We are once again living life on solid ground

Oy. What a week we have had.

First we had our adventure up into the mountains where we somehow took a wrong turn and got into a bad bad bad spot. Lucky we was able to get out of it. Then we got 4.69″ of rain in 24 hours which literally sunk Ackbar.

Read our last few post’s regarding the Jeep adventure and rain.

Now that we had time to rest, relax and eat, we have figured out what happen and how we could help prevent it from happening again in the future regarding Ackbar sinking into the parking pad.

As I mentioned, we woke up listing to the driver side, we are parked facing North, and what I didn’t know was our parking pad is about 3 years old, so it only has maybe 2/3 layers of gravel laid on top of the dirt. Looking at it while dry its as solid as concrete. Getting an average of .25″ of rain daily for about 10 days and then 4.69″ in a 24 hour period, that rock solid pad is more oatmeal then concrete.

I looked over the driver side wheels before I decided to move Ackbar, I did not take the time to look at the jacks. I wish I had now. If I did, I would have seen the driver side jacks had sunk, including the jack pad, about 8″ into the parking pad. Had I looked at the jack’s I would not have tried to move Ackbar.

I also did not notice we slid West about 4″. I only discovered that when we tried to drive out I was going to drive over the sewer intake when I know I was no where near that when I parked.

Once I retracted the jacks I knew that was the wrong thing to do. We was REALLY listing now. But since I had passed the “point of no return” I had no choice but to try and drive out. Not a good idea. The front driver side wheel was already to the axel. The back driver side wheels sank about 6″. The Passenger side wheels were no more then 1″ but I just could not get any traction.

I had to ask for help and a TNC staff member, Charlie, was nice enough to come help us. After talking it over he suggested using the tractor and pulling us backwards about 20′, shore up the drivers side and wait for the ground to dry out. After looking at the other few option’s I agreed that was the best thing to do.

We almost got the tractor stuck right off the bat, lucky Charlie was able to get it out and he also brought lot’s of chains and huge 8×4’s cut in 4′ lengths. We had to do some shoveling as well as tying a tree back since we slid too close to it that if we tried to move Ackbar we would hit it.

Once we pulled Ackbar into somewhat “better” ground, we was able to use Ackbar’s jacks and raise the front and back wheels high enough we could put the wood planks under the tires. The back wheels required just 2″ of propping up, while the front tire took 14″ of wood before we could rest the wheel on it.

Once Charlie and I got Ackbar level, he had to leave, so Pauline and I started to focus on the other main issue we was having. The bathroom power outlet kept popping it’s fuse. Normally I would not care at the moment, but since the refrigerator also runs off that circuit we had a major issue.

As a reminder, the fridge needs to be worked on as it will not stay cool enough while running on propane. We are TRYING to wait until we get back to Oregon to have that fixed since it’s about $130 a hour down here to have someone else fix it when I can have it covered by warranty in Oregon.

While we was waiting on Charlie to arrive, Pauline called our dealer regarding the power outlet and they suggested it could have gone bad, to replace it and Pauline went to Home Depot and got us a new one.

I installed it and it still popped the circuit. As suggested by our dealers electrician, we took a can of air to all the outlets, but we was still popping the circuit. Finally it got to the point we had no choice but to take Ackbar to a service shop.

Well, once we could get Ackbar out that is.

Our electrician did tell us that due to the amount of rain we had, it COULD “fix itself” over time if it would get enough time to dry out.

Yeah, right. If I have to pay $130 a hour, you know it won’t fix itself.

20 minutes later, Pauline tested the outlet once more and it worked. Our theory is that outside plug that the fridge plugs into was the issue, with the hard rain blowing from all directions that seems to be the most likely spot that would get water inside it. We put some tape over the unused outlet as well over the plug itself.

Whew. One major stress gone.

We lucked out and had a full 24 hours of no rain, but I knew that trend would not last, and when I got up at 6am today, the first thing I saw was a storm cell heading toward us, so we made the decision to move Ackbar NOW.

I started to drive out and thought I “made it” until I sunk right up to the axel once more.

Sigh.

Pauline and I did more shoveling and using the jacks we got some wood Charlie brought under the driver side wheel’s and hearing the approaching thunder, I decided I had no choice but to try and drive out once again using the wood planks as a “rail”.

After I got my track of wood down and looking everything over, I realized we had no hope this would work, but I was desperate.

Can you believe it, it worked!

Whew. Major stress relief. Living with the main slide out closed SUCKS. And since was was 20′ farther South we now had a tree blocking the slide out. We don’t mind living like that that when we know we are leaving the next morning, but having no idea if we would be living like that for hours or days, it just sucks.

We have another parking pad that we could have parked on, but looking over both spaces, we decided to try and make this one work since it was more private, and I am not convinced the other spot was any more solid.

Pauline and I took about 2 hours trimming tree branches, raking loose rock and dirt trying to fill the tracks we created by sinking, but we don’t have enough material to fill them properly so if/when we get heavy rain we will have a swamp near us.

Currently we are about 10′ further East and 30′ further North then we was prior. The drivers side is just about where the passengers side was, so we are confident we are on the most solid ground we can get around here while still being able to have full hookups.

We have learned a lot from this experience. Mainly, to take the Arizona rains and flash flood’s MUCH more seriously.

I am once again VERY pleased with myself over bringing my ladder, shovel and rake. All three of those items have made our lives MUCH easier.

Just a few pictures as we was really not in the mood to take that many pictures at the time.

BTW, not 1 hour after parking Ackbar we got another .06″ of rain.

Timing is everything.