We enjoyed our stay near Denver at Cherry Creek State Park. Seems like a great location. If you are in the area, we recommend it. The sites are very spacious and the campsites have full hookups on a concrete pad. And they are well maintained. Very nice.
We left our campsite early in the morning. Like 6:30 AM early. The plan was to go from east Denver through northwest Denver and on to eastern Colorado on I-70 before the morning commuter traffic got to heavy.
The drive was pretty uneventful for about an hour.
Then the engine chugged a little.
It felt a little like it did 15 months ago when our fuel pump went out. ugh.... we kept climbing the mountains, downshifting and using the jake brake where necessary.
When the 'Check Engine Light' came on, we knew we had an issue. After we crested the mountain and approached the Exit for Breckinridge, we took it.
We pulled off and into a Safeway parking lot and made some calls.
We called our CoachNet number and weren't too pleased with the response. I didn't know what kind of Cummins engine we had. ISC or ISL or ?? I found out it is an ISL engine. The technician I talked with gave me the impression he really didn't want to solve my problem and put me at ease. He tried to talk me into driving it back to Denver. I didn't expect that response. I asked where would they tow me if I was uncomfortable doing that. He said he'd call me back.
Meanwhile, we called Transwest Trucks in Commerce City on the west side of Denver. I talked with Rob Draper, the manager of the RV and Bus section of the shop. He was great. He said an amber light 'Check Engine Light" meant we could still drive it. He said I needed to make sure I kept the RPMs up to 2000 or 2200 and I should be OK. He said he could get us in that day.
Then we talked again with the CoachNet technician. He said he had us all fixed up and we could be seen sometime Thursday afternoon at a Freightliner shop in Denver. Really? How is a day and 1/2 wait acceptable? I mentioned to him we had already called another place (Transwest Trucks) and we were headed there.
So we turned the Roadrunner around and backtracked to Denver, back up over the Continental Divide. I kept the RPMs up over 2000 and the coach did fine. I had one short lived hesitation but we made it to the shop 70 miles back to Commerce City.
Rob had Hasan check things out. I removed the bike rack and he plugged in his laptop to the engine.
The data showed clogging in the fuel filters. It had been 15 months since those were replaced. Hasan replaced them both and it was an $164 bill. Well worth it.
We hooked up the Honda again and stopped by the Freightliner office and were back on our way by 1:00 PM.
Through the Rockies and into Utah along the Colorado River.
It was a long day and we arrived at our Dead Horse Point State Park campground about sunset.
We found our site and shoehorned it in before calling it a day. By the time we set our jacks and opened up the slides, it was dark...
It looked a lot better in the daytime. That was our trip to Dead Horse Point State.
Glad you stopped by on the Roadrunner Chronicles. Please join us tomorrow for another edition from the Arches National Park.
