Eureka!
We pulled out of Tom Sawyer RV Park a little after 9am this morning for a short 134 mile trip north on I-55 to Sikeston, MO.
And once again we had a repeat performance of the hard-starting and stalling that has occurred the previous two mornings. And once again, when we got moving we had no more problems.
And after a smooth, uneventful trip, we pulled into the Hinton RV Park in Sikeston, MO about noon. Normally we would have stayed at the Passport America park up the road, but the reviews in RV Park Reviews said Hinton RV Park was really good, and the Passport America park was really, really bad. So here we are.
One thing I noticed coming into Sikeston was. being at the conjunction of two Interstates, (I-55 and I-57) there were a lot of truck dealerships in town, so once we got parked, I made some phone calls and found there was a local Cummins dealer and they had a generator fuel filter in stock.
So as soon as we got settled in, I headed down the road to the Cummins dealer to pick up the filter, and while I was there I also got a new engine fuel filter as well.
Getting back to the rig we decided to eat before I tackled the generator fuel filter changeout. And of course, where else to eat in Sikeston, MO, but Lambert’s Throwed Rolls.
After having our usual great meal of Fried Chicken, veggies, hot ‘throwed rolls’, and of course, the great ‘pass-arounds’, we came back to the rig. I then decided to take a nap and let the temps cool off before I tackled the generator.
Finally, about 6pm I headed outside to crawl under the rig and have at it. And as usual in these things, it took longer to get to the filter than it did to actually change it out. To make matters worse, you can’t get to the filter access door with the generator extended, but when you have the generator retracted, it’s hard to get under the rig to get the filter out.
And to make things worse, the filter is not a standard spin-on type, but a rectangular metal box with flare fittings making the fuel connections.
And of course, they couldn’t allow enough slack to make it easier to disconnect the lines.
But finally, after about an hour, I had the filter installed and everything buttoned back up. Now for the ‘smoke test’.
Well, actually, I hope it doesn’t smoke. First I primed the generator for about a minute, per the manual, and then hit the start button. After cranking it over twice for about 5 seconds, the third time was the charm, and the generator fired up and ran smoothly. I let it run for about 20 minutes, and had no problems.
At this point I shut it down and considered it a job well done. And we’ll have AC on the road tomorrow. Jan says “YEA!”
I still think this problem, and my engine problem was caused by the Diesel Kleen cleaning out the build-up in my fuel lines. Although it could have possibly been a tank of bad fuel that we took on in Whitsett when I also added the Diesel Kleen, it seems to me that if it were bad diesel it would have continue to clog the engine filter until the rig engine no longer ran either.
So now I’ll change out the engine filter while we’re at Celina, and for a while I’ll use less Diesel Kleen when I fill up.
Tomorrow we’ll travel about 185 miles to Vernon, IL to visit Jan’s sister and her family before heading on to Celina to meet up with Nick and Terry on Sunday.
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Thought for the Day:
Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society. — Mark Twain
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