Chaos in the Toy Hauler

I went to IL to visit Josh over the weekend. We went to dinner (date night!), Costco, and Guitar Center so that Josh could get a music book (he's learning to play the bass). I headed back to Indiana Sunday afternoon and shortly after sitting down to watch some Clone Wars I heard a loud bang! I paused my show and looked out the windows to see if any of our neighbors were outside working on their trucks or anything. No one. Strange... So I went back to sit down when I heard a loud bang again. This time I ran to the back of the Raptor where the garage/toy hauler is and I found this:

We have two queen-sized bunk beds that hang from the ceiling. If we need them to come down we have to flip a switch and they will descend. Well, the bottom bed decided to come down all on it's own and it crushed everything in it's path! And I mean EVERYTHING!

Just for reference, this is what it is supposed to look like when both bunk beds are up:

See? Plenty of space below them for all of our stuff.

Of course, I panicked and called Josh. He told me that I needed to cut power or else the motor would continue to push the bed down and it could burn out our fuses! AH! I decided to disconnect the bunk bed switch in hopes that it would stop the bed but it didn't work! I then tried to throw a couple of the breakers and pull fuses but I didn't know which ones! Luckily, Josh was only 90 minutes away and he showed up to trouble shoot the problem.

After trying a few different things, Josh came to the conclusion that the problem was actually in the motor itself. But of course the motor was above the top bunk and that bed had not come down because it was held in place by pins. Josh and I had to lower it manually which was hard because the bed is so heavy. We knelt on the first bed, pulled the pins, and then slowly lowered the top bunk so we wouldn't get crushed.

Josh disconnected the motor and we found the culprit: water! The tiny "bed-lift controller" is screwed to the ceiling and water had leaked in and had fried a few of the components.

See where the wires are hanging out of the ceiling? That's where the little

"bed-lift controller" was.

So that was it! A little water got in and caused all this damage! My file boxes are destroyed, the clothing rack, the little dresser, and who knows what else. I won't be able to completely access the damage until we get new parts are we are able to lift the beds.

And now we have to wait. The parts for RVs and Fifth-wheels are specialized so you can't just walk into any store and buy them. Hopefully the parts will arrive by the weekend and then we can get this all fixed up!

Owning stuff is fun, right?!