Rolling down the highway, still in Arizona, headed for Deming, NM, we got a “low air” warning light and pulled over. Can’t mess around too long with low air, because air does a lot on diesel pushers. It not only controls the air suspension that keeps the ride height right, it is also the critical element in air brakes. The default condition for air brakes is full-on. It takes air in the tanks to release the brakes and drive. Once stopped with no air, the bus is going nowhere. This happened to us the night before just as we pulled into a truck stop. A repair guy there found the air leak and fixed it. He didn’t have any idea why the line had leaked, but he fixed the leak. We thought we were good to go, but today, on the freeway, we lost air again. This time we didn’t make it off the highway, we were stranded on the shoulder. Not a good place to be. We had a visit with the highway patrol.
The Roadside Service guy came and looked it over.
He found an exhaust leak right up by the exhaust manifold. Escaping hot air was scorching the air lines until they failed. He patched things up enough for us to move off the highway; a big improvement.
…but guess where we moved off the highway to; the parking lot of The Thing!
All those highway signs for all these years, me determined to never get sucked into stopping at such a blatant tourist trap, and here we are. Judy went inside to tell them we might be in their parking lot for a while and they couldn’t have been nicer. Judy found a ring to buy. Working from below, and through the access hatch in our bedroom, our repair guy got a clamp around the offending section of exhaust pipe. He proclaimed us good enough to go, as long as we didn’t go too far. Now it’s dark, so we determined to not go anywhere at all tonight, and stay in the Thing’s parking lot. Arizona trip map The closest town of any size, in either direction, is Tucson, 60 miles west. El Paso, to the east is 250 miles away. That’s too far. We’re going to abandon our eastward trek and return west to Tucson. The first order of business is to get to a big-rig muffler shop that can replace a section of large pipe. We’ve got the shop located, but no telling how long that job will take. Once the cause of the air-line-leaks has been corrected, we can move on to problem number two at a different shop and have someone give all the air-lines a good going-over; make sure anything that needs more than a “roadside” fix is taken care of. This morning’s view at Kartchner Caverns.
Tonight’s view at The Thing.
Not quite the same. But we’re happy to be here. For all the time we spend on the road, interruptions that change our plans by more than a day don’t happen very often. We can weather this. We’ll refigure the trip home when we know more. In the meantime, we’re happy with our home on wheels.
The Roadside Service guy came and looked it over. He found an exhaust leak right up by the exhaust manifold. Escaping hot air was scorching the air lines until they failed. He patched things up enough for us to move off the highway; a big improvement. …but guess where we moved off the highway to; the parking lot of The Thing! All those highway signs for all these years, me determined to never get sucked into stopping at such a blatant tourist trap, and here we are. Judy went inside to tell them we might be in their parking lot for a while and they couldn’t have been nicer. Judy found a ring to buy. Working from below, and through the access hatch in our bedroom, our repair guy got a clamp around the offending section of exhaust pipe. He proclaimed us good enough to go, as long as we didn’t go too far. Now it’s dark, so we determined to not go anywhere at all tonight, and stay in the Thing’s parking lot. Arizona trip map The closest town of any size, in either direction, is Tucson, 60 miles west. El Paso, to the east is 250 miles away. That’s too far. We’re going to abandon our eastward trek and return west to Tucson. The first order of business is to get to a big-rig muffler shop that can replace a section of large pipe. We’ve got the shop located, but no telling how long that job will take. Once the cause of the air-line-leaks has been corrected, we can move on to problem number two at a different shop and have someone give all the air-lines a good going-over; make sure anything that needs more than a “roadside” fix is taken care of. This morning’s view at Kartchner Caverns. Tonight’s view at The Thing. Not quite the same. But we’re happy to be here. For all the time we spend on the road, interruptions that change our plans by more than a day don’t happen very often. We can weather this. We’ll refigure the trip home when we know more. In the meantime, we’re happy with our home on wheels. 
