We did drive the LazyDaze up to Oregon and back for Thanksgiving '11 and I will tell you it WAS an adventure! The trip started out OK -- we worked up until it was time to hastily pack up and leave -- late in the day no less -- the day before Thanksgiving.. I think we headed out sometime around 4-5pm -- right into heavy traffic in the greater Los Angeles area as everyone was hitting the roads. We did make it out and into the Central Valley (going north on the I-5).. It was dark and several hours of driving I noticed the volt meter on the dash board was losing voltage.. Uh-oh! Not good! I think we were somewhere south of Santa Nella -- I found that if I pulled over on the side of the road and killed the head lights but left the engine running, the alternator was able to catch up and charge the battery again -- but with diminished output obviously.
The drive continued into the wee hours of the night (now Thanksgiving day). Somewhere around 1:30AM (give or take), the voltage was getting low and I needed to check things out.. This is when I did something stupid. We got off one of the larger off ramps in the area that had several gas stations and I stupidly shut off the engine without thinking about it.. Of course the engine battery was not strong enough to re-start it.. To make a long story shorter, we spent the next 3+ hours there trying to get ANYONE to help us jump-start the engine again.. There were plenty of people that I asked but none were interested -- all had various excuses including one guy claiming his car was a rental and that he didn't think it had a battery that could charge our rig!??!?
We even tried calling AAA and they couldn't even get anyone out -- eventually a good Samaritan came along to get some gas with his girl friend and dog and I politely asked if he could help us out.. He did and was able to get us jumped in <5 minutes!! I gave the nice guy $10 for his trouble and more importantly for helping us get un-stranded. Once started, I left the engine running for about 15 minutes to get sufficient 'juice' in the batteries to head out since we still needed the head lights -- it was in the 5AM hour when we left that gas station.
The next stop was a local Wal-Mart a bit further up the road and a bit east of the '5'. While there we were able to get some tools (I had not packed much in that regard -- won't do that again!!) including wrenches, a socket set and a few other odds-n-ends including a NEW battery and a 120V charger just-in-case.
I changed out the battery in their parking lot -- mind you this was during their Black Friday preview hours -- very FEW people in the store -- probably <10!! Once the battery was changed we headed out for some breakfast at the local McD's and then went back to the 5.. Unfortunately we didn't get far before it became apparent that the charging system was not doing that -- not charging! So, we hooked up the 120V AC house/garage charger into one of the Ld's outlets over the kitchen table and fired up the genset! That worked great during the day when no lights were needed but once it came dark again it was iffy at best. We did end up getting to Oregon without further incident but did have to stop a few times in Northern CA to let the genset run to charge the battery fully -- no wonder we got such poor milage!!
One of the first things we did in Oregon was to find a local shop that could not only change out the Alternator but also the fan clutch -- which had started to fail on the way up -- causing it to go into fits of high-speed spinning for a few minutes at a time before behaving again.. We finally found a shop in Lincoln City, OR -- a ~30 minute trek north of my mothers house in Newport.. We took the LD to the Car Care Specialists shop where they were able to change out both the alternator & fan clutch for a reasonable cost.. Many shops were closed or couldn't do the work til the following week since it was Black Friday and a holiday.
So, eventually it was time to head home. We headed south on US101 on the coast and we didn't get far.. Ok.. We didn't even make it out of the driveway at my mothers house before the alternator was back to it's old tricks again -- not charging!! We were out of time so we did what we had done before and fired up the genset + battery charger and headed out and down the coast.. As we headed south, we started getting pummeled with lots of rain -- for several hours.. Somewhere near Florence, something changed and the alternator decided to start charging the battery so I was able to shutoff the genset and leave things alone.. This remained until we got home safe & sound the next day.. The rest of the drive was uneventful.
So, fast forward to this month (May).. We're going to be heading up to the Bishop, CA area for Memorial day.. I knew I needed to apply some major TLC to the LD before heading out on that much shorter trip. The laundry list of things that needed to be fixed/upgraded are as follows :
- Engine charging issue (to be covered in a separate post)
- Change out the two roof vents with new Fantastic Fans (to be covered in a separate post)
- Swap out the existing Parallax/Magnetek 6345 power converter (single stage -- known for boiling batteries) installed by the factory in '85 with a brand new Progressive Dynamics 4655 slide in upgrade module + new fuse board. This is already done -- no pics unfortunately. It took me a bit over an hour to perform.. I ordered mine from Best Converters after talking with Randy via email.. Very knowledgeable guy!
- Change out the 4 fan belts with new ones -- done.. Adjusting the power steering pump belt is a pain in the rear -- I had to enlist my son to help me tighten the bolt while I held it tight in place.. The rest of the belts were easy..
- I still need to change the engine oil & check the trans fluid before leaving..
- Oh yeah.. The fridge.. We had it rebuilt.. I'll make a new post for that one too..
