Shoot, Florida is typically cooler and less humid during the Summer. Oh, and then there is the Summer drought which usually kills a chunk of the lawn. I guess the up-side to that is that it makes for less grass to mow . . .

And, Yes, Maryland apparently throws a little extra chemistry in the Winter road pre-treat. Not that they want to admit to it, but had read a Washington Post article which begged to differ that it was *just* salt and water. My vehicles beg to differ too. Oh, well, driving during a snow / ice storm is apparently one of our Constitutional rights :eek:


Toward loving it here, I have looked elsewhere and there really is no paradise. Just greener grass in the neighbor's yard :D
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Here, they claim that they just use a salt brine solution, the sand and salt. Yea right, I have ocean front property in Tennessee also...... :smuggrin:

They can mention an ice snow event and they pre treat the roads here. Most of the time it does not do anything maybe just rain or does not snow much.

Years ago they were using some sort of calcium chloride mixture. All I can say is, it and the salt brine have ate many nice vehicles down to the bone, big time.........…🤬 I really believe they still use some of those chemicals.

Seems to be some debate about calcium chloride.


edmontonjournal.com

Icy debate: Councillors freeze decision on future use of contentious calcium chloride as anti-icer

A decision on whether the city will continue the
edmontonjournal.com edmontonjournal.com
 
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Same here NVW...wish I'd found this thread soon.I know a couple hot shot drivers I'm friends with that run out west all the time..one of them would have brought there rig back to the east coast for them cheap just so they had a reason to come home for a couple days..(they all live here in central n.y. ). But anyhow..lots of respect to everyone who help that couple..and especially to Will ..you went way above and beyond my friend..THAT is what makes this site so awesome...guys that are good hearted .
 
Unfortunately I wasn't any real help. They towed the rv to a shop in Redlands Ca. As hard as it is to find shops that will work on 6.5, a 6.5 in an rv is much harder. The 97 built unit clearly had major failure, while testing for combustion gasses in the coolant reservoir, within 2 seconds of starting the cold engine, compression blew coolant through the bulb tester and I couldn't even hold the test tool in place from the pressure. Cracked block, head, head gasket, is the only options here and all my money would be on the block to allow that mush volume into the coolant system.

Can't believe the shop she took it to tried dumping in the gasket fix in a bottle and charging her what they did. I told them to consider legal recourse against that shop. Complete rip off shop, they should have charged their minimum for diagnostics and turned it away since they couldn't do an engine swap there and it is clearly the right coarse of action. Obvious to any mechanic even if he never touched a diesel before.

Hope the best for these two folks. If they need me to testify in court or do an affidavit, I'll gladly make the time.
 
Valerie and Will (her husband) here. Will L was absolutely the best. Like having a long time friend come to your rescue. He went WAY beyond the call. The guy in Las Vegas that did the magic liquid trick (Harold at Hertz Auto Repair) is looking at a law suit when we get the time. After charging her $2700 and pushing her out the door, he wouldn't even answer her calls for advice. The RV is now in Redlands at the Redlands Truck and RV Center. The tow job was $1450 to get it there and they are going to charge between $16,000 and $18,000 for a new engine which will come with the new radiator that Will L suggested. We are then going to go to Texas and do gate guarding on oil fields until we earn our money back. It doesn't pay a whole lot but it's $150 a day 24/7 until we get it done. They provide an RV site at the gate and all we need to supply is food. I figure it will take about 6 months and then we will be back on the road again. Did I mention that the engine comes with a 3 year / 100,000 mile warranty? If we make it through that, we are going back to Maryland for the summer (too hot in Texas) and do camp hosting for 4 - 6 months and then back to Texas for one more 6 month tour of duty. Then we buy the little farm in western Virginia (somewhere between Roanoke and Bristol) that we have been dreaming about and any of you guys that want to come by for a fried chicken dinner with home grown veges just mention you saw us on YOUR forum. Again thanks and we will update you on how good a job they do in Redlands for your information base. After they were recommended by another forum site "Trek Traxs" I went to the largest RV show in America that weekend in Hershey PA and ran into a man who sells Safe T Plus Steering Control from Georgia. He also recommended the Redlands people. Sorry for being long winded but I figure you guys deserve a shout out for being real nice people. I had almost lost my faith in humanity. Valerie is valerieakrebs@ gmail.com if you want to communicate with her and I am [email protected].
 
Valerie said:
Valerie and Will (her husband) here. Will L was absolutely the best. Like having a long time friend come to your rescue. He went WAY beyond the call. The guy in Las Vegas that did the magic liquid trick (Harold at Hertz Auto Repair) is looking at a law suit when we get the time. After charging her $2700 and pushing her out the door, he wouldn't even answer her calls for advice. The RV is now in Redlands at the Redlands Truck and RV Center. The tow job was $1450 to get it there and they are going to charge between $16,000 and $18,000 for a new engine which will come with the new radiator that Will L suggested. We are then going to go to Texas and do gate guarding on oil fields until we earn our money back. It doesn't pay a whole lot but it's $150 a day 24/7 until we get it done. They provide an RV site at the gate and all we need to supply is food. I figure it will take about 6 months and then we will be back on the road again. Did I mention that the engine comes with a 3 year / 100,000 mile warranty? If we make it through that, we are going back to Maryland for the summer (too hot in Texas) and do camp hosting for 4 - 6 months and then back to Texas for one more 6 month tour of duty. Then we buy the little farm in western Virginia (somewhere between Roanoke and Bristol) that we have been dreaming about and any of you guys that want to come by for a fried chicken dinner with home grown veges just mention you saw us on YOUR forum. Again thanks and we will update you on how good a job they do in Redlands for your information base. After they were recommended by another forum site "Trek Traxs" I went to the largest RV show in America that weekend in Hershey PA and ran into a man who sells Safe T Plus Steering Control from Georgia. He also recommended the Redlands people. Sorry for being long winded but I figure you guys deserve a shout out for being real nice people. I had almost lost my faith in humanity. Valerie is valerieakrebs@ gmail.com if you want to communicate with her and I am [email protected].
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Good for you, hang in there.

Oh by the way the area around Bristol is a very nice area for sure.
 
Thank you Will for the update. Wish it was a better outcome for you. But, at least you know what a good group we have here at our forum. And Will L, Excellent job pal! Thanks for being a great ambassador for The Truck Stop.
 
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