Four Extra Days in Cuyutlan--AIR SYSTEM AGAIN!

Wed 17^th Feb, ready to depart, start the rig. . . . NO AIR! OMG!

Art called Carlos to enquire about a heavy duty mechanic, he called a friend in Tecoman who apparently knows the city very well.

Art and Carl left for Tecoman in the Jeep picked up the friend and set off across the city to the mechanic. The friend told Art where to park then we had to walk around the corner and down the street to the shop. When asked why we didn't park in front of the shop the friend said that if the mechanic saw the Jeep he would charge too much! He was going to see the motorhome anyway!

We explained the problem, the mechanic said had no time to go. Art not impressed with the shop anyway—no sign of diesel or heavy duty equipment, just several old cars and small trucks and bits and pieces of same.

Across town again to a second shop, marginally better, though there was a HUGE engine, at least 6 feet long from something or other in a corner of the shop. They couldn't help, though gave us directions to the third place “diesel mechanico”, again, halfway across the city.

Here things looked better. Big trucks, trailers and buses. Even a service truck in the yard. The owner went to get his son who spoke to Art about the problem, including the recent air history, and agreed to go and check the rig. Carlos gave him directions and we went to take Carlos's friend home, back across town again. We got back to the rig in time to catch the mechanic standing behind the rig with Gillian, phoning us!

Close examination showed that the air dryer was full of water and was obviously not doing what it should. The Mechanico, Julio (I think his name was) removed it, found the identification numbers and said that it should be available in Tecoman or Colima. He asked for a 2,000 peso deposit for the part, which Art was happy to pay, and off he went.

Later that day Carlos dropped by. The mechanic had called him, for some reason he couldn't get through on Art's phone. Art called him back. Not available there, ship from Guadaraja, two or three days. ARRRGGGHHH.

Cash problem. How much might be needed? ATM in town only works on Mexican banks. Thursday we drove into Tecoman to an HSBC branch. Did we mention that Art has'nt seen his HSBC Debut card since Zihuatanejo so of course we had to use Gillian's. Hope we got enough! Art does have a card on another bank but we don't like the ATM fees it charges.

So much for being in Puerto Vallarta Friday to meet her friends flying in on Saturday. Gillian would have to take the Jeep up herself. We hoped that the RV Park in PV would let her park the Jeep there until Art arrived. We decided to call our good and longtime friends Melchor and Marta (spanishschoolvallarta.com) just to let them know the situation. A few hours later Melchor called back to ask where Gillian was staying Friday night in PV. We said that she hadn't made arrangements yet but there were a several nice hotels near the RV park that would be convenient. They invited Gillian to stay with them and that a neighbour across the street was away and she could leave the Jeep in their fenced and gated yard. Perfect!

Friday morning about 9 O'clock Gillian set off for PV in the Jeep, promising to keep in touch by phone. She called from San Patricio de Melaque where she had stopped for fuel and a few hours later at a rest stop. She also let Art know the exact toll for the motorhome and warned him of the various sets of topes and construction areas and detours. She called later that day, having arrived at our friends home.

Friday afternoon Carlos and the mechanic show up—part not available—discontinued! Several replacements were available but none an exact match, but he was sure some would fit. He (the mechanic) would have to drive to Colima with the old part to make sure that he got the right one. He would leave early Saturday morning and should be back here at the rig about 2:00 PM.

Saturday afternoon, well before the promised 2:00PM Julio appeared along with his young son, and new part in hand was soon under the rig. The original part in the large one with the orange canister. The replacement is the much smaller one.

 Eventually we had air pressure building but it still wasn't right. The low air alarm went off at 30 psi and pressure stopped building at about 65. More poking about and the new culprit seemed to be the governor. Fortunately, this was easily available in Tecoman. He said he would be back “horita”. Literally, a little hour, used to mean anything from “almost immediately” to “in a while”.

A couple of hours later Julio returned this time accompanied by three youngsters, one or two of which were nephews. The governor was installed and Art started the rig again. The pressure began to build but very slowly. Art was told to shut down. He could hear air hissing. Julio shyly admitted he had forgotten to tighten one connection. This time the air came up nicely, but not quite high enough. Several more adjustments to the governor and it looked about right to Art. Then we filled the suspension air bags and ran through several more tests, all of which came out just fine. Total cost, parts and labour and all the trips to and fro, 7900.00 pesos, $625.00 Canadian

By now it was time to take Tia around for a little exercise. Art noticed the mechanics truck parked at the end of the street near the RV park. He probably had taken the kids to the beach and perhaps treated t them to dinner at one of the many small beach restaurants with some of tip Art had given him.

Then it was time to pack up if he was to leave at a reasonable time in the morning. There were just a couple of chairs to put away and the water, sewer and electrical connections. Art packed up everything except the electrical cable which could be done while the air pressure was coming up. (Spoiler Alert: It did!)

Once Tia was fed and Art had had a shower he pondered about what to do about dinner. Not a tough decision. Lap top into the back pack and a couple of blocks up the street to Hotel Fenix for internet, beer and dinner. The internet was useless so he passed the time watching a very one sided soccer game on the big screen over the bar.

A bit of TV back in the rig while nursing a wee dram, then stow the satellite dish, take Tia out for her last walk around then a reasonably early night. Tomorrow, Puerto Vallarta.

Mazamitla to Cuyutlàn

Feb 15^th

Mazamitla to Cuyutlan

9:45 we left the RV Park, hoping that between the Guia Roji road atlas and the Garmin RV GPS we would find our way. We were told that we should make the coast in four hours or so. We had thought to stop in the city of Colima but weren't happy with the overnight options so decided to carry on.

All worked well until in the middle of the small town Tecaltitlàn we sideswiped a taxi which had been approaching us and then swerved across the street to park on our right. About a foot and a half from the curb. Wish I had taken a photo or two. While trying to miss an oncoming truck our right side scraped the taxi's mirror and a cabinet latch creased it's rear fender.

Art carried on down about half block until he found a place to pull over to the curb. The taxi driver came running up and of course was soon joined by a “Transito”, or traffic police officer. Fortunately in Mexico a non injury accident is not usually a problem with the police unless those involved cannot come to a financial agreement. This often involves waiting for the respective insurance adjusters to show up! They work out the details between themselves.

Art knew that hitting a parked car was his error, so asked the taxista how much he thought it would cost to repair. He thought a bit, then the transito officer suggested two hundred fifty or three hundred pesos. Less than 30 dollars Canadian! Art had a close look the damage to the taxi. The mirror he knew we had hit, there was an obvious black streak on our new paint and Art had seen it happening his in his mirror. However he could see little damage to the taxi mirror. Back at our rig Art notice a little yellow paint on the latch of the water heater compartment and a shallow scrape along the side. So.

Back at the taxi, Art suggested that he could call our insurance. The policeman agreed that yes he could, then reminded the taxista that he would have to stay there until both our adjusters arrived! The poor taxista, we felt sorry for him. He had a fare waiting to be picked up, which is why he had stopped where he did. Art asked the taxista how much he thought he needed and was told 500 pesos, $40.00 Canadian. Art paid without argument and we got ready to go.

Then he started the rig. Very low air, no air charging and the low air alarm was on! We were parked in front of two vehicle accesses so crossing his fingers that the spring brakes didn't apply, pulled ahead and through the intersection to a clear section in the next block.

The transito was still around so Art explained that we had a problem with the brakes and needed a mechanic. He said that there was one about 4 blocks ahead. When Gillian began to walk that way he got upset and told us to drive. We tried to explain why we couldn't, without much understanding on his part—he kept telling us to drive slowly! But he did direct her to a mechanic in the block behind us.

A mechanic arrived and climbed underneath to investigate. The poor tranito was quite upset that we were taking up such space on a narrow two way street. The photo is of the block ahead of where we were. About this time a young man arrived and asked in very good English if he could be of help. Art explained the problem of no air applying the spring brakes so the vehicle would not move, it weighed 12 tonnes and could not be towed except by a very large truck. The officer was resigned to us getting it fixed where it was.

Fortunately it was soon resolved. It seemed so at the time anyway. The mechanic said that a filter was full of dirt. He said he had cleaned it out and should work now. Yes, it was charging. 50 pesos. Art also gave 10 to the policeman. The young man who had stopped refused anything. He and his wife or girl friend had been passing on his motorcycle and realised that we might need a hand with the language.

The entire elapsed time for both incidents was less than 30 minutes!

Some how we seemed to have missed our turn to the 54D toll road to Colima and instead of taking the short relatively straight route between the two white pointers and went south then up and around. We only saw one road to the right and it was signed Ciudad Guzman, which we certainly did not want so we followed the GPS. We knew we were wrong when on the GPS we could see the town of Tuxpan on our right instead of our left, then that was confirmed when we drove through the village of Tecalitlàn.

Here are a few photos of the highway before we got to the toll road. Please excuse the flies on the windshield!

However we were soon on the toll road towards and past Colima, tolls for the motorhome and jeep: 196 + 152 pesos, 27 Canadian Dollars.

And from the toll road.

The highway was in good shape, traffic light and the skies sunny but there was a lot of haze, probably from the volcano which had erupted recently was still sending smoke into the air. We could make the smoke out faintly in the distance but it was hard to see and harder to photograph.

We were a little concerned about finding the RV Park. Guia Roji showed it off the 200D (a toll road) but using Google maps it seemed to be accessed from the libre, which we would have to access at Tecoman. We had put the coordinates for the RV park into the GPS so we followed it's lead.

As we entered the toll road having passed the libre entrance, we saw a sign: Cuyutlan 26 Km. Whew! We have been on this toll road from Tecoman to Manzanillo many time and knew it well. Even before we could read the sign we saw our exit approaching. The good news: It's about a kilometre before the toll booth!

We arrived at Coconutz RV Park Cuyutlan at 2:00 PM,  4 hours, 15 minutes including the unscheduled stop in Tecaltitlàn. It was vacant, an unlocked chain across the entrance. Gillian let the chain down and Art drove right in. We had a look around, chose a spot and were about to pull into it when a young lady on a bicycle rode up.

Myriam, a trilingual Canadienne from Quebec, is one of the caretakers and works in the hotel up the street. She had seen us drive by. Shortly Carlos, the other caretaker arrived. Both very pleasant and helpful young people.

Nice little park—50 Amp service, almost unheard of in Mexico. The bathroom/shower rooms were absolutely spotless, with soap, shampoo, paper towels AND toilet paper, which is often missing in Mexican public bathrooms. A bit pricey though cheaper for longer term. They are reconsidering their rate structure.

Next day we took the Jeep up to Colima for a quick look around. Quite a nice city, at least around the square. We didn't take in any museums or tours, the weather was nice a bit too hazy for a good look at the volcano. We may go up another trip, It's less than two hours from Cuyutlan.

Patcuaro to Mazamitla

Patzcuaro to Mazamitla

Next morning, Valentine's Day, we woke to a chilly motorhome, 58F, 14C, inside. The furnace soon took care of that, we would have to wait for the sun and the clear sky to warm up the outside temp from its early morning 2C.

Art began the day with his Brownie Points moving in a positive direction not only by presenting Gillian with a card, which he had remembered to pick up at the supermarket one day last week, but also by remembering that today was Valentine's Day and where he had hidden the card! As an added bonus, Gillian had completely forgotten that it was Valentine's Day!

Heading out, we decided once again to hook up after leaving the park, as near to the end of the rough stuff that we could safely stop at and were on the road again at 10:00 AM, 25 minutes after leaving the RV park less than a kilometre back.

We knew the route through the center of town was no good for the rig so although we didn't go back to the cuota we took the bypass around most of the town down to the libre were we turned south to top up the propane, then passed the former El Pozo and pulled into the Pemex for diesel.

We had several option for today's route having done some of it before, via Morelia, and having received several suggestions and recommendations from friends directly and the internet.

We were heading for an RV Park between Mazamitla and Valle de Juarez. On our own we would have gone by Morelia. Several others suggested around the back of Lago Patzcuaro and to the 15D via a smaller back road.We decided to try the back road through Coeneo. (Between the two white pointers)

This route took us through some nice towns and villages, interesting scenery and through some hilly and twisty roads through pine forest. The last photo in this group is the 15D north east towards Guadalajara.

Once on the 15D we followed it to the La Barca exit then head south and west again following secondary roads. 

This was all new to us so we were more intent on watching were we were going than taking photos.

 

 We arrived at Hacienda El Retiro at 3:40PM 

More to come

Zihuatanejo to Patzcuaro

Saturday, 13 February

At 9:05 after saying goodbye to all our neighbours, several of them wishing us luck with such phrases as “No more RV Moments” and “No trauma, no drama”. We left El Manglar extremely slowly dodging around and sometimes through the huge potholes in the street while trying to avoid the worst of the head branches. We hooked up the Jeep in front of Hotel Real de las Palmas a couple of blocks away to avoid towing through those pot holes. The Jeep was able to dodge the worst of them.

We went straight to the main road in and out town and onto the Mex 200 via the large glorieta (roundabout) where we turned north. Well, actually mostly west. The updated section of the highway was in good shape and missed many of the small towns and their associated topes.

As we proceeded Art noticed that the front air pressure gauge was dropping slowly, the rear gauge seemed to be keeping up. Gillian said she heard air hisses at times, particularly when rounding curves. The air suspension is supplied from the front air tank. Art said that as soon as there was a safe plane to stop he was going to do so. The highway here has no shoulders.

Then the rear gauge began to drop, then the low air alarm came on. Fortunately the rear gauge which
supplies the rear spring brakes was still showing above 100 psi so we had a little time.


Again fortunately, we very soon, almost on the dot of 10:00, came to a place where we could pull off the highway. Not only was there enough room to get off the road, we weren't on a curve! The road was straight in both directions.

We investigated but could not hear anything over the traffic noise. And of course there was no cell phone coverage! We were just short of the town of La Union and only 18 kilometres short of our exit to the 37D toll road towards Patzcuaro, our destination for tonight.

We unhooked the Jeep to look for either a mechanic or a cell signal. The nearest big city was Lazaro Cardenas, about 50 kilometres to the west. Gillian elected to go rather than sit on the side of the highway in the rig.

In Lazaro there was no immediate sign of a heavy duty or diesel mechanic so she called our friend Memo, the owner of the restaurant at El Manglar, for the phone number of Juan, a part time waiter who had a connection with a mechanics shop.

Gillian returned and told Art that Juan had said that he would get a couple of mechanics and head right out. She then told Art that while returning she noticed that her phone had a signal at La Union, only 1K up the road! No later had she said this a car pulled in front of us. Juan and his mechanics!

Much poking around under the rig they finally found a leaking fitting at the right rear airbag. One of them covered the leak with a finger and the air pressure began to build. The mechanics drove off to La Union to get a new connector.

Once that was installed the air began charging, a few tests the air pressure seemed OK but did not reach quite as high as before. A brake fandown test showed it refilling withing normal limits so we set off. Juan accompanied us as far as La Union where the mechanics were waiting to see if all was well. It seemed to be. (Note the wording.) We paid the bill, 110 pesos for the fittings and 2700 pesos for the fix and service call and a tip for Juan. A bit over 200 bucks. Canadian!

At 2:15 we were back on the road.

Our usual stop in Patzcuaro has been the El Pozo RV Park just on the south edge of town. Large enough for us and relatively easy in and out other than watching for trains as we crossed the track and the arch over the entrance. Unfortunately the park has since closed and will likely not reopen. There is a small park close to centro that we visited in the old 30 footer and that was a very tight fit off the street and though a couple of small alleys usually crowded with parked cars. This left us with little choice.

We had been to Rancho la Mesa RV Park several years before in the Chevy Tracker just to check it out and liked what we saw except for the entrance road, which was in terrible condition. We had very recently heard that it had not improved at all. We bought the 4 door Jeep in 2011 so this had to be before then.

Great directions from posters on RV.NET including an excellent map. We unhooked the Jeep on the side of the highway before making the retorno (U turn) to the entrance road. Gillian went first to scout the way and to make sure there was room. We had heard that a caravan had recently arrived. (NOTE to UK readers: in North America a caravan refers to a group of RV's travelling together, not a camping trailer.)

The road was as remembered. Terrible. Many large and deep pot holes, the motorhome swaying back and forth. If that wasn't enough, there were topes! One of which was followed by a deep hole which caused one of the galley cabinets to open and deposit its contents onto the floor, including a canister of rice which of course opened.

Gillian kept reappearing in the Jeep, checking that Art was still coming along.

The caravan was there however there were still a few empty spaces and managed to get parked and level without difficulty, electricity was good and the view was great. Keven the wagonmaster came over to introduce himself. We knew of him and his wife; we have read many of their posts on RV.NET. When he saw us he said “I've read your blog!” to which Art replied “and we've read yours”. (Travels with Kevin and Ruth.) It was good to finally put faces to the names.

That night Gillian asked Art if he wanted to eat in the restaurant here which has a good reputation, or did he want her to cook something in the motorhome. With 40 and a half years of marriage behind him Art knew that there was only answer to that question.

Gillian had Chicken Mole and Art decided to try their roast turkey leg also done in mole sauce. It was the biggest turkey drumstick either of us has ever seen, at least 4 inches in diameter and done to perfection, very juicy and tender. Suspecting that as is usual in Mexican restaurants there would not be a lot of veggies served, Gillian ordered a salad to go with it, to some of which, Art helped himself.

Before we called it a night Art checked the battery charger (remember our Xantrex inverter/charger has failed, we have to connect our backup Canadian Tire batter charger) and it was showing 90%. We didn't really need to charge, the driving and the solar had them pretty full but no lead battery likes to be left undercharged for long. Our aim is to get it to 100% at least every 4 or 5 days.


Before leaving in the morning Art took a few photos of the view,

Saga of the Fridge Part Two

UPDATE 31 January.

I've been working on the fridge on and off, checking the schematic and pictorial diagrams to make sure that I have correctly identified the wires that feed the fans. I'm glad I had a look because the positive is white and the negative is black.

My final idea was that rather than cut and splice into the original wiring I decided to connect the new fans in parallel with the original ones using new wire with spade connectors and a home made Y adaptor for both positive and negative. This way, when (if) I replace the original fans I won't have to deal with wires that had been cut and spliced.

When the fans first failed I had bypassed the thermal switch and found that one fan started. It later turned out that the connections on the switch were a bit tarnished. It is working fine now that I cleaned them up. The red wire is the new + feed for the new fans, connected here to one side of the thermal switch. The black and white wires are original. The short pigtail will connect to the original fan positive, the white. The black wire will connect to the top terminal of the switch.

I eventually tracked down a couple of 120cm fans, bought some wire and crimp connectors. I had some but not all the right ones.  A trip to the glass shop where I had the mirror cut yielded some anodized aluminum channel stock from their scrap bin which they cut down the middle to provide a couple of pieces angle stock. I cut 4 brackets from these and had two one inch pieces left over! Cost for the aluminum and the cutting: 30 pesos. About $2.50 Canadian dollars.

 Using our small folding table and a scrap of lumber from the restaurant and a pair of vice grip pliers I assembled a work bench.

I knew I had a hack saw someplace but even by almost emptying my large bin of tools and stuff I couldn't find it. I ended up cutting by holding the bare blade in my hand. Not the easiest thing to do.

It took much longer than expected to cut and shape the cutouts so the brackets wouldn't reduce the air flow.

Eventually I had 2 brackets cut and one fan mounted to them. The second set went a little quicker but not much.

By now my hands were sore and tired, enough for one day!










Yesterday I had bought a bag of zap straps--I already had some very large white ones which of course weren't long enough and I wanted some a bit thinner so I wouldn't have to drill too big a hole in the brackets. I also picked up a metre and a half of # 14 red/black parallel pair, though I'll only need about a third of the red wire for the positive lead. I'll make that at the thermal switch. The black negative will have to reach from the new fans down to the circuit board. Hope I bought enough!

 Today, Sunday, I paralleled the very thin red and black leads from the fans and crimped on the spade connectors. I then mounted the fans in their brackets into place, having spent quite a bit of time figuring out what would go where. They went in quite well, it took a bit of care to get the straps tight enough without pulling the fans upward. I only had to replace one strap that I had pulled too tight. :)





Once they were in place and secure it only took a few minutes to add the new wires. I had Gillian turn the fridge off  and I got to work:

I started at the top and first I dropped the black wire down to make sure it would reach the circuit board. It did! I plugged the negative ends together (top left corner of the left hand fan--hard to see in the picture) then the new positive lead to the new fans, then the pigtail to the positive wire that connects to one side of the thermal switch, then removed the jumper I had put and reconnected the other terminal from the switch.




Down the ladder to the ground. Now the nervous part. Could I remove the negative wire and plug in my new one without damaging the circuit board connection? Then I realised that I had to reroute both the original wires around a bracket to get enough slack for the pigtail. They came down from the top the up and over a bracket then over to the circuit board. It seemed to be a silly way to route them but a gently pull with a pair of long nose pliers and they came out quite easily and I passed them under the bracket. I connected the old wire to the pigtail and then carefully pressed the spade connector onto the lug. This had to be done by feel as it was almost impossible to see.



Then I had a small brainwave. Take the opportunity to try to clean the gas burner so the igniter would work. We have been running the fridge on the electric heating element because the gas flame had been intermittent and often wouldn't relight.

I "borrowed" one of Gillian's emery boards and gave it a good clean then put the cover back on.

 Now for the moment of truth: Turn the fridge back on. The fans came on! Up the ladder to check everything--the one original fan that had been working now was not. I thought perhaps the thermal switch had indeed failed so I put the jumper back in to no avail. I have left it in anyway.

The fins cooled to about 106F, the food inside the fridge is a very nice 38F, all seem well.

MONDAY; the fins are a bit warmer in the 87f heat of the afternoon, they were at around 110F.  This evening at 6:30 they are at 99, but the food is warmer! I'll have to keep an eye on this for a while.

I may be able to get some better cooling by adding a sheet metal baffle from the outside edge of the fans to the bottom corner of the fins to direct more air through the fins.  There appears to be more space in front of the fins that the specs call for. I'm going to post some of this and a photo or two on the RV.NET forums and see if one of the techs responds.