H-R Waiting
17 Saturday May 2014
17 Saturday May 2014
17 Saturday May 2014
Today, Friday finds me waiting for Sunday when we’ll head for Bay Center for four nights. The weather forecast for Sunday – Thursday looks pretty good.
I mowed the lawn again today not wanting to let it go until we get back from our trip and fearing a chance of rain between now and our departure on Sunday.
H-R is pretty much ready to go since we took little out of it after the breakdown on our aborted Tuesday try for the coast. We need to add another dinner to our food larder, I need to put my clothes back in, I think Jean’s clothes mostly remained in the rig.
Waiting…
Waiting…
Waiting…
–Bob
16 Friday May 2014
H-R is back home with new heater hoses and coolant and after a full inspection.
We’re set to try another run for the coast on Sunday!
–Bob
15 Thursday May 2014
I was mistaken when H-R went kaput. Its engine oil was brand new and very clear. In my angst I failed to see it on the dip stick. The fluid loss was coolant. One of the heater hoses split.
May get H-R back this afternoon. I asked them to also check all the belts. I don’t want to be headed out on our next trip and have it spit a damn belt off.
–Bob
14 Wednesday May 2014
When we brought H-R to the house from its storage location it was truly a mess. Rather grumpy looking, needing a good pressure washing.
When I set up my pressure washer, an electric model, it wouldn’t run, it kept tripping its own built in breaker.
Damn.
So off we headed to the RV / Auto Car Wash a few miles away in Buckley, wooden step-ladder and long handled brush in the aisle of H-R.
After about $18 of car wash tokens, too numerous to count trips up and down the ladder with the pressure sprayer, and Jean brushing where I sprayed, H-R looked way, way better.
With our clothing well sprayed and shoes full of water, we sloshed home.
Unfortunately H-R got some rodents in it during the last part of the winter in storage. So now that the outside was cleaned up, Jean tackled the inside with a vengeance.
While she scrubbed and cleaned, I ran more than a few loads of stuff thru the “sanitary” setting on our LG front loader with bleach added for good measure.
Lesson learned for next storage phase.
We planned a trip, the first outing of the year in H-R, for weeks.
Our destination was Willapa Bay at Bay Center on the coast.
The KOA there has killer reviews, woodsy campsites, and gracious, friendly owners on site.
The weather was predicted to be beautiful this week.
Departure day arrived on Tuesday. After spending much of Monday and Tuesday morning humping down and up the hill that is our front yard, and mowing the entire lawn, we were ready to head out around noon.
I had detected a low PSI tire on one of the right rear duelies so we headed for Les Schwab to have it checked.
While we were waiting our turn, being hungry, we walked to the nearby taco truck for lunch.
At the taco truck, I had one of my favorites of five carnita tacos. The fried pork is delicious.
After lunch, it was back to H-R and the dogs to continue waiting our turn.
Waiting, waiting, waiting…
As it turned out, the air loss was caused by a leaky valve extension. You know, the braided hose kind of extension. Les Schwab has had such bad experience with them that they no longer sell them. So I had them take off the offending extension and we finally hit the road for Willapa Bay at about 2:00 pm.
About 20 miles down the road, H-R’s Service Engine Soon light and an oil warning light next to the oil pressure gauge came on.
We were approaching an exit so I took it and stopped in a parking lot. After shutting the Triton V-10 down I checked the oil. Nothing on the dipstick.
I looked underneath to see that while the drain plug and oil filter both looked intact and secure, oil was dripping off of cross members in the chassis.
Obviously I had lost a majority of the engine oil from some freakin’ place.
A phone call to my favorite mechanic disclosed that he was full, no room at the inn, no way he could take H-R in. So I searched for someone who could. I got more than one recommendation for Scarff Motors in Auburn.
The service people at their truck shop told me that they were booked up two weeks out but I could bring it there if that delay was OK. Well, what else could we do?
AAA got a heavy tow on the way to us and Dennis, from Olympia Towing got us hooked up.
A 40 minute ride later and we were at the truck shop in Auburn.
The service writers there told us they would have a look at it the next day to see if maybe it was something easy like an oil cooler line and let us know. Otherwise, it would be the two weeks to get to something more serious.
So we sit back at home, shoulda’ been at the coast, waiting to see how bad the damages are gonna’ be.
Oh well.
–Bob