Stranded in Chocolate town! Help!

[Birgit]

Took the rig out for the maiden voyage of the season and wound up stranded on I-76 near Hershey.after 120 mi we experienced a loss of power. We were not on a steep grade, but were accellerating when the transmission started surging, and we just kept getting slower and slower. There was no warning lamp on the dash or alert on the diagnostic cluster. We checked both oil and tranny fluid level, both fine. We managed to limp the remaining 2 miles to the toll booth and were towed to Hershey Highmeadow campground. They had to drop the driveshaft to tow and now here we sit. The only other observable thing was that after dropping the toad and following those last two miles there was considerable smoke, dark grey, blasting out of the exhaust upon ignition and also visable during gear shift. Does anyone have experience with a workhorse shop in the Hershey area? We will need to be towed with what remains of our WH tow credit somewhere. We have a W24 Itasca 38T. Thanks.
Birgit (Slapshot's wife!)

[Birgit]

Took the rig out for the maiden voyage of the season and wound up stranded on I-76 near Hershey.after 120 mi we experienced a loss of power. We were not on a steep grade, but were accellerating when the transmission started surging, and we just kept getting slower and slower. There was no warning lamp on the dash or alert on the diagnostic cluster. We checked both oil and tranny fluid level, both fine. We managed to limp the remaining 2 miles to the toll booth and were towed to Hershey Highmeadow campground. They had to drop the driveshaft to tow and now here we sit. The only other observable thing was that after dropping the toad and following those last two miles there was considerable smoke, dark grey, blasting out of the exhaust upon ignition and also visable during gear shift. Does anyone have experience with a workhorse shop in the Hershey area? We will need to be towed with what remains of our WH tow credit somewhere. We have a W24 Itasca 38T. Thanks.
Birgit (Slapshot's wife!)

[TandW]

Grumbine's is within 5 miles of you. I believe you'll get help there. Sounds like your fuel management system failed rich. Good luck!!

[Birgit]

Thanks for the suggestion. I see that they are a camping world dealership, our experience has been less than pretty with our local camping world dealer in Lakewood, NJ. Do you have any personal experience with the service dept at Grumbine's? Also, could you give me some more insight into what you mean by the fuel management system failing "rich"? Thanks.
Birgit

[TandW]

You could try Tom Sheaffer's rv superstore in Shoemakersville, about, say 45 miles maybe 50 from your current locale. Your comment about smoky exhaust leads to the fuel enrichment comment. You did say coolant level remained good. Is the smoke present at both tailpipes?

[Birgit]

I think that towing that far will become cost prohibitive and we will have to take our chances at Grumbine's. No one here had any negatives to report. Our exhaust is combined at the tailpipe so we can't get any clues from that. We'll contact workhorse again and see if they feel that Grumbine's can handle our issue. Coolant level is only about 1/4 inch below cold mark, and we had no excessive engine temp showing. Just before we shut down, there was a warning chime, but nothing visual came up on the dash as to what the chime was for.

[Whaler]

Try this,www.rvservicereviews.com,and go to states see a review.

[Birgit]

p.s. my husband the Air Force guy says "leave it to a navy guy to help us out." The AF guy says he trusts the Navy Engineer 100%. He even went back to the vault for the NAVY hat for good luck. Always wears it when we camp at Round Pond, West Point to freak out the Army guys!

[TandW]

Thanks Birgit. Again, you said that on restarting you had a smoky exhaust. This also indicates your converters were overloaded with unburned fuel. Make sure your service people check all your plug wires. What recent engine maintenance has been done?

[Nonno]

Birgit,
In 06 I had a reduced power situation in the Carlisle area on a Friday. Grumbine's was able to get me in on Monday to at least diagnose the problem. Fortunately it was only a computer glitch so I was soon on my way.

You may have this already but they are at 7501 Allentown Blvd. (RT. 22) Harrisburg, PA 17112 (717)657-3747 Fax: (717)657-0787.

If you haven't done it already I'd suggest you call WCC Roadside Assistance (1-877-946-7731). They may be able to help you out with the appointment.

Hope it's an easy fix.

[Kissimmee Kids]

We lived in Hershey for 30 years and dealt with Grumbines with many RVs. Good people and good service.

[Birgit]

TandW,
Thank you for the advice, my husband changed the oil a couple of weeks back. Fuel filter is new too..hopefully Monday morning we will find out it is just a computer glitch like Bob Russo experienced and we will be on our way.
Birgit

[TandW]

Please keep us posted, Birgit. Good luck tomorrow!!

[Birgit]

Just to keep you all updated,we were towed to Cummins Power and were treated very well. Sadly the tow to the repair shop resulted in the tow company wrecking our reciever bar by towing the MH back out of the campsite to get it up onto the big tow rig. (We won't even touch the story of the tow company not wanting to replace it with the original part for $450+) So, where we stand now after ruling out the auto park brake, loose spark plug wires,loose ground wires, fuel pressure. We have one hard fact, all the cylinders on the left side are misfiring, especially #7. Tomorrow they will test replacing one coil pack, if it kills the misfire they will assume there was a bad batch of coils and replace the whole left bank. I still vote for technological failure of the computer because I can't see 4 coils all going bad at the same moment after 10000 miles. To be continued.