A word of warning to all of you writing threads on ExPo. This is what happens when you post bold statements about how great things are going, and what your plans are for the next 4 months:

Christmas Eve in San Jose, CA.

We were (luckily!) traveling at about 5 MPH around a left-turn in a major urban intersection, when the right-rear suspension broke (I think we fractured a leaf spring) dropping the camper down on top of the wheel, which then kept rotating and ripped the entire rear axle off.

Fortunately, we stopped the truck before any MAJOR damage was done, like the camper falling over onto it’s side.

Here’s some more pics:

Our new four wheel steering system.

The offending leaf spring.

The compass is pointing N-S, but the GPS says we’re going E-W!??

This is what the new “Hover EcoRoamer” would look like…

As some of you have commented in the past, The EcoRoamer is a little bit, “large” – and so loading it onto a tow truck and clearing it out of the intersection was a bit of a challenge:

All of the pics are available at: http://bit.ly/EcoRoamer-OMFG

Needless to say, our expedition plans have changed slightly, and we’re now stuck in San Jose for a while. The truck goes in to Ross Equipment tomorrow, where we will start piecing it back together and making it a lot stronger.

Ironically, the rear suspension was the only part of the truck (pretty much) that was stock Ford, and not replaced / beefed-up during the build. Not that I now regret that or anything…

-sigh-