Story by Randy Grathen.
If you’ve ever owned a boat or travel trailer you’ll understand.
When I retired from the Air Force, we left Folsom, California and took our 24-foot twin log pontoon with a 40 horse motor with us back to Wisconsin. Three years later we moved to the Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri. Our first time out we saw a pontoon boat flying past us pulling a slalom skier. We had never seen a tri-toon before, much less one with a 250 horse motor mounted on the stern.
Several years later, after a tornado ripped the boat off the trailer, tossing it in our neighbors pond, completely destroying it, we replaced it with a 27-foot tri-toon and a 115 horse four-stroke. I had forgotten how much it cost to outfit a new boat. We had the boat and trailer, but now we needed life jackets of assorted sizes, anchors and ropes, ice chest, beach towels, pool noodles, spare fuel tank, boat cover, spare tire, etc.
Over the years the boats on the Lake of the Ozarks got bigger and faster. The owners became more arrogant and careless, throwing up huge wakes as they went roaring by. We finally decided to get off the water. Now Laurie wanted to try her hand at camping. In a travel trailer. I thought outfitting a boat was expensive!!!
Our very first camping trip took us 750 miles to a high mountain campground, 9,000 ft. above sea level outside Colorado Springs. We replaced my tired 2001 GMC diesel with a 2008 Chevy 2500HD diesel to pull our new trailer. I had the truck inspected bumper to bumper before starting our trip. Everything checked out ok. But we quickly learned things our mechanic could never have found.
Leaving on a Saturday, we would meet our “forever friends” from the Air Force three days later. Halfway through Kansas, at 70 mph, fighting a headwind, the truck suddenly slowed. Pushing on the accelerator did nothing as it continued to decelerate to a steady 50mph. So now we’re stopped on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere on a weekend. Thank God for cell phones and Google. Laurie located the nearest town with a garage. I restarted the truck and continued west at 70 mph. Problem solved? Nope!
We finally limped into the gas station only to find the garage was closed. Searching the web again Laurie found a shop that was open in a town further down the road – much further. They said they could tow us but it would have been several hundred dollars. When I described the problem the mechanic told me it was going into “Limp Mode.” It was starving for fuel. Our diesel has a priming pump mounted on the fuel filter. He told me to pump it until the plunger wouldn’t pump anymore, then restart the truck. I did that, then hit the ignition. Nothing happened. Because of all the extra electrical stuff, electric brakes, 12 volt refrigerator, lights, etc., the alternator couldn’t keep up. Even with dual batteries it wouldn’t start. Standing there with the hood up, it wasn’t long before a guy wearing a cowboy hat and driving a pickup stopped to help. He jumped started our truck.
We turned off everything electrical that we didn’t need, drove until we hit limp mode, pulled over, pumped the primer, then pressed on. Afraid to shut off the truck, we stopped at the campsite we reserved for the night, dropped off the travel trailer, and drove to the garage. They replaced the alternator, the fuel filter and a short rubber hose that had gone soft as it heated up. With the fuel pump pulling extra hard because of the load, the hose would partially collapse restricting the fuel flow. Eventually the fuel level in the filter got low enough that the truck went into limp mode. We lost 6 hours, but we made it to our first destination that night.
Next stop, Colorado Springs to refuel the truck and our stomachs.
Leaving the restaurant, we pulled back onto the road going down a long hill towards an intersection with a traffic signal at the bottom. It just turned red. I started braking when suddenly the steering wheel started violently shaking back and forth, and the front of the truck began to shimmy! We were halfway down the hill, when I spotted a wide driveway on my right partially hidden by trees. I turned in and realized we were in a Wal Mart parking lot right in front of their garage. What are the odds? I thought the lug nuts may have loosened on one of the front wheels but the mechanic who checked them said everything checked good. He told me there was a Pep Boys garage just one mile down the road. Our next stop.
At the service desk they told me they were booked up but would squeeze me in. Our vehicle was the last one in and they worked past closing to replace my right front brake rotor. It was warped due to overheating because of the extra weight of the trailer.
We were just blocks away from getting off the main road and onto a winding two-lane mountain highway headed to the campground. We would be driving up and down steep grades and winding curves with no place to pull over and very few chances to turn around if we had to go back. There were no garages where we were going.
Things could have ended so differently if God had not been watching over us. Limp mode on a mountain highway may have been an inconvenience, but that brake rotor could have gotten us killed. Instead, all it cost us was a little extra time and some money.
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