so...tell me what I SHOULD have done!

Suburban is repaired in Memphis, 900 miles away.
Options: Rent a hoopty one way and drive down, get the truck and drive back- about $400 and 36 hours of driving. Fly down- nope, way too expensive. Truck it home- got it for $599 and will be here Monday morning. I forked over the $599 and feel releived. What would you have done?

I did the hoopty rental to get back here to get the big truck and return to haul the horses back, and i am just plum drove out. I'll leave the long distance driving to the pro's-

FYI- low mileage junk yard rear w/ new fluids and brake components was $2300 installed by the Chevy dealer- painful. A costly damn road trip- It's a good thing we won down there or I'd really be in the dumper on this.

Probably nothing you can do when you're so far away from home. You basically scramble for the fastest and best option you can get for the sake of safely returning.

When that kinda stuff happens far away, no matter if you deal with nice people, you still feel the rush to get things done and back together so you can go home, because that's where the heart is!

I probably would have trucked it back also no driving,gas bill,or further breakdowns. that sure was alot of $$$$$$ to have it fixed with a used rear I rebuilt many in time but they were for me and I didn't have to please a customer but only a few hundred to repair. These were in hot rods and 4x4s that were abused between me and a few friends

yes, back at the house i'd have swapped a rear into it myself- about $1300 hub-to-hub. On the road, though, I guess i was lucky just to find someone to work on it

Ouch!!!

What you should have done is hitch-hiked a ride in a convertible full of gals on their way to cheer-leading school.

Anyway, you might be surprised. For $2300 they may have went ahead and installed some new "dubs" with spinners.

Your story reminded me of something that happened years ago in memphis. I live in N. C. Before I got married my fiance had a 1984 Ford Thunderbird car. She got a new car so she gave the thunderbird to her 18 year old brother who lived with his parents in southeast Kansas. I remember when he flew out here to pick it up he got 2 speeding tickets on his way back to Kansas. We thought he would wreck it or maybe blow the engine and we would never see the little beast again. After we got married my mother in law dediced to have us a huge party in Kansas since we forgot to invite us to our wedding out here in N. C. There must have been 300 people at that party. Sometime during the party my mother in law tells us to come out to the car shed to see our wedding gift. We don't have a clue what is going on. When we get there we see a grey 1984 thunderbird, that used to be red, setting there with a huge ribbon tied around it. My wife and I just looked at each other wondering why in the hell she would think we would want that old car back. Not only did she have it painted, she had the engine totally rebuilt. Well the party visit was finally over so we loaded up her car and the old thunderbird with wedding gifts packed to the gills and headed back to N. C. I drove the T bird. We got as far as Memphis and on I-40 in the center of Memphis I felt the power steering go out. Then the overheat light flashed on. I hit the nearest ramp and got it off the interstate and went about 1 quarter of a mile and stopped and turned the motor off. When I tried to start it back up it was locked up tighter than a drum. The guy who overhauled it had put too big of a battery in it, the battery rubbed the fan belt, it broke, power steering went out, it overheated, and fried the engine. Here we were in Memphis with a car we did not want packed full of wedding gifts, motor blown, and no way to get it home. Thank you dear Mother in Law.
To make a long story short, I found a place that would store it, gifts and all, and we came on home. I found a used engine and about 2 months later I borrowed a truck to go get it and tow it home. By the time I got it fixed and paid the storage fee I had about $1700 in it. I sold it for $1700.00. Not because of the car episode but many times I think how Lucky I am. I am lucky the my mother in law lives 1200 miles away.

holy ! thats expencive, what would the dealer there have done on a trade in for a different hauler? or is the suburban too new to do that

That horse business can sure get expensive.

I put a ring and pinion in a F350 in a motel parking lot in Minot ND. It was the only option cause it had a 32 ft trailor and I still had to pickup a load of cattle to make the trip pay (I live in southern Ohio) Long story short spent alot of time and would have broke even on the trip but my buddy got clocked doing 82 on the Ohio Turnpike on the return trip. So we only lost 150.00 on the whole trip

Believe me, the dealer there was making that pitch....but the Suburban's paid for, and I'm up to my fanny in payments on the OTHER truck (the one I had to go fetch).

Here"s what I did. My wife broke down in Nashville (bad transmission), we live in the Memphis Area. She rode back with friends. I had the transmission rebuilt in Nashville and took the bus there and drove it back. Bus ticket was about $30.

slim