First long tow in the new rig

[dedmiston]

We're leaving this afternoon to go visit our daughter up in the Gold country about six hours away. She is a white water rafting guide up on the American river. This will be the longest trip we've taken in our new big fifth wheel. Hopefully the spaces at the RV park up there will be big enough for a larger rig like ours.

We can't wait!

[2slick]

Good luck on your trip.


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[dedmiston]

We didn't get very far. Truck broke down in Bakersfield. Sitting at the dealer now.

[campingcpl]

Originally Posted by dedmiston

We didn't get very far. Truck broke down in Bakersfield. Sitting at the dealer now.

That sucks but know how you feel! We broke down just after leaving our last stop coming home from South Dakota back in the spring. Hopefully it's nothing to serious! Good luck!

[Papa-T]

I was gonna say "Gold Country, I want to go". Now since your broke down I'll pass. Let us know what the problem was.

[dedmiston]

UPDATE: The Dodge service in Bakersfield was a dud. They couldn't find any problems and didn't really try. Four hours later they reset all the messages, told me it was "fixed", and sent me on my way. Now we're broke down again, but further from home.

The problem started after we went over the Grapevine coming out of southern California. I noticed coming down the grade that the check engine light was on and the DEF needle was down on Empty. This was impossible, because the DEF was nearly 3/4 full when we left home. I stopped at the next gas station and bought lots of DEF but was only able to fit about 3 gallons in. By that time I had a warning light telling me to go get service and that the engine would shut off to 5mph in 150 miles. So we found a nearby dealer in Bakersfield and spent the night there.

The Bakersfield dealer reset the errors and sent us on our way.

Before I knew it, the DEF needle was down to 3/4 again and I knew it was going to be a bad day. I tried to add more, but it wouldn't take any. We kept on going because we were already 90 miles north of that dealer and I was still holding out hope that we would make it to our destination up north where our daughter works.

The needle kept dropping throughout the day and by the time we got to camp up in the gold country it was back below the red again and a new message told us that we had 200 miles before it would shut down to 5mph.

The next morning (Friday) I took it to the closest Dodge RAM service center in nearby Placerville. I was afraid that I was going to get even worse service out there in the sticks, but the woman who wrote up my service was extremely knowledgeable in Diesel. I left it with her and told her that I was going rafting with my family and I'd call her back later in the day.

When I talked to her later, she told me that it was the DEF pump and that Dodge wasn't going to cover it under Diesel warranty, but that she had called Dodge and explained that we were stranded on vacation and needed expedited service and help with the parts.

We've been having a great weekend with our whole family of five together for the first time in over a year, but the local RV park is getting snippy with us for not getting out on time. "You can't just extend your stay like that!" Well, first of all, the place isn't even close to full. Secondly, I don't have a choice because the trailer isn't going to move without a truck, so cut the attitude and take my money for three more nights until I can get back on the road.

Luckily there's wifi at the coffee place across the road and I can get a little work done (and whine here).

My wife took our other daughter's car and drove back home to go back to work. It's great that our two daughters have cars here. We've been able to use the two cars to put-in and take-out on the river and go rafting almost every day. We also got to go down to Sacramento to the State Fair. Fun stuff.

[mark5w]

Hope you get all your problems resolved. Got to be very frustrating when a dealership can't figure it out. Best of luck.

[Dayle1]

I don't understand why the DEF pump isn't covered under the emissions warranty since it is part of that system. What year and mileage is the truck?

I just checked, 2014 Dodge diesel, emissions warranty is 5 yrs/50k miles and the DEF pump is included. So, unless you are over on miles, it should be a covered repair.

[fuzzdr]

Without going into great detail, we had a similar DEF/Diesel Exhaust Regeneration problem recently in our 2016 F-350. Our fix was to replace the NOx sensor in the exhaust. It presented as check engine light, inaccurate DEF level readings, and warnings that max. speed would be limited to 80 Km/hr (Canuk eh), and failure to regenerate the diesel exhaust filter. I was without my truck for 3 whole days but they did fix it on warranty and it continues to run properly about 6 weeks later.

[Steve7]

Dedmiston, I live about 30 minutes from Placerville. If you need anything that you're unable to get or do, let me know and I'll meet you, just pm me. Also, if you're using the Dodge dealer in Placerville, they're pretty good. I used to use them for service on a variety of vehicles. Good Luck!

[dedmiston]

Originally Posted by Dayle1

I don't understand why the DEF pump isn't covered under the emissions warranty since it is part of that system. What year and mileage is the truck?

I just checked, 2014 Dodge diesel, emissions warranty is 5 yrs/50k miles and the DEF pump is included. So, unless you are over on miles, it should be a covered repair.

I'm at about 54,000 miles.

Dodge ended up covering it under some sort of please-don't-hate-dodge-anymore claim. We paid the $200 deductible. It was going to be about a grand more than that without the help from Dodge.

[petenally]

Was glad to get to final post and see that things were taken care of for you. Outside of the hassle it sounds like you have had a pretty great time with your family!
The trailer park needs to shake their dang heads.....so people can't think outside their current thought.