Goooodmorning!!!

[Gordon Dewald]

Pace Arrow Update;
Tim and Joe are in Cedar City. Found NAPA store with alternator. Have the old one off.

Keeping our fingers crossed.

[tedgard01]

Good afternoon all.

Thought you may want to know that they approved my next treatments....

I started last week on the road toward what I hope to be a more controlled situation, at least for the next two or three years....

I looked at the insurance and found that they charged $59K for a ninety day supply. Even with the insurance adjusted price, it is $29K. There goes my remaining portion of my annual out of pocket, at least for this year... Sure hope nothing dramatic changes for next year....

Good wishes to all.

Tim, may your road forward be smooth.

Ted

[spritz]

Hey guys it just don't get better!!!!New charger I bought crapped out. So Joe is in the toad too return it. The NAPA Store is letting us use there big charger.
So with there charger on it the batterie is up to normal range. As soon as I disconnected the charger the needle on the voltage gauge on dash dropped down to 1/2 charge when I turned on the key, as soon as I hooked it back up too the battery the needle on gauge reads Full charge. Here is the result of the kaboom... You can see the other side is no better

I don't get it
.
At this rate I might just have too turn around and go to Yuma

Happy Easter

Tim

[rvpopeye]

Tim
That must have been quite a POP !
Well you're not going to be able to say it was a boring trip.
The older rigs sure do test your abilities don't they ?

Good news , a few more trips and it will all be new !

[guardrail53]

Tim, i did the same thing to the muffler in my mom's old 64 Comet, when i shut the key off going down the road and turned it back on! Boom!

It most likely happened when your alt. gave out and the batteries got low, killed the motor, raw fuel got pumped into the exhaust, you fired it back up,, Boom! Seamed the muffler!

It won't hurt to drive it that way, if you can stand the noise, and the exhaust is not blowing on something it shouldn't! Like the propane tank! Gas tank, lines! Probably best replace them!

Also check the wiring going to the Alt. and make sure that it did not get cooked by the blown out exhaust doughnut! Might have started the whole mess! A good muffler shop can sort this all out pretty quickly!!
Good luck! Rail!!

[Franka548]

Good Morning Gang,
Tim,
I agree with Rail. I would have the chassis battery checked to make sure that it doesn't have a shorted plate, which could cause the alt. to go bad, also check the battery cables down to the starter.
Ted,
Best wishes for you.
Have a great day all,
Frank

[tedgard01]

Tim, what a pain that must have been.... And I bet that noise was a scary situation.... Trips like this are worth the memory if nothing else...

May your road straighten out and may you find some solace in another place that provides the comfort the the worst is in the past.

Keep us posted on your progress.

Ted

[Wroughtnharv]

I hope you had the opportunity to isolate the batteries and test them one at a time. You have a short of some kind and the first place to look is at the batteries under load. They can read good with a volt meter but a load will reveal they're bad.

If the batteries are good then I would look around the starter for an obvious issue. The reason I say that is the other circuits should be protected by fuses or breakers.

My memory isn't what it used to be. But we had an adventure (mishap) four or five years ago. We had pulled in and fueled up the C 5500, fifth wheel in tow. When I hit the starter we got the dreaded click click click of low battery. Truck has three or four batteries on a tray under passenger side of truck. (Memory issue)

So there blocking that fuel fill lane I pulled the tray and one at a time I isolated a battery and tried again to start the truck. Finally I isolated the bad one and we were on the road again.

I changed out all of the batteries, want to say four but memory thinks there might only be three, when I got home. We can laugh about it now, but working on your rig in a gas station at the pump on a Sunday is laugh later material.

[Wroughtnharv]

My favorite adventure (mishap) with an RV was fall of 2013. We had purchased a needed work Cedar Creek fifth wheel and were on our way to Arizona from Texas. We had done a ton of work on the coach and were very happy with it. The only hiccup was the Duramax in the C 5500 was acting like new injectors would have to be installed again, but we could wait until we go home, I thought.

We had stops and starts with fuel filter changes and much finger crossing until on a Friday afternoon downtown Post Texas. She died, blocking the highway. Cops had to block off the street and route people around us. Even a dead person got rerouted, yup, big funeral procession, I suspect that's where the cops came from to block traffic for us.

Tow truck owner explained to us that he would have to charge us for two rigs, one for the truck and one for the coach. I was under the hood, changed out the fuel filter, again, then there is the priming of the fuel pump, nightmare. Tow guy explained to me that if I got it started that I needed to drive as far as possible because they charged by the mile. My destination was Lubbock and the biggest Chevrolet dealer west Texas. Got her started and we were off. I knew that if I stopped the rig the computer would kill the motor so it was trick truck driving for the next fifty miles.

We hit Lubbock, no Garmin, just Best thing about me and the map. Rush hour and finger crossing in overdrive there wouldn't be a stop on the freeway or that's where we would be. We got to the dealership, 6:00 pm, closed but a guy came out of the service dept locking up. He pointed to a gravel parking lot across a side street and told us we would talk Monday morning. I was able to get it started and we camped in the surplus vehicle yard.

Monday morning I was first in line minus the coach. They took the truck and told us to have fun in the parking lot. Wednesday they told us they were missing some special washers and wouldn't have any until the coming holiday, Labor Day was the coming weekend. I asked for two things, a rental car and a list of dealerships within 500 miles that would have the washers. The gave me a car for free and we ran to a dealership a hundred and fifty miles away for the washers.

Friday night at 6:00 we got the truck and were on the road. C 5500 has a small fuel tank so I carry some extra diesel just in case. Coming into Roswell I pulled over before the fumes ran out to put in a can. Across the street was an RV park. They had a pull through available and we were so happy.

The holding tanks were full or next to it after a week in Lubbock in the parking lot. When I pulled the cap off of the sewer line I discovered the black tank valve leaked. It wasn't pretty, it wasn't pretty at all. We got the hose hooked up and the mess cleaned up. Crashed.

4:30 I wake up thirsty. When I step down on to the living area floor I'm walking in water. I had replaced the bathroom sink faucet. The city water pressure had exposed a leak. Tightened up the fitting but after cleaning up the mess we decided to get on down the road. We dieseled up in town was headed west when low oil light came on. I pulled over, nothing on the dipstick. I had a gallon of oil with me and after putting that in the light was off and back to Roswell, Walmart was the only thing open, way out of the way. Truck takes 4 1/2 gallons in an oil change. I bought six gallons and we headed on down the road.

It turned out that it took about six hundred miles before the diesel washed piston rings returned to normal and we were back to our quart of oil use every ten thousand miles. But for awhile I thought using as much oil as diesel was going to be an issue.

I changed out the holding tank valves and cables in the woods when we met up with dad. We had a great time. And we both laugh when we talk about the time in Lubbock. What doesn't kill you can make you laugh.

[Gordon Dewald]

Good Morning;
Got a text from Tim last night that NAPA was going to deliver a new battery but have not heard anything since then. Hopefully the new battery solved the electrical issue. Hopefully a local muffler shop can quickly fix the exhaust system. Should be no more costly than fixing it at home at a muffler shop.

Still snowing here. Weather forecast is snow for the most of the day. The kid in me wants to take the tractor and go play in the snow. The adult says it might be a good idea. The senior in me says leave it alone, two days and it will all be melted. #3 will be the course of action.

Rumor has it that the Easter Bunny is trying to get a short term lease on Santa's sleigh for egg deliveries. Either that or I will have to put on tall boots to hide the eggs and the grand children (kids too) will just be able to follow the tracks.

Have a great day and Happy Easter to everyone.

[rvpopeye]

I'm sure most of us have road stories like that , I know I have more than one but instead of telling it I'll just say that I've had many small town mechanic/tow driver/parts place (including bone yards) come to my rescue and treated me better than my home town friends ever did !!!!!
The full stories will be repeated around a campfire with a diet A&W !

Happy trails Tim and Joe !

[spritz]

I can get a 100 amp alt,at Autozone should I do it or is that to many amps????
The guy this morning said the old alt was a 63 amp but I don't belive him.

[guardrail53]

Tim, i googled your 1982 GM truck Alt. and the stock one is 63 Amp's!
They make them from 63 amp's up to 200 amp's! The 100 amp one they have in stock is OK! The price i found online is around 100 dls. more or less! Summit Racing has them for 94 dls. and has the amp's from 60 to 200! The more amp's the more expensive! The 100 amp one Autozone has will work perfect, and it most likely has a lifetime warrenty! Does it come with the pulley, or do you have to swap them out? They can sometimes be a bear to get off, so i would have the parts store swap them out if they can! Good luck!! Rail!!

[bap]

happy easter,,