This morning we packed up and headed north toward Oklahoma City, but as we got a few miles south of Lawton, the coach began bouncing like a low rider doing air bag stunts at a car show. We pulled over and sure enough both front suspension air bags were flat. I knew we could not sit on the narrow shoulder, so we kept moving at 5-10 miles an hour on the shoulder until we got to an exit off the turnpike. Shirley got on the phone and called CoachNet to get a tow truck out to get us back to Wichita Falls and the nearest Freightliner service center. After about 4 hours, the tow truck showed up and after a couple of hours, the three of us were in the Jeep following the coach back to Wichita Falls. The driver was extremely careful to not damage the air dam on the front of the coach, is why it took so long to get the coach hooked up. The equipment he had would not catch the frame and lift the coach without hitting the air dam, so he finally hooked onto the outer edges of the cross member under the generator which was lower than the frame, and allowed plenty of clearance for the air dam.
A little before 5 and one hour before Freightliner closed, we pulled into their parking lot. The service writer was very helpful and got the tech to immediately reattach the drive shaft so that we could pull the coach up to one of their bays so we could get enough electricity to keep the batteries charged and the refrigerator working on AC. It was too hot for us to stay in the coach for the night so we found a hotel for the night.
The following morning, we hung out at the hotel and walked over to a nearby Denny's for breakfast. Just as we checked out around 11:30, they called us and said the coach was ready to pick up. When we got to Freightliner, we learned that a grommet that the suspension leveler rod fits into had failed which caused the rod to fall out of the leveler valve and took all the air out of the bags. After paying the bill - our extended warrantee company (Portfolio) never returned calls from Freightliner) so we ate the cost for now. However, the great folks at CoachNet covered the $600 tow charge without a question.
As soon as we could get hooked up, we were back on the road and arrived at Twin Fountains RV Resort in Oklahoma City a day and a half late, but there.
2025-05-23