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So hopefully our lesson learned the hard way can help save another newbie in the future.

Two years ago July my husband and I began this crazy journey when we found our current home. Being newbies we took the safe route and paid for a full inspection. What we did not know was that inspectors only look at half the house, the house part. We should have taken the rig into a spartan repair shop to have the chassis inspected. You would think that two very intelligent adults who had bought so many cars over the years would have known such a simple thing but reading the forums for the last week showed me that we were not alone in our mistake.

This past week has been a very expensive learning experience but hopefully in the end will be very worth it. The journey began in Canada when we found out we needed new ball joints. Jim spent a week finding a repair shop that was close to our route who repaired spartan chassis. The shop that was recommended was Freightliner of Olympia, about 100 miles up into Washington, so we planned on going after wrapping up our Cascade Locks KOA job. Jim worked with the shop to get the parts delivered and then last Wednesday Jim pulled out of the campground and made the drive up. I followed a few hours later after stopping in to see a couple of advertisers. When I caught up the rig had been in the shop for four hours and we realized that we had not told them that it needed to be plugged in to keep the refrigerator/freezer on as we still have not gotten the battery situation fixed. I called the shop to see what the ETA for the repairs were and they said that they would call me back in 30 mins, 45 mins later I called again as now I was starting to worry about our food and was told there was a problem. They had figured out that they did not have the tool needed to make our repairs so we were going to have to find another shop, talk about frustrated and a waste of time/money. The shop apologized but didn't even offer to cover our gas. We pulled out and headed down the road while working to find another shop that actually could make the repairs. We needed to stop in Eugene Oregon to get our broken window measured at a shop who could fix it (this was the one from the trip back from Alaska) so I started searching in that area and found a alignment/brake/chassis shop that confirmed they had the tool needed to repair the ball joints. I researched the shop and found the reviews to be favorable so we scheduled to have them look at our rig on the way through to see if anything else needed to be addressed and then we would come back when the window was in to have all of the work completed.

When we arrived they quickly got us up on a lift and after a few minutes had us come back into the shop to see what they had found. It was not good news. Not only did they find that both sides needed new upper and lower ball joints but that all eight boots on the tie rods were cracked and needed replacement, we needed a front and rear alignment, we had a broken bracket on our exhaust pipe that had caused it to separate (explained why we were the noisy rig pulling into the parks), and we were going to need two new tires soon because of the rivering that our G607's were showing. We did appreciate that they took the time to actually show us what was broken instead of asking us to just believe them.

We have no idea how long we have been driving around with these issues but in hindsight we wish we had looked at the chassis as hard as we looked at the house when we originally purchased the rig. If you have not had a certified shop put your rig on a lift and check out the underside lately I would highly recommend it as it could save you money and it could save you from a wreck. I will give a follow up in two weeks after we go back to tell you what the damage is to the wallet and what the difference is in the drive.