RV Travel Log

Oh crap, no brake fluid - 08/11/2003

We spent last night at Tippecanoe State Park in Indiana. It was kind of picked at random, as it is between the Wal-Mart we slept at last night and CJ and Melanie's place in Bloomington. Trailer Life advertised the camping rate as $15 or so -- we ended up paying $22 plus a $5 entrance fee to the park... and we didn't even get full hookups, just electric. I suppose one perk is they spray for mosquitoes every night. This should have been a warning flag, though -- exactly how bad is the mosquito problem if they have to spray the campground daily?

Well. It's bad. I got munched. Endlessly. Especially while dumping our holding tanks. Oh - we dumped our blackwater tank for the first time. And we got its contents all over our feet, as our hose popped out of the septic tank hole and sprayed everywhere. I couldn't shut it off; for some reason, the tank lever was sticky or rusty. It smelled like the zoo.

On the with story. The next morning, I started the RV and our brake light came on. The brakes felt super mushy. We had NO brake fluid in 1 of our reservoirs (we have 2, one for the front and one for the back; smart). I filled it and with great caution drove to the first service center down the road. Unlike Dan's Auto Center in Oregon, IL (don't go there), this place was fairly quick, friendly, honest, and reasonable. It ended up being our master cylinder (holds the brake fluid, does the pumping) had developed a leak, so they got the part and installed it in about 2 hours and for a reasonable $120, including bleeding the brakes.

Which they didn't do. I think. For the next 2 hours, the brakes felt horrible -- mushy and ineffective, much like when I took it into the shop. I really wanted to stop and bleed the brakes again, but decided to wait until we got to CJ and Melanie's house. By the time we arrived, the brakes felt great...... so I have no idea what happened. Maybe an air bubble worked itself out? Maybe the master cylinder was still getting itself acquainted with our brake system?

Tourists love 59 degree water | Southern Indiana, kinda nice
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