Western Adventure #42: What Went Wrong?

Day 42–9/13/2024

Vince was in his worst day of his cold. It was cold and wet outside. So we decided to stay in all day. We did go to talk to the man at the NAPA store down the road in the park. We told him our hypothesis about the battery drain. He told us some other things to try should our hypothesis not pan out. 

Vince got under the RV to unplug the AC clutch. He couldn’t reach it, so I had to empty out everything from under the bed to get to the engine. Vince was able to unplug the AC clutch from under the bed, thankfully. Then we watched the charges on the battery trickle charger stay the same. They weren't going down. Progress!

The next test was to start the engine. We had problems with the alternator keeping the “Wait To Start” light on. We finally figured out that we had to warm the engine with the engine block heater that is under the bed. Faye doesn't like to be cold. She won't start if she's cold. This took several days of trial and error before we found this out. 

The next question was how long the heater needed to be on before the engine was sufficiently warm. We also needed to find out if the EcoFlow solar generator would be able to power the heater for three hours. It wouldn’t. So we had to start the generator. When we did, it was smoking so badly. We figured something was wrong with it, too. We always made sure to start it when our neighbors were away for the day so we wouldn't smoke them out! 

All of this made Vince very nervous for our next stop, which would be Gros Ventre Campground in Grand Teton National Park where we would have no hookups. We were to stay there 4 nights, our longest boondocking adventure of this trip. We were afraid that we wouldn’t be able to recharge batteries and EcoFlow. We were also apprehensive that we would get stuck there. Vince started texting with Matt, our diesel guy, and Jessie, our generator guy. They both assured him that we would be okay, but Vince had to know for himself. 

We started the generator and the engine each day we were in Fishing Bridge just to make sure they would start. It was kind of a stressful day. So I’m ready for tomorrow.

PS: This is the most excitement we had today. Cheddar left Anna Marie and Jerry a gift on the doorstep at home. Isn't he just the sweetest?