We are back to work again after a short (for us) visit home. We got a lot of things accomplished while there this time. We didn't have any company which allowed us to stay focused on getting things done.
International in Ocala repaired our broken turbo actuator. That was no fun driving 1300 miles with no turbo. They also replaced our ac compressor. Again. This is the 3rd compressor in 9 months. We had to pay for the first one (in El Paso) the last two have been under warranty. Makes me wonder what is going on with the parts we are getting from International.
We took the truck there to get the turbo fixed. Along with a clutch adjustment and we had a freon leak from the hose running out of the compressor. Those were the known problems that we had. In addition to that, while they were testing things out, they said we had a low fuel pressure reading so they wanted to change the fuel pump and the fuel pressure regulator. We dropped it off late Thursday night. We rented a motel room for two nights. On Saturday we were told that it would probably be Tuesday before they would have the truck done.
We decided to rent a car and go home and come back and pick the truck up when it was done. I first called Enterprise since they will come and pick you up. They informed me that they had no cars available and no person available to pick me up even if they had a car. I tried another nearby Enterprise location and got the same answer. I tried called Hertz and was told no cars. Getting desperate, I called Avis and hit the jackpot. They had a car available.
I called up the International dealership and asked them if they could come and pick me up and take me to Avis. They said no problem. Someone was there within 15 minutes. He dropped me off at Avis and I left there with a very nicely loaded Chevy Cruze. Leather, sunroof, all the new gadgets, push button start and best of all, air conditioning that worked!
I went back to the motel, picked up John and Cody and we drove the 100 miles home. It's always so nice to go home and walk in and find everything exactly like you left it. This time while we were home we had to find a plumber to come out and do some drain work for us. The thing I've noticed living in Florida is that getting any kind of contractor to do work for you is a challenge. They don't return phone calls. They're over priced. They work when they want to work and a lot of them do shabby work.
I had no idea who to call so I just googled plumbers and started down the list. We got lucky and one finally called us back two days later and we set things up with him. He ended up coming a day later than originally planned because we had major rain the day he was supposed to come but he did get the job done and did it very well. His price was reasonable also so we feel very lucky that we now know a good plumber.
On Tuesday we drove back up to Ocala to pick up our truck and return the rental car. We started the drive back home and stopped off in Wildwood to fill up at the TA. I put the nozzle in the drivers side tank and tried to set it to automatically fill so I could go to the passenger side and get it going. It kept clicking off and wouldn't stay running. I finally called inside and asked if there was a problem with the pump. The lady said not that she knew of. I went around to the passenger side and put the pump in and it started filling up like normal. I went back around to the drivers side and pulled the nozzle out and found the problem. The tank was completely full. The passenger side took 35 gallons to fill it up.
This isn't supposed to happen. The truck is supposed to keep both tanks equalled out. I called International back up and asked them if they had done anything that would have caused this. They said no they hadn't, bring it back in. We turned around and drove 30 miles back to them.
We only had to wait for about 20 minutes for a tech to come out and hook up with his laptop. He ran some tests and determined that the fuel transfer pump wasn't working. Apparently, our trucks engine pulls the fuel from the passenger side tank. The drivers side is just a supply tank. There is a pump that will monitor the level in the passenger tank and pull from the drivers side over to the passenger side to equal them out. He replaced that pump and we were good to go again.
Back home we headed with our fingers crossed that nothing else would happen. We also needed to get our translucent roof resealed. Because we had been in so much rain we saw a couple of spots that were leaking a little bit. We decided to get it done on Monday right before we went back in service.
Another thing we did while we were home was car shop. When we started this job 3 years ago, we sold our vehicles and our boat. When we are at home we use our sons car. John has recently gotten the fever to own a car again so now we are shopping. Something that I consider sheer torture. I couldn't care the less about a car, but he is a car fanatic.
Our first test drive was a brand new Cadillac ATS. It was nice, not as nice as I had imagined a Cadillac to be, but we were seriously going to buy it. However, as usual, they tried to play the numbers game with us and we told them no and walked out.
We also test drove a new Dodge Dart. It's a nice little car but too small for me and not enough power for John. We drove a slightly used Chrysler 300. That was an absolutely beautiful car. We really thought about getting it. The only thing that stopped us was John wanted a hemi and it didn't have one. Honestly, it doesn't need one. He's just being a power hungry guy. Our next test drive was a Dodge Durango. It was a 2011 like brand new. We both really liked it. It had a lot of room in it. All the fancy gadgets. But, again, no hemi. If it had a hemi, we probably would've left with it.
So, we are still without a car, which is fine with me. John can continue looking for his dream vehicle while we are out on the road. The internet makes dreams come true, so we will see what happens!
No comments:
Post a Comment