Escaping the snow

[Levitation]

Charlotte Ann is currently berthed at the Boca Grande Marina after a pleasant run down Charlotte Harbor...
After all these years of reading about everyone else traveling and boating in warmer parts of the country our time has come...
We pulled the R25 from Michigan to our place on Manasota Key, 1429 miles in 48 hours almost to the minute.. The Duramax 2500HD performed flawlessly... I see two of the bearing buddiese trailer on th are throwing grease past the dust shield... The bearings are running cool so it is an annoyance not a problem...

Going to stay here a couple days then do some day cruising....

cheers

 

[Maxx]

 

[SlackwaterJack]

Definately....If there's no pics.... it didn't happen 😉

 

[JamesTXSD]

Hey Denny-o,

For years, I posted about the warm places during the winter, feeling that I was doing a public service for my boating brothers and sisters in the frozen northland. Oh, there will be some who will say you are gloating, but many others who will appreciate seeing some photos. I am not in the "if there's no photos, it didn't happen" camp... but you know what they say about "1000 words." 😉

So, give 'em some photos, especially showing that good-looking tug in the warmth.

Warm wishes,
Jim B.

 

[Spirit of Gratitude]

Hey Denny-o,
I am glad to see you traveling with your boat. The biggest reason I post when I am using Spirit of Gratitude in warm places is to provoke people to do the same. After all it is what our boats are built for. Major travel across land to wonderful warm places .
I would like to think that my last trip to Southern Cal helped provoke you for this trip you are on now. I am heading back out to southern Cal early next week to enjoy some more sun and fun.
My challenge to you is, Can you beat me in posting some pics for us all to enjoy. I bet you can for it will be almost a week till I am off yachting again.

I applaud you for getting out of the snow and I look forward to hearing and seeing updates on your travels.
Enjoy Enjoy Enjoy! 😀

 

[Zundels]

Yes, Denny-o,
Those of us stuck in the frozen north do really love reading about R25s heading south to warm weather, something we all long to do some day. Nice to read about how well the Duramax 2500HD performed, this could be my next vehicle based on your recommendations.

Keep the updates coming, pictures or not, we are all there with you.

Don

 

[Levitation]

No USB cable to transfer photos at the moment and will be out on the Gulf this morning with no internet for a day or so... sorry guys...

 

[Levitation]

We arrived back home yesterday at 4pm.. The Duramax 2500HD pulled the boat without a single hiccup over the 3200 miles... The 011 is measurably a better towing truck than our 08 - and the 08 is a winner in its own right compared to anything I have pulled with before this... The stiffer frame and suspension on the 011 can be felt when going over uneven roadways or in a cross wind... There is no need to even consider a weight transfer hitch or sway control... The increase in torque and horses over the 08 really shows when starting from a dead stop pulling uphill on a Kentucky mountain - allowing me to accelerate upgrade to 65 and merge into the hole between two big trucks even with a very short entrance ramp... The exhaust braking is a winner when going downhill, requiring me to do - well - nothing at all... 95% of the trip was driven with the cruise control engaged and 2 fingers on the steering wheel... It was 65 going up the mountain and 65 coming down the mountain and my biggest decision was if it was time for another handful of peanuts as the computer made the decisions on gears and throttle... It is slightly spooky to sit there and watch the truck shift, and brake, and the turbo boost ramp up and down without the slightest input on my part... I do not use the tow mode, leaving ALL the decisions to the computer...
Anyway, the mileage was 10.5 mpg going and 11.0 mpg coming back - which is surprising because I felt like I pushed it harder coming back...

NOt everything on the boat went that smoothly however... Leaving Boca Grande on a 2.5 hour run to Alligator Creek, the Garmin MFD died... This forced me to go back to Boca Grande and buy a chart to navigate with... Had we been in pea soup fog at the time the MFD quit, like we were when going out to Boca Grande a couple of days before, it would have been a real problem... Thankfully, it was a perfect day...
Ya, ya, ya, I know - it was my fault... I will have a back up GPS from now on... As a result, we cut the trip short by a week and pulled the boat back to Michigan ... I had intended to leave it there and go back down in a couple of weeks.... But I felt that solving the MFD issue from 1500 miles away was not a workable plan...

 

[Maxx]

This pic shows how we got her back to the barn.

 

[Levitation]

Yesterday, as the mercury approached 60 degrees here in Michigan we pulled the boat out of the shop and I proceeded to flush the saltwater from the engine... When we had arrived home it was in hard freezing conditions of mid 20's temperature and that did not auger well for fooling with fresh water... Knowing that many of our tugs spend their lives sitting in saltwater I felt that a couple of weeks was not going to do major damage...

In starting the engine an issue came up... I have been noticing that if I have run the engine within a day it starts easily... In this case after a couple of weeks it took three rounds of cranking to get it to fire... Freshly charged battery set (all in parallel)and the engine cranks briskly... As soon as it fires it behaves like it did when brand new... Scratching my head and wondering... I am familiar with diesel engines and my usual experience is that they either start promptly and run, or they don't start at all... Those are all dumb, mechanical diesel engines... This engine is one of those honor school graduates with a brain... Dunno if I am smart enough to tangle with it... I hope this is not the start of another ECM saga...
Yes, I have (in the past) pulled the ground cable and shined it up as well as the terminal connections on the ECM, then put on electrical grease and reinstalled... There 'should not' be any corrosion or paint issues... I also just recently pulled all battery lugs, shined and greased, and freshly installed along with water the cells - and a new charger - as part of spring commissioning... The fuel filter appears to be free of water and everything looks normal - I am less suspicious of the fuel supply as the engine runs like a top once started... I wonder if the group has any cures for this new behavior...

Also, while coming North I knew I would get into freezing temperatures in Kentucky.. Sure enough we did.. I stopped at a couple of of rest stops along I-75 that cater to trucks etc. and asked for some RV antifreeze... Everyone looked at me as though I were daft... The clerks claimed they had never heard of pink antifreeze... They had Prestone but I did not like that idea... So, I bought a couple of gallons of their best windshield washer fluid and proceeded to freeze proof the head and the fresh water plumbing... I felt the sea water in the engine would resist freezing adequately and I was less than 24 hours from a heated shop... Anyway, I just now flushed the freshwater tank and plumbing 3 times and we should be good to go there...

 

[thataway]

Windshield washer fluid/antifreeze is 35% to 50% methanol--so you want to be sure and get every bit of that out of the drinking water system. RV antifreeze is propylene glycol (engine antifreeze is ethylene glycol).

I would look at the fuel supply, and specifically if there was a minor amount of air getting into the fuel lines after the filter. Is there an electric booster pump before the mechanical or injector pump? If the engine cranks well, it is usually not the battery, but fuel related. Since it runs well once started, the fuel supply seems OK. I have had this same type of problem with a generator set, where there was a very slow leak and air displaced fuel between the filter (or at the filter) and that air had to be pushed thru the pumps/injectors before the engine fires. In my case it was around a Racor filter, where the fitting was not as tight as it should have been. Another question would relate to a block heater in the cold temps--often Cummins have that feature, but it would not be an issue during warm temps.

 

[Levitation]

Thanks for the comments Bob... I will attempt to do a bit of trouble shooting and see if I can detect air in the system...

 

[Levitation]

aaargh, my fingers hit send before my brain engaged...

Yes I agree, methanol is not potable, nor is ethylene glycol... The flush three times no matter what, is an old lab rat habit from many years of protecting freshmen chemistry students from themselves... Anyway, we don't drink from the water tank, using supermarket water for our food...

I walked into the organics lab at the university one evening and the lab janitor (18 years old and his second week on the job) had a 5 gallon glass carboy on a cart and was busily dumping the discard beakers from the nursing student lab sessions that day, mainly glycerin and other fatty organics into the carboy... What I did not know was that he had just finished cleaning the inorganic lab on the third floor and since there were only a few quarts of liquids in the carboy from that job he did not want to make the trip all the way to the storage barrels in the safety building out back and then come back up to the 4th floor to clean the organics labs...

He was new and no one explained to him that the discard beakers in the freshman inorganic chemistry labs would have lots of nitric acid and sulfuric acid in them most of the time and those discards were never to be mixed with the beakers from the organic labs (nor in the storage barrels) As I turned the corner, probably whistling (badly) and my mind most likely on some sexual fantasy or other (which is what occupies the minds of young adult males 99 and 44/100th's percent of the time) when what to my wondering eyes should appear but Frank busily pouring beakers into the carboy, and the liquid in the carboy was showing flashes of color slicing through the roughly 2.5 gallons of otherwise clear liquid with a few bubbles and a slight steam at the surface... It is amazing how time slows at that instant... It was like I was wading through molasses as I grabbed Frank by one arm and jerked him backwards out the door (which was like stop frame in verrry slow motion to my brain)... We landed in a heap next to the door and the carboy blew sending the big glass windows on the outside wall cascading down onto the parking lot, unsuspending the suspended ceiling, and setting off the fire sprinklers... Did $80,000 worth of blast/fire/acid damage to the building (1960's dollars) and Frank got a few splinters of glass and a small acid burn on his ankle that was protruding past the door frame...

Ahhh yes, better living through chemistry...

 

[Dale777]

Also, while coming North I knew I would get into freezing temperatures in Kentucky.. Sure enough we did.. I stopped at a couple of of rest stops along I-75 that cater to trucks etc. and asked for some RV antifreeze... Everyone looked at me as though I were daft... The clerks claimed they had never heard of pink antifreeze... They had Prestone but I did not like that idea... So, I bought a couple of gallons of their best windshield washer fluid and proceeded to freeze proof the head and the fresh water plumbing... I felt the sea water in the engine would resist freezing adequately and I was less than 24 hours from a heated shop... Anyway, I just now flushed the freshwater tank and plumbing 3 times and we should be good to go there...

For anyone who wants to find a quick supply of the pink, RV antifreeze (propylene glycol by Camco), I have found it at every Walmart Supercenter. Since I have a motorhome, and use this antifreeze during winter storage, I tend to gravitate toward browsing the RV and boating sections of Walmart while my wife does other shopping.