Trip to Chicago (fans fail), part 1
posted @ Monday, August 8, 2005
I would have gotten something out here sooner, but I couldn't get a decent
wireless connection to the net at the Baymont hotel. Anyway, the trip to
Chicago is behind us and we had a great time. We had some more overheating
issues getting there and getting home again, so that was not fun. But we
made it and the show was more fantastic than I ever dreamed. Dave Weaver,
the show's organizer, did a great job pulling it off and everyone had a
blast.
So, we thought we had the engine overheating issues licked with the installation of the new Flex-a-lite dual fan unit on the radiator. We had only tested it around town and had not tried it on the highway (my first mistake). While driving around locally, the Flex-a-lite fans seemed to work very well. However, the interstate was a completely different situation. We had not gotten more than twenty miles from home when the truck overheated and boiled over. It seems that when the fans get too warm, they cause the 30amp fuse to blow. Needless to say, that when the fuse blows, the fans stop altogether and that is very, very bad. The temperature gauge skyrocketed and we barely had enough time to get off the highway and get the truck cooled down. I ended up starting the skid unit and pulling the hose line around to the front of the truck to cool down the radiator quickly as well as hose down the coolant that had boiled over.
To get the truck down the road, I ended up bypassing the fuse since the style used by Flex-a-lite is larger than normal and I did not have any spares (my second mistake). I headed into the city to get some spare fuses but I was able to find a parts house that had heavy duty circuit breakers, so I swapped out the inline fuse and put a 40amp breaker in it's place. At least now, I didn't have to worry about the fans stopping from lack of current. Now, finally, I was able to get the truck on the road and head for Chicago, although it was guarantee that there would not be any air conditioning on this trip. Even with the fans on at 100%, the truck still ran hotter than it did with a broken fan clutch and a regular steel fan. So instead of a fun and relaxing trip north, the entire venture was spent with one eye on the temperature gauge and one on the road.
I stopped in Litchfield, IL to get something to eat. I found the local Dairy Queen and had a nice lunch. Afterwards, I found the Litchfield fire department and got a couple of shots of the truck on the apron. Unfortunately, no one was home, so it was just a shoot and run. Back on the highway, Project Responder made about 40 miles before experiencing more overheating issues. This time was not as bad as the experience earlier in St. Louis, but it did require having to stop to let the engine cool down. On a side note, it was very impressive to see the traffic all move the left lane as they approached with only the Tomar arrow bar energized. Trucks and cars more than a mile back would move over just because of the sheer power of the arrow bar. It's the best arrow device I've ever seen.
After driving for a couple more hours, I pulled into Lincoln, IL for fuel. It appears the town had the highway bypass it for some reason and it was nearly six miles just to get to a filling station after exiting the interstate. We passed the Lincoln Rural Fire Protection District firehouse on the way looking for gas so I stopped in after filling up, to inquire about getting some photos of the truck in front of the fire house. Everyone there was more than accommodating and I pulled the truck up along side unit 35 to snap a few stills. The guys loved the truck and the Assistant Chief invited me to the County Fair since they had a spot already set up for emergency vehicles. I was not in any hurry so I accepted the offer and spent a few hours at the fair. Finally, a little after six, I headed out and finished the trip to North Aurora. Had it not been for the Itronix GoBook laptop with the built in GPS, I would have never found my way there. I did have one small slip up on the toll road. I did not know it was a toll way and when I exited onto rt 31, I was not prepared to stop for a toll booth. So I'm sure the toll agency in Chicago somewhere has a nice picture of the back of the truck somewhere.
Continued...