Trouble in Paradise

We left at 8:30 and had to travel all of 1/4 mile to make it to Colorado.  Interstate 25 is the worst road we have ever encountered in our RV (though Terri refused to let me call it the worst road in America).  There was a lot of construction and patch on patch on patch on the road surface.  Even the new sections were very bumpy and bounced the RV both up and down as well as forward and back.  One bump bounced one of our wheel chocks out of the truck bed.  The speed limit was 75, but we went about 67 to limit the pain and suffering.

We decided that if it was uncomfortable for us in our plush leather seats with lumbar support, imagine what all this vibration and bouncing felt like for the dogs.  We pulled out Garmin and found the location of the next Walmart (in Pueblo).  We bought the dogs a nice coushy pad for their truck cage as well as items we needed in the RV.  I also stopped at a Lowes (hardware and home repair) and got the metric bolts I needed to repair the mud flap.  We topped off the fuel tank with 10 gallons or so and got back on the road.

The driving for the day was supposed to be about 280 miles, but it seemed like it was taking much too long.  The traffic was not bad till we got into Denver/Boulder, but even then not too bad.  Terri commented that it was like a holiday weekend where everyone is trying to get home.  We wanted to fill up the fuel tank, but all the stations in Boulder were on the wrong side of the street, and with the traffic we didn't want to do a lot of left turns.  Our last town before Estes Park (a town, not a park) was Lyons, and the only station there had dozens of cars, RVs, trailers with boats, and there was no place to get in.  We still had over 1/2 a tank so we pushed on to Estes Park.

The road  (Rt. 36) through the Roosevelt National Forest was spectacular.  Most of the way the speed limit was 45mph due too the road wrapping itself along the sides of the mountains and rocks.  The truck seemed to have no problem pulling the RV and we never had to pull over to let any lines of cars backed up behind us go around us.  As we were pulling forward from a stop sign headed up hill, we heard (and felt) a violent "klunk".  (Dramatic pause for effect.)  We had no idea what it was, but it was from the truck.  It seemed to be running OK so I attributed it to a "bad shift" from the automatic transmission (6 speed Allison) and we proceeded on our way. 

We had no problems making the turns and keeping our speed up, but the engine seemed to be revving much faster (3K rpm).  The gauge for the transmission oil temperature which normally reads about 180 degrees was now up to 250 and rising.  When I tried to switch to manual gear shifting to downshift and use the engine to brake going down hill, I noticed that the engine was ignoring the upper gears.  That is not good.  We pulled off onto a wide spot and pulled out the owners manual.  It said that if the transmission overheats it will force itself into a self protection mode, but it would light a warning light on the dashboard if it did that.  We had no such light, but we did have the check engine light on.  This check engine light had been on since Austin, and was due to the reprogramming of the fuel mixture for more power (discussed in a much earlier blog entry).

I pulled out again and confirmed that we only got to 2nd gear, then pulled into a "slow vehicle" pull out to have lunch and let the rig cool down.  Exploring the owners manual did not lead to any new knowledge, and we began to fret about what to do.  It was only 7 more miles to the campground, and I knew we could get there going slow.  That would allow us to unhitch the trailer and get the truck looked at.  We are members of several travel services that would get us into a repair shop.  I decided to read the diagnostic codes to see if there was anything other than the air mixture warning.  The code 0700 came up, and we tried to get to the web site that would tell us what that meant, but the cell service was bad enough that we never could connect.  I reset the code to turn the check engine light off, and when the transmission had cooled down to 190 degrees I tried again.

Boy were we lucky.  The transmission returned to normal operation!  When we got better cell service, I found that the diagnostic trouble code was indeed for the transmissioin control.  Resetting the code apparently took the transmission out of self protection mode.  So the bad shift did cause the problem.  I need to remember not to push the pedal so hard climbing hills.

The area around the town of Estes Park is beautiful.  Our campground is ringed by tree covered mountains and has a very nice stream making a pleasent background roar.  Lots of kids and families having a great time.  We set up our chairs on the side of the stream and watched hummingbirds, swallows, and hawks all do their various activities.  We played the minature golf course.  I grilled chicken for dinner and we had to move the picnic table under the RV awning due to rain.  It was very nice listening to the stream and the rain.  With no TV stations, we watched the DVD "Invictus" about Nelson Mandella and the South African Rugby World Cup, on the same day as our daughter Julie watched a soccer World Cup match in South Africa.

We slept with the furnace off, and it was 57 in the trailer when we woke up, 43 outside.  We used the electric fireplace to warm things up.  Today is to be spent exploring Rocky Mountain National Park.  We also need to fill the fuel tank with the local 20% overpriced diesel for the long drive tomorrow.