Recap: Last night we pulled into a pretty camp in South Carolina, hooked up shore power and … nothin. Would we have to sweat through the night and our shorts? Would we share loudly rumbling diesel generator sounds and fumes with our neighbors? Would the Hampton Inn take a mild-mannered Schnauzer?
The RV park had another 50 amp spot available and allowed / suggested we move there, to the edge of the campground where running the gennie all night would disturb other campers less. They even offered us a refund, if we decided to go to a hotel instead, which was especially gracious and not something every park would do. So Michael unplugged stuff, stowed the landing pads, and off we went to another spot. Turn off the engine, the generator, and all air conditioners. Plug in to this 50 amp pole, and wait for the fancy surge protector to run its checks. It’s only 88° now but a zillion % humidity. Wait. And…. it works! Happy, happy, joy, joy! Turn on the cool air and break out the gin, ’cause the thing magically fixed itself! OK, it didn’t really. What probably happened, to get technical for a sec, is voltage dips at the old site made the transfer switch say “No way.” South Carolina’s had flooding and a tornado recently, and maybe this power pole is corroded. Contacts on our reel probably need cleaning too. Many points of failure have to agree that today is not a good day to die, in order for the bus to have power. It turned out fine, nothing caught fire, no misery this time. Well, none apart from wondering whether essential utilities would function, after a day of driving with another travel day coming in the morning.
Speaking of the morning, guess what? The generator didn’t feel like it, so it went … On? …no, how about Off. Ha ha! *sigh* No gennie while driving means no AC in the bus while driving six hours in upper 90° temps, except what blows out of the dash. Trust me, that won’t cut it. Parboiled ain’t a good look for Chip. Experience told Michael to force a hard reboot on the generator’s brain. Is there a switch for that? Yeah right. Here’s the switch: pull open the gennie drawer, take the cover off, remove a coolant reservoir, release a catch with a screwdriver, then lever a ribbon cable off the computer, count to five, and reconnect everything. That’s how you reboot. Thankfully, it did the trick and appeased the motor gods. For now.
It’s another fun filled day of driving along the interstate. What could go wrong? Shush.