RV Roadside Assistance on I-10 in Florida

I-10 across north Florida is a long, hot, straight run with a lot of nothing between exits. It is also where most RV problems finally announce themselves — because a motorhome that sat all winter and then got asked to hold 70 miles an hour for four hours straight is a motorhome under load for the first time in months.

Duckett Roadside Repair runs mobile RV and camper service along that corridor and across the panhandle — Milton, Pace, Pensacola, Gulf Breeze, Navarre, Crestview, Fort Walton Beach and the towns in between. Motorhomes, travel trailers, fifth-wheels, campers. The dispatch line is (850) 495-0366, and it is answered around the clock.

Tires are the number one reason RVs stop on I-10

It is not the engine. It is almost never the engine. It is a tire, and usually a tire that failed for reasons that had nothing to do with what the driver did that day.

RV tires die of age far more often than of mileage. A trailer can sit for eight months in the Florida sun with UV cooking the sidewalls, then get loaded to the limit and asked to run hot on hot pavement. The rubber has been aging the whole time it was parked. That is why the general guidance across the RV world is to look hard at replacement somewhere in the five-to-seven year range regardless of how much tread is left — tread depth tells you about wear, not about the condition of the casing underneath it.

The other killer is inflation. Underinflated tires flex more, flexing makes heat, and heat is what actually destroys a tire. An RV is heavy and often loaded unevenly, which means the correct pressure is the one that matches the weight actually sitting on that axle — not the number somebody wrote on a sticker before you loaded four bikes, a generator, and full water tanks.

• Check pressures cold, before you roll, with a real gauge — not by kicking or thumping
• Find the DOT date code on the sidewall and know how old your tires actually are
• Cover the tires when the rig is parked long term — sun is the enemy
• Watch the inner dual on a dually motorhome. It can go flat and you will never feel it until the outer one dies of the extra load

Batteries: you have two systems, and they fail differently

A lot of RV roadside calls come down to a confusion between the chassis battery, which starts the engine, and the house batteries, which run the coach. They are separate systems and they can strand you separately.

A dead chassis battery at a rest stop is the classic. You ran the coach on shore power for a week, drove two hours, stopped for lunch, and now the engine turns over slow or not at all — because the alternator never got enough time to put back what a marginal battery lost, and heat has been quietly killing that battery all summer. That is a jump-start and, honestly, usually a battery.

Corroded terminals and bad grounds do a good impression of a dead battery too. So does a failed alternator, which will run you fine right up until the battery it stopped charging finally runs out.

Getting off the road safely — this part matters most

The shoulder on I-10 is not a safe place to stand. Traffic is moving at 70 plus, trucks are running the right lane, and a 40-foot coach on the white line is a large object that people drift toward without meaning to.

1. 1Hazards on the instant you know something is wrong.
2. 2If the rig will still roll and it is safe to keep rolling, get to an exit, a rest area, or a wide paved pull-off. A little more distance is worth a lot more safety.
3. 3Park as far right as the surface allows. Sand and soft grass on the panhandle will swallow a jack, so stay on pavement.
4. 4Get everyone out on the passenger side, away from traffic, and get them well back from the rig — not standing beside it.
5. 5Put warning triangles out behind you.
6. 6Then call. Give the mile marker and the direction of travel.

Do not crawl under a loaded RV supported by a bottle jack on a sloped or sandy shoulder. That weight will find the soft spot. If the job requires getting under the rig, it requires the right equipment and a crew that brought it.

What a mobile crew handles on an RV call

The work that gets you rolling again is usually mechanical and usually accessible: tire service including mount and balance, jump-starts and batteries, alternators, air and brake issues on the bigger coaches, lights and wiring, hoses and belts, fuel delivery when a tank ran dry farther from the exit than expected, and lockouts.

What a mobile crew is not is a magic wand for a blown engine or a transmission that let go. If it turns out to be that, you deserve to be told so plainly instead of watching somebody bill hours on a repair that was never going to hold.

Before you leave — the ten-minute walkaround

Most of what strands people on I-10 is visible in the parking lot if anybody looks.

• All tire pressures cold, including the spare and the inner duals
• Lug nuts — look for rust streaks running down from the studs, which is what a loose wheel looks like before it becomes a lost wheel
• Every light, with somebody walking behind the rig while you cycle them
• Under the front — fresh drips, and what color they are
• Battery terminals clean and tight
• Load distribution and tank levels. Water is eight pounds a gallon and it adds up faster than people expect

If your rig is already sitting on the shoulder, skip the reading and call (850) 495-0366. Dispatch is live 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and Duckett will come out to you on the interstate rather than making you find a way to come to them.