The Nomadic Life

[Too Tall]

Ahhh what more could you want? A brace of dogs and the best cap on earth :)

Go Pete Go.

Hope to catch up with you soon.

Check out Cape Henlopen for T-Day. We will be there with a few other AS folks. We bike, tell lies and we do not cook turkey.

[bigbill]

Let me tell you about my trip. We left Wyoming last Thursday (9/1) morning and drove to Rifle, CO. My wife was driving her Chevy 2500 with a gooseneck horse trailer, and I was in my F250 pulling the travel trailer. We stopped at the fairgrounds for the night. They had power and water hookups plus stalls for the horses. The following day, I stopped at a CDOT rest stop to dump and flush tanks since we'd be home that night. I got home last night (9/7).

Leaving Rifle, we headed west on I-70 towards Utah and our turn south through Moab. About 4 miles into Utah, my F250 started making a high pitch noise and losing power, so I pulled off on the shoulder and shut it off when the check engine lit. It would not restart and sounded horrible in the effort. USAA sent a tow truck, and we had to leave the trailer on the side of the road for the moment. My wife turned back for Grand Junction and put the horses in pens at the Mesa County fairgrounds so she could drop her trailer. After my truck was dropped off at a mechanic, we returned to her truck to fetch the trailer and bring it to the fairgrounds. The fairgrounds had full 30A hookups for $32 a night. The mechanic started diagnostics and quickly figured out the high-pressure injector pump had failed. Ford calls this the 6.7L Catastrophic Failure, which requires a complete replacement of the fuel system, around $12K. The Ford dealership in Grand Junction could not work on it until October. I called a transport company to return my truck to AZ so the local dealer could do the work under warranty. The transport fell through, so some friends drove up on Tuesday with a flatbed and my wife's truck. She had returned to AZ on Sunday with the horses. Yesterday, we unloaded her truck from the flatbed, hooked it up to the travel trailer, then put my broke truck on the flatbed, and they towed it back to AZ with their F350. This morning we will drop my truck at the local dealer.

The only positive to my five nights in Grand Junction was the terrific riding.

[Clyde]

Warranty or no? I’ve looked at aftermarket kits that are meant to prevent this for mine.
https://www.spemotorsport.com/collec...prevention-kit

[bigbill]

Warranty or no? I’ve looked at aftermarket kits that are meant to prevent this for mine.
https://www.spemotorsport.com/collec...prevention-kit

It should be under warranty from Ford. I had around 67K miles, and the warranty goes to 100K. I bought it used, so I also have an extended warranty, but it won't come into play unless Ford balks. The service guy this morning was asking me all kinds of leading questions about putting DEF in my fuel, nope, contaminated fuel, my wife and I both fueled at the same stations at the same time, and her truck is fine, so nope. My favorite, "so you were towing at the time it happened?" why else would I have an F250? It may be early next week before they can do diagnostics. Not being able to run adds a degree of difficulty since they will have to push it around.

After it is fixed, I'm going to add the disaster kit.

[PaMtbRider]

Well that sucks. I love the idea of a diesel for towing but stories like this make the Ford 7.3 gas motor really appealing.

[bigbill]

Well that sucks. I love the idea of a diesel for towing but stories like this make the Ford 7.3 gas motor really appealing.

Everything I've read about the 7.3 gas engine has been great. The only downside is mileage, I get 21 mpg without a trailer, but not right now.

[Clyde]

Bill lemme know if you like that SPE kit or something else strikes your fancy. I'm not ready to switch to gas yet. I love the purr of the deezel.

[j44ke]

Sounds like a class-action/recall in the making.

[bigbill]

Bill lemme know if you like that SPE kit or something else strikes your fancy. I'm not ready to switch to gas yet. I love the purr of the deezel.

I love towing with my truck. It has a big tank so I can easily go 400 miles and for the most part, I can hold the speed limit on climbs with 9K# of trailer. The ten-speed is great for engine braking on steep grades. I used my wife's 2007 chevy 2500 to pull the trailer home and realized how much technology has changed vehicles. That and her really small tank meant I could only go 240 miles before fueling. That takes some planning out west.

OT, since we're both teaching community college this fall, we'll likely buy a late model Camry or Altima for a commuter.

[bigbill]

Sounds like a class-action/recall in the making.

Ford has lost a few class action suits on the CP4 pump in 6.7 Powerstrokes. I think Ford fights every case to prevent issuing a recall on a pump they've used since 2011. I can't believe the NHTSA hasn't forced a recall. I was going 70 mph (in a 75) pulling almost 9000 pounds of trailer up a hill when mine failed. My engine stopped running. What would happen if the failure occurred on a steep descent? Would the driver be able to stop a trailer and truck with no power brakes or engine braking?

[j44ke]

Ford has lost a few class action suits on the CP4 pump in 6.7 Powerstrokes. I think Ford fights every case to prevent issuing a recall on a pump they've used since 2011. I can't believe the NHTSA hasn't forced a recall. I was going 70 mph (in a 75) pulling almost 9000 pounds of trailer up a hill when mine failed. My engine stopped running. What would happen if the failure occurred on a steep descent? Would the driver be able to stop a trailer and truck with no power brakes or engine braking?

I think there is a certain regulatory blindness involved in commercial vehicles or vehicles of a class that get a high percentage of commercial use. And then pickup trucks generally. But I’m probably being cynical.

[jclay]

Jake: It’s not pessimism, or at least not unwarranted pessimism.
BB: I can easily believe the NHTSA hasn't forced a recall and doesn’t have or enforce the same standards (safety or otherwise) as they do for conventional passenger vehicles, (where truly feasible and applicable of course).

I spent three years with an automobile/vehicle accident reconstruction firm. That was back at the beginning of the SUV era and I remember several roll-over cases involving the Isuzu Rodeo (or some such) and conventional pickups; the A-pillars collapsed utterly, killing the adjacent front seat occupants. It was during the first investigation of that type of accident that I discovered that the US automobile industry lobbied and succeeded at getting those types of vehicles exempted from roll-over and other notable safety standards applicable to traditional passenger vehicles. The argument at the time was "they weren’t really passenger vehicles", that in spite of the clear reality that increasingly they were being used as such.

There were numerous other safety standards that, given the evolution to every day passenger use, should have been applied to pickups and SUVs but weren’t, always due to intense lobbying by the auto industry.

While we were not generalized regulatory standards experts a fair number of specific standards often figured into our work and it became glaringly apparent that US automakers, as a uniform policy, opposed any new safety (or other) standard or enhancement. From basic seat belts themselves to headrests to GM’s deadly seat belt “comfort feature”, seat back enhancements relative to rear end collision suitability, increases in mpg and every other relevant standard that figured into our work, the automakers vigorously, steadfastly opposed them; they threw lots of $$ and influence peddling into those efforts.

Interestingly, and this is the late ‘80s, GM spent more $$ on safety (and other) research than anybody else and had the technical information to prove it; tons and tons of it. Their published studies were actually a routine go-to source for lots of relevant technical data at the same time that they opposed requirements to deploy the obvious and available, often developed by them, remedies. There is little about safety related issues that they didn't know for that time.

The past 3+ decades have only seen an increase in government-in-the-public-interest for sale; the math is pretty straightforward.

[bigbill]

Question for the trailer folk. During the six weeks we lived in the travel trailer unless we were in a full hookup situation, we filled the fresh water tank from a cleanish 500-gallon tank on a trailer. I used a submersible electric pump from the tank to the trailer. We only used this water for showers and cooking (stuff we boiled). We filled water jugs from a city water connection for drinking water. While in Yellowstone and connected, I did a big flush through all the faucets/showers before we drank any of that water. Now I'm home and I have very little water in the fresh tank. I plan to drain the remaining water and refill it with city water and a few cups of bleach to flush it out. Does anyone have some experience to share on how to get the most out of a flush?

[jclay]

Question for the trailer folk. During the six weeks we lived in the travel trailer unless we were in a full hookup situation, we filled the fresh water tank from a cleanish 500-gallon tank on a trailer. I used a submersible electric pump from the tank to the trailer. We only used this water for showers and cooking (stuff we boiled). We filled water jugs from a city water connection for drinking water. While in Yellowstone and connected, I did a big flush through all the faucets/showers before we drank any of that water. Now I'm home and I have very little water in the fresh tank. I plan to drain the remaining water and refill it with city water and a few cups of bleach to flush it out. Does anyone have some experience to share on how to get the most out of a flush?

Allow adequate sodium hypochlorate contact time at suitable concentration before vigorous purge of each line individually. Don't know either value off the top of my head but the info should be easily available on internet. If old lines maybe more than once.

[jclay]

Is there a specific bacterial exposure or line/tank condition issue you're addressing? Or is this a general, just-in-case kind of prophylactic? Potable water wasn't my bag but line/tank cleaning in general is a concentration, contact time and film removal (agitation/mechanical action) exercise.

This ought to give you some sort of idea as to effective concentrations and contact times: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20171375/

The folks who took care of the potable lines on the boats you served in would have some practical information.

If you suspect film deposit issues in the tank then then agitation would be called for (your pump could be used?). In line accoutrements or faucet end devices that aren't flooded during the disinfection period of the flooded network would need specific attention.

Whatever procedures you use it sounds like increasing contact time wouldn't be a problem for you; that's an easy way to enhance your efforts.

[bigbill]

On submarines, the output of the evaporator would pass through a demineralizer for steam plant make-up water. Water to the potable tanks came straight from the evaporator with no treatment. Three weeks into a deployment, you could get a negative turbidity on the potable. It wasn't water to be chugged without some electrolyte, but a little soap went a long way in the shower. Newer subs have RO, but the water is still processed the same.

Carriers have distilling plant (newer ones have RO) and the steam plant make-up water is processed the same as a submarine. Potable water is treated with Calcium Hypochlorite, so you get a faint chlorine smell in the shower.

I'm going to reach back into my boiler chemistry past and calculate a concentration of bleach in the 80 gallon tank. I'll run the faucets to fill lines and let it soak for a few hours before dumping it all. It should do a good job on the gray water tank as well.

[jclay]

You'll dump the water through the faucets and shower heads, right? And not too quickly since you want contact time in those elements too.

[bigbill]

Ford is honoring the warranty on my truck and will replace the entire fuel system, which is around $8,000 just in parts. Out of pocket would have been around $12K. It will likely be two or more weeks before I get my truck back.

[Clyde]

That's good luck. I understand the 2020's have the improved Bosch fuel injector you will be getting. I could be wrong. Supposedly the 2020's have the newer/better/reliable pump. Glad to hear the news.

[bigbill]

That's good luck. I understand the 2020's have the improved Bosch fuel injector you will be getting. I could be wrong. Supposedly the 2020's have the newer/better/reliable pump. Glad to hear the news.

My truck is a 2020.