On our way to Witchita Kansas, while driving through a small town we had a bit of a problem. While driving into town there was a divot in the roadway and we were driving the R.V. towing the car behind. Approaching this divot in the road at 30 mph, with little warning, we hit the divot.
Running over Divot at 00:03 seconds in the video.
The R.V. went over the divot pretty hard and when the towed vehicle went over the combination of the impact from the R.V. and the vehicle over the divet made a large noise in the back. We pulled over to see if there was any damage and saw that the baseplate on the car was hanging on by only 2 bolts and the radiator was leaking anti-freeze. Apparently, the impact caused all by two of the bolts to sheer off and when the baseplate went pivoting down it pivoted into the radiator, therefore puncturing it.
After looking over both vehicles for any more damage we assessed we would not be able to tow the vehicle in the condition it was in. We disconnected the vehicle and started the engine to see if we had any other problems. Luckily it looked like only the radiator was leaking and not any of the other coolers attached to the radiator bracket. We knew we only could drive the car for a couple of minutes with no anti-freeze in the cooling system. We found a place to park the vehicle in town. The next problem we needed to figure out was how were we going to get the vehicle fixed and where could we stay while that was happening. Luckily we found a County Park only about a mile away from where the vehicle was parked. This county park happened to have 4 R.V. camping loops around a lake. It also had electrical hookups as well as water. We just needed to figure out where to empty our R.V. tanks when they were full as the park didn’t have an R.V. dump. Talking to some local people in town we found a place to dump our tanks in the city sewer at an R.V. park down the road.
We figured out since it was the 3rd of July and we were now staying in a County Park on a lake that we were happy that this problem happened where it did. We decided to not let the damage to the vehicle and not being able to use it, bother us over the 4th of July and figure it out on the 5th.
As we woke up on the 4th of July in the County Park we opened up the R.V. door to dozens of people outside. We thought the town came out to welcome us. Little did we know that the County Park was the location for the 4th of July festivities and Fireworks. We walked along the beautiful lake, listened to live bands, ate food from the food vendor and watched everyone have a great time. At nightfall, the Fireworks started and it was a very good show. Everyone did a great job putting on this 4th of July celebration from the County and we were glad to be a part of it.
The following day, July 5th we decided we were going to figure out a solution to our damaged tow vehicle and how to get it repaired. We found a local repair shop in town and they were able to fix it by the following day. They even dropped off the tow vehicle off at the County Park where we were staying in the R.V. Nice people.
We needed a new radiator and I requested that the base plate on the vehicle be reattached with Grade 8 hardware for added strength in case we come across any more divots in our journey.