The trip from hell I assure you that every word is true, and at that I left out some parts. - by C. J. Vermeulen, jvlen@msn.com

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My daughter had just delivered Grandchild #4, and we were on our way from Trail BC to my daughter's place in Canora, Sask., about a 1200 Km away. This was also the inaugural trip pulling our new 14' flat deck trailer carrying our little Super Coupe. We got away about 11: 00 AM and were doing fine until we were 10 Km from home. Our 32 ft Winnebago Superchief, usually reliable as a train, started to run a little rough. We carried on, assuming old gas was the problem and hoping it would clear up. After climbing the to the top of the Creston/Salmo pass, and getting about 10 miles past Creston, it got worse. The weather, it being mid September, had started to cloud over and get cold. We stopped, and after sliding the seats back, and undoing the engine cover bolts, removed the cover to have a look. We had gas, but the spark seemed weak. Off with the distributor cap, and found a mess. This was my fault, I had assumed that my mechanic had replaced the cap and rotor, and later found out that he thought I was going to do it. My wife gave up her nail file and I cleaned, filed, and restored the cap and rotor. Put back together, the engine ran just fine! Away we went with only an hour lost. It now started to spit rain. Another 20 Kms down the road, the roughness recurred, this time accompanied by backfiring and a large loss in power. Again, move off the side of the road, move the seats, undo the cover bolts, and have another look. Thinking the cap or rotor had failed, off they came, but they were fine. Must be a gas problem. After setting my wife up with the fire extinguisher, and rehearsing our escape if we had a fire, I removed the carburetor gas filter. She was not impressed with her new job as a firefighter. The filter looked okay, but just on the chance it was not, I removed it, did up the gas line, bolted down the cover and tried the highway again. No luck. (I have to bolt down the cover each time we move because it will lift due to air pressure and interfere with the controls.) It was now cold with steady drizzle. Again move off the road, move the seats, undo the bolts, and reinstall the filter, wife with extinguisher at the ready, dog outside, money in her purse by the door. She was less impressed. Now the next task was to trace the gas line by lying under the rig in the mud and rain and try to find another filter. I found it all right, in behind the coach batteries, under the stairs. The only way to get to it was to ignore my bad back, undo all the wiring, lift (not slide) the big 6 volt coach batteries out, and remove the filter. Of course, with the wiring undone, we had no coach lights, no radio, no heat and a wife getting more testy by the moment. As the filter came off, a load of dirt came out of the line. Obviously, this baby had not been changed for a while. I did not have a replacement, so the next problem was what do I do? I cannot reuse the filter, and the spare gas line I had was too small. At this point in the line, the line's outer diameter was 9/16," a huge size. On the other side of the engine fuel pump, it was smaller, and that was the gas line I did have. However, I did have a piece of plastic water line from a shower hose that I had once replaced that would fit, but I was leery of using it since it was not certified for chemicals. However, I was cold and wet and my back hurt and the War Department was not speaking and really, I had no choice. So, I used the water hose. Back went the batteries, in went the wiring, down went the cover, the seats were moved, and YES it ran fine. Away we went, having lost another 2 hours. The rig ran fine, better than it had for a while, the conclusion being that the filter had been an ongoing problem. The load of the trailer and car (total 2800 lbs.) were being handled better than I had hoped. We proceeded, I trying to warm up, and my better half speaking in sentences again. Little did she know. An hour later, as I was finally getting warm, more trouble. Just 1 Km past Moyie, BC, the rig, with no warning whatsoever, died. The highway here skirts a lake, and is very narrow, with shoulders only 4' wide. I managed to get over as far as possible, but we were half way into the traffic lane, at the top of a hill, in a curve, in the rain. I immediately got out and walked down the highway to make sure we were visible. We were, but there was not enough room for two semi trailers to pass at the same time. All I could do was hope that all the oncoming drivers were paying attention. This time, because the engine had instantly stopped, it had to be serious. The engine would turn over, but would not fire. We tried for an hour to raise our Emergency Road Service on the cell phone, but could not get through. We later found out that we had stopped in a local dead area and that cell phones would not work, even though the phone indicated service was available. So, move the seats, undo the bolts, and check again. Plenty of gas, but no spark. That was what I was afraid of, since the way it had stopped, suggested that the ignition module, or coil had failed, a situation that could only be fixed with new parts. Nothing to it but to walk back to Moyie, in the rain and find help. It was Saturday, and Moyie is a town of about 250, so my hopes were not high. As I walked, something was trying to tell me something, but I was too tired, too irritated, and too cold and wet to listen. At the local Inn, I was able to phone our ERS, and asked that they have the service operator telephone me before he came out. Perhaps he could bring the parts with him, and we could continue. No luck, the only thing the ERS driver wanted to do was to come out and tow our rig to the Chevy dealer in Cranbrook. If we wanted the trailer there as well, it was another $135/hour, even though our agreement covered both units!! He also admitted he did not know how to tow a heavy motorhome. Since towing the unit alone would have still left the unlighted trailer blocking the highway, I reluctantly decided that we had to find another solution. Following a suggestion from the Kootenay Inn staff, I telephoned another heavy towing operator in Cranbrook, Selkirk Towing, and found myself talking to the owner himself. I explained my problem, and he was very helpful. He telephoned his contacts, but could not find any stores still open. He said that the earliest anything would be open was at 10 AM tomorrow (Sunday). While this was going on, I all of a sudden realized what had been bothering me about this whole situation. When the rig had quit, those electrical circuits controlled by the ignition, had also stopped operating! How stupid could I be! A fuse! A lousy 25 cent fuse must have blown. Back to the rig in the rain and increasing darkness. The only way to check the fuses is to stand on the road and look in the open driver's door up under the dash. In the rain. With the traffic blasting by. No blown fuses. It was time to get Bill Estes and the manuals out. An hour later, I found a small paragraph in the Chevy manual that said that the ignition circuits were protected by a fusible link. Out into the rain and dark again to find the fusible link. Flashlight starting to die. Memo to myself: Get a bigger flashlight. Nope, cannot find the link, and to this day have not found it. I am normally a quiet person, rarely given to bursts of temper. I was now so cold and wet and tired and hungry, I went outside in the cold and rain and walked around the rig screaming and yelling at the unit in complete frustration. The look of utter amazement on the Boss's face when I came back in, was the highlight of the whole trip. The situation was getting very serious. It was now dark, the engine battery was starting to run down from using the emergency flashers, and I was not sure what would happen if I tried to wire around the fusible link. Memo to myself: Rearrange the coach wiring so that the generator could also charge the engine battery. Even leaving the car with its flashers going would not provide enough traffic warning. My better half was getting very nervous every time we heard, then felt, the approach of a semi trailer. We decided that we had no more choices, but to phone the RCMP and ask for traffic control assistance, and to see if they could find us a mechanic that could help with the wiring. I unloaded the car from the trailer, and drove back to Moyie. The Boss opened all the curtains and turned on all the interior lights to augment the dimming flashers. The RCMP in the person of Constable Glen Baron, wanted, of course, to tow the unit off the road. After explaining the problems with that approach, and after he had confirmed the situation with the tow trucks, said he would come and help with traffic control. I called the Selkirk Towing owner again and asked him if I could wire the distributor directly. He confirmed that I could as long as I could put a fuse in the line ahead of the distributor. This I could do. Back to the rig and as I parked behind the trailer, I left the engine running, with the emergency flashers running. My also tired. hungry, and cranky Boss then made the supreme sacrifice and contributed her hair dryer and it's 6' of wire to the task, and I proceeded. As I got the rig's first grill off, Constable Baron showed up, and we immediately felt much safer knowing that the cruiser's flashing lights and traffic control devices now were in place. As I worked outside hooking up the wires, I was using my 120 volt trouble light, when blooie, a gust of rain hit it and the bulb blew. And no replacement bulb. My flashlight had died earlier, so Constable Baron, holding his flashlight over my shoulder in the cold and rain, helped me take off the other grill, and hook the jumper wire to the battery relay. Then inside to hook up the fuse holder. We got all ready, the better half in the car, and agreed we would go to a rest stop the Constable knew of about 6 Km up the road. This time I had to leave the engine cover off, since the only way to stop the engine would be to pull the wire from the distributor. I hooked the wire up, turned the key, and BINGO!!!!!, it started. A few minutes later we pulled into the rest stop. It was now 11 PM, exactly 12 hours since we had stared out, and we had come about 180 Km. I want to thank Constable Baron, the owner of Selkirk Towing, and the staff of the Kootenay Inn in Moyie for their help, for without it we would not have been able to make it. We had supper, a stiff drink and went to bed. Sunday we loaded up, drove on into Cranbrook, and obtained the supplies to make permanent repairs. I decided that since all the electrical circuits worked, the fact that we had blown a fusible link was not too serious. I also decided to install a hidden switch under the dash and hook the jumper wire to it, making an anti-theft device. As somebody once said, "To be successful, in adversity you must always find an opportunity". The rig performed flawlessly for the rest of the trip to Canora. We played Grandparents and as usual picked up new words to add to the family language. Austin, just two, to indicate his dislike of something, would shake his head and say Yike it! in his high pitched voice. For helicopter, it was helicopper. Try them, they work. The return trip went well until Regina, when the heater control cable broke. In the heat off position, of course. The weather was warm, so not a problem. Near Medicine Hat, the coach water pump decided it liked to turn on, but not turn off automatically. From Lethbridge to Crow's Nest, the wind decided to really blow, getting to the point that meeting a semi was getting rather interesting. The trailer really helped however, by restraining the rear end. The Boss was starting to mutter again, and the dog moved to his storm position, under the table. The next day, just ten miles from Creston, the voltmeter started to sag. Did I mention the weather had deteriorated and it was now raining? In Creston, the warning light came on indicating no alternator output. We could see the weather over the Creston/Salmo pass, and it was ugly. We stopped right by the Hyundai/RV dealership on the west side of Creston and decided to try to get repairs rather than go on just running on the battery. The knowledge that we would be running into rough weather on the steepest, highest, main highway pass in Canada kind of helped the decision process. The service manager immediately had us bring the rig into the yard, and put Mike, the mechanic, to work. I despaired of ever finding a replacement 140 amp alternator on a Friday. Mike however quickly determined that the alternator was fine, what had happened was that the main fusible link had blown. Close examination of the link (it is attached to the starter and is rather exposed) indicated that it had been damaged by a rock or something, and had corroded to the point that it blew as I turned on more and more electrical equipment in the rain. Memo to myself: Put a protective shield around the new link! Memo to myself: Is this what happened to the other link? Meanwhile the weather was getting colder, and the sky to the West over the pass was even uglier. Mike finished the job in the pouring rain. RV people are great. If you have a problem in the Creston area, go see the Hyundai/RV dealer, they certainly went out of their way to help us. Next decision, do we push this rig and trailer into that weather or do we stay overnight and hope it improves? The service manager phoned and found out that the snow was not yet freezing on the road, but that it was expected to before dark. Decision made; if it freezes on the road, then it could stick around. We go. For those not familiar with the Pass, the upper section is carved out of the valley wall, with no guard rails, and with a rather long drop to the bottom. Remember I said that the heater was out? So, no defrosters, a point that I had forgotten. As we went higher, the rain turned to snow, which started to pile up on the rig. Vehicles coming down had 3 - 4 inches of snow on them, and we were wiping the inside of the windshield to see. At the top, the wind was blowing the snow in circles, and with the fog, visibility was down to less than 10 meters. Going down the other side, we got sandwiched between a semi in front and a gasoline tanker behind, all of us traveling at 20 - 25 Kms/hour. The dog had disappeared and the Boss wanted to follow. This was worse than the problem at Moyie!! At this point the decision last year to build a flat deck car trailer was saving our lives. The trailer has dual rubber torsion axles complete with large surge brakes. With the rig in first gear, the brakes on the trailer were enough to minimize the use of the coach brakes. This prevented the trailer from jackknifing and also minimized loss of control of the rig on the icy roads. Yes, the estimate of conditions had been optimistic, the snow was freezing to the road. We were moving so slowly that the Boss was able to fire up the generator and make us a coffee in the microwave. We normally do not do this when moving, but if we were going to go over the side, we at least wanted to have a last coffee together (we don't smoke). A long time later we arrived at the bottom, and proceeded in the rain, home to Warfield. I never saw the Boss so happy to get out onto solid ground as I did that day.