Put the Hemi to the Test

I somewhat foolishly took my 35' 5th wheel intended for RV parks up in the mountains to my annual boys camping trip and what an experience. On the way up I ripped one of the jacks off the back of the 5th wheel and bent the spare tire mount but it could have been a lot worse. A new jack is $35 and the spare tire bracket is somewhat fixable.

So, fast-forward 5 days after a great trip and we head out. My buddy, who's much more cautious than I, wanted to head back a much longer way to avoid the bad section of road where my jack got ripped off (he has a 33' TT). Well, we got turned around and took a wrong turn from a small town and ended up on a crappy, steep gravel road through the hills for 28 miles. A couple miles after realizing we were headed wrong we stopped to look at a map and a couple forest rangers came along. Their advice made the road ahead sound a lot better and shorter or we would have surely tried to turn around (although difficult with 50+ feet of trucks/trailers each).

Anyway, the Hemi pulled like a beast. 4LO for 20+ miles up and down crazy logging roads to help excessive braking and crazy narrow roads meeting other vehicles around corners (my buddy about **** himself ). The only problem I had was after stopping, my truck just clicked and wouldn't start. I was pretty panicked for a couple minutes but then put 2 & 2 together and found one of my battery terminals had rattled loose from all the bumps. Definitely got my attention being 30 miles from any town or cell service.

After splitting from my buddy I exited the interstate looking for a dump station and found myself on a road marked for no long vehicles or trailers (not sure what point there is in putting a warning sign 200 feet down the road with no place to turn around????). Ended up on 6 miles of extremely narrow highway with lines of cars in both directions waiting to look at some water falls. I was so close to some trucks in the other lanes I could have easily have reached over and grabbed their steering wheels. They were stopped and I was moving about 1MPH.

My point in all this rambling is mainly to help anyone new to RVing realize even experienced RVers get into some ridiculous situations.

Also, I gained some karma points while at the campground - 3 girls heading to an all female motorcycle rally rolled up without gas and we hooked them up (sucks to be an old married guy ). Then some young kids came by looking for a rope to tow a low riding Jetta back to town after shearing off the oil pan. One of the last things I threw in my truck was a tow strap..... I probably could have sold it to them for $500

Wow, it seem like that you was on pins and needle the whole way, I would have been to stress and it seem like that you handle it well.

That's a lot of adventure for one trip!

You, sir, have handily won RVing for this week.

"Oh, sweet debt. Thy name is Truck."

Well that's one for the books!

see that is why I camp the old fashioned way and I will yell in caps, with a TENT.

Dood, that's crazy! My father and i turned around last week when the road got so steep we had to put our trucks in 4lo to pull it without overheating. Lol.

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Hey, at least you didn't take a boat too, surely would have lost that somewhere along the way

Here's some pictures from the adventure - if you're ever around Mount Saint Helens up in Washington State this place is super nice! Lower Lewis River Falls Recreation Area.

i want to go there.....looks nice!

Nice story. Should have sent your wife on a long walk.

Bearcatrp said:

Nice story. Should have sent your wife on a long walk.

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....... LOL. This was a boys camping trip. My wife would never have made it there in the first place. If there isn't a Pool and Spa you're unlikely to find my wife anywhere nearby Hence the obnoxious 35' RV that she'll slum it in sometimes. If it were up to me I'd be rolling in about an 18' TT. Just enough to sleep and poop in, and not get eaten by a bear in my sleep.

Man that looks nice there. Sounds like it was a hell of an adventure.

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