The Maiden Voyage
First of all let me say that it was a wonderful trip. We had decided to take hubby's brother up on an impromptu family reunion at his home in Florida as one of their sisters was going to be visiting and it would be a rare opportunity to get together without it being a funeral. We invited another sister and husband and daughter, who live near us, to travel with us in our motorhome.
We started out about 9:00 a.m. on Thursday, March 22. At least we tried to start out. We had parked the motorhome on our lot next to the Lake house. Since the lot is lakefront, it slopes down toward the lake. Hubby had worked with the local road district and paid to have a culvert installed, taking water from a ditch across the street to a culvert on the edge of our lot. But the lot is probably the lowest point in the immediate area and still catches quite a bit of water when it rains. Well, we had had over 3 inches of (much needed) rain on Tuesday and the ground was soaked.
We were also carrying over 300 pounds of clay shooting targets to our son in Arkansas. He had been unable to get any from his suppliers and asked us to buy some in our area for him to sell in his sporting goods store.
Well, to make a long story, short. We had to get a wrecker to pull us out of our own lot before we could leave on our trip.
Now I need to back up to the previous weekend when we bought the motorhome. We bought it from private individuals. They were a couple, a few years older than we are. They had bought it used from a dealer three years earlier. They had used it very little as the husband was losing his vision, due to glaucoma. His wife was afraid to drive the motorhome. They mentioned that they liked to be present when it was shown as people had been leaving appliances on and running down the battery. He had even recently replaced the battery. He even said he was hoping someone who knew a little about mechanics bought it. They sold it at a very reduced price to us. We suspected something might be wrong but the price was right.
Come to find out, the alternator was bad and every time it was driven, it used up all the juice in the battery. We found that out first hand when it started running rough as we were driving it to the lot in Arkansas, where our trailer is parked. We called hubby’s sister and they came and made sure we made it. We limped home to Missouri the next day and parked it at the lake. Hubby, being a mechanic, among his varied talents, bought and installed a rebuilt alternator.
So, we are off on our trip. We are about 150 miles from home but not too far from our Arkansas son, and nieces and nephews. Picture this. A tall steep mountain road. On our right is only a guard rail to mark the side of the road and a steep cliff about 600 feet deep. On our left is the single lane for on coming traffic and another steep cliff about 400 feet high. The engine of the motor home makes a horrible loud screeching sound and then slapping sound. There is no shoulder to pull off on. The road is curving up and around the mountain and on coming traffic is charging down the road. About half way up on the on coming traffic side is a runaway truck ramp for 18 wheelers who have lost their brakes on the steep downgrade. During a slight break in on coming traffic, my husband swings the motor home onto the truck ramp. It is immediately after a curve and the oncoming traffic looks as through it will run right into us.
The alternator belt has broken. We use our cell phone to call SIL’s son who is a Superintendent of a nearby school district. Hubby gives him the numbers off the old belt and he graciously brings it to us in about 20 minutes. My SIL, meanwhile, is looking out the front of the motorhome at the on coming traffic, exclaiming every time it looks like we are going to be hit. I prefer not to know it and just go about arranging more stuff in the camper.
Hubby puts on the new belt with my help. He crawls under the motorhome and puts the new belt on the necessary pulley then pushes it up for me to place on the alternator pulley. He has removed the engine cover inside the motorhome so I can reach the alternator. Everything seems to be o.k. and we take off again.
About 20 miles further down the road, it happens again. This time we are in the small town where SIL’s son is. We call him again, but this time he is unable to bring a belt to us. Instead, he calls a local O’Reilly auto parts store and they deliver the belt to us. Hubby puts 2nd new belt on, again with my help, and again, we are on the road.
We make it all the way to Pine Bluff, Arkansas and it happens again. We are now too far from nephew but, SIL has been conversing via cell phone with her daughter. Niece had started out the previous day to travel to the Florida Reunion but got called into work. She is a Surgical RN. She was still planning to go the next day and would stop at a parts store on her way and get TWO alternator belts and bring them to us.
Ironically, we have pulled off the road right in the driveway of a RV sales and service dealer. We manage to pull off to a somewhat level spot and settle in for the night. We had talked about spending our first night on the road in a Wal-Mart parking lot rather than paying the $30.00 plus campground fees, so it wasn’t much different.
As hubby and I are lying in bed before we fell off to sleep, I ask him if it was the original belt that first broke. He said yes, he had checked it when he put the alternator on and it appeared to be o.k. I then asked him if there was any chance that the pulley on the present alternator was different than the former one. He replied that he had even asked the guys at our local O’Reilly store if it was the correct pulley on the rebuilt alternator and they assured him it was. We drifted off to sleep.
The next morning the niece arrived with two new alternator belts. She had gone to a local O’Reilly parts store to get them and they had assured her it was the correct belt. As I was helping hubby put belt on alternator, this time I ran my hand over the pulleys and could feel that there were rims with grooves on the area the belt was placed. BUT, on the pulley on the alternator, the belt did not fit inside the rim; it overlapped the edge of the pulley. I told my husband what I had observed. From underneath the engine, he shined a flashlight and confirmed that the belt did not fit properly on the alternator pulley.
Since I am not mechanically inclined but just follow his directions, I usually don’t give any input on something like that. He was very upset with himself to see that I had observed something he should have seen. (hee, hee, hee, chalk one up for me). I did not say anything though. He needed to think this out and did not need any needling.
The niece was still with us and since he had purchased the rebuilt alternator at an O’Reilly parts store and would you believe had brought the receipt with him, the niece took him to the O’Reilly store where she had purchased the belts. They very graciously took a pulley off a new alternator and put it on our rebuilt one. Hubby said he is going to take those broken alternator belts and wring them around the necks of our local O’Reilly guys.
No more mechanical problems for the rest of the trip. O.K. that’s enough for one posting. I write more next time.
We started out about 9:00 a.m. on Thursday, March 22. At least we tried to start out. We had parked the motorhome on our lot next to the Lake house. Since the lot is lakefront, it slopes down toward the lake. Hubby had worked with the local road district and paid to have a culvert installed, taking water from a ditch across the street to a culvert on the edge of our lot. But the lot is probably the lowest point in the immediate area and still catches quite a bit of water when it rains. Well, we had had over 3 inches of (much needed) rain on Tuesday and the ground was soaked.
We were also carrying over 300 pounds of clay shooting targets to our son in Arkansas. He had been unable to get any from his suppliers and asked us to buy some in our area for him to sell in his sporting goods store.
Well, to make a long story, short. We had to get a wrecker to pull us out of our own lot before we could leave on our trip.
Now I need to back up to the previous weekend when we bought the motorhome. We bought it from private individuals. They were a couple, a few years older than we are. They had bought it used from a dealer three years earlier. They had used it very little as the husband was losing his vision, due to glaucoma. His wife was afraid to drive the motorhome. They mentioned that they liked to be present when it was shown as people had been leaving appliances on and running down the battery. He had even recently replaced the battery. He even said he was hoping someone who knew a little about mechanics bought it. They sold it at a very reduced price to us. We suspected something might be wrong but the price was right.
Come to find out, the alternator was bad and every time it was driven, it used up all the juice in the battery. We found that out first hand when it started running rough as we were driving it to the lot in Arkansas, where our trailer is parked. We called hubby’s sister and they came and made sure we made it. We limped home to Missouri the next day and parked it at the lake. Hubby, being a mechanic, among his varied talents, bought and installed a rebuilt alternator.
So, we are off on our trip. We are about 150 miles from home but not too far from our Arkansas son, and nieces and nephews. Picture this. A tall steep mountain road. On our right is only a guard rail to mark the side of the road and a steep cliff about 600 feet deep. On our left is the single lane for on coming traffic and another steep cliff about 400 feet high. The engine of the motor home makes a horrible loud screeching sound and then slapping sound. There is no shoulder to pull off on. The road is curving up and around the mountain and on coming traffic is charging down the road. About half way up on the on coming traffic side is a runaway truck ramp for 18 wheelers who have lost their brakes on the steep downgrade. During a slight break in on coming traffic, my husband swings the motor home onto the truck ramp. It is immediately after a curve and the oncoming traffic looks as through it will run right into us.
The alternator belt has broken. We use our cell phone to call SIL’s son who is a Superintendent of a nearby school district. Hubby gives him the numbers off the old belt and he graciously brings it to us in about 20 minutes. My SIL, meanwhile, is looking out the front of the motorhome at the on coming traffic, exclaiming every time it looks like we are going to be hit. I prefer not to know it and just go about arranging more stuff in the camper.
Hubby puts on the new belt with my help. He crawls under the motorhome and puts the new belt on the necessary pulley then pushes it up for me to place on the alternator pulley. He has removed the engine cover inside the motorhome so I can reach the alternator. Everything seems to be o.k. and we take off again.
About 20 miles further down the road, it happens again. This time we are in the small town where SIL’s son is. We call him again, but this time he is unable to bring a belt to us. Instead, he calls a local O’Reilly auto parts store and they deliver the belt to us. Hubby puts 2nd new belt on, again with my help, and again, we are on the road.
We make it all the way to Pine Bluff, Arkansas and it happens again. We are now too far from nephew but, SIL has been conversing via cell phone with her daughter. Niece had started out the previous day to travel to the Florida Reunion but got called into work. She is a Surgical RN. She was still planning to go the next day and would stop at a parts store on her way and get TWO alternator belts and bring them to us.
Ironically, we have pulled off the road right in the driveway of a RV sales and service dealer. We manage to pull off to a somewhat level spot and settle in for the night. We had talked about spending our first night on the road in a Wal-Mart parking lot rather than paying the $30.00 plus campground fees, so it wasn’t much different.
As hubby and I are lying in bed before we fell off to sleep, I ask him if it was the original belt that first broke. He said yes, he had checked it when he put the alternator on and it appeared to be o.k. I then asked him if there was any chance that the pulley on the present alternator was different than the former one. He replied that he had even asked the guys at our local O’Reilly store if it was the correct pulley on the rebuilt alternator and they assured him it was. We drifted off to sleep.
The next morning the niece arrived with two new alternator belts. She had gone to a local O’Reilly parts store to get them and they had assured her it was the correct belt. As I was helping hubby put belt on alternator, this time I ran my hand over the pulleys and could feel that there were rims with grooves on the area the belt was placed. BUT, on the pulley on the alternator, the belt did not fit inside the rim; it overlapped the edge of the pulley. I told my husband what I had observed. From underneath the engine, he shined a flashlight and confirmed that the belt did not fit properly on the alternator pulley.
Since I am not mechanically inclined but just follow his directions, I usually don’t give any input on something like that. He was very upset with himself to see that I had observed something he should have seen. (hee, hee, hee, chalk one up for me). I did not say anything though. He needed to think this out and did not need any needling.
The niece was still with us and since he had purchased the rebuilt alternator at an O’Reilly parts store and would you believe had brought the receipt with him, the niece took him to the O’Reilly store where she had purchased the belts. They very graciously took a pulley off a new alternator and put it on our rebuilt one. Hubby said he is going to take those broken alternator belts and wring them around the necks of our local O’Reilly guys.
No more mechanical problems for the rest of the trip. O.K. that’s enough for one posting. I write more next time.
Labels: camping, care trouble, family reunions
posted by Rainbo @ 2:32 PM
1 Comments:
At 8/13/2007 01:52:00 PM,
jennyhope said…
I saw your comment on Cheryls blog about church. Let me say something that the Lord has used to encourage me. He basically in my spirit told me to go on with or without my husband. I will be accountable for my walk with the Lord and when I go on with Jesus...he will see Christ in me. I can not change him nor am I responsible for him. I will not stand before God and give an account for anyone but Jenny. I just encourage you in the same way to walk on with Jesus whether anyone else comes or not. The Lord used the following verses to teach me this: John 21:20-22
20Peter turned and saw that the disciple whom Jesus loved was following them. (This was the one who had leaned back against Jesus at the supper and had said, "Lord, who is going to betray you?") 21When Peter saw him, he asked, "Lord, what about him?"
22Jesus answered, "If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me."
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