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This trip lasted 8 weeks and covered travels through Washington and Oregon to California and then east to Dallas and return via coastal highway 101. Some travel related bookmarks for easier browsing: March '99 TripI'm currently on a trip and will elaborate as time and opportunity permits. Had to get
the page up so that I can hopefully update it via wireless. I've been living in "The Bus" since March 11th. That's when I departed home with about 240,000+ miles on the odometer. The + could actually be another 10k and allows for some inacurate record keeping when the Dakota Digital dash was installed 40k ago. I tried to do the switchover at 200k but it was probably closer to 210. The initial destination for the trip was Sacramento, CA straight down I-5S. As is usually the case a little tweeking is required during the first few hundred miles. This trip is was steering box adjustment. I find that minute adjustment with some miles in-between make for better real-life adjustments that eventually last. Rain in WA and Oregon made these adjustments a little further apart than just the next rest area. First night was spent in a customers parking lot and the next night in an RV Park. Due to no operational GenSet and the need for electricity for "play" normal stops were scheduled (loosely). Closing in on Medford, Oregon during late afternoon I noticed a noise coming from the engine area. Pulled into a shopping center parking lot to investigate and as I never gave the alternator a second thought (it was newly installed before leaving home) but blamed the fan clutch instead. Found an RV Park close by (7 miles) and a NAPA store on the way so made the necessary stop for parts, just in case. I do carry a spare fan-clutch but make it a habit not to use the spare when a replacement can be easily obtained. A downside of the Serpentine Belt switch-over is that the standard partnumber doesn't apply anymore and the GM number I had, NAPA had no cross for. The fellow behind the counter was excellent and came up with one to try. As I had a spare I wasn't concerned about picking the wrong one. A word to the wise re spares... make sure they fit. Turned out that the GM fan-clutch needed holes drilled so that it would fit on an old style waterpump. (Rotation of the pump changes with the serpentine belt installation). This was a little detail Leigh neglected to tell me when he gave me the GM partnumber. I've since obtained one from Leigh, properly drilled. However, having the no-fit spare certainly didn't help in Medford but a quick trip back to the NAPA store for an exchange of the unit they sold me initially did the trick. They had it right except for the size of the bolt holes. Once I had the old one off a matchup was relatively easy. As a "just in case" I also bought a waterpump. I hate being helpless on the sde of the road due to lack of 'simple' parts. As the "noise" disapeared after installing the new fan-clutch I was convinced that I had diagnosed the problem correctly. Got a good night's sleep and departed reasonably early thenext morning for the piece over the hill. Getting into Redding the noise is back. !@#$%^&. Redding has a Grand Auto right accross the street from a K-Mart. Not a bad place to be stuck :-) if you have to be stuck. Off with everything on top of the hatch again... This time it was obvious that alternator nut was loose. I can only assume that cooler temperature is what fixed the noise the previous night rather than the fan-clutch replacement. I did have a spare, but again as the opportunity existed to get an immediate replacement (with a life-time warranty) I bought one at Grand Auto. I keept it as a spare as we installed the damaged pulley on it. Damage was limited to some wear cause by the slipping locknut but nevertheless, I ordered a new pulley (actually 2) as soon as I got to Sacramento. I certainly didn't think I'd need this new spare on this trip... but I did. This time the Life-Time alternator was installed with a new pulley and loctite on the threads. I'm not totally comfortable with these Life-Time alternators at $80-$90, based on past experience but as I had been having my share of alternator problems anyways I thought I'd try. However, to cover the butt I bought an AC-DELCO rebuilt in Sacramento. Going to build an alternator tool so that I don't have to rely on an impact wrench for removal and installation of the pulley. Soooo.... we're all back mobile with very little actual time lost and while briefly frustrated... that too went away. This is my first trip with computer revamp. I'm dissapointed with USB stuff. Frequent lockups of the USB devices (serial ports) make for frustration usage. I use 2 GPS receivers, a port to capture data from the AV-10 engine monitor and another to check on the Electronic Fuel Injection system. Add to that a desired port to download from digital camera without having to change cables. I thought I had it made when I found a USB combo expander but initial exposure has been less that satisfactory. I'll be messing around some to try some different variations but for the time being I'm keeping the "must have's" on com1 and 2. Not helping is the fact that there is still lots of software that only knows about com1-4. Time to take a break to make a pot of coffee.... Departed National City early afternoon after dealing with a dead toad battery and the replacement of an overlooked ground for the air compressor. (Both my own fault :-). I'm sure having a tough time about batteries and alternators this trip. Oh well, we'll work it through and be freshly electrified all around. Getting into the LA area around 4ish was notg exactly fun, especially since I5 is all torn up with construction but we made it ok. The GPS actually directed me to take a shorter route off freeway as I was getting close to Santa Fe Springs. The exit it gave me was the last one clear as traffic was at a crawl just beyond it. Well, almost 6AM... time to go to work. Hoping to get out of the LA basin before the afternoon rush hour. Back over the Grapevine in the opposite direction. Bakersfield: Made it out of the LA area, but not without getting wet first. Then to make it interesting the wind was blowing and the snow was flying coming over the Grapevine. Almost scared to say it (superstitious? who me? :-) but the GMC behaved flawlessly. Tucked in for the night with GenSet purring away nicely. April 2nd... still in Bakersfield. As it got later in the day I figured I might as well wait until AM and not fight traffic. Replaced batteries today. What a job. They sure crammed them in there. Actually I guess I did... not sure what size were in there before but 2 31's live there now. I stayed on GenSet all day today trying to get the break-in period over and done with while I remember to vary the load on the generator. Tire Sentry:The wireless Tire Sentry has added some extra peace of mind. An unexpected feature is that monitoring continues, even with the key off. When monitoring with key off it switches to a low power requirement and only flashes the low indicater without an audio alarm. There does not seem to be any interference between tire sentry and any of my other wireless goodies. Tomorrow I'll pull a sensor from the toad to assure all is ok. Time to call it a night. Finally made it to Stockton. Drive up from Bakersfield was pleasant for the most part but it got awfull windy in the afternoon. Took time out at lunchtime to check the Alternator nut. All seems well. Still windy but pleasant inside the GMC. Tied into the outside world (Internet) via wireless telephone connection to on-board WebRamp. ALso have good wireless connection to the AT&T CDPD network for wireless email and browsing via the Handheld CE device. This is one of my better/preferred customer sites to visit. I'm sitting right on the deep water channel of the Stockton Port and can watch the freighters come and go in my spare (???) time. I've been making extensive use of 2 GPS's this trip. I'll do a little comparison on the 2 main programs I use once I have the differences clear in my mind. Time to pack up and head for Dallas for a presentation of our wares. Route will be I-5S to I-210 to I-10E and finally I-20/I-30 to Dallas. Stay tuned. This paragraph is a test for updating the page via wireless. Well, well, well... what do yah know... it works. Getting closer and closer to being truly weaned off the telephone cord :-) April 8/99 - 22:10: Changed oil and filter on the new genset today. Found the first dislike about the new Generac: filling it with oil is painfully slow. Draining and changing filter is a piece of cake, but getting it back in is slow and painfull. Will be developing a sealed funnel of some kind when I get home so at least I don't have to feed it with an eye dropper. Eye dropper is a slight :-) exaggeration, but it is slow. Weather was really nice today, especially when comparing it to yesterday. Time to turn and get ready for early departure for a parts store to buy that missing socket. Saturday, early AM: Got up early and moved on to Bakersfield. Waiting for the parts store to open. Want to chjeck that one plug before heading up the Grapevine. It wouldn't be much fun to be stuck part way up. Hopefully I'll still get some miles clicked off today. Being nice to my new GenSet yesterday didn't pay off :-) Dallas, Texas: April 17, 1999 Finally got here last Tuesday. Arrival was timed as originally scheduled but had to use all anticipated leisure time enroute for some unscheduled computer problems at a customer site back out west and also had to make a few unscheduled stops to keep the alternator together. Last fuelstop west of Dallas had the best Bar-B-Q I had ever tasted. Had a sliced brisqet sandwich and went back for another and a pound to go. It's keeping nicely in the freezer. For those of you who have never tasted Bar-B-Q... it's a crying shame. If you ever get to Texas, or rather when you get to Texas... chow down. Oh yeah... the place I stopped at was a Chevron station with a Diner attached at exit 373 on I-20, on the north side of the freeway. Westbound, watch out as the exit sneaks up real fast coming up a little hill. I'll do some web catchup over the weekend as to details of this part of the trip*. For now suffice it to say that the GMC let me know who's really the boss, but it didn't let me down or leave me stranded. * assuming that my ramblings are of interest, of course :-) At the moment I'm on the tailend of a self-imposed nightshift, getting ready for the regular weekend dayshift. At least I'm able to do my shifts in style and comfort... with the odd nap-break when the computers are doing there own thing for a while. In case you're wondering what's keeping the GMC's wheels going 'round and around have a look at the Tracker Software link at www.bytedesigns.com. How am I connected to the 'net' at the moment? Well, the wireless is getting signal which means my HP Jornada is doing email duty. Courtesy of my customer, John's Cars Inc., I'm also connected via their ISDN line. Makes for a little better performance and allows me to do this web update directly via FrontPage rather than raw html editting via wireless. By The Way (BTW), all you Jaguar owners out there, have a browse over to www.johnscars.com and check out how you can reduce your Jaguar maintainance bills and increase your driving pleasure :-) The link from the ISDN'd network to the Bus (GMC) is done by wireless network. The Bus is wired for wireless and all I do is take a station to the landline network and hook it into an empty port on a hub or connect into the thin ethernet and voala, the Bus is on the air as if connected directly.
April 23, 1999 -- Dallas TX Still slaving away... but on the tailend. Starting to get the GMC back into travel mode, i.e. cleaned up. Alternator has a a new pulley and looks promising... time and miles will tell. Will be heading west on I-20, which means a westbound stop at the Bar-B-Q Chevron station for an early lunch. Yum, yum.
Getting ready for the westbound return... click here after Dallas, Texas.
Page was last updated on Monday, April 26, 2004 05:53 PM
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