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Saturday, August 31, 2013

Whoa hoss....brake problem


 
Yesterdays most stressful adventure was find'n some gas for "Sally da house" to continue her journey west. All of that was taken care of within an hour after pulling out of a wonderful Texas rest area/rv park. And to think I stayed up half the night in worry I would die along side the road with a empty tank.

Ok, we made a second fuel stop in Van Horn to top off the fuel tank. 28 gallons were added, cheap shit 86 octane. Went to the truck stop where I received my citation an' pull up between two big ol' trucks....out of sight an' out of mind. After a nice lunch, we was on the road again.

I cain't take this no more, I got to pull off an' get me some relief. My brakes are failing.....what the hell??? More on this later.....

I hit El Paso right at 4:30pm. Oh lord, it's bumper to bumper an' I'm do'n a hunnert mile a hour (60). I push on the brakes hard, an' then harder, we ain't slow'n down. Well, we were, but get'n awful close to that car in front us. More on this later.... For the next 20 mile or so, it was regular ol' slow an' go, sometimes 50 other times 20. Arrived at the New Mexico Information Center RV park right bout 6pm with a sore right leg from push'n that brake peddle.

Ok, the brakes. Ya see, when I push on them, they are hard to push an' ya gotta pull the peddle back up with your toe....what means ya ain't gonna stop in a short preferably safe distance. I was think'n vacuum brake booster, but "Sally da house" don't have a vacuum brake booster (internet search). What it do have is a hydroboost doomaflochie what runs off the power steering pump. Maybe that's what it is? Further google search reveals a little device called a "bell crank" or something like that. This device has caused RV'ers all over the country to have the same problem I have. There's a fix. It's up under the front and needs a grease job. More on this later when I crawl my ass up under "da house" an' take a look.  But not today.

Ok....Now what the hell??? I push the start button on the Onan generator. Lights start flash'n on the switch. It's a fault code. I get it run'n an' turn on the AC's....both of 'em. Two minutes into the cool down period, Onan stop run'n. This ain't good "cause it's hot in "da house". I piddle with it, crank up an' turn on ONE AC. Another project to checkout in Deming.

I sleep good last night once the temp got into the 70's. Before that....it was misery....little fan blow'n 87 degs air on me at 10pm. Back and hip didn't feel too bad last night. Felt good this morn'n. Although, climbing in altitude (3900 feets) does make it harder to breath.

I ain't in no hurry to crank up an' finish my trip to Deming. It's still quite cool here (79 degs) at 10am mountain standard time.

Refill my coffee jug, down a alka seltzer, swaller a aspirin....let's hit the road. "Sadie Mae, git in "da house"". 

5 comments:

  1. Now I'll worry about you with brakes that aren't working properly.

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    Replies
    1. I made it safely to Deming, and I was worried bout the brakes too.

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  2. My motorhome has a hydroboost system that runs off power steering pump too. Lost my brakes leaving Texas and added brake fluid to the master cylinder every 200 miles all the way back to Minnesota where I then had the Master Cylinder replaced and it has been fine ever since. Good luck.

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  3. Let hope you get that brake problem all figured out.

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