On Sunday, January 30, 2011 I left Tulsa heading toward St. Louis to visit my son. Before I left I decided I had better fill the tank. I figured I would check the tire pressures while I was there as I had neglected to bring my own tire gauge.
I was in for multiple surprises. Six to be exact.
After filling the tank I pulled the GMC to the side of the service station where the air hose was located. When I got out I proceeded to step into a fresh puddle of gasoline. Looking underneath the GMC I saw gasoline dripping from several locations on the frame. Hurriedly I called a GMC owner I had met the night before at dinner to ask some advice. I was quite concerned that this was going to be a major issue as gasoline dripping from your engine usually is. The response I received was concerned but not alarming. It was most likely an old fuel vent line that needed to be replaced as the problem did not occur until I had apparently over-filled the gas tank forcing fuel into the vent lines. Soon enough the gas stopped dripping and I felt comfortable moving forward. The big drawback was that now I was driving in an RV that smelled of gasoline.
Now that the gasoline situation was taken care of, I moved to the tires. The GMC tires should be inflated to about 65 psi. This is a nearly 10,000 lb vehicle so under-inflated tires are a bad thing. Well, despite what the dealer told me, I had five ‘bad things’ on my GMC. Five of the six tires were quite under inflated. One of the front tires was as low as 30 psi. This was a huge and dangerous situation as the GMC is a front wheel drive vehicle. Sending this GMC off of the lot while having such under inflated tires was dangerous and negligent. Especially as I made sure that the Camping World folks knew I was driving it across the country. I inflated the tires to their appropriate pressures and noticed much improved steering. It wasn’t perfect, but it was a far site better than what I had been dealing with.
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