A journey without adversity..............

[rickeieio]

Sometimes things go........wrong. But we wil prevail.

 

We left Indiana Monday morning, made about 500 miles that day, and yesterday made another 500. So far, so good. Only fly in the ointment was that coming through a little town in east Texas, our MaxBrake decided to quit sending electrons to the rear of the rig. Hey, we have a big truck with big brakes, so no big deal. Except, we also had an air leak in the trailer supply line, so I couldn't push in that cute little red button without loosing all my air. Hmmmmm. This means the steer axle is doing nearly all my whoa chores. Not good.

 

So, we find a nice little campground in Buffalo, TX, and set out to get things fixed in the morning. We're tooling down an empty road at 60ish when all of a sudden I lose power. I'm scanning the gauges, knew I was low on fuel, but this is too sudden. Susan sez, "We have smoke!"

 

Move over to the beer can lane and when the smoke clears, go back and see big patches of cord showing on all six new trailer tires. Well dang. Get back in truck and controller sez parking brake is set. Sorry sister, but it ain't.

 

Yanked the blue wire in the Jackalopee and limp to the first gas station, which happens to have diesel for a decent price. Pump $300, go inside to pay and my card is declined. But wait, there's more...........

 

After a looooong conversation with the nice lady at the credit card company, we determine there's been a "compromise" at a business where our card was used, so everybody gets thrown out of the pool. This is a business card with a high limit, and I use it a lot. Not good.

 

So, we go to the preferred tire store, only to find they have two tires in the correct size, but 14 ply. I'll take them. Next tire shop has four more, but only 10 ply, good enough as that's the right flavor.

 

So, that leaves the brakes, both tractor and trailer. We head down the road to a yet another shop and spend several hours there fixing the air leak in the trailer supply line to restore full drive axle braking, then turn our attentions to the MaxBrake. Dead ends everywhere. We can't determine whether it's the transducer or the display box. So, as I write this, the plan is to go back in the morning and get a cheap actuator driven by the brake light signal, so I can continue until I can get a proper repair.

 

Gotta love my bride, who upon realizing we needed 6 new tires said, "at least fuel's cheap."

[Darryl&Rita]

17.5" now!

[rickeieio]

I am a big advocate of overkill, especially on safety items. When I put the 17.5" on the old trailer, it bumped me to about the same margin of safety as I now enjoy with 16" load range E.

 

When you drag a new set of trailer tires 100 yards on a coarse Texas road, yer gonna need new tires. They could as well have been 22.5, and still junk at the end of that skid mark.

[Darryl&Rita]

I'm just trying to help spend some (of your) $$$

[Broncohauler]

Sorry to here of your problems.

It's times like this I just look for everything positive that does happen whether it be cheap fuel price or a kind person at the counter selling me the tires.

Good luck and prayers

Charlie

[adept99]

Holy Cr#p Batman...you want me to run up to the farm & find something to pawn? Looks like you're out there where they measure distance by the six pack. I was gonna suggest bribing encouraging Big 5r with some Dr Pepper to assist, but my GPS shows the waterfall and dragons and stuff at the edge of the world long before you get to Buffalo, Tx.

 

Seriously, you have the #, call if you need something

 

Paul & Paula

[noteven]

Hi rickeieio - me no understand why your red tractor protection valve (trailer supply) controls service brake air to the drive axle of your truck?

 

Any hoo - the important question in all this is: "Do you have motorcycles on board?"

[spindrift]

The really, really good news here is that it wasn't the engine.

[SuiteSuccess]

Jeez now you gotta change your forum name to rickeiei-uhoh! Seriously, sorry bout the troubles.

[Broncohauler]

 

Hi rickeieio - me no understand why your red tractor protection valve (trailer supply) controls service brake air to the drive axle of your truck?

 

Any hoo - the important question in all this is: "Do you have motorcycles on board?"[/quote

 

 

 

You don't get full braking with out the supply pushed in.

It's designed that way for bob tailing

[rickeieio]

The rig is purring like a kitten, with the sniffles. Riding along so nice, feeling good about getting away to practice for retirement.

 

I am so glad we have a big truck to handle the trailer when the brakes fail. If that had happened with a regular dually, we might be truck shopping too.

 

So, the sun is peeking through the trees, we need to head down to the mechanic shop and get the cheaply controller installed and point this thing south. There's a lot in McAllen waiting for us.

 

Oh, yes, there are 4 motorcycles on board.

[RickW]

What an ouch to your equipment and pocketbook, at least your spirt and attitude appear in tact. Problems on the road are never fun and hopefully you have all the bad juju behind you now.

 

Enjoy the rest of the trip!

[Jack Mayer]

You don't get full braking with out the supply pushed in.

It's designed that way for bob tailing

True on older trucks, but they switched over to a "standard" scheme at some point in time. You can check to see if you have the bobtail proportioning valve or not. Newer trucks do not.

[Dollytrolley]

Sometimes things go........wrong. But we wil prevail.

 

 

 

Gotta love my bride, who upon realizing we needed 6 new tires said, "at least fuel's cheap."

 

Rick, sounds like your wife is well trained in art of paying for equipment repairs......

 

Ya know all my life much of the family was in the ranching game and a lot of the time ranching is a bit like trucking in that things seem to crop-up to keep one from becoming......... "excessively-rich".....

 

I unwisely chose to go out and waste my youth messing around aircraft.......

 

Some years ago we were "money-suppliers" for a small twin pressurized aircraft that was a fairly capable traveling machine however it was one of those machines that was best kept in "tip-top" condition since it had complex systems that tended to be coupled in such a way that one glitch in one system may tend to fail two or more parts in another system. So.......one morning I was clawing my way out of Helena MT in a pretty fair blizzard and at initial climb out the snow was pretty wet and tending to ice the aircraft fairly heavy.......all was operating fairly well until the prop deicers started acting a bit weird. The prop deicers were controlled by a little electronic box about the size of a pack of cigarettes.

The props would deice but the timer in the controller was becoming a bit wacko and so sometimes too much ice would build up and then when the prop deicers would heat up pretty heavy chunks of ice would flail off the prop blades and the chunks would hit the nose and tail sections of the aircraft and at 200 to 300 mph you would have paint damage or worse "dents' in the airframe.......so.......when I get to Seattle I drop by the hanger but the only controller is in Tucson AZ.......no problem it was already Friday at noon in Seattle so all I have to do is call the wife at out at our Tucson winter home and have her drive over to Aviall and pick up the new deice controller.......no problem......

So.......I call the bride and she agrees to hop over to Aviall to pick up the new deicer controller..........no problem.......

I have the bird filled full of fuel and talk the controllers into a expedited fast climb through the icing layers to clear conditions on top of the storm in the mid 20 thousand levels and then just watch the fish finder click off the miles to Tucson......no problem......

 

Mean while back in Tucson.......the wife drives over to Aviall and as instructed the "controller" was sitting on the parts counter with a INVOICE under it with my name on it........the first thing the wife saw was the invoice total of $3,617.11 ........Gulp.......so.......as the parts geeks looked on..... the wife picks up the controller and holds it up next to her wedding ring ( ring cost less....cheap me) and then she sighed and said " well boys I have to admit.....the platinum model here does look very nice but could you run back to the back room and trade this controller in for the plane-jane GOLD plated CHEEPER model of the controller........ you see I am just a poor old cowgirl.......and it looks like I am about to become poorer".......

 

From that day forward the parts geeks at Aviall always ask how the "poor old cowgirl" was doing......

 

So Rick...... it appears that farming has well trained your bride in the "art" of paying for parts as well.........

 

Drive on.........(This itty-bitty-part costs that........MUCH?)

[NoDirectionHome]

Yeah, tell me about it...

 

Hello Steven,

 

The price to overhaul an O-320-H2AD, built to factory new limits, with new Lycoming cylinders would be:

 

$22,645 exchange. Add $5,000 for core deposit if exchange.

 

The engine would be supplied with rebuilt magneto, new ignition harness, rebuilt carburetor, new Skytec starter and new spark plugs.

 

Shipping is included in the lower 48 states.

 

The engine would be dynamically balanced and come with a 3 year/TBO whichever occurs first warranty, full parts and labor. Accessories are warranted for 1 calendar year.

 

Lead time upon date of order would be 4-5 weeks.

 

Price assumes your core has a repairable crankcase, crankshaft and repairable 3000 series magneto.

 

I would send a sales agreement for your signature.

 

Please advise invoice and shipping address.

 

Let me know if you have any questions.

 

Best Regards

 

 

Jeff Tyler

Sales Manager

800-727-7230 ext. 7215

315-536-2333

315-536-2335 (fax)

 

Penn Yan Aero

2499 Bath Road

Penn Yan, New York 14527

U. S. A.

 

Part 145 FAA Repair Station Number: Y2GR396Y

EASA. 145.5936

[Dollytrolley]

Yeah, tell me about it...

 

Hello Steven,

 

The price to overhaul an O-320-H2AD, built to factory new limits, with new Lycoming cylinders would be:

 

$22,645 exchange. Add $5,000 for core deposit if exchange.

 

The engine would be supplied with rebuilt magneto, new ignition harness, rebuilt carburetor, new Skytec starter and new spark plugs.

 

Shipping is included in the lower 48 states.

 

The engine would be dynamically balanced and come with a 3 year/TBO whichever occurs first warranty, full parts and labor. Accessories are warranted for 1 calendar year.

 

Lead time upon date of order would be 4-5 weeks.

 

Price assumes your core has a repairable crankcase, crankshaft and repairable 3000 series magneto.

 

I would send a sales agreement for your signature.

 

Please advise invoice and shipping address.

 

Let me know if you have any questions.

 

Best Regards

 

 

 

Jeff Tyler

Sales Manager

800-727-7230 ext. 7215

315-536-2333

315-536-2335 (fax)

 

Penn Yan Aero

2499 Bath Road

Penn Yan, New York 14527

U. S. A.

 

Part 145 FAA Repair Station Number: Y2GR396Y

EASA. 145.5936

 

Steve....Steve......your getting to be a geezer........the prices above are so......."old math"........

 

Try the new math........the above engine with a "Qualifed Core" is only....... $141.53.......per HP

Without a "Core" trade in the price is still only ........$178.78......per HP

 

Now don't you feel better.......

 

So now to get back the more pure subject of HDT's RV ........I like to use the "new math" of taking the purchase price of any truck part and divide it by the gross weight of the truck.........if the "new-math-price" is still a bit too high, just throw in the trailer weight and then recalc

again.......

 

Drive on...........(Why is RVing so........Cheep?)

[jkennell]

Rick:

What, that little breakdown?? Us farmers won't even NOTICE something that small.... Seriously, I guess flat spotting 6 tires is better than shredding the trailer sides.

 

Hmm--don't know if I can help troubleshoot your MaxBrake, but I do have one and might be able to set up a test circuit on the table. I'd say you should be able to tell real quick if it is the transducer...unplug it at the controller, do the brakes stop applying?

 

My wife keeps "mentioning" Texas....too bad I have a job. Hope your troubles all go away in the sun!

 

Just make sure you don't buy one of those cheap "time based" control units...they are completely unusable for any application, IMO.

[Steve from SoCal]

 

Rick, sounds like your wife is well trained in art of paying for equipment repairs......

 

Ya know all my life much of the family was in the ranching game and a lot of the time ranching is a bit like trucking in that things seem to crop-up to keep one from becoming......... "excessively-rich".....

 

I unwisely chose to go out and waste my youth messing around aircraft.......

 

Some years ago we were "money-suppliers" for a small twin pressurized aircraft that was a fairly capable traveling machine however it was one of those machines that was best kept in "tip-top" condition since it had complex systems that tended to be coupled in such a way that one glitch in one system may tend to fail two or more parts in another system. So.......one morning I was clawing my way out of Helena MT in a pretty fair blizzard and at initial climb out the snow was pretty wet and tending to ice the aircraft fairly heavy.......all was operating fairly well until the prop deicers started acting a bit weird. The prop deicers were controlled by a little electronic box about the size of a pack of cigarettes.

The props would deice but the timer in the controller was becoming a bit wacko and so sometimes too much ice would build up and then when the prop deicers would heat up pretty heavy chunks of ice would flail off the prop blades and the chunks would hit the nose and tail sections of the aircraft and at 200 to 300 mph you would have paint damage or worse "dents' in the airframe.......so.......when I get to Seattle I drop by the hanger but the only controller is in Tucson AZ.......no problem it was already Friday at noon in Seattle so all I have to do is call the wife at out at our Tucson winter home and have her drive over to Aviall and pick up the new deice controller.......no problem......

So.......I call the bride and she agrees to hop over to Aviall to pick up the new deicer controller..........no problem.......

I have the bird filled full of fuel and talk the controllers into a expedited fast climb through the icing layers to clear conditions on top of the storm in the mid 20 thousand levels and then just watch the fish finder click off the miles to Tucson......no problem......

 

Mean while back in Tucson.......the wife drives over to Aviall and as instructed the "controller" was sitting on the parts counter with a INVOICE under it with my name on it........the first thing the wife saw was the invoice total of $3,617.11 ........Gulp.......so.......as the parts geeks looked on..... the wife picks up the controller and holds it up next to her wedding ring ( ring cost less....cheap me) and then she sighed and said " well boys I have to admit.....the platinum model here does look very nice but could you run back to the back room and trade this controller in for the plane-jane GOLD plated CHEEPER model of the controller........ you see I am just a poor old cowgirl.......and it looks like I am about to become poorer".......

 

From that day forward the parts geeks at Aviall always ask how the "poor old cowgirl" was doing......

 

So Rick...... it appears that farming has well trained your bride in the "art" of paying for parts as well.........

 

Drive on.........(This itty-bitty-part costs that........MUCH?)

I'm thinking Aerostar 601P?

 

Steve

[Dollytrolley]

I'm thinking Aerostar 601P?

 

Steve

 

Steve,

 

You been peeking..........very close guess.....Aerostar 700P the #22 of the 26 built......not a very big flock of birds....

 

Drive on.......(Enjoy the ride......)

[rickeieio]

Things are looking up. That's not to say all is rosy.....

 

Went to The Mechanic Shop in Buffalo, TX, got the air line fixed, did a bunch of testing and decided to put in a cheap controller from NAPA for now. I'll play with the MaxBrake later. It might be something simple.......

 

So, we had a pleasant day driving down TX 79, then TX 77, TX 59, and finally TX 281. Just as we got on 281, Mr. Sunshine went to sleep, so I turned on the lights. A few minutes later, a truck passed us so I flashed my high beams to signal him. Hmmm, blue indicator flashed, but the back of his trailler didn't light up. Tried them several more times, with the same results, or lack thereof.

 

So, I have lots of electrical work to tend too in my free time. Remember those clearance lights I was fiddling with a couple of weeks ago? Seems the Volvo pig tails have the wire colors switched, so those need changed, the brake controller needs action, and I'll bet the mechanic this morning did something in the fuse/relay panel to disable the high beams.

 

We'll run on down to McAllen in the morning, a generous member of this forum has a spot for us to drop anchor.

 

BTW, total bill for 6 tires, controller, and several hours of labor was under $1k. Granted, none of this was of the quality I would prefer, but we're back on the road.

[adept99]

Holy Schnikies, that's almost as much as a box of cee-gars

 

We're all rooting for ya bubba.

[adept99]

Remember those clearance lights I was fiddling with a couple of weeks ago? Seems the Volvo pig tails have the wire colors switched, so those need changed

Buy some appropriate colored electrical tape and give the pigtails a few wraps. MUCH easier than swapping the pigtail wires around and serves the purpose quite well.

[Nuke-E]

Rick,

 

This may sound screwy, but given that work was being done on the brake system, I'd be suspect of the daytime running light circuitry (brake light feeds into it). The schematic for the gen-1 headlights will make your head hurt though--they made it way more complicated than it needed to be. There's a separate fuse just for high beams in flash-to-pass mode--if you switch to high beams, they run off the same fuses as the low beams, one for each light, but in flash-to-pass, both lights are fed by a third fuse (18 & 32 for the "normal" headlights, 27 for flash-to-pass). And if the fuse for the right side headlight is out, the right side headlight will still light, fed backwards through the DRL control relay (not the DRL module) from the left side fuse.

 

If the daytime running lights weren't energized, and a temporary short occurred (e.g. with the parking brake set), you could blow both headlight fuses without blowing the DRL fuse. It'd still probably be enough to run the headlights, and they'd still run full brightness (even at 9.5V). But as soon as I go through that, flash-to-pass should still work under that scenario, while the normal high beams wouldn't.

 

The bit that has me puzzled is the indicator still working. It looks like the indicator is fed from a splice that runs out to the left side high beam circuit--a few connectors on the way, but no other switches/relays/fuses. I'm starting to feel like I'm running out of steam for the night--it's probably something simple that my tiredness is obscuring. Feel free to give me a call and I'll try to help you figure it out.

 

At least you stopped driving after just scrubbing the tires off. I waited until the rim fractured and the brake rotor send spark signals (though I'm almost positive the rim fractured right when the tire blew--the outer section rolled up to where I stopped). I never considered a brake rotor the kind of spare part I'd need on the road, but I had one (two actually) and that was the key thing that let us keep going--it cracked in several places. The new tires stung the worst, but the car's been through another 10,000 miles without further incident.

 

[Scrap]

Twice now the MaxBrake in my pickup (ie:hydraulic) has tried to set the park brake feature itself. I've been going in this driveway entrance that has a sharp turn, a skinny gate, a mailbox on one side and a guywire on the other, then falls down a steep hill. As I reach down to change the gain I see the screen saying "Parking brake set in 3.....2......1....." 'Uhhh I don't think so sister' is the nice version of what I say to it! Anyways I think I do a few hard brakes & stops in the right time when setting myself up to go down there that I kick off the park brake feature. I thought just the manual slider kicks that off but I guess not. So maybe you got a bad transducer or a weird air signal during your leak that was mimicking that and it kicked off a parking brake event? I'm thinking when it said park brake set on the screen she actually set herself a good park brake...

[rickeieio]

David,

At least I have good low beams. These things are awesome. I'll check to see where they tapped into the brake signal, that may be where I'm getting a back feed to the run lights?

 

Scrap,

I was running down the road at 60ish when the park brake set. Prior to that, I had no trailer brakes. The module indicated good braking, but it wasn't happening. I suspected the wiring post MaxBrake, but was never able to track down the issue. I was reading .3v on the brake line with the actuator trigger pushed all the way. Same reading everywhere I checked, from the Jackalopee back.

 

Paul,

The hard part is standing on the motor (not valve cover) and removing the cover for the clearance lights. Then I need to figure out how to slip the pins from the plug so I can reverse them. You were right, LEDs are polarity sensitive.

 

Are we having fum yet?

 

Afterthought, It's a good thing I'm old fashioned and carry cash. In the confusion of packing, we forgot both check books. And some of the businesses in little towns (tire shops) don't take credit cards.

 

Fold'n money.......don't leave home without it.