South Charleston, OH

On Thursday we moved from the Knoxville area to Ohio to visit with our middle daughter.  We had a little drama while enroute and are currently waiting to see what the cost will be.  As I was driving in the right lane on the interstate outside of Lexington, Kentucky the semi in front of me suddenly swerved to the next lane and I was immediately faced with a large piece of a shredded tire in the middle of the lane.  I decided I could not swerve in time so I chose to drive over it by straddling it, hoping it would pass under the truck and trailer. I was fairly successful in this plan as it passed under the truck but then hit the cord connecting the trailer to the truck and disconnected it, which immediately gave me a warning indicator in the truck.  I did not hear or see any other damage. 

I pulled over as quickly as I could find a safe place on the shoulder so I could see about the cord as with it disconnected the brake lights and signals on the trailer were not working.  There was no damage, it had just become dislodged.  I connected it back up and took a quick walk around the trailer and did not see any other issues so I got back to driving.

A few miles down the road a semi pulls up next to me and gets my attention and is waving his arms indicating I have some issue.  I look in my rear view mirror and see something dangling by a cable from the rear of the trailer.  I again find a safe place to get over and stop.  The dangling item was the electric motor for the rear stabilizing jacks.  The motor had come off and was bouncing on the roadway attached to the cable that powers it.  I cut the motor from the cable and quickly checked around and under the trailer to see if there were any other issues.  I did not see any and this was confirmed at a rest stop a few miles down the road.

At the RV park I was able to use the jacks via the hand crank and was able to remove the rest of the motor that was attached.  I called the local Jayco dealer to see about a replacement motor and they are checking to see if they can order in time and how much it will be.  It is a small, very solid motor so I am thinking it may cost $50 to $100,, but some online research last night revealed it may be closer to $300!  We will see.