Update: The work was going well on the repair. In fact, it was almost finished, lacking only the installation of the awning which has not come in yet.

But, then something happened.

Holman Motors not only repaired the slide floor but reinforced it. They did not like the plastic cover Forest River provided, so they installed a piece of Aluminum instead. Well while they were testing the operation of the slide, they noticed the slide rollers were hitting the aluminum, and have actually gouged the new aluminum and the new floor!

Ya, something is not right. Upon investigation, they discovered the slide mechanism was incorrectly installed by Forest River! So now, they have to replace the floor a second time along with the aluminum cover and repair or replace the slide mechanism again. I was going to get my camper back on Monday, but it now looks like I am in the hurry-up and wait mode once again.

The tech who discovered all this has been working on campers for 22 years and is one of the best they have. He says the damage was not caused by the impact at all and that I am not on the hook for it. He places the blame totally on Forest River. He is also reluctant to let anything leave there that is not 100% repaired correctly. He said if he had not discovered the problem, my slide would have failed in the extended position shortly. So there was a hidden blessing in having had the accident in the first place.!

OK, nothing heard from Tate on the diff question...

Off to get the tires installed...

Stuff just keeps showing up:

I did not write this, but I wish that I had.


History tells us nations also have seasons: Imagine a Roman of the 2nd century gleefully contemplating an empire that stretched from Britain to the Near East, thinking:  This’ll endure forever.... Yeah, forever was about 500 years, give or take.... not bad, but gone!!   

 

France was pivotal in the 17th and 18th centuries; now the land of Charles Martel is on its way to becoming part of the Muslim ummah.   

 

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the sun never set on the British empire; now Albion exists in perpetual twilight. Its deceased queen is a fitting symbol for a nation in terminal decline.   

 

In the 1980s, Japan seemed poised to buy the world. Business schools taught Japanese management techniques. Today, its birth rate is so low and its population aging so rapidly that an industry has sprung up to remove the remains of elderly Japanese who die alone.   

 

I was born in 1941, almost at the midpoint of the 20th century - the American century. America’s prestige and influence were never greater. Thanks to the 'Greatest Generation,' we won a World War fought throughout most of Europe, Asia, and the Pacific. We reduced Germany to rubble and put the rising sun to bed. It set the stage for almost half a century of unprecedented prosperity.   

 

We stopped the spread of communism in Europe and Asia and fought international terrorism. We rebuilt our enemies and lavished foreign aid on much of the world. We built skyscrapers and rockets to the moon. We conquered Polio and now to some degree conquered COVID 19. We explored some of the mysteries of the Universe and the wonders of DNA...the blueprint of life.   

 

But where’s the glory that once was Rome?  America has moved from a relatively free economy to socialism - which's worked so well NOWHERE in the world, ever!   

 

We've gone from a republican government guided by a constitution to a wicked regime of revolving elites. We’ve less freedom with each passing year. Like a signpost to the coming reign of terror, the cancel culture is everywhere. We've traded the American Revolution for the Cultural Revolution.   

 

The wicked incompetent fraud in the White House is an empty vessel filled by his handlers. At the G-7 Summit, 'Dr. Jill' had to lead him like a child. In 1961, when we were young and vigorous, our leader was too. Now a feeble nation is technically led by the oldest man to ever serve in the presidency.   

 

We can't defend our borders, our history (including monuments to past greatness) or our streets. Our cities have become anarchist playgrounds. We’re a nation of dependents, mendicants, and misplaced charity. Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.   

 

The president of the United States can't even quote the beginning of the Declaration of  Independence ('You know - The Thing') correctly.  Ivy League graduates routinely fail history tests that 5th graders could pass a generation ago.  Crime rates soar and we blame the 2nd.  Amendment and slash police budgets.   

 

Our culture is certifiably insane. Men who’re mindlessly claiming they’re women. People who fight racism by seeking to convince members of one race that they’re inherently evil, and others that they’re perpetual victims. A psychiatrist lecturing at Yale said she fantasizes about 'unloading a revolver into the head of any white person.'   

 

We murder the unborn in the name of freedom, while our birth rate dips lower year by year. Our national debt is so high that we can no longer even pretend that we’ll repay it one day. It's a $30-trillion monument to our improvidence and refusal to confront reality. Our 'entertainment' is sadistic, nihilistic, and as enduring as a candy bar wrapper thrown in the trash. Our music is noise that spans the spectrum from annoying to nauseating.   

 

Patriotism is called an insurrection, treason celebrated, and perversion sanctified. A man in blue gets less respect than a man in a frilly dress. We’re asking soldiers to fight for a nation our leaders no longer believe in.   

 

How meekly most of us submitted to Fauci-ism (the regime of face masks, lockdowns, and hand sanitizers) shows the impending death of the American spirit.   

 

How do nations slip from greatness to obscurity?   

* Fighting endless wars they can't or won't win

* Accumulating massive debt far beyond their ability to repay

* Refusing to secure their borders, allowing the nation to be inundated by an alien horde

* Surrendering control of their cities to mob rule

* Allowing indoctrination of the young

* Moving from a republican form of government to an oligarchy

* Losing national identity

* Indulging indolence

* Abandoning God, faith and family - the bulwarks of any stable society.   

 

In America, every one of these symptoms is pronounced, indicating an advanced stage of the disease.   

 

Even if the cause seems hopeless, do we not have an obligation to those who sacrificed so much to give us what we once had? I'm surrounded by relentless ghosts urging me on: the Union soldiers who held Cemetery Ridge at Gettysburg, the battered  bastards of Bastogne, those who served in the cold  hell of Korea, the guys who went to the jungles of  Southeast Asia and came home to be reviled or  neglected.   

 

This’s the nation that took in my immigrant grandparents, whose uniform my father and most of my uncles wore in the Second World War. I’m grief stricken to imagine a world without America, even though it becomes increasingly likely.   

 

During Britain's darkest hour, when its professional army was trapped at Dunkirk and a German invasion seemed imminent, Churchill rightly reminded his countrymen, 'Nations that go down fighting rise again, and those that surrender tamely are finished.'   

 

The same might be said of causes. If we let America slip through our fingers, if we lose without a fight, what’ll posterity say of us?   

 

While the prognosis is most depressing. Only God knows if America's sun has permanently set."   

 

Read it and weep, forward or erase it! I read it and am now forwarding it to you, believing that we in America are at the moment in time to stand up, or let it fall! We now may soon be at the next step in our country's future. I believe that it might be infinitely closer than we think.   

 

Author UnKnown

Stopping up to visit you has crossed my mind more than once.

This year: Wyoming/Montana
Next year: Alaska
The following year, I was kinda thinking Newfoundland, but, maybe???

After I retorqued the wheels, I did some weight calculations.

Besides being 1 inch narrower, they are 44lbs lighter than the nitto combo and steel wheels, thats each wheel! 40psi seems about right, wear looks OK and all the little tits are still on the tires.

Balance feels good, guess the 6oz beads were about right. Haven't calced a full tank yet but with the DIC working it shows low 16 average which is 2-3 more than before.