RV Travel Log

The Grand Troubles - 12/03/2003

We wake up this morning at the Grand Canyon campground. The plan is to leave for Vegas by 10am so we can go on the Hoover Dam tour before they close. I start the RV up, and as usual when it's cold and at high altitude, it idles like crap. I always let it warm up before driving, but today I figured I could make it down the road to the dumpsters and showers.

We couldn't. As soon as I got out onto the road, the RV sputtered even more, idled even worse, and chugged itself to a painful death in the middle of the campground road. It refused to start up again -- the engine just wouldn't catch, no sputtering, nothing but the starter motor cranking. I tried everything I could for an hour or two and finally gave up. I biked over to the service station (in the park!) and had them make a $43 service call. After trying a few things, the guy tried holding the choke plate open while I cranked it and BAM, it started. Turns out the choke had gotten stuck and was starving the carburator of air. I wouldn't have figured out to try this on my own, so $43 and 2 hours of time wasn't so bad.

OK, we're on the road now, we can still make it to the Hoover Dam in time. The road from the Grand Canyon to Las Vegas is devoid of most everything. The Canyon is really in the middle of nowhere; it would be a terrible place to have car trouble. Hah. Well, on I-40, we noticed the RV was shaking more than usual in a very regular and pronounced way. I suggested pulling over and checking things out.

Out inner rear tire was bulging and missing some outer rubber, exposing the metal strands inside. Our map said we were literally 50 miles from the next town in either direction, and 30 miles from the next highway exit. My GPS and Streets and Trips said a highway exit was only 2 miles ahead, and although there was nothing there, it existed. So we pulled off the highway and initiated our very first RV tire change.

Which surprisingly went just fine. We had some trouble re-attaching our wheel cover (shiny plastic that makes the wheel look all fancy and pretty). I think the CLUNK we later heard on the highway was the cover flying off, because it is nowhere to be found now and the poor RV looks butt-ugly on that side.

So, to summarize, we got to the next town, bought a $20 replacement spare tire, crossed the Hoover Dam at 6pm after all the tours were closed, got inspected by the police before crossing (9/11 fun!), and drove straight into Vegas at night.

The end.

The Grand Canyon | Downtown Vegas
Return to index