August 20 2009 by Darrin.

Thursday, August 20, 2009, 2217, Maskuta Creek Campground

Whew…  A real campground.  We are almost to Jasper.  How’s the truck?  Well, mileage is up…  To 7.75 MPG.  Whoopie.  However, the truck has a different feel.  It seems to shift easier, and coming into the mountains this evening, I never ONCE shifted the overdrive out.  Also, the engine is no longer heating to the top of the “operating range” but is staying around halfway between the cold and warm tick marks.  Something’s better anyway!  The “feel” and shifting are pretty subjective, and influenced by my own desire to see something different.  The temperature is quite objective, though, and it IS much cooler on the gauge.

There’s not much to say tonight, other than it’s shower time, and we are very close to entering Jasper National Park.  It’s going to be quite a drive tomorrow.  Tonight, at the campground, we have seen for the first time MOUNTAINS in our vicinity.  Here they are, looming over the two-holer…

To our friends, don’t worry about us!  We’re posting this from Safeway in Whitefish, Montana.  It’s really August 22nd, even though I back-dated the blog entry.  It’s really nice here.  Reminds us of home, but more trees.  We’re heading home, though, via Glacier NP.  Not sure where we’re camping tonight, yet.  Might as well enjoy the drive back.  Prolly get home Monday night.  We have some great photos from the Icefields Parkway.  We walked on a glacier, watched the fog lift off of Lake Louise, got some great shots of, oh hell…  Here’s a teaser…

More later, in order of course.  I hope to write of our previous tales tonight, if we find a campground early enough.  Oh, and fuel..  The 450 mile journey from Hinton used almost 3/4 of our tanks!

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August 20 2009 by Darrin.

Thursday, August 20, 2009, 1256, Inside Nortrux Garage getting service

Got here at 0750 this morning, and the guys were ready for us.  Tyler, the Fuso tech, was looking to get started so I pulled right into a service bay and let ‘em at it.  Here’s the view outside…

We have access to a decent waiting room too, with TV, but no WiFi.  It’s in the building, but encrypted.  They didn’t volunteer the password after our inquirey, so Anna’s reading email from her mom and dad on the Treo smartphone.  (It works here…  Can’t wait to see THAT bill.  I was told that if I could connect, I was in a partner system.  I will believe that when I see it.  I even get voicemail alerts here, so what.)

In the shop, the valve cover is off our engine for access to the fuel injectors.  You can see an overhead cam in the photo below…

There’s not much else to report here while we wait.  It’s now 1315, so we’ve been here almost 5.5 hours.  No complaints.  We just want it done, and the problem solved.  One little niggle…  Some o-rings were missing from the order (or forgot to get ordered) so the old ones will be going back in.  That’s not great news, because if it doesn’t fix the problem, I’m going to wonder about that.   A faulty o-ring was one potential cause for our problems.  If we order them, we’re stuck in the shop for another three days – no, four or five days since the weekend falls into play.   We’ll take the gamble and see how this shakes out.

We’ve been asked for more photos, but there’s not much worthy of the bits.  Here are a few for pix for kix.  Anna killing time at Wal*Mart last night…

DiggerDog’s Damage…

…and another wonderful home-cooked meal in a parking lot, consisting of Wyoming buffalo stew Anna made at home (and brought frozen) and fresh finger potatoes we picked just west of Red Deer, Alberta at that U-Pick farm last Saturday night.

Since I have nothing else to do here, I’ll rant some more.  To all you guys who think cars have come a long way with the advent of computers to control everything, you’re horribly mistaken.  When you rely on a vehicle or engine or transmission and don’t live near a service center, you’re pretty well pooched.  “But Darrin,” you’ll whine, “cars are much more reliable.  And diesels don’t smoke anymore because of new fuels and computer controls.”

Bulls**t.  Cars are NOT more reliable, and they are definitely 1/10^th as serviceable.  And diesels don’t smoke because of turbochargers and a little MECHANICAL DEVICE installed decades ago, called an aneroid, or fuel-enrichment-valve.  More boost, more fuel.  No more overfueling, resulting in no black smoke.

If you don’t believe me, befriend a mechanic.  Buy him a beer , or a flat of beers as they say up here, and get him talking.  You’ll see.  We are taking steps backwards, especially in serviceability, longevity and most importantly, independence.  I’ve been asked here by THREE different mechanics, “Is that a DPF truck?”  (Diesel Particulate Filter – the thing that mandates ULSD fuel and kills any new chassis for operation in developing countries.  Ours is NOT DPF equipped, as she has a 2006 engine.  And just wait until the urea tanks are mandated - the stuff freezes, and needs to be HEATED to flow!  Good grief.)

That’s their first line of defense for an increasing oil level.  It seems the new systems allow fuel to contaminate the oil, and oil changes are now mandated early due to contamination that factories call “normal”.   Forget those 10,000 mile oil change intervals with the new stuff.

I wonder if the big diesels in the maritime fleets are computerized?  I’d say there’s no chance, and if there IS, the fishermen and their families are gonna riot as soon as boats go down.  You think the ECU on a computerized Cat or MAN marine engine wants to be anywhere near lightning in the sea?

Improvements, my ass.  As soon as I’m home, I’m happily pointing my pickup and trailer down to San Diego to get a low-mile mechanically-injected Toyota 12H-T engine I ordered from Japan back in February.  You see, I’m really good at predicting this crap, and I think we’re all going to want non-electronic stuff in the future.

Don’t ask me for a ride.

Boy, that felt good. 

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