Sunday, August 31, 2014

Part 1 - THE DREADED FAN BELT SHREDDING

What’s wrong with this photo? Notice the missing Jeep? Door open, Della on her bed and a chair outside? If you guess broken down on the side of the road, you won. The next question you may ask yourself is how in the world he managed that.


Well, I guess I could go all the way back to the beginning, but I won’t. The traveling team of Prichard’s & Taubman’s left Cody around 9:15 am on Friday. Among the sites we visited en route to our next stop included the Heart Mountain Internment Camp in Cody, WY. After seeing what we Americans did to fellow Americans, makes you wonder about our nation’s stupidly. For your own education, you should read up on what happened during that time to over 110,000 individuals with over 2/3 of them being US citizens.

Read up on it here Link to Website 

Anyway, we left Cody, WY in the morning and are traveling to Buffalo, WY via Hwy 16, going thru the 9,666-foot Powder River Pass. We started our climb with little issue, until the dreaded temperature (water) started climbing. Did all the right things but to no avail. Next thing you know, buzzers, lights and just plain losing power. I pulled over as much as I could but, this being a 1 lane road in both directions with no shoulder, it was a losing battle

A little stressful, what with team Taubman calling on radios wanting to know “what’s up”, Susan and me talking, me trying to figure what was wrong - thinking, we just disconnect the jeep and everything would be ok. But of course it wasn't. While we were parked on the road, the best thing was to see what was wrong: Well you guessed it,

The dreaded fan belt shredding. You can see it in Wayne’s Dash Cam Video above. See that little black spec below our rig?


Susan was kind enough to pick it up and bring it back to the rig.

By this time, decisions had to be made, it was decided that Susan would go back down the mountain take phone, computer, part numbers and make some calls. While at the same time Wayne & Kathy would go on ahead to Buffalo, WY and check in at the CG and make a few calls for the belts also. Susan left and returned a few minutes later telling me about a turnout 0.8 of a mile ahead. Then she headed down the mountain. Well after about 30-50 minutes the engine cooled down to about 175 F water temp. This allowed me to limp up about 1/2 a mile before stopping and waiting for the next cool down.

In the meantime, a gentleman by the name of Craig, stopped and offered a pull, we looked and check and we decided this might work. By this time Susan was back, and reported she had to call 911, because the emergency service would not come until we were off the road. So with her directing traffic, Craig and I started the final short journey to the pull off.

Well, with Craig pulling and me putting it in gear, we were able to inch along to the turnout. So here I sit relaxing, writing, taking photos and enjoying the sights. The Highway Patrol and Sheriff arrived to make sure everything was ok, also they let me know I could stay here as long as I needed to.

If anything, Susan & I can always pick the nicest areas to break-down. Check out our views.


Stay tune to Part 2 of THE DREADED FAN BELT SHREDDING.

Safe Travels and Journeys
DaGirls Rv Della & Tilly 

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