My Life and Travels
Today we drove to the town of Ajo ( ah-ho ) to fined a wrench to tighten my leaking hose clamp, see the town and open pit copper mine.
The hole started as hill and ended as a hole 1100 feet deep.
The town square from the visitor’s center.
Lunch spot.
Saw this fire just south of the campground, ranger said it is in Mexico, they are burning trash, a hour later it was out.
Sunset.
Ordered a 5/16 swivel head wrench from NAPA, will be here tomorrow/Friday $29.00..
Wonderful sunny and warm day, 82.
This morning I noticed some antifreeze under the coach. It took a while but I found the source
Down inside that dark hole is heater hose with a leaking hose clamp.
You can see the shining clamp just above the middle. The clamp’s nut is on the far side, this could be a challenge, oh well at least I know where the problem is.
This weather report is why we are here. Sunday when I got serious about finding a place to go to this was the closest place with warm weather. Monday morning at the laundromat we talked to a local guy from the Fiesta who was washing zebra uniforms who had an inch and a half of snow at his house. It will melt off but really. Don said he got in an ice storm between Carlsbad and Big Bend National Parks.
Tuesday’s drive.
Where we are:
Almost every site has a new concrete pad to park on with a six to eight inch drop front to back, REALLY.
Don’t know how long we will be here, nice warm weather is key.
Jason asked us to be at his shop at 12:30, we got there at 12:00 I told him I don’t want him waiting for us. NAPA is supposed to make their Saturday parts delivery at 1:00. They decided it would work best for them if they made the 1:00 p.m. delivery at 3:00 today. Jason installed the ignition switch and we were out of RV Country by 3:45.
We drove of Winslow, AZ and decided to stay at Homolivi State Park (site 30) it would be quieter than staying at the local I-40 rest stop.
Did a Walmart stop this evening.
Today’s drive
No campsite picture
When I talked to the service manager at Evert’s RV Country on Thursday he said he would be able to work us in on Friday. At 2:15 p.m. Jason (the Service Manager) came up the of overflow sales lot and started looking for our problem. He thought the problem was an overheated/melted power distribution box at the end of the steering column. Oops, we didn’t have this power distribution box. However, it only took him 25 minutes total to figure out the problem is in the ignition switch.
The second wire up from the bottom should have battery voltage when the ignition switch is turned to start and it only has one volt. He had a tester which he could apply 12 volts to this wire and the engine started. He was able to find a new ignition switch in L.A. Napa warehouse and they could have it delivered to the shop by 1:00 on Saturday afternoon. Jason usually goes home at noon on Saturday but he said he’d wait and instill the park for us on Saturday.
He took the switch apart and cleaned all the contact points inside the switch and it would and start the coach every time, things are looking up.
For the night he suggested Greer’s RV Park a mile and a half up the street. Note this is late Friday evening. When we got to Greer’s they were full however this really nice guy who said he was the owner set out on the porch of his Registration Office the started calling other RV Parks. He had a list a maybe 10 parks and when he called the last park on the list they had one site for one night. The park was just on the other side of town, Black Bart’s RV Park, Steak House, Saloon and Musical Revue. These are some really nice people here in Flagstaff, the town is noted for being RV unfriendly however RV the businesses are going out of their way to help people.
Drive to RV Park in Flagstaff.
Campsite picture
Sign for the park.
Campsite for Thursday night
Yes this is an overflow sales lot for Evert’s RV Country in Flagstaff, AZ.
This is how we got from Page to Flagstaff. You think gas is expensive this is $4.00 a mile. We stayed with AAA towing because our membership which ended August 31 was on an auto pay plan and was posted the first Tuesday in August. I have to say AAA has done great job this time. The people in the Phoenix call center are pretty helpful and good at follow up
First thing this morning the mechanics looked at the coach and decided the problem was that the ignition key has a chip in it and the key chip and the steering column chip were not talking to each other all the time. We decided we would move on and look for a Workhorse chassis center who could reprogram the chips. We drove a mile and a half to a dump station ( I think the shitter was almost FULL) and than a half block to get gas. After I got gas the ignition key would do nothing. So there we were at a large Shell station under their canopy out of the sun at 11:30 a.a. in or loved but dead coach.
I found this dealership in Flagstaff who will work on the coach. The service manage even thinks he knows what is wrong. He has seen many Workhorse coaches where the power distribution switch at the end of the steering column melts. He said he could look at it on Friday if we got to Flagstaff.
I called AAA about getting towed to this service center in Flagstaff from Page. They said sure, the membership we have covers 100 miles and it is 127.2 to Flagstaff. We would have to pay the tow truck driver (Jack, that would be Mater) for the additional miles. 45 minutes after the original call I called AAA to ask for a ride back to the repair shop to get the pickup. AAA said they were working on getting a tow that the Page people were to busy to help us however they had found a truck in Winslow, AZ and he’d be on his way shortly. The pickup was still 1.5 miles back up the road so I put on a bunch of sun block and a quart of water to go get the pickup. At 2:43 the tow truck driver called to say he was on his way.
Clayton, the driver got to Page at 5:45 and by 6:30 we were moving south. By 9:30 p.m. we were at our campsite for the night. Flagstaff is not noted for being an RV friendly town so we tucked the coach in between several display models the dealership is selling.
We are here and working to fix new problem.
Today we got our new fan and radiator installed. They finished at 4:30 and we took it for a drive around town to ensure everything was good.
This is the leak in the radiator and yes it is small and maybe a 64th of an inch more and the blade would have missed the radiator all together.
New and old fan.
I am guessing that this large fitting is why their was no direct part interchange to a Chevy radiator.
Test drive went fine until we stopped and I got out to look for leaks. When I started the engine I got this message on the dash “Reduced Eng Power”. I could get the coach to move from the spot we where in but as soon as I started up an incline the coach would not move forward, only roll back down the small grade.
This was 5:15 and the shop closes at 5:00. I called the shop to let him know where we were and we would be coming back, then walked down to the street corner so I could tell AAA we where.
As I was calling AAA Mike the shop owner drove into the parking lot. He had returned to the shop to get some keys and heard my message. Mike called Joe the mechanic and they both worked on the coach and finally got it to start. We drove back to the shop for another night and they will look at the coach in the morning.
Our Page adventures continue.
We have a new souvenir
The blade that broke off the fan and went into radiator.
The new radiator and fan came in today and Joe started to remove the old one. Things are moving forward. 102 today.
Antifreeze on the ground.
Not a lot of antifreeze but to much to drive back to Page on 100 degree day.
This morning we found out a fan blade broke and went into the radiator. One Workhorse radiator in Arizona ( couldn’t find a Chevy crossover unit) and several fans, maybe here tomorrow.
Shorter drive today than the original planned.
We were 10 miles outside Page after a Walmart stop when we heard a Big Bang, (spell check wants capital letters) at the front of the coach. First thought it was a tire but steering was fine. Again we had coach problems where their was a place to pull off the road. Walked around coach and found antifreeze dripping in the front.
This is the drive for the day
And repair shop we will be at for several days.
We are fine coach will need some work.