Roadtrek Repairs in the Desert

Wednesday, 16 January 

As we were turning in last night, we talked about options for what we might do today.  With several choices, we went to bed undecided.

Waking up this morning, we were in an unfamiliar situation of having a completely blank slate for the day.  No plans, no chores that needed doing, just a handful of possibilities.  Normal for us is to have one or more things planned, like golf, errands, chores, sightseeing, etc.

Over breakfast, we continued the discussion.  Both of us wanted to check on Jean, the lady in the Roadtrek like Sprinty, to see how she was doing on getting her batteries recharged.  After breakfast, we checked with the RV Park to ask whether we could bring Jean and her Roadtrek down to our site and plug her in at our assigned site to charge her batteries.  As we are paying for the power, they were fine with it.  We broke camp and headed back to Hi Jolly Road where the 20 Roadtreks were gathered in a circle on BLM land (see photo in yesterday’s post).

We learned Jean had run her engine for about two hours last night to charge her batteries, so they were better than when we left her at sunset last night.  As we talked about her situation, we saw a belt hanging down from the engine compartment.  Opening the hood, we saw that the serpentine belt used to turn the underhood generator (fancy name for a second alternator) had shredded.  That belt also turns the coolant fan, which put her at risk of overheating if she drove anywhere.

Sprinty had two spare serpentine belts that were extras.  When Roadtrek changed Sprinty’s underhood generator mount last summer, it uses a different belt, so the original spare belts that Spriny carried were no longer needed by Sprinty.  Sprinty hung on to them knowing they would come in handy one day.  Darrell had also researched how to replace a serpentine belt and what tools were needed.  He now had the perfect opportunity to put theory and internet research into practice and get actual experience replacing a serpentine belt.  In the desert.

As Darrell and Jean’s friend Danny started working on the belt, a gathering developed of other Roadtrekers wanting to see what was going on.  Darrell changed the belt in less than 20 minutes.

Photo of Darrell under Jean’s RV

That led to additional questions about looking at a check engine light on someone’s Dodge-based Roadtrek and an issue with an Alde heater setting on another Roadtrek CS like Sprinty.  Darrell helped Laura with her Alde setting (easy adjustment once you know the menu item to adjust in settings).  Pulling out the code reader Darrell carries in Sprinty, he then went over to help the guy with his check engine light.  The check engine light had came on after he hit standing water at 50mph yesterday, so he was sure something got wet on the engine.  The code reader confirmed that the light had activated on cylinder misfires on four of the cylinders, which was consistent with his description of the engine running rough, and dying a couple of times at the traffic light.  As his Roadtrek was running better and better, he was confident the problem was resolved now that the engine compartment had dried out.  His wife was more worried about the check engine light remaining remaining on than he was.  Darrell offered to clear the codes, which he did, which cleared the check engine light.

Sprinty then led Jean driving her RV back to The Scenic Road RV Park for Jean to plug in to Sprinty’s 30amp service to charge her batteries.  Additional Q&A about other systems continued.

Long time followers of Sprinty will recall Sprinty has a track record of helping other RVers, especially at Rallys.

After Jean had charged her batteries, we went back to the informal Roadtrek gathering at Hi Jolly Road to hang out.  Darrell noticed a red Roadtrek Zion parked a few hundred yards away and thinking it might be Pam from Decatur, GA, went over to find out.  Turns out is was Christian from Quebec who has been full-timing in her Zion for a couple of years.  Darrell explained what was going on across the way and let her know she was welcome to join in with the other Roadtrek gathering.

Meanwhile, Jean was sharing her afternoon with the rest of the group, and referred to Darrell as her “electrical angel”.  Darrell notes that he has been called a lot of things over the years, but that was a new one.

Just before sunset, Sprinty made his way back to The Scenic Road RV Park for dinner and the movie (Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark) in the clubhouse.