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Old 03-11-2015, 02:24 PM   #1
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New jayco octane 222 and a new to me truck -MISADVENTURES

So I bought a 2015 jayco octane 222 toy hauler in michigan and my friend was delivering it with my truck when he broke down in St. Louis. The rear end went out. He managed to get to a Lowe's parking lot Friday night about midnight. He camped out for the night and next day got the ok from Lowe's and let the police know to keep an eye on it.

Sat early he unhooks the trailer and limps the truck to Midas, the only thing open. I drove up that day from tulsa to pick up his two dogs so he wouldn't have to worry about them. We spent the night in the camper. No water but I had two fully charged 6 volt batteries so the heat and lights worked.

Sat we managed to look at 2 trucks before 5pm and then heard it's against the law to sell a car/truck on Sundays. I did come close to buying one truck but walked out over $500 difference because the dealer made me mad. I went home Sunday morning with the dogs.

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Old 03-11-2015, 02:31 PM   #2
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Continued:
Midas takes the rear end apart and it's shot. They look for a whole new axle and can't find one. So Monday they send it off to be rebuilt.


My truck was a 2005 chevy Silverado crew cab and I had had problems with it before. Even if they could repair it I was worried about all those hills and didn't think it would survive another round with Missouri.

I'm freaking out because I need a more powerful truck! We were supposed to go to Disney World this Friday with the camper and I was majorly stressed out. Plus my son was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes the weekend before this and we had spent some time in the hospital so I was already overloaded.

I found two trucks near tulsa to look at and bought the second one I looked at. I took Tuesday off work and drove back to St louis. My old truck didn't get done till 6pm on Tuesday and we hit the road (with some misadventures and didn't get home till 2am last night). I have lots of funny stories and not funny ones to share but I'm on my phone and wanted to share just a photo for now.
BTW we are putting Disney off until June. I am to stressed out but at least I have a new beautiful truck and camper that I love!

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Old 03-11-2015, 03:11 PM   #3
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Looking for a new truck in St. Louis:

Sat I had found a truck in Troy which I foolishly thought was only 10 minutes away. (it was 50). So we rushed across town to look at it. It looked great on the surface. But under the seats all the metal was rusty like it had been in a flood. The underneath was rusty and missing bolts in areas as well. The wheel wells had red paint on them underneath the nice new paint. We didn't even test drive it. Nothing was on the car fax but that's not hard to get around. We think it was a flood truck or something. Very nice upholstery and paint job on the surface though.

Just down the road from the mom and pop shop was a big chevy dealer. I had only been looking at dodges till then but we decided to stop.

The truck I walked out on was basically the same truck I ended up buying in Tulsa but a year older and twice the miles (and not Z71). We went back and forth with the dealer a few times on price and finally got them to say x amount plus $1500 for the new tires they had already ordered but didn't have yet.

I told them I had to leave town and couldn't wait on new tires anyway, would they take the X amount and no new tires? I would buy my own. The salesman goes to ask the manager and I hear and some bad words from the manager. The salesman comes back and says they will do x amount plus $500. They won't take the whole amount of the tires off even though that is what they say they cost. So...we said no thanks.

I think basically it came down to it was Saturday night at 5pm and maybe they wanted to go home cause they didn't want to sell a truck.

Sat. night on the long drive back to Tulsa I kept kicking myself about letting that truck go over $500. But it was the way they went about it that really made me say no in the end.

Meanwhile Lowes asked my friend if we could move Sunday because they were going to work on that area of the parking lot. But we had nothing to move it with! One of the midas guys rescued us on Monday and moved us over some. The Lowe's manage was very understanding and friendly btw. My facebook friend Connie also offered to help us and made some phone calls, I have never met her in person but she is a lovely lady!

One good thing I did learn is that my heater will run 4+ nights on the 2 6 volt batteries and it still had a charge when we left Tuesday. One propane bottle emptied though, we think it wasn't completely full to begin with though.
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Old 03-11-2015, 03:26 PM   #4
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Wow!
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Old 03-11-2015, 03:26 PM   #5
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Looking for a truck in Tulsa:
So the first truck in Tulsa I go look at was a nice shiny black Chevy 2500 with lots of accessories (towing mirrors, fancy wheel well covers, nice rims). But the price was higher than the one in St. Louis and it was much older with more miles. I crawled underneath the truck and took a good luck, it wasn't as clean as I thought it would be, some leaks and some dents. I told the guy I was going to look at another truck and why I thought this truck was to much money in comparison to the other (in case I came back).

The manager came out and said he had never seen a woman crawl under a truck before. The salesman didn't know about DEF for diesels or much of anything about trucks that I could tell he was pretty young though.

I went to Dealer 2 and a woman salesman helped me and wow, she knew a lot about trucks! She was great to work with and I ended up buying the truck from her. I took Tuesday off and drove back to St. Louis like I said above.

BACK TO St. LOUIS: Unfortunately we didn't realize the new trucks come with the bigger receivers and when we put our hitch on it was to small. We ran around town looking for a reducer and found one at the second place we went to. Then we had to buy a new longer hitch pin and have the ball on my equalizer hitch lowered. We go back to get the camper and the hooks on the camper don't fit on the huge receiver, it won't click shut. They were on there but we were worried they would bounce off. So we go to lowes (and find a reducer there btw) and scrambled to make something that would work.

We picked up my old truck and discovered that it really had some pep now when my friend (who was used to a delay when taking off in this truck) peeled the tires out of the gas station (I did the same later, LOL). I wanted to tow the camper so I took the lead and we headed out of St. Louis finally Tuesday evening about 7pm. It takes almost 6 hours to get Tulsa.
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Old 03-11-2015, 03:34 PM   #6
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We were on the road, it was dark and there was a lot of traffic. I was doing 65 and getting the feel for the camper and the new truck. My friend was following me. He calls and asks how fast am I going to drive? I said 65. He says 69 is a good speed. Fine, whatever dude, I speed up to 69.

Later he calls again: "we are never going to get there at this speed!" (I had slowed down to 60). Cars are passing us but they are doing 80 and I had a car up ahead of me in my lane. Now I'm not happy with him and can't figure out what his problem is, I hang up.

He calls back about 30 minutes later. "How fast are you going?"

"I'm doing 69mph Craig what is your problem?" Well it turns out the speedometer is messed up in the repaired truck and it was 20 mph slower than what we were actually doing. And when all the cars were passing us he assumed it was because I was doing 45! I can almost laugh about this now.
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Old 03-11-2015, 03:40 PM   #7
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Hmmmm... peppy repaired truck the the speedometer reads low? Maybe the rear axle ratio is not the same? Not a 4wd is it?
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Old 03-11-2015, 04:28 PM   #8
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Check the speed rating on your RV tires for when you get everything sorted out.
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Old 03-11-2015, 04:29 PM   #9
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Craig wondered the same thing. It is 4x4. The speedometer had gone crazya few times before over the years but always started working again. Once I was doing 50 and it said I was doing 110. Also strangely enough it now gets 20 mpg. When historically it only got 14 and got worse recently.
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Old 03-11-2015, 04:30 PM   #10
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It's 65, that's why I was going 65.
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Old 03-11-2015, 05:02 PM   #11
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Some older Chevy's are notorious for their instrument panel dying and doing strange things. My dad has an 03 model, and his was doing the speedo tricks. Finally it died altogether. The cheapest replacement is from NAPA. At the time, it was only $240.00 with a lifetime warranty. Super easy to replace yourself, plug and play.
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Old 03-11-2015, 08:55 PM   #12
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That's good to know, thank you.
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Old 03-11-2015, 09:43 PM   #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by okieinalaska View Post
Craig wondered the same thing. It is 4x4. The speedometer had gone crazya few times before over the years but always started working again. Once I was doing 50 and it said I was doing 110. Also strangely enough it now gets 20 mpg. When historically it only got 14 and got worse recently.
I suggest you get it checked out. Maybe a good 4WD shop could verify that the front and rear axle ratios are the same. You could seriously muck up your drive train with 4WD engaged if the two are different!

Stuck cables and pickup errors can cause wacky speedometer and odometer readings, but you just had the rear axle replaced. I'd find a way to be absolutely certain that repair/replacement is not the cause.
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Old 03-12-2015, 06:46 AM   #14
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The ratios are the same. First off if they were different it wouldn't have fit in the original box in my axle, second the 4 wheel drive works fine. It would have grenaded if it was different. We tested and questioned all this before leaving town. If it was going to blow up we wanted it to do it right then and they would have paid to fix it. The teeth on the gears were all wonky on the old parts and worn down. I guess it had been having problems for a long time now. I am not a mechanic this is what I was told by my friend and the mechanic, I may be explaining it wrong.
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Old 03-12-2015, 08:48 AM   #15
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The ratios are the same. First off if they were different it wouldn't have fit in the original box in my axle, second the 4 wheel drive works fine. It would have grenaded if it was different. We tested and questioned all this before leaving town. If it was going to blow up we wanted it to do it right then and they would have paid to fix it. The teeth on the gears were all wonky on the old parts and worn down. I guess it had been having problems for a long time now. I am not a mechanic this is what I was told by my friend and the mechanic, I may be explaining it wrong.
NO, you explained it right and I feel better. Thank you. I was concerned that you'd be some place where you NEEDED 4WD, and BANG. It would all come apart.

Had two flat tires - at the same time - and one spare on the Denali Highway years ago. Could only imagine you in a similar, or worse, situation with your vehicle.
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