Bentley Municipal Campground

August 16 2009 by Darrin.

Sunday, August 16, 2009, 0915, Bentley, Alberta

What a beautiful morning here at the municipal Morrisroe Campground in Bentley, Alberta.  It’s located just behind a gas station, inside the city limits.  We tried yesterday to camp at a couple pretty lakes around here, but the campgrounds were overflowing.  For a couple from Wyoming, it wouldn’t do and we needed to find something more remote.  Believe it or not, we found it in this unlikely place – and got hot showers, flush toilets, and maybe even potable water to fill our tanks with as well.  Here we are…

Yesterday, we diverted from our planned itinerary due to truck problems.  We should be driving by Lake Louise right now, between Banff and Jasper.  However, that fuel consumption I’ve been watching is going DOWN, not up.  Our computations have yielded 7.1 mpg, 7.25 mpg, 7.58 mpg (when I couldn’t completely fill), 7.12 mpg, and the last fill-up in Calgary was a miserable 6.02 MPG!  

The engine is kinda gutless between about 1500 and 2300 RPM.  It’s also kinda noisy at those speeds.  (extra noisy for a diesel)  It starts great, and idles perfectly, though.  At that point, we parked it and I left a “help” message with my old friend Bob, who used to be with Fuso.

While we waited for Bob to call back, I discovered that NorTrux in Edmonton was a fairly close Fuso dealer and I rang them up.  (By the grace of God, my EVDO network worked on the smartphone in Calgary.  It hadn’t before, and it hasn’t since…)  Their Fuso service guy, Tyler, won’t be in until Monday morning, and they suggested I ring them back then.  Screw that – we’re going there!  We might even camp in their parking lot tonight, if there’s anything else around – like toilets.  Otherwise, we’ll be breaking in the Thetford (which we’re trying to keep new should we sell this monster).

Bob called back right away and had discussed some things with another guy at Fuso.  No question, something is definitely wrong.  Their suspicion is that a turbo line could be off.  Things sound okay to me, but the problem may not be audible.  I was thinking an injection problem, but I’d love to find something so simple as a hose that was never tightened, and blew off!  It sure would cause the exact symptoms we’ve been suffering.  It’s be great to gain the power we’ve been lacking AND pick up another >50% better mileage.

However, I just tilted the cab and poked around the engine.  I found a gasket lying there and a coolant leak too both related to the EGR-cooler that was replaced a few weeks back on a service bulletin.  Fortunately, the coolant leak appears to be a simple loose hose clamp…

There’s more.  To my horror, the oil is about 2 quarts over full!  I just changed the factory oil at about 600 miles, and replaced it with fully synthetic Rotella 5W-40 before this trip.  The level was perfect before leaving, so it’s being contaminated by another fluid – likely diesel.  Something is really wrong here!  And we’re almost 1100 miles from home.  AND, this is a BRAND NEW chassis with only 1800 miles on her.  It just goes to show you – if you want it done right, do it ALL yourself.  I built the camper.  It’s working great.  I guess I’ll have to build my own damned chassis next.  Or just quit this whole mess and enjoy life in Wyoming without these self-inflicted headaches.

On a better note, Anna saw a “U-Pick” sign yesterday and we stopped.  They had almost everything – berries, veggies, herbs.  Anna spent an hour picking raspberries and they’re gorgeous…

Today, we’re going to drive by a Dutch family’s cheese farm.  It’s supposed to be award winning.  Likely, we won’t get in on a Sunday, but we’ll try anyway, on our way to Edmonton and NorTrux.

I have no idea when we’ll get to post these entries, but I suspect we’re going to have “a little time” in Edmonton for Internet, laundry, etc…  Fearing the worst, I also figure we’re going to have to shit-can this trip.  I’m always a pessimist, because I can be right, or happily surprised.

More when we know something…

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