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..