Alas my 2720SL has been put to rest
On June 1st my wife and I had planned our last trip to the Outer Banks of NC from OKC. We moved here when I retired from teaching in June of last year. Our Trailmanor has never let us down while traveling. As some of you probably remember when I posted my rig when it was mercilessly hit in the RV storage lot by another full size RV. I had it repaired and we went on our merry way traveling and enjoying our adventures. After I retired we planned our last trip to NC as a farewell to the Banks. It was 1500 miles from OKC instead of the wonderful 800 miles from Michigan.
We left OKC and headed on our adventure. We had a blowout in Tennessee just outside of Nashville in the sweltering heat and a lovely couple stopped to help us change the tire. We stopped in Nashville and bought a new spare to continue our adventure. We were 80 miles from our campsite when the devastation happened an hour and half before dark. The drivers side of our unit hit the pavement and I thought we had another blow out. *Only if our luck changed*!!
I got out of our vehicle and low and behold we had broken an axle. *GASP*!!
The wheel and tire were about 1000 feet behind us with the brake drum still attached to the wheel and the plumbing for the black water drain and the grey water pipe where it met the open valves. People would not slow down on the highway for us to inspect and decide what to do. We called 911 and a highway patrolman came out and parked behind us. He called a flat bed wrecker to come and save us.
He had to leave on an emergency and left us on the side of the road. Shortly after that the wrecker arrived. We were saved by J & T wrecker service at about 10:00 p.m. He graciously met us and shook our hands (To the tune of about $375.00 just for the wrecker call). Then he put our rig on the flatbed and told us it would be $6.75 cents a mile. (OUCH). There were no RV repair shops for us to tow it to and that was around 12:00 midnight. So the only option was to put it in our campsite that we had already paid for in Waves, NC. (Ocean Waves Campgrounds for anyone going to the Banks to go to the beach. It is $67.00 a night with cable as opposed to the KOA down the road for over $200.00 a night. Just a thought.) Barbara is the person you want to talk to and she is so Fabulous!!
We had to go to an ATM to pay cash for the tow ($1275.00 for 100 miles to finally arrive there which my insurance company gladly reimbursed us for). After we arrived we were graciously allowed to park until we could get someone to come out and repair it. (Didn't happen because no one would work on it). We adjusted our schedule to include some beach time while we waited on the insurance company to work with us.
The damages were out of this world and the insurance company hired an outside appraisal company to do the estimate. (that was a joke as the appraisers did not know how to do the estimate for an RV). As you can probably tell we were pretty much frustrated by this time.
When the unit hit the pavement it not only took the axle with it (There was something on the highway that hit the underside just right to carefully remove the wheel from the bearing assembly and park it on the highway somewhere). Not only did it do that is also removed the black water drain under the toilet and the gray water plumbing from the tank and parked it somewhere in NC, and bent the torsion bar for the rear shell as it would not level with the front shell either. There were large gaps on the inside where the seals meet the bed, shower and the front living room area).
There was also other damage to the frame, rear bumper assembly along with other items I will not list. This hurt so bad that we still have not recovered from the incident. Long story short we had to empty our TM and use a U-Haul to transport all of our belongings back to OKC. The insurance company finally had to total our unit because there were no repair shops that would work on it.
We received our settlement and it was equal to what we paid for it when we bought it in 2016 (Included pics from this one too). So now we are looking for another RV to take into retirement with us. Definitely will replace the A/C with an Attwood unit because it is so quiet and will cool the TM enough to hang beef in it. LOL!!
I have included a few pictures to let you see what had happened. I cleaned all of the grease off of the axle area to get decent pictures to send to the insurance company. It does not take long on the coast for rust to set in on metal. Seems kind of strange not having a home away from home to get out and see the world. My suggestion to everyone is to enjoy your TM and do not take it for granted to get out and see the world from a carefree environment that is controlled only by your own imagination!!
Thank you for enduring my long winded story and I pray that none of you have to go through this like we did.
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2004 2720SL Swing Tongue
2015 Toyota Tacoma V6 4.0L
Many changes since I purchased it!
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