Just a quick note to warn the reader that if you're not into truck repair or wrenching, you may want to skip this entry. It's not terribly detailed but it's all about what I/we have been through to get and keep our truck on the road.
When the wife and I discuss Truck Stuff, it usually means going over obstacles, using four wheel drive, or some other such thing that would damage a normal car. Admittedly, having a truck such as our 2004 Chevy Silverado 2500HD isn't just handy but more a necessity since it's a need to pull our 10,000 pound house from place to place and since it was purchased used with little information on its history, there have been numerous maintenance battles getting it ready for the road of RV life. In this mindset, the Truck Stuff meaning is repair and upkeep.
I'll not go into how I've replaced the entire brake system except for one caliper and by that I mean the brake lines, calipers, rotors, brake booster, master cylinder, and so on. Since I'm trying to keep this week's post relatively short, I'll also not go into deep detail about replacing the power steering system just days before leaving in our first big trip of our new life. However, I can say that once we arrived in Michigan there was just about $1,000 in front end repair and alignment as well as two new tires. Having a towing vehicle made for real work means that repairs will be needed and sometimes they are costly if you can't do them yourself. Thankfully I can do a good bit of these things and just have to be able to afford parts which in and of itself can be worrisome.
Skipping ahead to the last few weeks, we heard a strange noise coming from under the hood which was easy to identify as an idler pulley on the serpentine belt. It didn't sound too awful so we pressed on with a quick trip to Big Bend National Park, which you can read about in another post. A few days later as we were headed to work, the smell of burning rubber made us pull over before we had left the RV park. I popped the hood and could see little bits of rubber all over the engine. As I set forth to figure out exactly which pulley had failed, the belt snapped from the heat it generated. At this point I'm going to pat myself on the back for having purchased a new pulley and belt before the catastrophic failure and had it fixed just a day or so later. I would also be remiss if I didn't thank a merciful God for not letting us get stranded in the middle of the high desert of Big Bend because I'm a procrastinator and didn't immediately fix the problem.
Now, keeping in mind that I am a gauge watcher when I'm driving and even more so when towing, you can imagine my dismay as a check engine light popped up on our way to Texas, which meant an immediate mind meltdown. We quickly found our way to my favorite auto parts chain to get a read on the code by a wonderful young lady who wasn't at all bothered by our truck and 36 foot RV blocking most of their parking lot. The code was P0046 which was something to do with the turbo. A quick chat with the store manager who assured me that we could still drive and tow without doing damage, which was a huge relief, and we could affect the repair at some point in the near future. We also realized, after a short layover in San Angelo Texas, that the light only came on when we were towing. Research led me to find out that the most likely cause was the wastegate solenoid which let's off excess pressure from the turbo. The part had to be ordered, of course, and arrived a few days later. On to the repair.
I had to remove one component of the air system to get to my part. The solenoid is held on by one bolt, which is important to keep in mind. I first looked at the new bolt that came with it and quickly realized that I didn't have a twelve point socket to fit it which meant a short motorcycle trip to the local hardware store. I then was greeted with the bolts placement under the solenoid that couldn't be seen without a light and without standing away from the truck to look under the many components that stood in the way. I'll cut to the chase as this story is boring enough as it stands and say that one bolt...one damned bolt...took me an hour to get out and replace. Let me reinterate: One hour for one bloody bolt. The kicker is that, although I feel confident that this was the cause of my check engine light, I'll never truly know until I hitch up and tow this beast around a few hundred miles.
At the time of this writing, we are headed back to San Angelo to see family and it just so happens that Gina found an auxiliary fuel tank for the bed of the truck. The year our truck was built, GM cursed it with a twenty gallon tank and with a fuel milage of 8.7 miles to the gallon while towing, it's easy to calculate how often we had to stop for fuel over a trip of over a thousand miles. We're also noticing that the leaf springs are starting to flatten out and since the trailer squats the truck pretty good. The search is now on for air bags to help with that.
I told you all that to really say this: If at some point you decide to take on this life of travel and adventure, it should come with the knowledge that you will spend a good bit of time and money to maintain your equipment, especially if you buy used as we did. I'm sure those that can afford new diesel trucks with warranties are probably scoffing at this but we are by no means wealthy and we did what we had to do to take on this life. If you can afford it, buy it. If you can't afford to go with new equipment, realize that it can be done but maintenance and repair are going to be an ongoing process to which there is no real end. I'm not complaining by any means since it means that we can still travel and experience places we've never been. Sometimes all the repair gets a little tiresome but I remember an old phrase that is as true today as when I heard it: Schedule time for machine maintenance, or your machines will schedule it for you.
Have a great day!