Oregon. A Lot Has Happened, Mostly Great, But Also Bad

We left Kennewick headed to Junction City, OR, near Eugene to have Scott at Amazing Creations replace our consoles, both driver and passenger sides.  The vinyl and formed original consoles were in bad shape, falling apart and off the walls.  Scott has done some sensational work for us over the years and we were confident he could work out a solution.  And adding to our agenda was a replacement of our house batteries at the same time.  Our 4 big Lifeline 4D AGM's have been in service for 7 years and past time to be replaced.  Online and calling around I found a place, Empire Batteries in Eugene that had them in stock, all the other places I contacted had a 10-12 week delay.  So I paid for them in advance with the understanding that they would be delivered to us at Amazing Creations, and help me get the 4 125 pound batteries out and back in.  It worked out perfectly, we had just disconnected the old batteries before Empire arrived, so except for 2 that Jan helped me with, Mark was able to help me out with the other 2 and in with all 4 new ones.  We wanted to make it as short and sweet as we could so we could turn the corner and begin heading back eastward.  It worked out well, Scott got us done in record time, and we were busy with the batteries and other odds and ends, so we ended up leaving in no time at all.

We even got a short reprieve from the smoke

2 of the 4 installed!

Driver side before

Passenger side in process

Scott ripping and tearing

Jan doing some cleaning

What a rat's nest!

What to do, get away for some seafood

I had one job and that was to move the switches from the old
panel to the new and only broke one:-(
Luckily they are readily available in the area

Scott installing the new passenger side console

Panel almost done, so neat, compact and beautiful!

All trimmed out!

The new passenger side all done

Then for the other news, when we arrived at Scott's, his main lot was full so we had to park outside his fence in his parking area which meant we would have to boon dock for how ever long.  We debated, especially with our generator woes, but we said we'd give it a try.  The first day and evening we ran the generator for 3-4 hours, perfect.  The next morning and evening we ran the gen for another 5-6 hours, and A-OK.  But as it turned out our last morning after an hour, we heard it surge, then continued to run another 2 1/2 hours just fine, and then it started surging big time, so bad I had to shut it down.  Scott called a friend of his who has been a long time tech, and he suggested a fuel problem which we all are pretty sure is what is causing all this, but he specifically mentioned perhaps a crack, split, or small hole in the fuel line?  Makes sense, especially with the age of our coach and the fact the generator is mounted on a slide out tray that moves in and out, so the lines are suspended and out in the elements behind the gen and between the front wheels.  Food for thought.  Also thinking fuel, when we left I went to Cummins and got a new fuel pump.  

Taking advantage of being near the coast with some delicious fresh halibut

So the next morning before we started east, Jan and I checked and replaced the air cleaner filter which was dirtier than expected, especially after just replacing it in Florida before we left, and replaced the fuel pump.  Quite a little job as access is a bit gnarly.

New fuel pump

The small hole in which it lives

Getting the new pump hooked up

So after all this, we primed it really well and cranked it up, but could only run it for a few minutes as we were still in the campground, but it ran perfectly for 3 minutes.  Off east we went.  When we stopped for lunch, we started it up and let it run for 30 minutes, it ran fine, and although Jan wanted to let it run longer, I was too gun shy, so we shut it down, kind of not really wanting to hear the doctor's diagnosis.  We pulled into the very, very nice Bend/Sisters Garden RV Resort, and for some unknown reason they were having a power outage, so we cranked the generator, and...............it ran fine for about 1 minute then starting surging horribly again:-(  We figured the last thing we can do is to replace the fuel line, so I started looking for a place in Bend that could do it.  I wasn't sure of exactly what size and kind of fittings were required, and we knew the way the fuel line is routed right now we would never be able to get it out, so they said to take pictures, measurements and come by and they would see what they could do.  They ended up by letting me borrow about 5 different fittings to take back and figure out exactly what we needed.

The fitting and line on our incredibly dirty fuel tank

And the line that goes to the generator

So our plan at this point is to go and get a new fuel line about 18' long, probably more than we need but it's better than being too short:-)  Then when we get to Ennis and stay there for a longer time, we will run the line either temporarily or permanently and try the gen, hopefully that will solve our problem, if not, I don't know for sure what we'll do..

Towards Oregon

We had several more days to kill in smoky Missoula, so what do you do, you eat:-)  We found a Chinese restaurant we thought was so good we had remorse we had never been there in all the times we have been in Missoula.  The China Garden.

Exceptional Hot and Sour soup, perhaps the best we've ever had!

Kung Pao chicken served with a little "hot" sauce

House Lo Mein, yummy!

Then we went poking around and found a great grocery store with fresh, flown in from Alaska, King Salmon.  

King Salmon

With sautéed Bok Choy

Then we hit the Irish pub, Stone of Accord for lunch and of course a couple of Guinness's. 

Corned Beef and cole slaw with homemade chips

Great Rueben with awesome Champs!

The smoke just wouldn't give it up, so what to do?  Go back and get more Chinese.

Spicy shrimp noodle bowl

Stellar Mu Shu Pork

Then just before we were planning to leave in came the weather, it rained most of a day, temps only in the low 50's, and it cleared the air for 36 hours before the smoke came back.  But it was glorious.

A hint on our itinerary changes, we are ready to leave the west, sounds weird, even to us, especially after all these years of coming out here and loving it, but I guess the repetition, the heat, and especially the smoke this year spoke to us, so we are going to head east much sooner.  More details will be forthcoming.  

So we did get off to Kennewick, WA for a few nights and that put us in position to drive the 80 miles to Yakima to pick up our generator part.  It is about 350 miles from Missoula to Kennewick and for the first 250 or so there was almost no smoke, we were celebrating, but as it turned out way too soon.  As we approached Kennewick it became more and more intense really restricting visibility.  We tried to sit out our first night and made it only a little while until the smoke drove us back inside.  

Now I will say I made an error ordering the part from Yakima Cummins instead of Eugene, OR Cummins.  We drove up to Yakima and wanted to make it a day, we picked up the part, went to Costco, out to lunch, then headed back.  What we couldn't believe it was even smokier in town, you could watch it blow and billow down the street.  Made it hard to breathe.  Now on to my screwup, the generator part was $605, but when I went in to pick it up the first thing that amazed me was there was a sign on the door that I would have to have my temperature taken and would be asked questions before I could come in??????  This stuff was common more than a year ago, but not now.  I went in and although no one took my temp, the entire counter was partitioned off with plastic sheeting and each position, there were three were all partitioned off from each other!?!  I said was this for the new Delta, and was told since Cummins is an international company, this was their company policy.  Ridiculous in my opinion.  Anyway, he said that will be $689, say what??  Well there is shipping, that I was never told about, and $55 in taxes!!  If I had waited until Oregon there is no sales tax, oh well it's only money.  Then off to Costco, and we find that perhaps 85% of the people in the store are masked.  That is their business, but understand this is the first we have seen masks anywhere on our travels.  Jan finds some fresh Dungeness crab, hmm, with some picking we could probably have crab cocktails twice:-)  We almost blew off getting lunch with the smoke, but were so glad we didn't, we had an absolutely fantastic delicious lunch with excellent service and our mask issue was eased as no one working or in as a customer was wearing a mask.  The restaurant is called Cowitche Canyon.

Calamari

Apple, chicken, cheddar, peas, and lettuce salad

Prime Rib dip with shoestring fries

So back to the campground and since we still had some time, and had just pulled the part out and knew we could do it quickly, we installed the new part, but since we were in a campground we couldn't run the generator more than a few minutes.  But no surges so far.

So then we picked the Dungeness crab clusters, got almost a pound of meat, and made cocktails for happy hour.

Delicious and huge!

They were so big we had veggies for dinner:-)

We will head to Oregon soon, and hopefully we will be able to run the generator to determine if we stopped the surging.  Catch you in Oregon.

Quick Update, One Week Down, One To Go

The good news is we did get the rain and cool temps they forecasted, a high of 62df and rain most of the day and night.  What sweet relief, and the next day dawned bright, cool, and washed away the smoke, I think we could hear the firefighters cheering, but it only lasted a day or so:-(  The smoke came back, maybe worse than it was, the temps are climbing into the 90's yesterday and all weekend 96-98df!  

We haven't been fishing and most of the rivers are either closed or severely limited on when they can be fished.  Quite a summer.  We have been coasting along, doing errands in town, eating lunch out, Costco, etc.  We are getting a little burnt out, kind of a been there, done that kind of thing.  We're not anxious to go out hiking or exploring, the smoke is just too much.  So we have been taking care of little things here and there.

The smoke does make the sky light up

Tough to show how bad the smoke is, but this should give you an idea

Next week we leave for Oregon to get some cabinetry and a few other things taken care of.  And on the generator front, we still haven't been able to run it to be sure of the surging, but in the meantime I have been reading about a few others with the same problem and they had mentioned there are only 3 of these actuators in the entire country!  So I started calling around and found out Cummins in Yakima could order one and have it waiting for us when we got close on our way to OR.  So we'll run over next week when we stop in Kennewick.  $600 is a lot of money, but we need our generator especially with the heat and smoke.  So hopefully it will be one of those deals where after you get the spare part it will never surge again:-)

We are contemplating some big changes to our itinerary, more on that to come.

The Good, the Bad, and the Bad

First the good, since the new Delco Remy alternator was installed we have driven 450 miles to Missoula and it has worked perfectly.  What a relief, but I will admit I am still so gun shy it's almost funny, I must look at that voltmeter 50 times a second.

We were hoping that as we moved we might lose some of the smoke, no way, if anything it has gotten worse.  Our route took us north to West Glacier for one night, then to Lakeside right across the road from Flathead Lake, then south to Missoula.  We plan to be here for 2 weeks, our longest stay this summer so far.

West Glacier KOA is the nicest KOA in the USA, hands down.  It is so well done with large sites, patio and super patio sites, incredible landscaping, 2 pools, one for adults only, right next to the entrance to Glacier National Park, and stellar views.  But it was hot!  96df when we arrived only to pop our breaker a couple times, but the park replaced it immediately.  With the heat and the draw of everyone using their AC's, and the fact that campground circuit breakers are used as switches which they were never designed for, it isn't unusual with these high draws to find they wear out.  It is a plus when the park understands this and doesn't start telling you you must have a problem with your coach.  

Smoke!

One of the avalanche sheds on the railroad south of GNP

And Jan served a nice treat that evening for dinner, rack of lamb lollipops!

A view from our site

BUT, on our way to West Glacier, after we had stopped for lunch, and Jan had cleaned up, she noticed a puddle on the floor!  Poking around we found out the flexible hose that is the drain line for the galley sink that we had repaired in 2018, had broken again.  Wonderful:-(  When we repaired it, we had modified the 1 1/2" pipe to 1" flexible PVC thinking it would be more flexible and not break, but if it did, it would be simple to fix.  So our dinner dishes had to be done in the bathroom sink, very convenient.

Our temporary galley sink:-)

So we made our way over to Lakeside to a nice small campground we like, Edgewater, where we would be for 4 nights.  Perfect planning to get the drain fixed, amazing how we can plan things like this, right?

So the next morning we head to Home Depot to get the hose, and they don't have any, and aren't sure where we might find it, nice.  So we try Ace Hardware and sure enough they do.  So back for our repair which we figure we should be able to knock out in less than an hour, HA!

The circled spot is where the hose broke
The trolley it is attached to is what lets the hose bend and be supported
as the slide moves in and out

You can see the 2 hose clamps holding the hose
to the barbed fitting we installed when we modified it
to make the repair easier should we have to do it again, and
sure enough, we do.

The trolley was a problem as I didn't want to have to remove it all the way, I remembered it was a real bear to get it back in place and fastened to the pipe.  So I found I could just nurse out a screw holding the strap that held the flexible pipe.  Success, we're right on time, yeah, right until we tried to get the hose off the barbed fittings.  No leverage, hardly any access to get a knife in, or a hacksaw blade.  We found out that flexible PVC is tough, almost impossible to cut, almost impossible to stretch, but we finally got it off, only added about another hour to our estimate.  Okay, no problem, now all we have to do is cut the hose to length stick it back on the barbed fitting tighten the hose clamps, reattach the trolley and we're done.  HAHAHAHA  We couldn't get the new hose over the end of the barbed fittings, and with hardly any leverage I couldn't make it go.  So we try boiling water on the hose for 15 minutes and manage to get it on about a quarter of the way.  Ugh, okay, I'll just take it back off and put it in boiling water longer, oh no, it won't come off either!  We are both thinking what a good time we are having.  Jan gets an idea to use her hair dryer, and sure enough after 10-15 minutes of heating it and one more mighty effort I finally manage to get the hose all the way on.  We button up and looky there, it only took us 3 1/2 hours:-)

Finishing up finally

Someone is NOT happy about our project

The we took advantage of the campground allowing you to wash your rig so we did, and after all of that we wanted a light dinner, so we came up with this, delicious and very appropriate for the temps and our long day.

Yummy!

We happened to be looking at Google Maps the evening before we were supposed to drive 97 miles down to Missoula, actually Wye, MT a few miles west of Missoula and noticed miles of red.  We did some research and determined there were delays of up to 1 hour and 15 minutes all due to construction just north of our RV park.  So instead of going directly south we decided to detour around and go down the east side of Flathead Lake and approach Missoula from the east, all well and good except we would be adding 60 miles or so.  Normally no problem.  We had last bought fuel outside of Billings in Hardin, MT and had planned to get fuel again in Missoula.  We were already stretching things more than normal so this would squeeze it a bit more.  We don't like to get fuel too much below half a tank, but sometimes out here it gets to be a challenge.  We had a beautiful no traffic drive, and popped into Loves, and proceeded to put the most fuel in that we have ever before!  120 gallons into our 150 gallon tank, our gauge was below 1/4, 765 miles!  But it all worked out fine.  We pulled into Jim and Mary's RV Park, one of our absolute favorites.  A beautifully landscaped and laid out park in amongst the trees, but still with satellite access, flowers everywhere, paved roads, large sites, quiet, dark, peaceful, and with no amenities, not bustling with kids.  And always full to the brim every night. Here are a few shots of the many flower beds around the park.

Our site for 2 weeks

You're probably wondering where is the other bad, well as we were fueling we had started the generator and if you remember it had been surging and I had replaced the fuel filter and we thought that had solved the problem, uh no.  So we shut it down and I did more research on what could be causing it.  From forums and the Onan manual there is a governor actuator that is usually the culprit if the fuel filter doesn't solve it.  I had read that several forum friends had replaced theirs for about $300 and it fixed their problem.  But it turned out that their generators were an older version and on ours it was a $600 part.  I sure didn't want to experiment with a part that expensive if it didn't fix it and they wouldn't take it back.  So in the manual they mention 3 ways of evaluating the actuator, so we figure before we order the part, we should at least see if we can get to it, get it out, evaluate it, all before ordering a pig in a poke.  So that was today's project, and now looking back on it it wasn't that bad.  We tried to get to it without removing all the panels around the generator, but once we did it was fairly easy.

Getting the top cover off

Blowing out the incredible amount of dust that had accumulated

The whole side and rear cover had to come off as well

But we found it, right where it was supposed to be:-)

Out for testing

First the manual says to check for resistance between 2 and 4 ohms, it was 2.8, check.  Then see if the plunger moves in and out smoothly by hand, check.  Then when applying 12 volts to it see if the plunger retracts smoothly, check.  Hmmm.  Glad we checked it out before ordering because it certainly appears to be working properly.  So we cleaned up the already clean connection, added a tiny bit of dielectric grease and put it all back together.  We could only run for a limited amount of time being we are in the campground, but after 30 minutes it didn't surge.  So once again fingers crossed, but won't know for sure until we leave here and let it run for hours.  

And speaking of crossing fingers, keep them crossed for the weekend out here.  Sunday's forecast is for a high of 62df, and 90% rain all day, that could mean wonderful things for the fires and firefighters. 🤞🤞🤞