THUNK, THUNK, BANG

Certainly not the kind of sound one likes to hear while driving down the road - right?!

And just so you don't think that all this traveling around is all sunshine and flowers, I'll tell you about our thunk, thunk, bang issue.

Since Prescott this what we kept hearing.

THUNK, THUNK, BANG 

or

BANG, BANG, BANG

The thunk wasn't near as bad as the bang which got really bad after a bump in the road.

We were completely perplexed.

From Prescott to Wickenburg we stopped a few times, Derek was convinced it was something in our sides doors. I even went to listen while we were driving to try to pin point where the sound was coming from. To no avail.

As we were headed to the Horspitality RV Park I drove a portion just so Derek could give it a try.

I KNOW WHAT IT IS! says Derek.

Well, turns out it was our propane pipe.

A few taps with the hammer should do the trick.

IT DIDN'T.

So by the time we arrived to the Lowe's in Buckeye we knew we had to deal with the problem. Our first thought was to take it too a mechanic. I called around on our iPad to a local place but then realized that the Camping World over in Avondale would be the place we had to go. I put a call in but ended up leaving a message.

Then Derek had a really bright idea.

How about I fix it he says......

Hmmmmmm .......... what an interesting thought.

And so - following a purchase of a $100 drill from Lowe's and some brackets - and a few hours of going back and forth and trying things this way and that - our propane pipe was FIXED!

The problem was that our propane pipe was falling onto and getting stuck on our leaf springs!

Derek checking the situation.

A good a reason as any to purchase a fancy new drill.

The sad brackets holding up our propane line.

Not necessarily propane pipe brackets but they do the trick.

Eventually we'll have to get the propane line rerouted but this should fix the problem for this year.

And an extra piece of pipe in case the pipe slips down again. This will hopefully stop the lip from getting caught on the spring.

We were happy that we had parked at the Lowe's - nothing like being able to walk back and forth to get the parts you need. And - we felt good giving back a little for the pleasure of parking overnight in their lot and enjoying the wifi.

We would have been fine paying a mechanic to fix this for us if it had come to that, but in the end it was a job we (well, Derek) could do himself and we were REALLY thrilled with that.

$$$ saved = priceless.

Teresa

TODAY'S INTERESTING LINK: Of course we can consider ourselves lucky that it was just a pipe that was our problem. When you travel around all sorts of things happen and they usually do - we've heard a lot of stories about things going wrong. If you haven't yet been over to visit Flip Flop Vector - you should! I highly recommend David's site - he is VERY FUNNY. But not so funny was their recent travel day gone wrong. Just glad that he and Teri were ok.

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