First Summer Roadtrip

[Retired]

Day 16-20:Vegas was miserable hot, 106-108 every day. This was my first visit that was not in the winter. I have no desire to go back, well maybe when Elvis makes his triumphant return.

Coach woes: Did a walk around yesterday afternoon and the valve extensions on the passenger rear wheels tore loose from their mounts. I had to buy a rivet gun and rivets to reinstall.

This morning the two big slides would not come in. The sofa/dinette sounds like its off the track, I looked and everything seems ok, finally got it in, its staying in until we get home.

The kitchen slide wouldnt budge. Unloaded everything and it finally came in real slow and jerky. We only had maybe 100 lbs of weight in it, that includes the basement storage.

I cant get the steps working, stopped by WM and bought a step stool.

Left Vegas this AM and drove to Salina UT. Beautiful once we left I-15 and turned onto I-70. The last time I made this drive was 1979.

Tonight we are staying at a TA truck stop. We stayed at a state campground, RV parks, Escapee park, air force base campground, so tonight we are trying a truck stop.

Averaging 6.5 mpg in the mountains, between 5000-7000 ft, much higher grades tomorrow.

 

[Retired]

I discovered that my 06 Fleetwood Flair does not power the 110V outlets off the house batteries.

The owners manual states that only the VCR and bedroom TV outlets will have power when not on shore power or the gen.

I cant use my cpap machine or use the instapot when on house batteries.

I checked the bedroom TV, it didnt have power anyway, so something is amiss.

I would really like an outlet with power at the passenger seat, kitchen and night stand. The outlets are there, I just need to figure out how to rewire them.

 

[RKins]

Does your rig have an inverter? If so, is it on? Maybe the CB needs to be reset on it?

 

[Retired]

Day 20: Roughest day on the road.

Left Salina UT at 7am heading east on I-70. The road was really rough, lots of 5-6% grades.

Made it over Vail Pass at 10,000ft with no issues.

Road work on Loveland Pass had east traffic down to one lane. I got caught behind a big truck doing 25 mph. No clean air on the radiator, the transmission overheated and the coach came to a stop. Engine temp on my scan gauge read 220. 11,000ft altitude.

I was stuck in the only lane of traffic about 50 yards from the entrance to Eisenhower Tunnel.. I kept the engine running, transmission in neutral and the heater going full blast. After about 5 minutes I was able to get to the shoulder, another 15 minutes and I was able to continue on. As soon as I got moving the engine temp came down to 197.

I changed the fluid in the Allison just before I left on the trip. I will look at it in the morning and see if it has a burned smell. I may have to find a shop and have it changed before we continue on. We plan on being here 5 days.

Once it cooled down there were no issues, smooth shifts and normal operation.

The icing on todays cake? One of those hard bumps on the road cracked my passenger windshield. The crack is about 4in long but Im sure it will be all the way across before I get home.

I have Progressive and full glass coverage so at least the damage is covered.