Trapped at the RV park!

[LETMGROW]

I'm pleased to hear everyone got out safely. I feel badly for the campground owners. This may put them out of business. Even if they sued the DWI driver, what would they get? Chances are he has nothing and has minimum insurance coverage limits.
Hopefully the bridge gets a thorough inspection and it's safe to keep using until a replacement plan is in place and the ones in charge can rig a temporary bridge or improve the alternate route to come in and go out.
I guess they'll "Cross that bridge when they come to it".

[Unplanned Tourist]

It's nice everyone got out, but a paved road, it could have been much worse.

I usually look at a road that's paved and tell myself that a truck drove there when it was paved, so I can go there also. But we are only 39 feet long.

[geordi]

Glad you are out! If that was me, I probably would have pulled out my sawzall and trimmed the trees myself on the way, and anyone that was moaning about the time taken could just deal with it. Sometimes a big vehicle has to do what a big vehicle has to do.

I would be very VERY nervous about hanging an outside dual over an edge though - or even being that close to it for that matter! You never know when the 9k lbs that side is carrying will be just a bit more than that edge could take and it crumbles.

For the park owner - I feel marginally bad for them too, but this isn't a surprise problem. If that bridge is ONLY for them, they kinda own it - so it's their job to make it serviceable for their clients. Now they have to, and there's no choice.

[SargeW]

Thanks guys, we are really happy to be out of there. It's one thing to stay long term at a park because you want to, but something entirely different when you are forced to.

I will be dealing with the scrapes on the MH soon I hope, and a second symptom of driving out was a significant strain on the Allison trans. At one point I glanced at the digital trans temp gauge, and saw temps of 221 degrees.

Through much of the climb out I was forced to stop, or nearly so to negoiate a curve. Repeated stops on those grades, sometimes even rolling backwards a bit puts tremendous strain on it. When I pulled into my destination park in Lodi I noted that I had a flashing MIL light and pulled a code of TCM: SPN 3359 FMI 16. As near as I can tell I believe it's a prognostic code from the trans indicating it may need a trans filter change. The yellow MIL light didn't stay on, it was kind of flickering. So I will have to figure that out.

Two other codes that were initially displayed were ECM: SPN 45223 FMI 5, and ECM: SPN 10400 FMI 9 Those codes I cannot find anywhere.

[Unplanned Tourist]

Sounds like you might have over heated the tranny a bit.

They don't like sitting at idle in gear, or very slow speed for any length of time. The torque converter is slipping, and creating a lot of heat.

I would suggest taking an oil sample to be tested to see if it's still good. The tranny should be fine for the short time it was heated up. It's long term over heating that hardens o-rings.

[SargeW]

Yeah, at 221 degrees I'm sure that it didn't like that much. I'm going see if the code shows up again when I pull out in a few days.

[geordi]

220 degrees and above significantly shortens transmission fluid life, I would plan on a fluid and filter change in the near future no matter what else you do. 220 isn't too far outside the normal operating range, I'd be much more concerned if it was above 240, but this was one of those situations where you didn't have any good options.

[SargeW]

I contacted Allison customer service today and spoke to a very friendly tech. He explained how to pull the codes off of the Allison touch pad and walked me through it. For Allison, their codes are "PO" codes that show up on the touch pad. My primary code was PO 88A, which is a code to remind you to change the on board filter in the sump. If the fluid needed changing, it would have displayed a different code.

So I will pick up a "filter kit" and change out the filter in about a week. So no damage, but the heat could have sped up the filter change notification. My rig is 4 years old with just over 45,000 miles on the clock, so I am not too concerned at this point with the service.

[n2zon]

Oh. My. Um...goodness.

[CharlesinGA]

I "drove" the paved sections of Bayne Rd last night on Google Maps Street View, and noted there was about a mile and a half or two miles of fairly decent looking gravel in the middle of it. There was one downgrade that concerned me but the rest of it really looked doable except for the overhanging limbs you noted. Not sure how old the Google Street View was. There are a couple of other roads that looked viable but appear to have been converted into private developments in recent times, and were gated off.

Glad it all worked out for you. I would do a fluid sample of the trans fluid, Allison TransSyd is rather good and expensive fluid but $50 or so for a lab test won't hurt anything and may tell you how soon or if at all you need to consider a fluid change.

Charles

[GonetoRaces]

Wow! Good to hear you made it out not so good with blemishes though.

So were you the biggest coach out of the 18 or so? Did all of the other campers not leave in their vehicles already or did they come back. I wonder how the rest did to get out.

Never a dull day!

Now that you are safely out I can say your first post in thread made me think of the song “Welcome to Hotel California, you can stay but you may never leave” It was not an appropriate comment while you were still trapped.

[SargeW]

I was the biggest MH. There was a guy there with a 38' toy hauler that when hooked up to his truck was going to be longer than me. He would have been almost 60' when hooked up. He was pretty nervous about making it out, but I went before he did.

There was still about 30 other rigs that got left there that people had to come back for, so it's not over yet.

[CountryB]

Originally Posted by SargeW

Trapped at the RV Park!

W One of the “warnings” was about the bridge that you have to cross to get into the park. It was built in 1915, and looks like it. It has a max height of 13' 6” and the width is very narrow. I crept across it with approx 4-6” from my mirrors and the iron structures that hold the bridge up above the river below.

The sign has 14T max weight (for single axle truck) - doesn't your Coach exceed that? I would expect a 40ft Coach (no Tag) to weigh around 40,000 lbs.

My 42ft Coach (with a Tag) has a 46,300Lbs GVWR (23T), although I only weigh in 41,200 per CAT Scales.

I know I'd be "white knuckling" that bridge crossing.

[GonetoRaces]

Originally Posted by SargeW

I was the biggest MH. There was a guy there with a 38' toy hauler that when hooked up to his truck was going to be longer than me. He would have been almost 60' when hooked up. He was pretty nervous about making it out, but I went before he did.

There was still about 30 other rigs that got left there that people had to come back for, so it's not over yet.

Wow, I hope everyone gets out with their rigs safely. What an ordeal.