Well, here’s the overall update of our first couple days of full timing. A lot has happened in the last 60 hours.
We left San Antonio for Dallas on Wednesday around noon. Decided to take 281 North instead of I-35 for the scenic route. Jeremy drove all the way. Around 5PM we were about 5 miles north of a little town called Stephenville. The truck made some noise and just stopped working… it just died on us~ Jeremy tried his best to steer our rig to the side of the road with the little bit of momentum left.
Well, our AAA Texas – Plus RV membership actually came in handy for this. Called their toll free number for Roadside Assistance… the lady did not seem to understand what a Fifth Wheel was~ but the Tow Truck company came about 90 minutes later and was able to tow our truck with the Fifth Wheel on the back to the closest GM dealer/service center – Bruner Motors, Inc. We will tell you more about what we did while waiting later~
We boondocked at the employee parking lot of the Bruner Motors GM service center and was able to get in first thing in the morning for them to take a look at the truck. The service was very good! The staff was friendly and helpful.
The thought of upgrading the truck has always been on our mind. But we were thinking of later this year or early next year. But with the truck broke down, it really made us think that we might have to do it a lot sooner than planned. So we went over to the Bruner Motors GM Used Truck dealership across the street to look at what options we have here. It came down to a 2007 Ford 250 4×4 and a 2007 GMC Sierra 2500HD SLT. Both of them are diesel trucks, which is one of the things we wanted for the upgrade. After the test drive, 2007 GMC Sierra 2500HD was definitely the winner. It handles much better than the Ford and it was cheaper.
So, guess what… Yes, we bought the 2007 GMC Sierra 2500HD 4WD SLT crew cab short bed and traded in our old GMC Sierra 3500. 
It has everything we wanted and more:
- 4WD
- Allison six-speed automatic transmission
- Duramax 6.6L turbo-diesel V8 engine
- Front Heated Seats
- Front Memory Seats
- Leather Seats
- Automatic Climate Control
- Signaling Exterior Mirrors
- Remote Keyless Entry
It even has a cool digital fuel economy monitor calculating average MPG while you drive.
Today, the dealership is suppose to switch the hitch from our old truck to the new and we should be ready to get back on the road again.
2 comments to “Day 3 of RV Full Timing”
Thank you Jim. We made the decision of buying the new one mainly because we really don’t want to deal with the old truck breaking down while we are on the road full time. The shop was able to find the problem and fix the old truck, but we thought trading it in with the new will be better. Even though we are up-side-down with the trade in since we just bought the old one last December.
We sure hope this is it and we are good to hit the road soon!
Comment posted on July 5, 2008 at 8:47 amCongratulations on hitting the road! And what better way to start off the trip than with a new truck? I was going to say be prepared for this to be the first of many issues to come, but it sounds like a scary situation that you handled well, which worked out for the best in the end.
A couple months before we hit the road, we were contemplating the purchase of a new truck when ours got totaled by a red light runner. (No one was hurt, bad.) Weird how things work sometimes…
Comment posted on July 5, 2008 at 8:32 am