My wife said I needed that coaster. Not that we’re struggling. We’re doing the opposite. But I often worry about the details. ALL the details.
I’m also not sure I’m the Captain here. Chief Engineer and Backcountry Guide, possibly. I pilot the thing most of the time, too. But this is not a journey where I call all the shots. We share that duty.
We’ve been on a journey together since long before we bought the motorhome. And while we’re planning our routes across the country, we’re also planning beyond our route. Just one of the “struggles” of getting older.
We’re currently camped outside Charleston in a national forest. It’s beautiful country. Doesn’t have the elevation changes I prefer, but that just makes for easier hiking.
Speaking of getting older – flat ground is good for my back and my knee. (The knee pain had been dogging me for weeks. I dealt with it by getting back into jogging. Completely counterintuitive, but R and R hadn’t helped. A week of interval sprints did. *This is not medical advice.*)
The weather in February is sublime. Pretty much like Spring anywhere else (or so my allergies have been telling me). We spent a couple months in Savannah just south of here. Aside from some cold rain and one ruckus of a storm, it was pretty pleasant the whole time.
If you’re into bird watching, the rivers and estuaries along the coast seem like an ideal place. Inland are dense forest with plenty of tree cover for songbirds to hide and the owls to hunt. Then in the broad wetlands, hawks and osprey dive above the herons. On walks through the woods, I’ve probably heard the greatest diversity of bird song out of anywhere we’ve travelled.
It’s easy living. Definitely not a struggle. Less about adventure and striking into the backcountry and more about lazing around.
But lately, we’ve been debating our travels. How that looks going forward. We’ve got the homestead to work on way up north and it’s becoming a promised oasis we look forward to returning to when we retire.
Yeah, the “R” word. More of that feeling old stuff creeping in…
Discovery, our motorhome, is reaching the point where age is a consideration as well. You wouldn’t know it by looking at her, but she’s 15 years old. We picked her up about half way into that lifespan with a mere 19,000 miles on the odometer.
We’re approaching 50000 miles. That’s not much in the way of wear on a diesel. But the time is a factor. Parts wear out from use but they also age. We’ve spent a good portion of our time on the coasts. And while salt air has been sold as a remedy for human ailments, it sure as hell does a number on mechanical parts.
One item of concern is the Turbo charger. This model of Cummins engine is one of the first with a variable speed turbo. As one of the first, there were naturally a lot of unforeseen problems.
For a while now, we’ve been dealing with the engine overheating when under load, going uphill. We’ve taken it to several certified Cummins diesel mechanics. None of them have been able to suggest a solution.
But this is the age of the internet. And I can pretend to be an expert at anything. In this case, I had to be the expert because nobody could tell me what the problem was.
So I dug up all the information about this particular Cummins diesel I could and quickly discovered this is a well-known problem (or was well known circa 2007). Due to poor design, excess soot builds up in the turbo. This also affects the actuator.
Cummins attempted several patches. Even drilling a port into the turbo to inject cleaner (ours never got that), but those were just patches. Often, the turbo or actuator would eventually fail anyway or the fix only last a few thousand miles.
The frustrating thing is, the error codes have always pointed to the turbo and the actuator. Our mechanics in the past have disregarded those codes and tried to approach the overheating issue as something else. Not helpful.
Locating and installing a refurbished actuator doesn’t appear to be all too difficult. But times being what they are, installation requires mucking with the computer by running a diagnostic on the new actuator before it is mounted, and then running a calibration after it is secured.
So either I buy a license for the software from Cummins (which costs twice as much as the refurb actuator) or find somebody who will let me borrow theirs. However, since I have to have access to that computer while I do the install, my hopes aren’t too high of that happening.
I doubt there’s a shop anywhere that will allow me to roll up and install my own part in their bay while I borrow their computer. Which means I’m back to dropping the rig off with mechanics who, in the past, haven’t been able to zero in on the problem.
That all brings circles ’round to sitting around on the coast feeling old. Bird watching. Talking about the evils of technology. Grumping how I’ve got to do everything myself. Dreaming about hunkering down on a remote property and turning my back on a crazy world.
None of this though is a struggle. We’ll find joy in whatever decision. We’re not sure exactly how we’ll balance things, but the travel will always be happening, that’s certain. Our plan next year is particularly ambitious.
We’ll just keep rolling down the road and see where we end up.
Thanks for travelling with us!
Russ
Book 5 of the Fort Black Thrillers is past the halfway mark on the first draft. Still on target for an end of March release. More to come so keep an eye on this space or join the newsletter!
RUSS LINTON 
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