Motorhome:
Monday
Monday morning, leaving the track at Norwalk, the generator cut off – as did my Nav system/stereo, Dash air, steps, and awnings. This had happened once before, and I’d traced it down to one of 4 resettable circuit Breakers. I checked that first and was able to reset after it had cooled – which was about 10 minutes. I went to that, and sure enough it was tripped. I waited about 30 minutes trying to reset, and it wouldn’t. I decided to start my drive on to Western New York. I turned off the Invertors to save as much house battery charge as I could. I stopped at a Flying J in Ashtabula, OH to refuel and dump tanks. I tried to reset again, and not only did it not reset, I must have pushed too hard and broke the little yellow reset flag.
I get to Western New York at about 3pm. Fortunately the slides went out and the jacks down. I started the inverter again to rechill the fridge and freezer, and would turn on for 1 hour every five hours. I find the circuit breaker on Amazon promising overnight and buy it, but after changing address of where I am and buying, I get notified the circuit breaker would arrive 9/9-9/20. I find one from another manufacturer promising next day and buy. This time when I update from home address to current location – I’m told it will come Friday
I go to Enterprise to rent a SUV, and drive to three motorhome places, NAPA, Audi Zone and Lowes. All could order, but didn’t stock. I go to the manufacturers web site and get names and phones of resellers in Houston (Dallas could get and overnight) and Buffalo. Phone calls had all out of stock but the could order. I posted on Fascistbook, and got a couple leads, but they too didn’t pan out. My son Dallas use to work for an RV seller, and he got his contact to look on a dealer parts network to see who might have – and that too was a dead lead. A racing bud said he’d call his manufacturer to see if they could overnight me one, once they opened in the morning. I turned the inverter on when I went to bed, to power my CPAP. I turned the invertor back off when I woke up. The battery dropped from 12.6v to 12.2v from that.
Tuesday
My racing bud texts me saying that they could overnight me the part. I also called the RV manufacturer’s support, and begged them to overnight the part. He says they doubt they will do it, but to email him a photo of the part. I do that, reminding him that each coach has three 120a and a 100a – so they must buy by the gross, that I’ve bought thee new Coaches from them in last five years – and expect them to overnight me the part.
My race bud gets back and says they’ll have to make the part Tuesday, overnight Wednesday, and I’d get Thursday. Entegra’s support guy emails the photo to their parts department, asking them to overnight to me. Two hours later (11am Indiana time where the manufacturer is) I get an email slow rolling me by asking where the part goes and telling me that if they even have it – its too late to overnight. I get ahold of an executive at Entegra, reminding her that I’ve spent over a million with them, that I’m dead in the water, that they must have a pallet load of those on the property, and that I expect to have the part in my hands by Wednesday noon. Long story short, after three contacts back and forth, I had a tracking number.
Tuesday Night I’m wondering if I can by pass that control circuit breaker by jump starting the generator (the answer was no) and pull out the generator compartment. That’s when I noticed that the 00 battery cable had the insulation chafed and the wire exposed. I wrapped it, but wondered if I might have also caused other issues – like electronic boards. At this point, I had 11.8v from house batteries, so I started the coach’s engine and ran 90 minutes to have its alternator charge the battery some. It only got it to 12.1 volts. I turned invertor back on and went to bed. At 1:30 am my CPAP stopped and the house batteries were too dead to power anything, so I sat in the recliner all night.
Wednesday (today as I write this)
At 10:30 the part arrives, but its flag doesn’t go all of the way up. I install it and nothing. Checked Continuity across the terminals says its not working – and the flag won’t go back up after pushing the reset button. I’m not sure if the breaker was bad from the start, I have a bad short breaking them, or I have much bigger problems. What happens next isn’t logical – but factual. I take out the circuit breaker above and put this questionable breaker in its place. The flag goes up most of the way but not all of the way, however I’m getting 11v across the pole. I take the good breaker I’d just removed from the spot above and put it in the spot where I’d had the broken breaker. The stairs shoot out. I get the generator started and I’m now in the process of charging the house batteries.
I just checked my Amazon order status for the one originally promised Tuesday, but then changed to Friday – and it’s now scheduled to be here today between 1-5. It’s 2pm now. I’ll put that in the spot where I put the questionable breaker received this morning, mark that breaker Questionable/Emergency Only, and put into my motorhome parts bin.
Thug’s Transmission
Long story short, I had a transmission leak in the Thug. Pulled the trans and sealed before reinstalling. No leaks for three days – then it leaks badly after loading it up for last weekends Norwalk race. Despite the level under the add mark, my bud Doug swore that it was overfilled. We emptied, measured (7 quarts – deep pan) and filled with 5.75 quarts. No leaks for two days before leaving Monday – but I’d been so pissed with the motorhome, I was afraid that looking and finding a leak while dealing with the motorhome shit, would push me over the edge.
Since the motorhome issue has been fully diagnosed, albeit not fully resolved yet, I decided to take a look. It is still dry. Tomorrow I’ll take both cars out, run the Thug a little, and swap the Wagon to top and Thug to bottom in stacker. If it is still dry next week, I’ll take it to race in Bowling Green for the Moparty (in about ten days) and then to the Finals at Indy a week later. If it leaks, my season has ended.
Sick Again
So about 6 weeks ago my youngest daughter and her kids get the “Man Cold”. Two weeks later I have it. I was pretty sick, but didn’t get tested as I was vaccinated, and my doctor was 100 miles away. I spend a week in my recliner and get well enough to work on my cars for a week, then race for a week. About a week after me, my wife gets sick. While I get the man cold every year – this is her first and she’s not liking it or getting better. However, she’s not getting worse.
Last night I get a sore throat, earache, stuffed up/sinus infection nose, and start coughing. Today I really feel like shit – between the man cold and no sleep last night (see motorhome above). I need this like I need another testicle!
So that’s the Drama update. I’ll post a race recap later.
