RV Owners Beware - Don't Ignore This Warning Sign With Your RV Tires

Wait, that doesn't look good. Oh my God. Welcome to RV living. We're noticing that a problem with

your

RV really makes you feel grateful. Thankful for the fact that it could have been worse and caused a dangerous situation during towing. In

this

series, we track our RV spending in the expensive state of California. Last week, we ventured down Interstate 5 with not much to see except high gas prices. After arriving at our destination in Bakersfield, we noticed something a little strange with the passenger side

tires

. In

this

episode, we're bringing in the experts to help us get back on the road, but at what cost?

We had no idea there were

warning

sign

s of this impending failure and it will probably make you want to check

your

tires

before your next trip. Good morning from Bakersfield, California. We arrived here safely, but not unscathed. I had to laugh because the other day, I said, it's nice to be on the road again after sitting in one place for two months, I was finally able to get the RV out on the road and give it a chance to stretch out. his legs, but I think instead of stretching them, we accidentally broke them. It was a difficult trip the other day and I think the trailer paid for it all.

The first thing that gave it away was noticing that the trailer tires were very close together. Looking between the tires, you could see the actual suspension somewhat twisted to one side and actually shifting a lot of its weight almost forward. I'm like that doesn't look good. We crawled under it and sure enough, there was the crossbow completely split in half. RV living. The more things break, the more we start to laugh. Is it more worrying that we now just laugh instead of cry and get angry? We just laugh. That could be worrying. We probably shouldn't let people find out about that.

That's why the Equaflex likes it, that's why the tires are so close together, but I wonder what caused it to break. Yeah, that's crazy. Now, if you're not familiar with what a leaf spring is, think of it as a simple mechanical addition to your suspension. Helps support the weight of the trailer. Now, here's the trick. I immediately called the local repair technician. Unanswered. I finally got a text from a random number yesterday. The local repair technician said: Hey, I missed your call. I thought, huh, this is weird. But I'm going to bite. I said my name is Kyle.

I told him about the situation we are in. He said I can have someone there in the morning if that works for me. Hell yeah, that works for me. We are at the KOA. Here is my site number. What time can we wait for you? I'm waiting for a call now. No. Just more text messages. Between nine and ten I'll be there. Just know that the service calls a hundred and fifty dollars and on top of that, it's an extra $125 per hour. Sounds good to me. Send them away. I do not have time for this. We have to fix this.

Then write the strangest text message, name, address, phone number, vehicle information. Alright, are you sure you're not the IRS? I'm actually kind of glad this is happening for us because it will go hand in hand with the videos we posted a couple of weeks ago about when things go wrong in RV life, and they will. How can they be addressed along the way? Because all the dealerships that sell you these RVs want nothing to do with it. They have clean hands. I guess they don't want to deal with their sorry asses sitting in the parking lot.

So now you are left on the road looking for answers but you get none. Is mobile technology the way to go? Will this really work in a way that allows us to get back on the road safely? Will it be professional? Will it be too expensive? How long is this really going to take? Hell, should we have done it ourselves? Don't worry, hit the brakes. We'll answer those questions here in just a minute. They have to lift the trailer, I guess to access this, and I think the slides should go in, but do all the slides have to go in?

Do we have to be connected? A crossbow has never been snapped in half before, so this is a first for both of us. My other concern is why did it break? I'd like to think our RV has been hit by some crazy trips over the past few months and just needed a little bump to break it, but we also installed this washer dryer and added some extra weight to the RV. It's the leaf springs, I heard you say they help support the trailer. Are we putting too much weight on those crossbows? Yes, I don't know. We could be, and I'm also very happy to know that if that's the case, this didn't happen in Canada when we were in the middle of nowhere.

Luckily, we are now in Bakersfield. I can see the comments now. Do you want a coffee with your cream? Listen, I don't want to be sad all the time and just drink black coffee like I like to have a little fun. She is not calling you. She's criticizing me because I drink black coffee all the time and I guess I'm a sad person. And it's sad. It's sad. Well, let's tell you about the washer dryer. I talked a little about this in a previous video. We love it. It's been a lifesaver when it comes to doing laundry because we no longer have to check everything into a laundromat with quarters and throw everything in the truck and walk around the RV park in dirty underwear.

But the problem is that this washer-dryer combo does not come with a lint filter. Trying to be good about checking the vent we installed and making sure lint doesn't build up in there and this is the first time we're going to check it. We've had the washer dryer for exactly a month, exactly a month and we're going to see together how much lint has accumulated in there. Well, this is also a good time to show you my solution to prevent things from hitting the vent while driving. You can go down. Ta-da. I had it imagined in my head.

Tension rods, right? Like the ones that double and then just, I don't know. I built a barrier around it and you know what? It works, okay? And that's why I'm glad we made the vent this way because it's easy to access when we want to clean out the lint, compared to if it was placed behind and through the passage, we'd really have to dig a little bit just to clean. the fluff out. That was easy. Holy Cow. Oh my God. Nothing? Nothing. Oh, you know, the cool thing is, because I have long, lanky arms, I could reach that 90-degree elbow.

I can't take you seriously. Right now you look like the Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz. Oh my goodness, I can because my concern is: do we have to take out the entire washer-dryer to see if there's lint trapped in that 90° elbow? Mmmmm. But I'm there baby with my hand. I'm ready. Okay, ready? Yes. I that's all. Dexter, what is this? Look at this hair. This is unacceptable. That's a fire hazard, sir. Let me think about how many loads of laundry we have done. 31 days, 15 to twenty loads and this is how much lint we have.

I think what we did well was, well, first of all, listen to my wife. Isn't it always like that? Yes Dear. Secondly, she came up with a great idea. Keep it as straight as possible to allow for proper drying and when you walk outside under that external vent I see some lint build up so it looks like the drying process is working great. RV Life is giving us a positive vibe today, so I'm happy about that. You have to count the small victories when you can. So, many people really want to know how long it takes to wash a full load of clothes and how much clothes can be washed.

I have the data for you. To reiterate, this is a combination washer dryer. It is washed and then without touching it it goes directly to a drying cycle. Actually, come here. Let's show you our latest addition to the RV. Ta-da. We can fill this to the brim and it's about how much clothes we can put in the washer and dryer combo at one time. I was thinking we were going to have to take three steps back when it came to washing and drying clothes, like maybe it was a Fisher Price model. You know, the ones you find at Toys R US.

It is not the case. We've been doing a lot of laundry. We love. From start to finish, it's about two and a half or three hours at most. Which I think is pretty cool because you get up in the morning, put on a load of laundry at 7 and do it at 11 and then you can still do more loads throughout the day. There are actually a lot of things we updated recently, like new things we added to make RV living much more enjoyable. I can't wait to share it with you. We actually made a video about this recently, so it's on the channel.

Return to our main page. Find them. It's an updated tour of our RV. One more thing, how do we find these people like roadside mobile repairers when we are in an unknown area that we have never been to before? Personally I really like to trust Google and rely on those reviews. A great tip I have for you is to make sure you read Google reviews and trust your gut because that's really all you have to do when you're traveling. And by the way, speaking of which, it helps no matter where you are or what situation you're in.

So, hit the like button for this video to help us out and show us that you enjoy our content too. It looks like it's here baby and of course it's pouring rain. Perfect time. Let's have you bring the slide. Alright. Entering. It's OK, go ahead. About 27 face to face and it's a six pack. Yes. So are they really that difficult to change on your own? Do you need a cat or how much? Do you need a cat? Well. I don't know how high you're going to go when you land here, but if you land here, I mean, you can always, you know, lock and lock and if you can remove the tire in an emergency situation, then .

Yes. Yes, you can change it. Well. I have another question for you. So they always ask us when we're towing, they always stop us because these rear jacks always hang too low. You can only see. Yeah. Get this far and people always say, Oh my God, your cats are still down. I did too. Yes. Can they go higher? No. Not like them. Are they adjustable? Yes. Are these adjustable in the back? They don't seem to be doing well. They are already going down to the maximum. Yes. Have you hit anything yet? Well, sometimes if we go too fast, we'll hit rock bottom here.

Is it something that I know there is a lot to do? Could you guys pick them up while you're here or us, yeah? Yes, we can lift them. Sweet. Just take them. We'll probably go up one or two screw holes. Well. As far as we could take it. Sounds good. Without touching the ground. Well. Do you want to make just one broken one? Let's do both. The crossbows. Could too. Oh yeah. Let's get some for both of us. Do both. I would at least do it. OK that's fine. Do both and then save the good part as a spare.

Oh, I like that. That's smart. Yes, a lot of people get scared by that too. Yes. Like all crossbows, if you have one and you have to do it, you are a mechanic. You understand, I got you. Yes. Yes. I'm sure we can do it. Yes. Let's run and go get the crossbow and then the crossbow. Yes, it sounds fine. Thanks guys. Thank you. Oh. It's wet out there. Okay, now that I have you here, what you picked up on was actually how Ney and I like to do things you know, if you don't have a lot of time to deal with these problems on your own, you can also use these guys to do everything what you can at once.

You know, we've known for a long time that these back jacks need to be raised higher because everyone stops us in the way saying your back jacks are down and we're very aware of it, but with our schedule conflicts it's very difficult to find time to go out and address all of this. So all these guys have the tools like jacks and all the parts needed to fix this problem. Just do it all at once. I'd rather pay a little extra money for some convenience than take more time and more stress into our lives. Yuck. You know what I mean?

I learned a lot here and was pleasantly surprised to find out how easy this job really is. I will explain everything, but I must say that I am not a professional and this is not even close to an installation video. I'm just sharing what I learned and you should definitely seek professional advice before doing these things. One thing I forgot to mention is that another reason we couldn't do this job ourselves is because we didn't bring any cats with us to do the job. See, this is what Mobile Tech said about having a jack under the axle.

So all of us always put the jack under the axle. So what happens is when I loosen that crossbow. Yes. The entire shaft will fall off. So basically, that's why it's like, I mean, a small cat. Yes. Just a choke. Yes. But right now, the only weight I have is the axle. I see. That makes sense. Well. They are known as shackle bolts. I like to think of them as the shoulder or hip bone of the human body that helps keep the arms and legs together. This is where therubber starts up. You'll notice something called a junction plate.

That's that flat looking piece of metal and then two large U-bolts that hold the leaf springs against the axle beam. Am I blocking anyone's view here? Can you see the U shape I'm talking about on those U bolts? Pretty cool, huh? What is this? It's almost like shaving there. Is that something to worry about? Is it hitting? Oh, just because he really hit? Well. Yes, when I broke the lock. More often than not, your RV will be exposed to harsh conditions that will lead to rust and other buildup. Which makes it much more difficult to loosen important parts for repair.

A quick tip I learned was to use WD forty in these cases. After loosening the four nuts holding the U-bolts, we were able to remove the broken leaf spring pack for replacement. How did we know what size crossbows we really needed? Don't worry, we've got you covered. Listen to this. So when you were taking those measurements before, I assumed you were measuring the length between the eyelids. Okay, so do you have to measure the width itself? To some extent, yes. To some extent, yes. Well. Understood. Cool. Normally the trailers are all the same, but when you get into cargo trailers and all that, they have different widths.

The eyes of the crossbow are located on each side and this is where the shackle bolts secure everything. On one side, it is secured to the frame of the RV and then on the other side, it is secured to the equalizer in the middle of the two axles. I thought this was a great trick for something that could be a breaker trying to get into place. The mobile technician said this is the hardest part of lining everything up. So they came up with a really cool ratcheting system around the axle and then onto the frame of the RV to get the eyes of the leaf spring pack in place so they could secure the shackle bolts.

Just a little bit off and now he's adjusting it so it can go through that eyelet there. Oh, sure. That's a good technique. What a simple but effective way to get the job done. Once the new leaf spring package was installed, it was just a matter of applying some high temperature grease to the shackle pins. Don't think too much about this. I think this is called red sticky grease. Basically, it is a grease that can withstand high temperatures so that it does not come off during your trips. I'm thinking ratchets and cordless impacts are a great way to save some time getting the job done by loosening nuts and bolts quickly.

However, forget about using a torque wrench to ensure proper torque specifications when tightening everything again. I know it's a mouthful, but in general, don't let it break too much with these tools or you could end up damaging some important parts. Our original crossbow packs were rated at approximately 3000 pounds. However, these new and improved crossbow packages are rated at 3,500 pounds. It's just a little extra cushion for future wear and tear, which is always nice to have. Did we have 3000 before? Well. And this is 3500? Well. It will not exert unequal pressure between one side and the other. Ah OK.

Does that slightly increase the total gross vehicle weight of your RV? Not legally because you can't change the label but. Oh yeah. I mean I would feel more comfortable having more weight here. And why do they recommend doing both just out of curiosity? So when that one broke all the weight I will put on the other one. Ah, then I really could have tightened it. Stress fracture in it. This is one of those things where it's okay if you break one. Yes. You know you're spare. Go get a new one. This is where you could see our crossbow broken in half.

Remember when the technician mentioned that the metal shavings were due to the broken leaf spring pack? It's almost like shaving there. Is that something to worry about? The squeaking and wear occurred because the shaft was loose and floating, causing it to travel into the equalizer and create damaging metal chips and grooves. They believe that this has been happening for a long time, unfortunately. So we may have interrupted this at the beginning of our journey without even realizing it until now. We were able to do it all at once. I can't thank you enough for coming out with such quick notice.

I can't recommend anyone but them. Mecha Medix is ​​its name. Medix Wick. We'll leave a link in the description if you're in the area and need some work done. These guys are really professional and down to earth. They were great conversationalists. It is surprising how much we need to use these cell phones more frequently. They are able to get us out of these scenarios that we find ourselves in quite often but let's talk about extended warranties. They're worth it? You'll be surprised how many strings are pulled at these dealerships and we lay out everything I'm talking about in this video right here.

So, click next and check this out. See you next week.