Well, summer itself actually happened, but it sure didn’t happen like we planned. We spent our summer abandoning plans and pretending we really wanted to do something else instead. When confronted with certain defeat, change the rules and declare victory. I added the last few stops to our summer travel map. It doesn’t make any sense at all. It’s just a jumble. And I think it ran out of pins. The last several places on the list, through Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma, don’t even get pins on the map, but if you click on them, they get a description pointing to where they are: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=205131835882428706345.0004a0e19bb8bf61d6456&msa=0&ll=34.488448,-99.492187&spn=22.953946,56.118164
FW: Along the way.
We visited the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha.
I know what’s wrong – the answer!
Yesterday I had it all figured out. A wobble in the driveshaft. It hits a resonant frequency and is terrible, but accelerate and it’s gone.
Today I realized that I had it all figured out wrong. I had it as the driveshaft; a bad U-joint perhaps. But today I realize that the driveshaft is related to vehicle speed and my problem is related to engine speed. When I downshift, the problem gets better. It’s engine speed related. The driveshaft is still going the same speed when I downshift, so it’s not the driveshaft. I apologize. I misled you all. Come to think of it, I even misled myself. I don’t have the answer.
It feels like I’m on the right track with something rotational out of balance, but to be engine speed related, the problem has to be in front of the transmission. I don’t like that prospect much. The stuff that rotates in the engine is all connected to the crankshaft which is the guts of the entire engine.
I thought all we had to do was take it to Holt Cat in Edinburg, tell them to check the driveshaft, and it would all get better. We’ll still take it to Holt Cat in a few days, but we don’t get to tell them what’s wrong. We have to hope they can tell us what’s wrong. It could still be a hiccup in the timing. We’ll see.
In the meantime, we’re settled in at Jeff and Carol’s 3 miles outside Bandera in the Texas Hill Country northwest of San Antonio. They bought some acres and carved out a spot in the oak and cedar(juniper) for their 5th wheel. They put in full hookups: water, sewer, and 50 amp electric.
Then they carved out a spot for us too!
Thank you Jeff and Carol. It’s good to be here.
I figured it out!
I know what’s wrong with the motorhome. First the engine blew up. Then it got fixed. But on our first test drive, the rig seemed a little bumpy. It felt like it was running rough at 65mph. I took it back to Josh at MHC Kenworth. Josh checked it out and everything seemed fine while it was idling. He plugged a computer in behind the dash and monitored all the engine and transmission functions while we went on a test drive together. There were no error messages, no readings out of range, but still it ran rough at 65mph under load. He reset the transmission. We drove the motorhome away to see if resetting the transmission helped. It didn’t. The motorhome ran terrible at 65mph in 6th gear, there was a shudder, but if I downshifted, it got better. It hates 1,500rpm. It hates 60% to 80% load. It’s fine with 1,800rpm. We took it back. Josh plugged a computer into the outside cabinet under the driver’s window and ran a program to reset the timing. He plugged the computer into a fitting at the right rear of the coach and updated the engine software. He checked the exhaust brake to make sure it wasn’t sticking. Nothing helped. We drove away. Josh is stumped. Everyone at MHC Kenworth is stumped. Caterpillar Tech Support is stumped. Allison Transmission is stumped. We’ve driven a thousand miles down the road in 5th gear because it’s too rough in 6th gear. When it gets too rough in 5th gear on an incline, I downshift to 4th. Suddenly it comes to me. I know what the problem is! I’ve listed every clue. I’ll leave this as today’s puzzler. I’ll send the answer tomorrow.
Darn it!
The biopsies came back on our basal cell carcinomas. We each need to go back to have more tissue removed to make sure we got it all. John is gone fishing in Montana and Alaska for a couple weeks, so it will be a month or so before he can do the surgery and we’re not supposed to travel for 2 or 3 weeks after. We mean to be in South Texas now, so we’ve made appointments with a dermatologist in Corpus Christi to see if she can do the follow-up surgery instead. Meanwhile, we crossed back into Texas on Highway 281 at Wichita Falls. Highway 281. That’s our highway in Edinburg. All we have to do is follow it 565 miles south and we’ll be at Sandpipers! Stopped for the night at Fort Richardson State Park south of Jacksboro.