The best laid plans…

The plan for the Second Trip South (STS) was to leave for Rhode Island tomorrow (Sunday) morning. But it ain’t gonna happen.

Over the past week, I had noticed hesitation when I pressed the accelerator on the truck.  It had happened just a few times. But yesterday, on the way back from Worcester, the “check engine” light came on.  That had happened earlier in the summer as well and it was diagnosed as an “engine misfire” and extensive testing found nothing wrong.  I chalked it up to bad fuel that time and thought it might be the same this time.

But I certainly did not feel comfortable embarking on a 2,000-mile journey towing a 15,000-pound fifth wheel with a “check engine” warning light illuminated.  So, this morning at 8am, I drove 30 miles to the dealership where I had bought the truck – with only one slight acceleration hiccup along the way – and had them run some quick diagnostics.  I can’t recall exactly what the computer codes (there were 2) were, but neither was “engine misfire.”  The diesel guy had a theory that it involved a faulty emissions control valve and had given the valve a few taps with a hammer to see if that might loosen a possibly sticky valve.  He said that it helped one “underflow” (whatever that is) measure a bit, but it remained very low.  He recommended valve replacement, but was unable to do it today as I did not have an appointment and they were operating with a Saturday skeleton crew.  He did say that it was highly unlikely that I would break down on the first leg of the trip, which was just 120 miles.  So I made an appointment to return the truck on Tuesday (while the RV was in the shop for its scheduled repairs) and started home.

But I only got 2 miles.  The valve tapping had converted the “intermittent” acceleration problem into a constant and severe acceleration problem that was accompanied by a cloud of black exhaust. It was immediately obvious that the truck would be incapable of hauling our fifth wheel 120 miles.  I was uncertain that it could even haul its own smoking carcass back home.  So I returned the truck to the dealership, rescheduled the repairs for Monday, called Jett to pick me up and went home to change our STS plans.

There will be no overnight stop in Rhode Island, the repairs on the RV will be pushed back to Tuesday and we will probably lose one night in NY as well.

And we had to extend our stay at Minuteman by two days, which was easier said than done.  Another RV had been booked into our site for Sunday, so the owners had to juggle several reservations to allow us to stay.

But they didn’t have a lot of choice – I have no truck to move the RV.

Not a good start to the STS.