An unusual occurrence; Denny rolled out of bed at 6 a.m.! Our 8 a.m. appointment was in Astoria, Oregon, which is about 25 miles away but since we didn't know how many 25 m.p.h. areas we would have to pass through to get there, we left about 45 minutes prior to the appointment. It was foggy when we left but started to clear until we reached the bridge across the Columbia River where a marine layers hovered a few feet over the water. It's a really pretty effect with the sun shining through and the layer of clouds resting on the hillsides in Astoria made a neat sight. Next time we head that way I'll bring my camera. The bridge across the Columbia River is 3.7 miles long as this is where the Columbia empties into the Pacific. It's a pretty impressive sight.
We rolled into Astoria Ford for our appointment where we waited for an hour to receive word on what needed to be done. Bad news; the transmission fluid was cooked, the clutch to the reverse gear was fried, the clutch to overdrive gear was probably bad and who knows what else they would find upon attempting repairs to the transmission. So the mechanic recommended a new rebuilt transmission, which they could get shipped from Portland by tomorrow. Okay. Then we discussed adding temperature gauges and/or a second transmission cooler and ended up going for both, as we have a lot of mountains to cross before we're through with our travels so we might as well have the truck's transmission set up to deal with them better. Our fifth-wheel weighs in at 16,900 pounds, which is within our Ford F450's towing capacity but close to the limits, so we'll bite the bullet on this. The lady handling the desk for the service department arranged a rental vehicle for us at an Enterprise dealership and an Astoria Ford employee shuttled us over there to pick it up. They have been very helpful and understanding of our situation and of course, we had extended our stay at our current campground before we arrived just in case we had major work to be done so we wouldn't be pressed for time. So it should all work out.
We took our little Toyota Corolla rental car to the grocery (love that tiny turning radius compared to our monster truck!) while in Astoria-what a neat town it is! I noticed a sign that said it's on the National Historic Register since it is the oldest American settlement west of the Rockies. It has some really steep hills reminiscent of those you see in San Francisco and some wonderful Victorian style homes. I told Denny we should come back to do some exploring while we were renting a car with great gas mileage as we also saw the Columbia River Maritime Museum in town which looked interesting. Perhaps tomorrow?
Back at the rig I unloaded groceries while Denny transferred the parts needed from the broken tripod to the new one so we could get the DirecWay satellite dish up and running for my Internet access. We set it up, got it leveled, pointed, and within five minutes had our signal peaked and we were off and running. Whew! Since our cell phone signal is weak here (Cingular does not have good coverage here either) having Internet access becomes more important for keeping in touch with family and friends.
So while we're not happy with having to replace the transmission on the truck, it appears we may be lucky in our choice of Ford dealerships to get the work done. I'll let you know if we're still pleased when it's all over and the truck is back in our hands.
No comments:
Post a Comment