so at 3am on january the 1st i departed in my 20 year old lifted f150 truck with my 7000 lb camper. i stopped every 3-4 hours to let the truck cool off and get fuel... once while getting fuel i checked the oil but apparenlty you are supposed to wait until the truck has cooled for 10 min before checking it? anyway it seemed low so i put 2 quarts of oil in it which over filled it.... then i resumed driving...
Then a little later down the road i was looking at my camper and i realized all my solar panels had blown off the roof! 500 watts just gone! >.>
after about 24 hours of driving i was getting pretty tired so i went to bed around 2am or so on the 2nd of january sleeping about 8 hours in a rest area. it was freezing out but luckily i have a great little diesal heater that i turned on in my camper.. it was spooky sleeping in a random place but i was so tired i fell right asleep lol
the engine light came on and i drive for an hour or 2 before i stopped to get gas again... that is when i realized i forgot to put the oil cap back on... luckily the cap was still sitting there so i put it back on
then i was driving some more and the engine light came back on and the truck was runny funny... and thats when i realized i forgot to put the gas cap back on... so i put that back in and it ran ok again....
but then the transmissionm went into limp mode becasue i think it was overheating.......... so i stopped around noon at a walmart parking lot and let the truck sit for an hour or 2 while i got groceries inside
then i resumed driving......... and thats when i realized it......... this entire time i had been driving my truck i had it in 4h (4 wheel drive). idk if this was healthy since i was towing a huge trailer.... so i put it into 2h (2 wheel drive) and drove about 7 hours straight..... the truck was running amazing
it was 3 am when the truck just randomly died on the side of the interstate... i managed to pull off 2 feet off the interstate but still semis and stuff were flying by at 80 miles per hour.. totally scary ... if anyone wasnt paying attention and went off the road even a foot or 2 they would hit me!
i called my insurance company and they sent out a battery technicial who told me my battery might be dead he doesnt know its not working.......
so i just turned the generator on in my camper... connected it to the truck battery... and ran the emergency lights on the truck and trailer all night so nobody would hit me and then turned on the heater in the camper and went to sleep
when I woke up the next morning i was a bit surprised nobody hit me... i called a local mechanic and then smoked some weed while i waited for them..... as i was smoking... a police cruiser pulle dup............... that was scary. i explained to him my situation and he was nice and said ok and offered to help if i needed and then left...
then the semi truck mechanic came out and charged me $178 dollars an hour to work on my truck on the side of the road... over 4 hours he switched out the battery and put in a new starter...... that fixed nothing...... after 4 hours of him working he charged me $1,100 and gave me the number of a tow truck... he told me the engine might be seized
the tow truck arrived and charged me $350 dollars to tow my camper to a local RV resort... and my truck to their auto shop for diagnosis...
I then had to pay 400 to the RV resort for a week to stay there....... so I just sat around all weekend waiting for them to tell me whats wrong with my truck
on Monday the 6th, the mechanic told me that my truck engine is seized up... he charged me $50 for 30 min diagnosis and then reffered me to another shop who replaces engines..... so I had the engine towed to that other shop on Wednesday the 8th. he charged me $150 for the tow to that shop....
that new shop had a couple engine choices... I could go with either a used engine with 140k miles on it for like 2500 dollars or I can get a rebuilt "new" engine for $5200. i decided to go with the new engine......... they also quoted me $1200 in labor and im guessing it will cost another $800 or so in othe rrandom stuff.
they told me the new engine should be installed by friday the 17th.
i have an electric dirt bike to get me around while my truck is being repaired so thats good :)
so here i am... 15 days into my journey to go traveling out west... i have made it over 1500 miles... and my engine is totally blown, and i have spent:
$1000 - gas
$1100 - Roadside Repair
$500 towing
$1200 estimated labor
$5200 engine
$700 rv resort rent for 2 weeks
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$9,700