Community Forums

Dutch Star Don · 06-25-2022, 04:55 PM

My daughter, son-in-law and two young grandkids took their 2016 Cougar fifth wheel to the redwoods this last week. They had a great time and on the way home, two hours into a seven-hour drive, they noticed the fifth wheel was leaning funny. They stopped and found the passenger side rear axle rear leaf spring shackles had snapped off of the frame.

I'm usually their go to guy for repairs, but we're in Oregon at an FMCA Rally. They called me and we tried to brainstorm what to do. It looked like the only option was to drag it to a campground and leave it there until they could come back up, find a repair shop and get it fixed. At minimum, I was guessing $2000 - $3000 in repairs, driving back and forth and campground fees.

It was noon, but I took a shot and looked up mobile welders. The first guy I called answered and I explained the situation. He said....I'm going out of town so have them bring it over here if they can and we'll fix it. I checked with my kids, and he was only three miles from where they stopped.

They dragged the fifth wheel over and my son-in-law asked if he (Fred) wanted to crawl under and look. Fred replied why, no need to look, we're going to work on it until it fixed. The shop was at his home, and he told my grandkids to jump in his pool while he did the work.

They pulled the rear tire; he welded the shackles back on and then reinforced them with plates. He was done in just two hours. You can imagine what that repair would cost on the road on a Saturday afternoon. He only charged them $250. My kids paid him $350 and were back on the road.

Somebody was watching out for my kids to have all of that fall into place. It's nice to know there are still people like that in this country! My wife looked Fred up on Facebook and found that his family had been welders in the area for years and he did all types of RV repairs, custom gates and equipment repairs.

**TonyDi** · 06-25-2022, 05:00 PM

They’re out there. Great story. It’s a shame we only hear about the bad ones.

Thanks for sharing that story with us.

jacwjames · 06-25-2022, 05:55 PM

Yes, they got lucky and you were lucky finding the welder.

If his business has a facebook page you might post link.

I'm fortunate in that I have a mechanic that fixes anything I can't fix on my cars and even an RV. Back in ~2005 we had just left on an extended trip in our Class C. We were only ~120 miles from the house when during a stop I noticed transmission fluid leaking. Told the wife we had to turn back. At the first rest stop I stopped and checked the the transmission was pouring so we were dead in the water. I called my mechanic, explained the problem, at first he said he couldn't work on large vehicles but he finally just said have it towed to his shop. He had to call in some favors to help get the transmission out as they basically had to manhandle it. But he got it out and only found the output seal bad. What was funny was that the new seal came with warning saying the the original seal was not made for heavy duty truck application DUH!!!! And he only charged me $250. No telling what it would have it cost at different shop and we were back on the road in 3 days.

Dutch Star Don · 06-25-2022, 06:03 PM

I wrote a nice post on his FB page.

Country Road · 06-25-2022, 08:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dutch Star Don

I wrote a nice post on his FB page.

Great. He’ll get some mileage out of that. I’m awfully glad for your kids.

USMCRET · 06-25-2022, 09:04 PM

The more I get outside my bubble, the more I believe good people are the majority.

donr103 · 06-25-2022, 09:22 PM

Ask if it is ok to post his name and number.. I would like to add him to my list.. for repairs.. if it is ok.. and allowed.. so blessed to have someone like him.. great post.. so happy all is well.. bet that baby will never break there again..
Good luck and keep us posted

twogypsies · 06-25-2022, 11:16 PM

That's a great story. Yes, there are good people out there!

We had a very similar problem when we had a travel trailer. We were traveling across Canada and were in Manitoba in a desolate area with the look of Kansas. This was on a Sunday. Back then... no cell phone. We just sat & waited for someone to come by. The person stopped & said there's a repair place in the next small town. He would stop there & send someone to help us. I said "But this is Sunday. We could just wait here until the morning." He replied, "Help will definitely be here today". Sure enough - within an hour two teenagers showed up (turns out they were the shop owner's kids who were definitely experienced in what to do) & they jerry rigged the axle so we could drive to the town shop. The owner was waiting for us & welded the shackles in no time for $50. (We gave him $100.) He said when you're in the boonies you help people. We were totally amazed. We've met many others in our travels that helped in other ways.