When last we left you, we had just recovered our travel trailer after it had been stolen, then abandoned a mile away from our home. The thieves had damaged the trailer hitch coupling, but we were able to tow it back to its spot. Then we started the long process of filing an insurance claim and getting the trailer repaired. Six weeks later, we’re still waiting.
Let me bring you up to speed. It took about a week for our insurance company to send an adjuster to take a look at the damage, write up an estimate and make arrangements for the trailer to get towed to a nearby dealer for repair. Then about a week later, we got a call that the dealer had agreed to let them tow the trailer to their lot, and had ordered the part they would need to repair it. A flatbed tow truck would come out the next morning to pick up our trailer.
When the wrecker arrived, the driver took a look at the coupling and declared that he could just hook it up to the ball hitch on the back of his truck. He assured me that he could secure the trailer despite the damage. I was skeptical but he was a professional.
Once he got the hitch on to the ball, the slide mechanism that secures the ball and keeps it from sliding off wouldn’t engage. He pulled out a hammer and a metal rod and tried to hammer the mechanism into place, but it wouldn’t engage. So he had to pull the trailer up onto the flat bed.
He maneuvered the flat bed on an angle to create a ramp, and put a rubber skid underneath the front jack of the trailer. He would use a winch to pull the trailer up onto the flat bed.
However, when he started winching, the skid did not slide up onto the bed. He just proceeded to bend the front jack post.
He ended up putting a second skid underneath the first one, and that did the trick. However, the damage to the front jack had been done.
As he pulled the trailer up onto the bed, however, the angle was so great that the stabilizer jacks at the rear of the trailer were going to scrape. I stopped him and told him of the problem. He adjusted the bed a bit and continued to winch the trailer onto the flat bed.
“Stop!” I yelled at him. “You’re scraping the back!”
“I’m watching it,” he replied nonchalantly. He continued to pull the trailer up, as the jack scraped the pavement.
I yelled at him to stop again. And he did, readjusting the angle and finally getting the trailer up onto the bed without further damage.
Once he chained the trailer in place, and was ready to depart, I confronted him about the damage.
“I’m concerned about the damage to the front jack and the rear stabilizer jacks,” I told him.
“The front jack was already bent when I arrived,” he replied.
I told him that was incorrect and that I would be discussing it with our insurance company.
It was sad to see our brand new trailer up on the flatbed like a wounded animal. I had a sinking feeling in my stomach as I watched the truck pull away. My only solace was knowing that it would come back good as new, and the whole experience would be something to laugh at years later.
After he left, I ran back home to jump on a zoom call for which I was already late. My phone rang a couple of times during the meeting, but I couldn’t answer it. After logging off the call, I checked my messages. It was the tow truck company. The driver had arrived at the dealer, but the dealer had refused to accept our trailer. Where did I want them to take it?
I scrambled to make some calls and find out what had happened. No answer from the towing company. No answer from the tow truck driver. No answer from the insurance adjuster. I finally got in touch with the service manager at the dealership, and he told me he had no idea the trailer was coming. The insurance company inquired about bringing it by and had sent over their estimate, but had not replied to the dealer’s emails in response.
For the next few hours, I had no idea where our trailer was.
At the end of the day, the insurance adjuster called to tell me the trailer had been brought to their lot, and he would work on getting it back to the dealer the next day. Three days later, I finally confirmed it was at the dealer. The service manager confirmed they had it, and told me it would probably be another week before they would have the replacement coupler and then would have to schedule it for a repair.
He had also noticed the damaged jack, but they keep spare jacks in stock, so that wouldn’t be an issue. Our insurance company could pursue the claim against the tow truck driver.
So now another three weeks have passed and we’re still waiting for our trailer to be repaired. In the meantime, we’ve located a secured storage lot where we can keep our trailer and avoid another attempt at theft.
We’re eager to get out and use the trailer, but we’re not sure when we’ll get it back, and so have avoided making any camping reservations. Memorial Day looks like a loss, although it would have been hard to get reservations for a nearby campground anyway. Our current plan is to try for a four day trip to Dinosaur National Monument on the Colorado-Utah border in June. We can make reservations at a nearby campground and get a refund as long as we cancel 72 hours in advance.
The waiting game continues.
