Feb 12, 2019
It’s been that kind of day
I have no idea where today went. Non stop activity. Best part of the day was our usual beach walk. We do a good deal of planning and decision making as we walk. I spent a good deal of today on the computer for our Europe trip and then I tended to get involved in a bit of this and a bit of that with some que pasa’s here in the RV park and somehow my free time just dissipated into thin air.
By the way, both parks remain full to the brim and we even have at truck camper boondocking in the parking lot @ RV1 tonight.
The good news is that our first two weeks in Europe have been researched and Colin and I are both in agreement. Not so many planned activities and museums this trip. We are going to just try and wing it when we get to a new destination. Of course I still have to plan accommodation, transportation between locations and sometimes airport transfers.
The bad news is that we received an email last night from Erik our RV tech, ( I finally have it right, spelt with a K ).
Hi Colin the generator is turning into a bit of a headache. The radiator has been reinstalled and that all went fine but the other problem is the belt tensioner pulley, the bearing is finished on it and it damaged the pulley. I spent most of today in a futile search for bearing and pulley but no luck so I think the only solution is to use a slightly smaller bearing and have a coller made for it that will fit into the worn hole in the pulley and have a machinist fit the pieces together or make a new pulley entirely. If the pulley was metal a machinist could weld it in and machine it to the correct size but the pulley is plastic and so that complicates the problem. The belt wasn’t new either but I was able to find a belt that would work, its slightly narrower and thinner but an original belt is nowhere to be found and this belt is better than leaving the old one on. So basically its a matter of solving the pulley problem now and then we can reassemble the generator and run it for a couple hours before installing it.
Those of you who are familiar with Mexico have an idea of what those many parts places look like. I can just imagine Erik walking among those many parts piled up here and there. It is a miracle that he found a used not quite right part but something that would work. Now we just need him to find someone to rebuild that plastic part. He is so confident. So happy that he is on the job. I had more money transferred to our checking account today. I think I may need to be sitting down when I get the final invoice 😎
Colin’s reply to Erik was….Ohhhhh. This has turned into a bit of a horror story. I get what you are doing and I guess the option is to keep moving forward. If this was Canada, a new generator would be the only way to go. They don’t make these things to last, however 18 years here on this one. I guess this is probably not far from normal. Thank you for everything. Don’t push yourself. This year has been our worst for problems, rv and otherwise.
Definitely that kind of day 🙄 One of my favorite Mexican sayings is ‘poco a poco’. Bit by bit or ever so slowly or even one step at a time ( one of my favorite expressions ).
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Nice that you have Erik working on your generator and hopefully will get it back and running again for you.
If Erik can’t do it, then no one else could.
Lucky to have Erik on your team. Hopefully things go well. I think the manufacturing of a new metal piece would be the way to go. Things would then fit properly and you should be good for another 18 years. No more plastic. Good luck with whatever you decide.
Well for certain the RV will last at least another 18 years. We agree, metal is the way to go. Neither back home in Canada nor in the US would they even try and create a new part. We would have had to spend 10K for a new unit. Thanks goodness we are in Mexico.
Do you have an hour meter? How many hours on the generator? We have about 900 hours on ours over 15 years so about 60 hours per year with no major problems (yet). Ours is a 4KW Onan gas unit.
We had 1,130 hours on the meter and the RV is a 2001. We have done well with the generator and fortunately thanks to Erik we won’t have to buy a new one, fingers crossed. Our unit is a Generac and a diesel.
Lucky that you have someone you can trust and who is willing to find a way. Good luck!
All of us here in Mazatlan are very aware of how blessed we are to have Erik here.