What's that banging?

It seemed like a normal day as we drove from Gallup, Nm on into Arizona on I 40.  Traffic wasn't too bad, just busy....  We grabbed a soda and used the bathroom at Mc Donalds in Holbrook...

We decided to eat some lunch down in Payson as we took the two lane road South...  About 8 miles from Payson after going over the 7,600 ft high mountain ridge, I began to hear some banging...  Up on the roof above my head...

I tried to radio Loyce, but her radio volume was knocked off by Biscuit....  She doesn't sit still, and we gave up on crating her a year ago because you can't stand her whining for hours on end...

I went slower and it still banged...  Then I heard a rip.... like tearing canvass.....    I pulled over and stopped to find my King Dome satellite box standing up on its side only hooked by one bracket that was almost torn loose as well...

I had a big ladder in the trailer, so it was leaned up against the side of the coach...   I couldn't get the wiring harness loose to take the whole deal off the roof, so I decided to use some rope and tie it down....

Trouble is that its perfectly round and domed..  There is absolutely  nothing to tie to...  I tried to make a rope basket to put over it, but I didn't have enough rope....

I thought I had it but after driving into Payson Loyce radioed that it was standing up again...  Now I was in a shopping center parking lot where I had to run over several curbs to get in....

This time I took one of the motorcycle straps and tied it around the dome with the ratchet clamp drawing it so tight it bent the plastic....  Then with the ropes, I tied it to the door handle on the drivers side and the front passenger mirror...

The strap itself was tied to the crank up TV antenna....  It still wasn't tight up there and rattled if I drove over 40 mph..  Still 87 miles away from home and at 3:30 PM we started out at 35mph...  It was dark as we pulled up in front of the house.....

As I looked up at the tie job when we parked, you can see that the strap is barely around the dome, but somehow it held up there as we drove down the mountain...  Payson is at 5,500 ft and we are at about 1,400 here in East Mesa....

We have spent the rest of the night unloading stuff from the coach..  Trip after trip....  We never did get the coach over to storage...  Might have to see about re tying the dome before we leave again....

This dome is about $1,200 to replace, so I am crossing my fingers that parts can be ordered...  The brackets seem completely broken off........

We have a camping world here, so perhaps that is where I will start....

Retired Rod