Our WC53, “Franklin”
Our WC53, “Franklin”
Next day, heading south.
Next morning in Leavenworth. Heat shield installed on fuel pump, spare tire bolted up outside the driver’s door. Driving through this German lookalike town, we felt a bit like part of the occupation force.
Not.
What marketing genius came up with a design that looks like a gigantic one star rating?
I snapped this while waiting for Alex to show up.
We met a guy here that travels around with a big RV trailer working on road maintenance. He was having similar issues with his modern Chevy Tahoe. I suggested checking his fuel filter for clogging. Maybe our fuel filter is clogging?
So again, we wait for the machine to cool off.
I started losing power as we drove into an active forest fire area. Good lord! What can I do? I can’t climb back out of the area. If the engine fails, I can’t get the truck away from the fire either. When Julie n Alex snapped this picture I was down to about half power and was completely stressed out!
At this time it seems to me that the problem is getting worse. I’m beginning to worry that the fuel pump may be starting to fail. I’m also still thinking about possible clogged fuel filters. So I changed out ours. But when I blew though it, it didn’t seem very clogged to me.
I fire it up, and we get fuel pressure. We’re good to go!
At this point I’m kind of in disbelief. I’d figured the electric fuel pump would solve whatever growing problem we were having. It seemed to have no effect whatsoever.
By now we were getting a little used to these stops. Might as well setup camp and relax for a bit.
I hit the clutch and start rolling backwards. Luckily Allie is quick on the uptake. Realizing what’s going on, she kicks her 4Runner into reverse to get out of the way.
We end up back on our turn out, middle of nowhere stuck. Its getting dark and nothing I can think to do gives us any fuel pressure. This includes dumping our spare Jerry can of gas in the fuel tank.
We did find an excellent Brewery in Hood River that was still serving food at midnight..
Saturday, July 14, 2018