Ragged start

Departure was delayed while I struggled to retract the slide outs.  Seems as though my attempt to waterproof the slide out floors by adding a piece of angle aluminum to the bottom edge interfered with their ability to retract.  You may wonder why I hadn’t tested that out earlier.  So do I.

So, two hours late, we head out on I-10 with an engine warning light on and the on-board diagnostics telling us to see the dealer.  We stopped at the Tallahassee diesel guru but could find nothing definitely needing fixing.  So we continued on to Biloxi.

No more warning lights but a definite miss under load.  It acts just like gas engines used to when it was time to replace the spark plugs, wires, rotor, condenser, distributor cap and points.  Which you did before discovering that it was the fuel filter.

The Tallahassee shop belongs to the “Association of Diesel Specialists” a network of very competent shops across the country.  So we got a few names and today pulled up in Baton Rouge for more diagnostics.  Seems like we most likely have a malfunctioning injector.  And given our desire to make progress Westward, they set us up with a shop in Houston that can hopefully figure it out with out removing all the injectors.

So, we continue toward our Carlsbad rendezvous with the Hatch’s.  Maybe by then we will be able to relax an enjoy the view.  I have a feeling that we will be contributing to the local economy soon.

Speaking of that; Biloxi still has areas damaged by the past hurricanes but the beaches look great.  They just need to shovel the sand from the street back to the beach once in a while.  Lots of rain today but forecasted clear tomorrow.

Stay tuned.