What to do In Grand Junction? ;-)

Apologies to Yoda  .  Yes, this isn't a Winnebago topic but it is related to Yoda's post about being in Forest City and folks there waiting on parts.

We're here in Grand Junction , CO at the Cummins dealer about two issues - one was our Cummins ISL coolant temp went to 235 and the engine derated while crossing Monarch Pass on a hot day (apparently nothing wrong, we weren't managing our speed carefully enough) and a code 27 on the gen set.

The bad news is we apparently have another bad inverter (first one replaced under warranty at 177 hours) but this time we're out $1600 plus labor.  And now the zinger - we joined the waiting on parts club.  The inverter may (or may not) be here tomorrow, in the meantime we're on 50 amp power, have satellite Internet and HD TV.  Not too bad.

Well, if you're looking for things to do in Grand Junction, there's Colorado National Monument with a great drive and lots of hikes. You can go out to the Glades area on the back side and do some 4-wheeling. Fruita has a great dinosaur museum. Drive west on I-70 to Rabbit Valley. Nice geology/dinosaur walk on the north side of the interstate and lots of very cool 4-wheeling on the south side at McInnis Natural Area. Lots of wineries in the Palisades area...you can't go wrong with wineries. Might be picking time at some of the local orchards. Take a picnic lunch and watch the Colorado flow by, imagine it passing thru Grand Canyon and eventually reaching the Gulf of California.

And if you're stuck there, waiting for parts, you might as well sit back and enjoy the area.
Wendy

Thanks Wendy!  We spent a week or two at the state campground in Fruita a year or two ago and did a bit of sightseeing - what a beautiful area (and a fantastic campground) and the view goes on forever.  We love this area  - the post is a little tongue-in-cheek.

One of the problems with the dog and cat is what to do with them in a situation like this - the answer is you sit in the waiting room with the entire happy family .

John Canfield said:

One of the problems with the dog and cat is what to do with them in a situation like this - the answer is you sit in the waiting room with the entire happy family .

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Toss them in the Jeep and go exploring ?

Wendy said:

Toss them in the Jeep and go exploring ?

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Sassy the Corgi is A-OK with that, kitty is not - a car trip = hurt and pain at the vet  .

Any guesses about the hot coolant temps?  How many miles on the rig? Were you pulling the Jeep trailer?

John Canfield said:

Sassy the Corgi is A-OK with that, kitty is not - a car trip = hurt and pain at the vet  .

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Our cats are the same, NO CARS, CARS = VET = BAD!

We lock ours in the back with a note on the door to call us if they need to get in the back, we also talk to the tech personally. I don't know how Sassy would like it though.
We've even done this at the Grand Junction Cummins. Although one night we had to go to a hotel because they had two things to get done (replace the compressor and reseal the pan gasket) but would start until the compressor came in (10:30AM), then they "discovered" that to redo the pan gasket the had to Raise the engine and they wouldn't have enough time to finish. Poor planning I think, plus the fact that the pan gasket had to be redone by Cummins in Coburg, OR because it was still leaking. Coburg claimed the GJ used the wrong sealant.

We got there on a Friday so we ended up with the weekend for sightseeing. We enjoyed the Colorado National Monument. We also enjoyed the Grand Mesa Scenic and Historic Byway (exit 49 of I-70).

ken

John Canfield said:

Apologies to Yoda  .  Yes, this isn't a Winnebago topic but it is related to Yoda's post about being in Forest City and folks there waiting on parts.

We're here in Grand Junction , CO at the Cummins dealer about two issues - one was our Cummins ISL coolant temp went to 235 and the engine derated while crossing Monarch Pass on a hot day (apparently nothing wrong, we weren't managing our speed carefully enough) and a code 27 on the gen set.

The bad news is we apparently have another bad inverter (first one replaced under warranty at 177 hours) but this time we're out $1600 plus labor.  And now the zinger - we joined the waiting on parts club.  The inverter may (or may not) be here tomorrow, in the meantime we're on 50 amp power, have satellite Internet and HD TV.  Not too bad.

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John - sorry to hear about your problems, but I have a couple of questions regarding them;
1) What speed do you try to maintain on these mountain passes?  Even with 450hp, I'm lucky to maintain 40mph on long uphill stretches.  We just left Moab and went thru some long climbs before reaching Cedar City.  I try and maintain about 2k RPM during these long climbs, I have been watching the temp gauge and it seems to remain pegged in the center.  Am I using the correct strategy.
2) Will not using the inverter while plugged into shore power help prolong its life?


Had a great time in the "Tricked Out Jeep Capital of the World".

Think I would take Grand Junction over Forest City, but we are still here. Developed a drip under the coach over the holiday weekend, turned out the fresh water tank sprung a leak and had to be pulled to re-weld a fitting in the tank. Hope that holds, not real comforting.
They got the rig back to us a 3:30 but need to finish the tank tomorrow - so barring any other issues we should be ready to go tomorrow. Slide cover back in place with the parts we were waiting on over the weekend.
Went to Mitchells for ribs this evening  - very good!
Have fun in Grand Junction,

John, are you speaking of your Prosine inverter going bad or is there an inverter in the genset?  If the latter, educate me why there needs to be an inverter in a genset?  Does the genset not produce AC voltage or does it produce DC voltage that needs to go thru an inverter to make AC?

SargeW said:

Any guesses about the hot coolant temps?  How many miles on the rig? Were you pulling the Jeep trailer?

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Marty - I suspect the primary issue is the cooling package not being designed for the Cummins ISL; the same cooling package was on the chassis for the Cat C-7 which produced about 400 ft. lbs. less torque than the ISL (the horsepower/engine marketing wars had started.) 

It was a hot day in Denver (mid-90s) and we were pulling 1,400 extra pounds with the trailer.  I kept the RPMs at 2200-2300 but there was still too much load on the engine - should have been going 20-30 mph instead of 40-45 mph.  75K miles on the Cummins ISL.

Ken - hope these guys do a good job for us!

Tom - As long as your coolant temp is pegged in the center, you're doing the right thing.  If the temps ever start to climb, keep the RPMs above 2,000.  We manage the speed and engine RPM for good coolant temps but now that we have 1400 more pounds, we have to be way more conservative with the speed and engine load.

The inverter is actually part of the generator.  The generator produces 200 volts  (or was it ~300 volts) which feeds the inverter which by magic produces 120V AC at exactly 60 Hertz.  Looking forward to Moab!

Yoda - be sure and stop by Shooters bar and grill on the north side of town and ask for Jill - tell her we said hi!

2dalake said:

John, are you speaking of your Prosine inverter going bad or is there an inverter in the genset?  If the latter, educate me why there needs to be an inverter in a genset?  Does the genset not produce AC voltage or does it produce DC voltage that needs to go thru an inverter to make AC?

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Gary - our posts crossed.  It is the gen set inverter.  My guess is the generator drives an alternator (producing ~300 volts AC) and then the AC is fed to the inverter electronics which limits the voltage to 120V and 60 hertz. I'll see if I can get a clarification.  At 177 hours, the gen inverter and stator were replaced due to the same code in 2007.

I was just over in Delta last week.(close to GJ) They have a new bacon slicer at Hastings Grocery thats kinda cool to watch run. 

Bacon.. I love bacon.

John, what RPM are you running going down the road at say 60 MPH in 6th gear?  I am running at about 1800 RPM.  In my rig 2200 RPM would be low for pulling a significant grade.  When I down shift and the RPM's climb I am holding at about 2600 - 2800 RPM, which keeps the fluids moving faster and opens the thermostat sooner.  While pulling a grade today with the tanks all half full (I didn't bother dumping last night)  I saw temps up to 216, and the trans up to about 205.  That was pulling at about 40-45 MPH in 3rd or 4th gear.

You may just need to up the RPM's to get the motor in it's optimum operating range.

Marty - we cruise at 65 mph and ~1750 rpm.  I'll have to play around with speeds and rpm now that we're pulling the trailer next time we do Monarch Pass (or similar) we might need to be running 25 mph.  Yesterday morning we pulled some good grades on our way to GJ from Montrose and the coolant temp never got above 206 but the ambient air temps were in the 60s - 70s. 

The Cummins guys don't think there is a problem with the cooling system at this point.  The hydraulic radiator fan does kick in at 215* and the fan speed is nominal.  They're going to try to get behind the radiator (it's the innermost cooler) and blow some cleaning steam out - there might be a small improvement if the fins are dirty.

Fingers crossed our new inverter arrives by 10:30 am today  .

Well John, it's a shame you didn't show up last month when we were still at our seasonal house in Palisade (abuts Clifton which abuts Grand Junction). We have a couple of RV hook ups and a guest room you could have used. It would have been great to meet y'all.

If you want a pretty good dining experience you might want to try "626 on Rood". SEE HERE Expensive but has been highly recommended to us. We plan to celebrate our anniversary there when we get back to Grand Junction in a couple of weeks. Just for grins I attached the dinner menu.

We are in NH right now visiting kids, grand kids and a great grand kid plus having stuff that has been in storage for ten years loaded up and moved to the house.

Thanks Clay - maybe we can catch your you next year!  Yes, that is a $$$ restaurant but it looks good.

Generator "fixed" yesterday.  New inverter, lots of labor - $2500.  We left GJ about 1300 hours (1 PM) arrived at our Moab campground two hours later.  Went to shut genny off as DW was registering - gen set was one step ahead of me and shut down with the same code 27 error.  Restarted it and it shut off with the same code 27. 

Grrrrrrr.

Back to Cummins in GJ Monday 

Well, there are worse places to be stuck than GJ. Although being "stuck" anywhere usually isn't fun.

Wendy