We left early Sunday morning around 7:30 from the CG just north of Alex and headed down 49 to I-10. Most of the morning, greeted us with road noise.
Somewhere around 10 am near the Tiger Truck stop, west of Baton Rouge, we decided to switch out. Susan had been driving since we left and it was now my turn. As we were entering the truck stop, she experienced problems with the air system. Low air light, warning buzzer came on and as she went to pull the parking brake we just stopped. Meaning we lost the air pressure to keep the parking brake disengaged.
With that we came to a slow stop. At that point we took Della and Tilly outside for a walk and relax for a minute or to and then came back to DaGirls Rv. So with that, is was my turn. Well not to drive, of course, but to figure out what was going on.
Ok, here is what I did and found:
Started engine, when the air pressure built up, air bags came up and seemed to be ok,, until I pressed on the brake pedal. I heard the brakes come on and a bigger whoosh sound. At that point it was time to get on work clothes and with Susan's help I crawled under the rig and found a fitting had broken off and air was escaping.
So, with hat in hand off I went in search in parts to repair DaGirls Rv.
Once repairs were completed, we went to our next lay-over. Where was that you may ask? A campground near Waveland, Ms. We ended up with a free night thanks to the Silver Slipper Casino.
Area was great except for the goat heads that, Tilly always finds, white beach sand, breeze blowing and just a good place chill out.
All in all Della really liked it:
What more does a girl what:
While we were there we visited the John C Stennis Space Center.
Of course, while we were visiting could not resist in photo ops:
Our next stop would be at the Elk’s lodge in For Walton Beach Fl. We mosey on Hwy 90, until we had to re-route up to I-10 so we could get thru Mobile, AL. Once across and thru we transferred to Hwy 98, the Emerald Coast Hwy or Gulf Breeze Pkwy.
Of course we weren’t without our little problems, I mean come-on we own an Alfa. Just what did you expect, trouble-free driving.
While we were on the road the generator stopped, as we were at a visitors center, good time to see what was going on. Water and alot of it was coming out of the Dash AC vent and housing. Seems like with the Dash blower on low, the coils froze up and then next thing you know coils were defrosting – good – but maybe bad as it was flowing down over the generator.
Now, just to let you know water does not get into my controls boards as I used a sealant prior to installing the panel. But, hey, what happened? Now the generator starts and then quits when you release the start switch. Ok, we open a few windows and the air vents to cool down and Susan says honey, we lost 2 of our Max-Air Vents. WHAT, where, how? is all I could say.
Oh well, so off we went to our destination – Elks Lodge in Ft Walton Beach. Arrived, setup, laid back, had a cold one, paid for 2 nights and went to bed. As tomorrow would come and I would worry about the generator next morning.
Ok, morning arrived, so I am out early, grab my trusty trouble-shooting doc (created with Dick’s help) which by the way is on my Google Drive, and get to work. Checked, verified wrote down findings, did everything I could think of and then ended up calling Dick and talking to him. You see, Dad and I would do the same thing, problem, call and and talk about it, none of this emailing back and forth. Usually we come to a solution and everything is working.
Ok, went over everything again, called back, at this time we both agree, neither one of us new what was going on. So, I said I was going to check and make sure no water got in.
First thing, removed he front panel, after looking on the left side. Can you guess what I saw? I called Dick and swore him to secrecy. You see, the main thing (my father is laughing at me from up above right now), was the generator belt split and came off.
Now you may wonder why I am writing this, I don’t know except to give everyone a good laugh. And I think this is a good one, me, dale, a really good person in working on DaGirls Rv, forgot the one basic thing. Check the simple things.
You see, in Jan, I changed out the water pump belt, checked the generator belt and all looked good. So why change it out. There was no need to do anything to it.
On the bright side, it gave me a chance to practice what I wrote up in the Trouble_Shooting_ Doc for the generator, and I will be making improvements down the road on it. You see it really is easy to trouble_Shoot the generator with just a little bit of knowledge and reading up on the operation of equipment.
Della always knows what to say.
"That's my story and I'm sicking to it"
“SeeYa, Safe and Happy Journeys”
"DaGirls Rv, Me, Della, Susan & Tilly"
