TLDR; 22', 1972 Barth broke down in Philipsburg, NJ. Need to tow to reliable mechanic to be fixed.


About 8 weeks ago I broke down travelling from Brooklyn to Louisville, Kentucky. I stopped in Philipsburg, NJ, to get gas, and when I pulled back onto the main road, I couldn't get above about 25 mph. At first, I thought it was the transmission, but I've just replaced it with a heavy duty TH400 in the last 1,000 or so miles. I checked the transmission fluid level, added a little, but that did not resolve the problem. The next day, I checked the brakes —which I've mostly replaced —boosters, rubber lines, master, etc., still has some leaky unions on the hard line— and they were full of water and black gunk and the emergency brake cable was rusted into the engaged position. I tried to bleed'em, but my vacuum pump wouldn't stopped pulling fluid through the rear wheel cylinders regardless of the position of the brake pedal or vacuum to boosters, and despite keeping the master full. After attempting to bleed, Barth seemed to accelerate okay, but I don't really know because I was too afraid to get it going fast given the condition of the brakes.

I left Barth with a mechanic in Philipsburg, NJ and hitched a ride to Kentucky. A few days ago, and after many attempts, I finally get back in touch with Mr. Mechanic and he says, "sorry, this RV has remote brake boosters so I cannot work on it." I say, "Of course it has remote boosters, I put em in, they were working fine a year ago, don't know what the problem is now." Not sure what he's afraid of, but in any case he won't do anything with Barth.

I need to find a way to get Barth from Philipsburg to a reliable mechanic in New Jersey or Pennsylvania. I saw in another thread that Rusty mentioned a mechanic about 55 miles away, in another NJ town. Does anyone know this area? Have any idea who might tow it? Or work on it? I did the best I could with it in the motel parking lot with my cheap-o brake bleeder from AutoZone and my socket set, and at this point, I need to find someone who can repair Barth, or get it to Kentucky where I can store it and work on it. Also, in about 6 weeks, I have to leave the country for about a year or two, so that adds a minor complication to the mix. If anyone has any suggestions at all, I am very much open to them.

Thanks so much.