After a quick stop at Ken-Tool, we headed northeast to Canada. Despite our fears of long lines and secondary inspections, there was no waiting and Canadian Customs simply asked us if we had any firearms or explosives, and then waved us through. In the morning, the Customer Service people and Technicians were waiting for us […]
We are moving quickly now. Hope you can keep up. After a relaxing visit and overnight stay at Reutter’s Roost B&B (probably gained 2 pounds), we headed towards Canada. An important stop along the way was Ken-Tool, the world’s leading manufacturer of tire service tools. Sometime soon, I’ll be doing a full post on our […]
The snow-clogged streets of Denver soon turned the freeways into rivers of brown icy slop. So much for keeping the truck clean. It was nearly 850 miles to St. Louis. That’s more than we like to drive in one day. After over-nighting outside of Topeka, we threaded our way through the labyrinth of freeways into […]
Despite the fact that we reached Denver under blue sunny skies, weather was on the way. The temperature had dropped back down into the low 30s and flakes of snow were drifting around when we arrived at the Gates Corporation World Headquarters. It was a pleasure to meet some of the people behind the company […]
Yes we are on the road. VERY on the road. After circling for a couple of days and a relaxing visit with friends in Grass Valley, we headed east over the mountains in a couple of 10-hour marathon drives to Salt Lake City and on to Denver. The monotony of the long straight roads was […]
Like a good first aid kit or a winch, we hope we never need chains, but we know better. In snow, packed ice or mud, chains are often mandatory, even with our aggressive Michelin XZL tires. From experience, we know that chains on the rear wheels are often enough to move forward, but in very […]
While The Turtle V looks ready from the outside, before we head east to ship to Europe, we wanted to know what was going on inside the engine, differentials, transmission and transfer case, as well as the coolant that not only cools the engine, but also heats the camper and our FlatPlate hot water system. […]
Whether you travel in a car, SUV, pick-up camper or expedition motorhome, it’s easy to overlook one of the smallest parts of the drivetrain. When you think about it, all of the power in our big engines is channeled through the transmission and back to the rear wheels (and front wheels if you have four-wheel-drive) […]
In the process of replacing the water pump belts and hoses at Ken Imler Diesel Performance, we took care of a couple of other problems. Plastic is convenient for lightweight manufacturing, but it doesn’t last forever under a hot engine compartment. Our overflow tank was deteriorating and the plastic brackets were cracking. The fan blade […]
An equally important part of the cooling system is the serpentine belt that powers the water pump as well as power steering, alternators and the fan blade. During a recent demonstration video shot at Ken Imler Diesel Performance in Sacramento, we installed the new Gates Heavy-Duty FleetRunner® Belt that provides twice the service life compared […]
