Apollo 13- the sequel

Sunrise July 11, still at Grass Meadows Farm

July 11, Odyssey day 38. It starts like a usual day except of course we don’t have a generator.

I have my usual morning coffee at sunrise. It’s a very nice view from here!

We pack up and head out early from the farm to the trailhead. Nothing unusual so far. We pull in to the parking lot at the bike trail. I get out of the RV and there is that fuel smell again!

Fuel leaking underneath the generator pan

I walk around to the generator and there is the fuel leaking again. You can see the trail of fuel going out of the parking lot. So, clearly, it’s not just the generator. There is a fuel leak which involves the engine somehow. It looks like a steady drip, and the leak is probably around the generator somewhere.

Alright, what now? Well, it’s Saturday unfortunately, and I make a number of calls to various service places. It looks like no one is available . The RV folks say it’s an engine problem and the engine folks say they don’t service RVs. So, basically, we can’t do anything until Monday, at least so far. We can’t leave the RV here and of course we can’t drive far because of the condition it’s in.

After considering options we look at a KOA right in Missoula. It’s close, only 3 miles away. Amazingly, they have openings. We can probably get there, chill out for 2 days, get cleaned up, recharge everything with the shore power etc. Then on Monday we can call around and see where we need to go, even have the RV towed if necessary.

Before heading over to KOA, we walk to a breakfast place about a mile away. When we get back, we pull out of the trailhead parking lot and limp our way to the KOA. Thankfully, no further incidents on the way. But right after checking in and going to our campsite my wife gets a call from the office: “Hey did you guys know you have a major fuel leak?” We kind of have to play ignorance on that because we don’t want to get kicked out, but I feel really bad because we are making a mess of their campgrounds. A couple of KOA staffers cruise out to us and, honestly,they are super nice about it. They ask if we need anything and offer us a pan to catch the residual fuel. They also tell us who their RV dude is and, yes, he was one of the ones I called but not available today.

We proceed as usual, hook everything up and get acclimated.

After about another 20 minutes or so, another KOA staffer stops by. He is their maintenance guy. His name is Charlie. He’s an older guy but maybe my age or slightly older. Anyway, he says he spent 40 some years in the diesel trucking industry and would be willing to investigate our fuel problem but has to finish his work day. My wife and I tell him sure, we need any help we can get, and no one is around with today being Saturday.

So, Charlie stops by around 3:30 in the afternoon. I had the generator compartment open and he brings his tool set over to it. He starts disassembling the generator. I’m watching him the whole way because I need to learn what I can about it. He confirms its in the generator but the back end. Thankfully it’s nothing I did since I did do a full service on it before we left, including replacing the air and fuel filters.

He removes the air filter assembly, and a metal panel with a trapezoidal-shaped gasket, and behind that there are 2 fuel lines coming out of a plastic T connector. The one on the left which sends fuel to the generator looks suspicious just below the clamp.

Charlie asks me to turn the engine on. I just turn it to the ignition and I hear a shout out there: “Stop!”. That apparently was it. As soon as I did that the fuel was squirting out from underneath the clamp where there was a break in the rubber, probably from being dried out.

After disconnecting the hose, trimming the bad end off and reconnecting it, everything was back to normal! It only took about 20 minutes. Wow! I ask Charlie how much for the repair. He says “$20”. Seriously! That’s absurd. We give him about 10 times that for saving us big time! For sure it would have cost us multiples of that amount at any service place.

Well, our camping trip had turned into an Apollo 13 sequel! We never made it to the moon, I mean Canada, and now we had another systems malfunction. Yes, it was repaired, but we just don’t want to take any more chances. Cathy and I discuss the situation. Since we only have a few days remaining and we do need to get back on time for another trip next month overseas, we decide to forget the camping and just go directly home tomorrow. We figure it will take 3 days of driving from here.;

We plan the route from Missoula to Salt Lake City, to Abiquiu, New Mexico and home. We will leave in the morning.

Thanks for reading!

DrDave