mankypro
Learning Slowly...
The Shakedown Cruise
Day 1
It all began as we loaded the 16ft trailer to the gills with furniture to transport to our second home. I figure the trailer's contents alone weighed in somewhere in 3 ton area. Figure another ton for the trailer itself.
We left Denver late afternoon on Monday. So all is good several hours later, moving along at a decent speed, but my waste oil rear 45 gallon tank seems not to be heating up and I seem to be burning through it at a ridiculous rate. No matter we're trucking along.
BAM! About 200 miles from Denver, north of Cheyenne and about a mile south of the Guernsey exit on I-25 north in Wyoming the truck behaves like it's having fuel supply issues. I switch the tanks to my front #2 tank which is full - truck still sputters out. I figure it's my fuel filter and pull over to the curb. No matter! I'm prepared! I pull out a spare filter, fill it with diesel and toss it in and it fires up briefly then shuts down. Hrm. No matter! Must be air in the lines! Hit the Schrader, satisfying hiss. Rinse, repeat. Same deal. Ok this is getting weird.
I'm running hazards on the trailer to keep from getting creamed my the truckers hopped up on God knows what that are zipping my me in the breakdown lane at Mach 2.
I run out of battery power. No matter! Grab the jump pack out of the trailer! Still starts briefly sputters off! OK there's fuel in the front tank I know it has 15 gallons! Jump pack dead. Call AAA for a jump/tow. Told that 75 miles north of the state capital of Wyoming is "too remote" - I read them the riot act. They find someone - it's 2 hours later. My 5 year old is in the back running a fever and my 2 year old is losing her mind. We're getting cold.
Now wait a second, I think. Fuel supply issue. What if the sender is wrong?!? Hrm, let's fill the rear tank with #2 - pull out a Gerry can, stick the funnel in - INSTANT overflow. (many of you know what has occurred already). Ok so I go to the front tank, might as well top it off, should take 1 gallon. Takes the whole can. The rusty gears in my old brain are starting to grind. Grab another fuel can, goes in all 5 gallons. And another then it's full. It finally dawns on my that the Fuel Selector valve has failed in the front position. I ran my 15 gallon diesel tank dry thinking I was on my rear 45 gallon WO tank!!!! I'm screwed anyway. Can't start without power. Sit in the cab, wait for the AAA guy.
Finally he shows up and gets me hooked to his Cummins. I can barely turn over. He says to let it charge a while. Same deal. He asks if I want a pull start - I say no - family in the truck, dogs in the camper - too dangerous towing a 16' trailer. He asks if I have a spare set of jumper cables - yes I do - slams it on his second set of batteries and charges my primary. 15 minutes later it starts!
We're off again! Whew! Disaster averted. We make it into Casper at like 3am, I get keys pull around to the door and leave the truck in front of it (blocking cars in spaces) to unload the family, dogs and overnight bags. Family inside. It's 4am. Go outside to park the truck. Key in ignition. Click, nothing. Oh, fooey. Go to the front desk get the night man to jump me like the other guy did, he obliges, after an hour of trying I say thanks, but maybe your Honda doesn't have the juice I need to get it started. Call AAA again. It'll take an hour for them to arrive. Go inside sleep 45 minutes, tow truck is here. He proceeds to do the same double jumpers - 20 minutes later NOTHING, won't turn over. Great and the Elk hunters at the hotel I'm blocking in are waking up to head out. I ask the tow guy to tow me to the bottom of the lot and figure I'll drop the trailer and get it flat bedded to a Sears in the morning for replacement Diehards (under warranty). I figured I'd killed my batteries dead and they were pulling all my juice and keeping my from starting (WRONG).
Day 2
Got it towed to Sears next morning after 2 more hours of sleep, get my new batteries by noon. No startee. Ok my starter might be the culprit! Ask a kid to get down there with a mallet to tap it, I turn the ignition and it makes the most horrible grinding sound known to man. New starter time. Sears gets the part from Napa after some idiocy about using Carquest who couldn't source it - I pay a $50.00 premium over the Napa price - whatever I want to get going!
Starter in by 5pm, we decide to stay a second night. While the wife and kids are resting and hanging out in the hotel room, I'm outside re-routing my fuel lines so I can use my 45 gallon rear tank. Brrr.
Day 3
Starts right up in the morning and off we go! About 125 miles up the road I pull off to rest area to discover a trickle of fuel/wmo under the truck. Grrrrr. I figure one of the lines I did with frozen hands is loose - check it out - not the case, I didn't switch the return lines, so my front tank is overflowing. I put on the overalls and get under the truck and fix it. An hour later off we go again.
It's dusk. The truck starts behaving like the fuel filter is going again. We're almost to Livingston, Montana - 200ft from the first exit and the truck dies. Same deal, can't get it to stay on. I figure air in the lines. I'm VERY close to oncoming semi's in the breakdown lane. Not going to kill my starter or batteries again this time. I cannot work on the fuel lines in the place where the truck is. Both our cell phones run out of power AT THE SAME TIME. At this point I'm thinking of how I must be living wrong or something.
I finally flag down a gentleman (Montana rancher type) that offers me to use his cell phone then offers to tow us off onto the exit to get us to a safe place. He ends up towing us all the way to a hotel in town - bless that man's soul. I get the wife, kids, and dogs bedded down and proceed to call truck stops to see if anyone has 3/8 and 5/16 brass hose barb fittings, cause I'm sure it's the FSV. Nothing - they rolled up the sidewalks in Livingston hours earlier.
Day 4
I pop up at 5am go to ACE and spend $5.69 on brass hose barbs and bypass the FSV all together - problem solved. I also tried to locate a FSV no one had one, and couldn't get them for days. Brass hose barbs = Truck ready to go by 9am - off we go.
Outside Missoula I notice my oil pressure idiot gauge is low when under the throttle and returns to normal after idling a while. I pull over and check my oil - just 1/4 quart low, add oil off we go. Same deal, low pressure on the gauge. I figure time for an oil change. I call ahead and Jiffy Lube can do one for $69.00 with my trailer on. I figure that this is the hardest this truck has probably worked in years and I've knocked loose alot of gunk and it's in the filter I'd installed the morning before I left. We go in, and I opted for the engine cleaner thing they do with 2 gallons of Heartland Solvent for $39.00 - what came out was pretty amazing. After they replaced the second oil filter and put in the new Rotella they ran it for 5 minutes - they then pulled the dipstick and showed me the oil. It was amazing, clean as when it went in - never had seen that happen on a diesel. Worth my $30 bucks. Idiot gauge marginally better reads. Engine temps were good, everything else checked out. I decide to keep driving. No problems - we make it to our place in Idaho.
Day 6
Trip back, she's running like a champ. uphill, 4-5th gears, 2500rpm, 8-10psi, 900-1000 egts, coolant 210'F, 55-60mph. Stop outside Bozeman, MT at a rest stop. Get back in the truck - can't get the steering wheel unlocked. Call AAA - they're worthless - they want to tow me to a hotel till Monday morning. I call a local locksmith he shows up in 20 minutes and HAND FILES a new ignition key for me and tells me never to get keys made at Lowe's again
off we go.
No problems after the key.
Had I not made the initial decisions badly on my first trouble stop things would not have cascaded. I spent the last 10 hours of the drive wondering when my feed pump or IP would fail - fortunately they did not. Before I take the truck out again on a 2200 miles trip I'm replacing my IP, Fuel Pump, installing a new FSV and carrying fittings and a replacement in my toolbox, and installing a fuel pressure gauge and a oil pressure gauge. I will also carry a small gas generator and my battery charger.
Lessons learned. Wow. Fortunately, I think that barring the engine blowing up or seizing or my master cylinder going I should be OK on the next trip. Talk about a shakedown.
Day 1
It all began as we loaded the 16ft trailer to the gills with furniture to transport to our second home. I figure the trailer's contents alone weighed in somewhere in 3 ton area. Figure another ton for the trailer itself.
We left Denver late afternoon on Monday. So all is good several hours later, moving along at a decent speed, but my waste oil rear 45 gallon tank seems not to be heating up and I seem to be burning through it at a ridiculous rate. No matter we're trucking along.
BAM! About 200 miles from Denver, north of Cheyenne and about a mile south of the Guernsey exit on I-25 north in Wyoming the truck behaves like it's having fuel supply issues. I switch the tanks to my front #2 tank which is full - truck still sputters out. I figure it's my fuel filter and pull over to the curb. No matter! I'm prepared! I pull out a spare filter, fill it with diesel and toss it in and it fires up briefly then shuts down. Hrm. No matter! Must be air in the lines! Hit the Schrader, satisfying hiss. Rinse, repeat. Same deal. Ok this is getting weird.
I'm running hazards on the trailer to keep from getting creamed my the truckers hopped up on God knows what that are zipping my me in the breakdown lane at Mach 2.
I run out of battery power. No matter! Grab the jump pack out of the trailer! Still starts briefly sputters off! OK there's fuel in the front tank I know it has 15 gallons! Jump pack dead. Call AAA for a jump/tow. Told that 75 miles north of the state capital of Wyoming is "too remote" - I read them the riot act. They find someone - it's 2 hours later. My 5 year old is in the back running a fever and my 2 year old is losing her mind. We're getting cold.
Now wait a second, I think. Fuel supply issue. What if the sender is wrong?!? Hrm, let's fill the rear tank with #2 - pull out a Gerry can, stick the funnel in - INSTANT overflow. (many of you know what has occurred already). Ok so I go to the front tank, might as well top it off, should take 1 gallon. Takes the whole can. The rusty gears in my old brain are starting to grind. Grab another fuel can, goes in all 5 gallons. And another then it's full. It finally dawns on my that the Fuel Selector valve has failed in the front position. I ran my 15 gallon diesel tank dry thinking I was on my rear 45 gallon WO tank!!!! I'm screwed anyway. Can't start without power. Sit in the cab, wait for the AAA guy.
Finally he shows up and gets me hooked to his Cummins. I can barely turn over. He says to let it charge a while. Same deal. He asks if I want a pull start - I say no - family in the truck, dogs in the camper - too dangerous towing a 16' trailer. He asks if I have a spare set of jumper cables - yes I do - slams it on his second set of batteries and charges my primary. 15 minutes later it starts!
We're off again! Whew! Disaster averted. We make it into Casper at like 3am, I get keys pull around to the door and leave the truck in front of it (blocking cars in spaces) to unload the family, dogs and overnight bags. Family inside. It's 4am. Go outside to park the truck. Key in ignition. Click, nothing. Oh, fooey. Go to the front desk get the night man to jump me like the other guy did, he obliges, after an hour of trying I say thanks, but maybe your Honda doesn't have the juice I need to get it started. Call AAA again. It'll take an hour for them to arrive. Go inside sleep 45 minutes, tow truck is here. He proceeds to do the same double jumpers - 20 minutes later NOTHING, won't turn over. Great and the Elk hunters at the hotel I'm blocking in are waking up to head out. I ask the tow guy to tow me to the bottom of the lot and figure I'll drop the trailer and get it flat bedded to a Sears in the morning for replacement Diehards (under warranty). I figured I'd killed my batteries dead and they were pulling all my juice and keeping my from starting (WRONG).
Day 2
Got it towed to Sears next morning after 2 more hours of sleep, get my new batteries by noon. No startee. Ok my starter might be the culprit! Ask a kid to get down there with a mallet to tap it, I turn the ignition and it makes the most horrible grinding sound known to man. New starter time. Sears gets the part from Napa after some idiocy about using Carquest who couldn't source it - I pay a $50.00 premium over the Napa price - whatever I want to get going!
Starter in by 5pm, we decide to stay a second night. While the wife and kids are resting and hanging out in the hotel room, I'm outside re-routing my fuel lines so I can use my 45 gallon rear tank. Brrr.
Day 3
Starts right up in the morning and off we go! About 125 miles up the road I pull off to rest area to discover a trickle of fuel/wmo under the truck. Grrrrr. I figure one of the lines I did with frozen hands is loose - check it out - not the case, I didn't switch the return lines, so my front tank is overflowing. I put on the overalls and get under the truck and fix it. An hour later off we go again.
It's dusk. The truck starts behaving like the fuel filter is going again. We're almost to Livingston, Montana - 200ft from the first exit and the truck dies. Same deal, can't get it to stay on. I figure air in the lines. I'm VERY close to oncoming semi's in the breakdown lane. Not going to kill my starter or batteries again this time. I cannot work on the fuel lines in the place where the truck is. Both our cell phones run out of power AT THE SAME TIME. At this point I'm thinking of how I must be living wrong or something.
I finally flag down a gentleman (Montana rancher type) that offers me to use his cell phone then offers to tow us off onto the exit to get us to a safe place. He ends up towing us all the way to a hotel in town - bless that man's soul. I get the wife, kids, and dogs bedded down and proceed to call truck stops to see if anyone has 3/8 and 5/16 brass hose barb fittings, cause I'm sure it's the FSV. Nothing - they rolled up the sidewalks in Livingston hours earlier.
Day 4
I pop up at 5am go to ACE and spend $5.69 on brass hose barbs and bypass the FSV all together - problem solved. I also tried to locate a FSV no one had one, and couldn't get them for days. Brass hose barbs = Truck ready to go by 9am - off we go.
Outside Missoula I notice my oil pressure idiot gauge is low when under the throttle and returns to normal after idling a while. I pull over and check my oil - just 1/4 quart low, add oil off we go. Same deal, low pressure on the gauge. I figure time for an oil change. I call ahead and Jiffy Lube can do one for $69.00 with my trailer on. I figure that this is the hardest this truck has probably worked in years and I've knocked loose alot of gunk and it's in the filter I'd installed the morning before I left. We go in, and I opted for the engine cleaner thing they do with 2 gallons of Heartland Solvent for $39.00 - what came out was pretty amazing. After they replaced the second oil filter and put in the new Rotella they ran it for 5 minutes - they then pulled the dipstick and showed me the oil. It was amazing, clean as when it went in - never had seen that happen on a diesel. Worth my $30 bucks. Idiot gauge marginally better reads. Engine temps were good, everything else checked out. I decide to keep driving. No problems - we make it to our place in Idaho.
Day 6
Trip back, she's running like a champ. uphill, 4-5th gears, 2500rpm, 8-10psi, 900-1000 egts, coolant 210'F, 55-60mph. Stop outside Bozeman, MT at a rest stop. Get back in the truck - can't get the steering wheel unlocked. Call AAA - they're worthless - they want to tow me to a hotel till Monday morning. I call a local locksmith he shows up in 20 minutes and HAND FILES a new ignition key for me and tells me never to get keys made at Lowe's again
off we go.No problems after the key.
Had I not made the initial decisions badly on my first trouble stop things would not have cascaded. I spent the last 10 hours of the drive wondering when my feed pump or IP would fail - fortunately they did not. Before I take the truck out again on a 2200 miles trip I'm replacing my IP, Fuel Pump, installing a new FSV and carrying fittings and a replacement in my toolbox, and installing a fuel pressure gauge and a oil pressure gauge. I will also carry a small gas generator and my battery charger.
Lessons learned. Wow. Fortunately, I think that barring the engine blowing up or seizing or my master cylinder going I should be OK on the next trip. Talk about a shakedown.
Last edited:
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What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.
