Vehicle Maintenance #5of9

1978 Dodge Trans Van, continued

Just a week or so before we were to drive to Rotterdam and load the RV on the TSS Stefan Batory and sail to Canada, we were in Alsfeld, Germany, and the starter sounded funny. Sure didn’t want a problem on our way to Rotterdam, or just after we landed in Canada. A letter we had received from Chrysler Corporation, said one of the few people able to repair a Dodge in Europe was in nearby Wittenberg, just north of Giessen.

We arrived during his lunch hour. When lunch was over he said he indeed did have a starter, and would have time to install it in an hour or so. Total cost was 575 DM, over $220. A couple of years later, we needed another starter for this same Dodge, and it cost $70 in California, parts and labor!

The refrigerator we bought in Luxembourg for this Dodge Van in 1983 was not made to run on 110 V power like we will find in the US. We wrote a letter to Electrolux in Hamburg, Germany, and asked if we could convert the refrigerator from the European 220 volt power, to the US 110 volt power. Rather than just answer our question, they sent the needed part that cost $20 or so. Just before we left Mettlach, I spent a hour replacing the 220 V part with the 110 V part, and when we arrived in the US, the refrigerator worked just fine!

All of these problems did not cause us much inconvenience. We would spend a couple of hours here and there, but we were sightseeing while they worked, and we got to meet and talk with the mechanics. A good chance to converse with real people. Consider this: we drove the two Dodges nearly 53,000 miles, crossed International borders 129 times during 510 travel days, and visited 27 countries during this seven year period. With that in mind, the problems and the time they took to rectify, were minor.

Funny thing is, the two Dodges were exactly the same truck, with the same motor, etc., only the RV portion was different. You can not imagine two vehicles that were so near alike, would drive so differently. We never were happy with the “feel” of driving the 1977 Dodge, while the 1978 was the most comfortable, and easiest driving vehicle we have owned.

After we brought the 1978 Dodge Trans Van to the US and could compare one with the other, I said the 1978 Dodge was as comfortable to drive and to ride, as our 1978 Cadillac, a vehicle we owned and loved for 22 years, and nearly 250,000 miles of driving.