Originally Posted by Danec020
November 17 (Thursday)
Around 6am I heard a few of the big rigs start up and I opened my eyes to find there was daylight. I got up and pushed my comfortable bed back into a bench arrangement for the travel and went inside to freshen up for what was hopefully to be the final day in my trip home. After about 10 minutes of waking up I got back into Trixi and filled her up with gas, cursing the pump the whole time. The tanks neck had the pump kicking off every .10 gallons so it was quite frustrating especially in the morning after barely being up. After I had her full of gas I did one more walk through inspection and checked all my fluids, everything looked great so I set off to finish my adventure!
For the first two hours everything was going well but I could her a *tink tink* sound every now and then when I would hit a bump in the road. The front fender well had a metal rod that goes to the aluminium fender for support that had broke off so I figured it was just tapping the metal exterior on rough bumps, no harm. Still I had my ears peeled for any other noises when all the sudden *SPUTTER BUCK*! "Oh lord, not again!" I thought to myself as I waited for Trixi to catch again and continue going. But this time nothing happened... I was slowing down to about 40 mph and it still hadn't came back to life so I pumped the gas pedal a little bit with hopes it would help get some fuel to the engine. *BUCK BUCK* Oh god, 30mph and I was going up a hill! I checked the mirror and there was only one car behind me but he seemed to be staying back a little ways, thank god. 20mph, I pumped the pedal another time and this time I got a little response *SPUTTER BUCK*, I kept pumping! *VROOOOOM BACKFIRE* Thankfully it got power and I was able to bring myself back to speed but my heart was racing and I did not like my prospects of making it home. I still had atleast 8 hours of driving left and I could not make it if the engine kept doing that or got worst!
I drove for another 30 minutes praying it didn't sputter again but instead of preventing it I must have been summoning it! *SPUTTER BUCK* This time it stalled for about 5 seconds and caught back. That's a little better but the fact it sputtered again had me nervous. Unfortunately I was in the middle of no where and there were just a bunch of small shops and gas stations. Having about half a tank left I decided to pull over at one of the gas stations and fill back up and add some more sea foam to the tank in the hopes it will help clear up the issue some. Of course this is a small town gas station so it only has 2 pumps, one on each side and the only one available was the one closest to the building because the other was out of order. I pulled into the pump and quickly realized due to my size I was blocking the cars parked in front of the door from leaving, great... I poured in some sea form and quickly filled up. This pump didn't seem to have a cut off because it did not care how fast I pumped! Once done I go inside and grab me a drink for the road and one of the patrons decide to leave so I hurry out behind him in case I was blocking him from backing out. I was but he wanted to check out Trixi so I ended up talking to him about her for a few minutes while I looked her over for any problems. Embarrassingly enough as I am talking to the guy I find my exhaust is hanging about an inch from the ground and the guy laughs when I point it out! "I guess good condition old is still old. You going to probably get a lot of that." he says and I just nod in agreement. I apologize for blocking him in and pull Trixi forward out of the way so he can get out and then I crawl under the beast to see what is going on with the exhaust. The previous owner had a mechanic look at the exhaust to replace what ever was needed but the mechanic said it was all still good except for the last few feet where he would put new piping on. He was wrong... The exhaust was rusted pretty badly, which I expected, and the weight of the new pipes and jiggling on the road caused it to break off at the muffler and was only hanging on by a little shred of metal and one exhaust hanger. I didn't want to spend the time to unbolt the hanger and fight the exhaust so I just took some wire cutters and cut the hanger off. After a few twist back and forth the tiny piece of metal that held on broke and I was able to pull the piece out. The store owner was watching me through the window so I smiled and pointed at the exhaust pipe. She pointed to my right so I went around the side of the gas station and seen some dumpsters and tossed the pipe in and wondered what she was thinking. Ready to get back on the road I climbed in and drove off thinking that today was getting off at a rough start.
The next hour or so was pretty uneventful. I no longer heard the *tink tink* sound which was probably my exhaust pipe tapping the ground when I hit bumps. I reflected on how lucky I was to catch it before it became completely detached and was bouncing all over the place underneath Trixi. It could have caused some damage and possible hit someone else when it's hanger gave out. *SPUTTER BUCK* Okay, it is time for me to get another fuel filter in case I need it and I was approaching De Queen, AR which looked like it had some stores and a decent population. I ended up getting lucky and there was a Walmart and an Autozone next to one another so I parked Trixi at the Autozone and got the fuel filter. I decided to let her cool for about 30 minutes before getting on the road so I walked over to Walmart to charge my phone and get more sea foam which was almost $3 cheaper there. While doing this I got a text from our friend Brad to see how my trip was going. I relayed the details to him and he wasn't too surprised by the exhaust incident since he had thought it needed replacement when he had seen it. We talked about the sputtering and agreed it might be stuff still coming loose from the bowl and I might be ok but the filter was cheap insurance. After 30 minutes were up it was time to hit the road again!
The next 3 hours were smooth with no real issues except for maybe one sputtering in there somewhere. I was trying to get a better feel for the gas tank gauge so I wanted to push it to a quarter of a tank left to see how many gallons I could add. I was going to stop in Shreveport, LA but they were redoing the interstate roads and had tons of detours so I figured I would push it a little further and go to the next stop. Little did I know there weren't many if any stops for a while after this point. I passed the next town exit but seen nothing but woods so I kept going, half a quarter of a tank left. Few miles later I came up to another exit but was just a crossing highway, 1/3 quarter of a tank left. Feeling like I am cutting it close the next was 7 miles or so away and I figured I should take it and look for gas no matter what. I see the exit and there is a dealership on the road but nothing else, I take the exit and drive in the direction of the dealership hoping there are other things near by where I could find gas but the road goes for 5 miles with nothing. I have about 1/4 of a quarter of a tank left now and I am pretty nervous, I look on my phone and see the next exit had gas and I curse myself for not staying on the interstate! I turn around and get back on the interstate trying to baby the throttle. Kingston was the next exit and I knew there was gas *SPUTTER BUCK*. I look at the gauge and I am almost on E and I am not sure if the sputtering was because of the previous issue or I was running out of gas. I give the good ole girl a pep talk and watch the mile markers go by, boy did it seem like forever. Meanwhile in the back of my mind I am thinking about what Brad told me. "Get some fuel containers from Walmart while you're there and put some gas in them. Nothing worst than breaking down because you ran out of fuel." Damn you Brad for being right! I make it to the exit and there is a small hill to climb *SPUTTER BUCK*, I make it up the hill and can see the gas station. I'm now officially on E and I pull into one of the stalls and thank my luck and shut it off. I filled her up and to my surprise it only took 17.6 gallons. The new tank is either a small replacement or there was much more fuel in the tank than the gauge leads you to believe but either way it was a scary moment! I go inside to grab a bite to eat and relax for a bit feeling much better and being even closer to home, it was 3pm and I was only 4 hours away from home! After 30 minutes I got back on the road.
I am glad to say the last few hours of the trip went well, sorry I don't have anything exciting for you guys but I am glad for it! It got dark again on me and I had to fight poor vision but I knew the roads well so I felt pretty good. The scariest part was the last 40 minutes when I was so close to home that you can taste victory but are waiting for the upset! I patted her when going up the Horace Wilkinson Bridge that entered Baton Rouge. It is a fairly steep bridge and there is tons of cars trying to get into some short lanes, I had some concerns she might sputter while going up but it handled it like a champ. After that it was just 30 minutes to home and I pulled in the driveway 10 minutes before 9pm. I unpacked everything from the inside and cleaned her up a little bit for the wife and went inside to let her know I was home. Of course she went right pass me to go check out Trixi and she fell in love. She went through the entire cabin trying all the lights and looking at the storage and was excited about all the future things she could bring and do in there. I think she was most excited about the outside porch light though, which is funny since it is such a simple thing. In the end we are both happy with the purchase and don't regret any of it. If I would have towed the vehicle then a lot of these things would have came up the first time we took it out for a trip and I am much happier knowing I worked out a lot of little things before my family was in it. I also know what I need to do next because of those found issues and the money that would have went to shipping was instead used on paying mechanics to make progress on fixing her. All in all it was a great adventure and I hope I didn't bore you guys too much with the details. Now a new adventure starts, restoring and enjoying Trixi!
-Dane
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