Bent hitch
Hole I cut to get to the bolts
After the trip from Tok to Palmer we stayed at our friends Joe and Pat for a few days. The road from Tok was full of frost heaves. For those that don't know, frost heaves are where the ground freezes and pushes up or drops down the blacktop. You will be driving along and all of a sudden hit what seems like a speed bump. I was walking around the coach checking things out before we were to leave and I looked at the hitch. I couldn't believe my eyes, the hitch on the coach was BENT!!! Apparently the car got above the hicth and pushed down on it. I checked the the hook-up on the Jeep and it was LOOSE!!!! One bolt was gone, the other 3 were loose. Looking at the Jeep I couldn't figure out how to get to the bolts to fix them. The only way was to take the front cowling off the Jeep. That would require me to break all the little snap rivets that cars are put together with now a days. I didn't want to do that, soooo I cut away part of the plastic cowling so I could get a wrench on the bolts. The bolt that was gone I had to redrill and tap with a larger bolt. It took me about 4 hours of work to get things fixed. Today I went to find a new drop hitch to replace the bent one. When I got there, they had one. The down side is they told me there was a guy on the way to buy it, that had called in right before I got there. I waited around to see if the guy showed up, he did, he bought it. Now I have wait till Tuesday when they are suppose to get more in. One of my tow chains had a bad rub spot so I bought news cables while I was there. Here in Alaska they don't stock a lot of things, they order it for you. The prices are a little higher but what choice do you have. On Friday, Jeremy, our son, had to go to Shreveport to GM for me. I got all my retirement papers from GM that had to be signed by the Rep at work. Since I couldn't get there, he had to go for me. While he was there I had to get on the phone with the Rep so he could explain everything to me before he would sign them. Now Jeremy has to mail them to me so I can add the other documents they need and sign them. I will officially be retired August first. The paper work will not make it on time so I will have a delay in my pay. Jeremy has been great to do all this for us. Other then a bad day or two, we are still having a great time. Today we are parked at Tedd and Sandi's, friends we met at the gold show. They are great people to visit with . Tedd took me around looking for the parts I needed to fix the the coach. We will be here till the part gets in and the mail gets here.
Till next time
Duane and Louise
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