20240223 Friday, Twin Harbors State Park. RV Troubles, Bronco Lifeboat

When the sun rose at 7:30am, the solar charger panel was flashing a battery error.  The voltage had dropped enough during the night running the refrigerator and furnace that the BMS shut down the batteries.  The State Parks permit generators from 8am to 9pm, so we waited until 8:10am to jump start the batteries and generator with the portable lithium jump starter.  When the BMS shuts down the batteries, they can be rebooted by applying a jump start voltage.  Fortunately, it all worked, and since the battery box is inside the coach at the top step, it could all be done from inside the coach. With the generator running, both batteries were reporting a charge current of 35A.  We ran the generator while we had coffee, tea and banana bread for breakfast and got things tidied up a bit to prepare for leaving.  

We shut the generator down around 10am and started up the RV to drive it off the leveler blocks and run the slide in.  It didn’t start up with the first push of the ignition button, which was odd.  We put the key in the slot below  in case the battery might be low, and it did start after pushing the button a second or third time.  We drove off the levelers and ran the slide in.  Then putting it back in Park and idled the motor for a while to defog the windshield before shutting the motor off while we secured all the cupboards and countertops for travel.  Then when we were ready to pull the RV out to hitch up the Bronco, the ignition button again acted strangely, not starting the vehicle even with the key in the key detection slot until the 3rd or 4th press.  When it did start up, a message displayed on the dash "SERVICE REQUIRED- DO NOT SHIFT GEARS".  The motor was running smoothly, but the electronic shifter was unresponsive and there was no apparent way to shift gears anyways.  It was stuck in park.  The motor also didn't shut down with pressing the button as it should, but eventually shut down after several presses of varying duration.  

Hoping it was some transient electrical gremlin, Ben disconnected and reconnected the chassis battery a couple times but the error would not clear, so it was apparent that we would need to be towed on a flatbed to a Sprinter service center.  Since the chassis battery is under the floor in front of the driver seat, it's a bit of a chore to get to.  It's a good thing we have a full took kit onboard the RV.

It was discouraging to call all the Sprinter service facilities in WA including Tacoma, Seattle and Lynnwood, and not be able to speak to a service advisor at any of the dealerships, leaving phone numbers for call backs.  Ben then tried to book service online, but the dealership portals were all very poorly designed and primarily for scheduling things like routine maintenance, not emergency repairs.  And the earliest appointments were weeks out in mid March.  

At 11:30am Ben finally got a call back from someone in the service department at Tacoma Mercedes Benz, who said the earliest they could schedule service was March 13.  Worse yet, they said we could not have the RV towed to their facility before March 12.  We accepted the appointment however, hoping to hear back from Lynnwood for an earlier date.  Lynnwood did callback at 11:45 to say we could have the RV towed there, and they could get to it March 6, but while on that call, another came in and went to voice mail.  After accepting the March 6 Lynnwood appt, Ben listened to the voice mail and it was a Liz from Tacoma Mercedes Benz customer service who suggested we call Mercedes Benz Roadside Assistance.  She said we had coverage and that towing to the nearest dealership able to service the RV would be complementary.  What a deal!  Ben was just looking up the Safeco Auto Roadside Assistance number.  It was a little surprising that we still had complementary MB roadside assistance because the RV is now 4 years old and the Chassis is 5 years old, but we were happy to give them a call.  

The people at MB Roadside Assistance were very professional and kind, although some of them had accents that were a little hard to understand at first.  But at any rate, they took our location, arranged for the vehicle to be towed to Tacoma Mercedes Benz (the same place that said we couldn't have it towed there before March 12) and dispatched a flatbed to fetch us at 12:18pm.  

We got a call from Dennis at Affordable Towing, who informed us that he was situated in Shelton, WA, and that it may be 2 hours or so for them to get to us.  According to Google Maps that should have been a 90 minute drive, but we were happy to hear help was now on its way.  However, with nobody on site by 2:30pm, we called back and they said they were stuck in traffic due to construction and would be another hour.  MB Roadside Assistance kept checking back with us periodically to see if the tow had arrived, and Affordable Towing seemed to be impossibly delayed, but they finally arrived at 5pm.  During all this time, Ben had to wait patiently by the RV, and we unpacked perishables and dirty laundry out of the RV, anticipating it may have to spend a week or two in a storage lot without power.  We were testing the Bronco's luggage capacity for sure.  Janet went for walks around the campground and beach hoping to find some agates. As the hour grew later, the tide went back out and Janet enjoyed a beautiful calm sunset as people were digging clams in front of the campground.  If we had known our tow would not show up until 5pm, we could have hit the beach and got another two limits of razor clams easily, but would then have to figure what to do with them without the RV and with the Bronco already filled up with stuff off the RV.  Janet ended up helping other clammer by pointing out clam shows and lending some of her expertise.  Of the days of the week on this trip, this was the nicest day with blue sky, sunshine and calm breezes.  

WIth the sun out, the solar panels on the RV were still in partial shade due to trees at the campsite, but at one point the solar controller was reporting 2.1A charging current, and the batteries were reporting 1.2A charging on solar, so maybe the weather and shade were the main reasons we had to run the generator so much this trip.  During our cross country road trip, we only ran the generator to run our air conditioner because during the day the batteries would charge up to full capacity while we were on the road.

Affordable Towing arrived with a flatbed just long enough to get the RV's axles both on the bed.  With the transmission electronically locked in Park, they had to drag it out of the campsite with the rear axle locked.  It plowed up the gravel as the winch pulled the RV onto the flatbed.  They eventually used scrap wood boards to help skid the read wheels up onto the bed.  It was quite a sight to see our RV up on that flatbed.  It was even more of a sight to watch it rocking and bouncing as they drove through some pot holes near the campground exit.  We were afraid they might pitch the RV off the bed, even though the tires were tied down.  

We followed them in the Bronco as we headed for Tacoma MB, which is in Fife.  They requested a dinner stop since they had missed lunch due to traffic and our call, so we treated them to dinner at the Mazatlan restaurant in Aberdeen.  We finally got to Tacoma MB at about 9:30pm to find it all gated and locked.  Ben walked past the gate and tried to find the building where we were supposed to drop off the RV, and eventually encountered a security patrol driving around.  The security guard, Dimitri, was a fairly young gentleman who was to my surprise dressed in body armor and sporting a Glock in his belt holster.  However, he was very professional and kind, recognizing our stress in having to figure out how to deliver the RV after hours.  He kindly opened the gate so we could get to the drop off location and drop off the keys.  At 9:41PM we bid farewell to our RV in the driveway of their service bay entrance, which was really the only place Affordable Towing could safely off load the RV.  

The drive back home that late was pretty smooth since there was only minor traffic approaching the I-90 interchange and express lanes.  We filled up the Bronco at the River Rocks Tobacco and fuel in Arlington and arrived home at 12:15am.  That was a very long day.  It would have been much longer and more troublesome if we hadn't had the Bronco with us because we would have probably had to spend the night in the RV in the parking lot and find a rental car the next day.