I sent you a comment on your blog. Don't blame yourself for this. It is an accident and they do happen to all of us. Hang in there and don't give up. We will say a prayer that all things work out with the insurance as well as your repairman.

Take care and travel safely to and from S. Dakota!!

 Ouch, sorry to hear that you had a mishap. The main thing no one was injured and your 5ver is repairable. Most of all, thank you for sharing your story and pictures. I think its an eye opener for all of us..... you can never be to careful.

This might be a good opportunity for anyone that wants to share their Brain Dead Moment.

My worst moment was in NM, over in the 4 corners area. We were towing our TT out on one of those old  rough, narrow hwy. Wind blowing and the black clouds were rolling in fast. We came up on a stop sign intersecting another hwy. I noticed that there was a nice big area to get off the road but I would have to backup to get in it. Now with over 18 years driving Semi Tractor Trailer  across country I am pretty confident in my backing skills. Across this stretch of hwy is 80 or so miles of narrow, rough road, at the most I think we only met 3 other vehicles
going the other direction and I never seen anyone behind us. So in reverse we go and thump, I get out to find a small car with a broken headlight and crinkled bumper. I felt about 2" inches high and felt sick that I would have done something so stupid. I broke a Cardinal rule, before backing get out and check the area or at least have a spotter help. The one thing that helped me get through the ordeal was that Sharon did not let me off the hook, but she didn't beat me up over it either.

Life is filled with speed bumps to slow us up. I think you'll be fine and on the road in short order. Accidents happen.

The key is to take the lesson dealt and learn from it. Don't give up the dream.

Thanks for sharing...we can all learn something from others boo-boo's...here's my story:

We were on our maiden voyage taking our brand new coach from California to Virginia. We were relocating my folks and I had their car on a tow dolly. We were low on diesel somewhere in Texas. I decided to get off at the next exit that had a fuel sign that said diesel.

Turned out to be a Texaco station in a small town. As we approached the station it was a twin island setup parallel with the road, had an overhang over the pumps, and the only diesel pump was on the island closest to the road. I carefully planned my approach to the pump while paying attention to the overhang. Since I can fuel my coach from either side I decided to pull in with the pumps on the drivers side so the overhang really didn't come into play.

Seemed like a good plan, so I start the turn from the road into the station. As soon as I did, a pickup truck pulled up to the pump and blocked me out. Now committed I had to continue my approach modified to use the passenger side to fuel. Now the roof became my prime concern and I was 95% certain we would fit. The overhang was marked as being 13'6" but due to the slope of the ground I wasn't sure which end of the roof they measured.

The coach and toad are out of the road and I am moving very slowly. I begin to make the turn to the pump, still watching the overhang, when all of a sudden it felt like someone dropped the anchor. I immediately got out and checked the overhang, but we were no where near the roof yet. Strange I thought. Maybe it's just the front wheel hit a speed bump or something and I just needed more momentum to get over it, but no, no speed bump.

So I decide to do a walk around to make sure everything is ok before proceeding. As I round the back of the coach I see the problem. When I turned the coach wheels to the right, the rear of the coach swung left, and I had hooked a cement pole with the dolly. The cement pole must have missed the rear of the coach by inches, and it also missed the toad by inches. The pole was wedged between the dolly wheel and the toad.

Luckily we were not blocking the road and I was able to dismount the toad and unhook the dolly and move the coach to the other side of the gas station. Damage to the dolly was minimal, just some bent metal on the wheel cover and the pad that holds the front wheel of the toad. Basically the cement pole was wider than the opening and it just wedged it's way past the metal.

Learned a valuable lesson...never fuel up at normal gas stations...they are just too small to handle big rigs.

Gary wrote:

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Colorado_Kid wrote:

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Remember the saying, "what doesn't kill you will only make you stronger."

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Word to live by!

 

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 Amen!!!

I cant tell you many people have the same story to tell, i hear them all the time. The thing to remember is that stuff happens to us all, those who persevere are the ones who succeed . Gene

Can you believe this???? We just called the repair shop. We were told the service technician we met on Saturday is leaving the company (not his choice nor theirs but a personal situation). They have no one else who can do this job.

SO....... now we are looking for another repair shop. We've called one. No luck, can't do it. We've called another, they are not Keystone but have done work on Montanas. We are waiting to hear back from Keystone. In the meantime, the clock is ticking and we don't have a home.

Phyllen,

I have no idea where the rig is in Texas, (Texas right?) but RV Station in Nacogdoches is where we got our Montana and the hitch receiver installed in the truck.  They did a great job with that and with customer service when we bought and took delivery.

Everything will work out...hang in there!