Wingnut
Veteran Member
well, Bird, sorry I didn't get a chance to drop by even if I was somewhat in the neighborhood ... but it was a rather rushed trip. I managed to pry a week free even though everyone on my current project wailed and bawled excessively. That little Renault perfomed much better than I expected and I didn't need to use my AAA card, or pray ... just drive slower than I'm used to. Due to time constraints (too much work, too little time) I didn't get the ground problem affecting the rear lights ... nor the dead fuel gauge ... fixed. I grabbed some insurance ... a one gallon gas can ... loaded the wife and mother-in-law and left town. Since I had told my wonderfully procrastinatling wife I wanted to be on the road well before lunch ... we finally managed to pick up the mother-in-law from her apartment at 1:30 PM. I HAVE to learn to tell her some time at least 5 hours before I really want to leave!!
Figured I would stop at 180 mile intervals to give them potty breaks ... give my butt a brief rest and get gas before it got too low. The first stop was at 183 miles ... and I managed to pump 14.78 gallons into the tank (it holds 15 gallons!) I guess I should have ensured it really was full before we left!
Drove from Midland to 30 miles west of St. Louis and then stopped at about 1AM. Slept for 5 hours ... guess I was more worn out than I thought. Made it through the Ozarks to Poteau OK by noon ... and was actually quite impressed by the way the little 2.2L 4 banger Renault handled those hills.
After another day in Poteau (that stop was the deadline ... my mother-in-law wanted to be able to attend her sister's 90th birthday party which started at 3PM on Saturday ... made it with 3 hours to spare ...) we headed out to Dallas ... it handled the freeway (late rushhour) traffic quite well. The next day we cruised on down to Buffalo ... and the following day over to Nacogdoches. Stayed there 2 days. On the way over my wife had noticed the brake idiot light flickering weakly occasionally ... so I popped down to Wal-Mart and picked up some Type 4. Opened the reservoir and topped it up ... checked everything else.
The next day we headed back to Dallas (to drop of granddaughter we had picked up on the way through) and the doggone brake light was still flickering occasionally.
Got a couple miles from our destination and had to make a u-turn (darned stupid freeway signs! ended up in the outside lane when the signs suddenly indicated a left turn ... with 3 lanes of traffic beside me!) ... and had the most g**awful squeal from the steering pump. Got to her son's ... moved the motorhome to the least obstructive place in the driveway ... with lots of lock-to-lock wheel turning ... and the squealing was MUCH worse. And, of course, when I got out there was a large puddle of ATF on the ground (which the Renault uses for steering fliud). Cleaned up the mess and decided to leave it until morning to investigate ... it was HOT!
Imagine my chagrin when I checked out the manual the next morning and discovered that I was a total idiot! I had poured half a can of brake fluid in the steering pump reservoir! My only defense is that I have never before seen a separate reservoir for steering (always part of the pump) and this one looked just like my Toyota's brake fluid reservoir.
I purged the system as best I could ... poured in more ATF to dilute it, purged it again ... and then filled and added a half can of tranny stop leak. Amaingly ... no real leaks on the way home ... so maybe I just need to replace a few seals.
I think I now have all you "I just did the dumbest thing ...." contest enterees beat! That surely has to be the dumbest!!!!
Anyway ... the heat and humidy had both women begging to leave early ... and I had so much work staring me in the face back here ... that we left a day early ... blasted through Little Rock ... 4 hour power nap ... then made it through Memphis, Nashville, Louisville, Indianapolis and finally had to pull into a rest stop across the Michigan line just short of Coldwater .... 3 hour power nap and home 25 hours after leaving Little Rock.
I think that's enough driving for a few weeks!
Fuel mileage was pretty acceptable ... especially considering this is an RV, albeit rather small. High of 18 and low of 13. Strange thing is that I think the heat and humidity affected the mileage more than the hills ... got 17 cruising from Nashville to past Louisville (seriosuly hilly) ... but only 13-14 from Dallas to Little Rock (pretty flat).
Now to find time to crawl underneath and start working on the ground, fuel and brake-fluid problems ....
No thoughts of changing out the engine yet .... it soldiered on pretty darned well!
Oh ... hey ... I have another "stupid people tricks" entry too .... last night I got our the small tiller (can't get the L3710 through the backyard gate) and cleaned up some weeds for the procrastinator. When I finished, I noticed some plastic along the fence ... picked it up and ... discovered one end of what had been a perfectly functioning satellite TV cable. Needless to say .. that impressed her ... as well as me. Guess how hard it is to find C-Band cable these days ....
Am I having a good week or what ....
too bad that common sense ain't
Figured I would stop at 180 mile intervals to give them potty breaks ... give my butt a brief rest and get gas before it got too low. The first stop was at 183 miles ... and I managed to pump 14.78 gallons into the tank (it holds 15 gallons!) I guess I should have ensured it really was full before we left!
Drove from Midland to 30 miles west of St. Louis and then stopped at about 1AM. Slept for 5 hours ... guess I was more worn out than I thought. Made it through the Ozarks to Poteau OK by noon ... and was actually quite impressed by the way the little 2.2L 4 banger Renault handled those hills.
After another day in Poteau (that stop was the deadline ... my mother-in-law wanted to be able to attend her sister's 90th birthday party which started at 3PM on Saturday ... made it with 3 hours to spare ...) we headed out to Dallas ... it handled the freeway (late rushhour) traffic quite well. The next day we cruised on down to Buffalo ... and the following day over to Nacogdoches. Stayed there 2 days. On the way over my wife had noticed the brake idiot light flickering weakly occasionally ... so I popped down to Wal-Mart and picked up some Type 4. Opened the reservoir and topped it up ... checked everything else.
The next day we headed back to Dallas (to drop of granddaughter we had picked up on the way through) and the doggone brake light was still flickering occasionally.
Got a couple miles from our destination and had to make a u-turn (darned stupid freeway signs! ended up in the outside lane when the signs suddenly indicated a left turn ... with 3 lanes of traffic beside me!) ... and had the most g**awful squeal from the steering pump. Got to her son's ... moved the motorhome to the least obstructive place in the driveway ... with lots of lock-to-lock wheel turning ... and the squealing was MUCH worse. And, of course, when I got out there was a large puddle of ATF on the ground (which the Renault uses for steering fliud). Cleaned up the mess and decided to leave it until morning to investigate ... it was HOT!
Imagine my chagrin when I checked out the manual the next morning and discovered that I was a total idiot! I had poured half a can of brake fluid in the steering pump reservoir! My only defense is that I have never before seen a separate reservoir for steering (always part of the pump) and this one looked just like my Toyota's brake fluid reservoir.
I purged the system as best I could ... poured in more ATF to dilute it, purged it again ... and then filled and added a half can of tranny stop leak. Amaingly ... no real leaks on the way home ... so maybe I just need to replace a few seals.
I think I now have all you "I just did the dumbest thing ...." contest enterees beat! That surely has to be the dumbest!!!!
Anyway ... the heat and humidy had both women begging to leave early ... and I had so much work staring me in the face back here ... that we left a day early ... blasted through Little Rock ... 4 hour power nap ... then made it through Memphis, Nashville, Louisville, Indianapolis and finally had to pull into a rest stop across the Michigan line just short of Coldwater .... 3 hour power nap and home 25 hours after leaving Little Rock.
I think that's enough driving for a few weeks!
Fuel mileage was pretty acceptable ... especially considering this is an RV, albeit rather small. High of 18 and low of 13. Strange thing is that I think the heat and humidity affected the mileage more than the hills ... got 17 cruising from Nashville to past Louisville (seriosuly hilly) ... but only 13-14 from Dallas to Little Rock (pretty flat).
Now to find time to crawl underneath and start working on the ground, fuel and brake-fluid problems ....
No thoughts of changing out the engine yet .... it soldiered on pretty darned well!
Oh ... hey ... I have another "stupid people tricks" entry too .... last night I got our the small tiller (can't get the L3710 through the backyard gate) and cleaned up some weeds for the procrastinator. When I finished, I noticed some plastic along the fence ... picked it up and ... discovered one end of what had been a perfectly functioning satellite TV cable. Needless to say .. that impressed her ... as well as me. Guess how hard it is to find C-Band cable these days ....
Am I having a good week or what ....
too bad that common sense ain't