Trip Report Ham Lake, MN to Duluth , MN and Back

[neoneddy]

Nothing crazy long here obviously.  I play in some adult hockey tournaments, nothing serious, but it's a good time.  I like to take the bus when possible.  It saves on food and lodging, which more than makes up for any fuel costs.

I had all my tires pumped up to 120PSI  just to test  the ride and any MPG improvements after talking with my city bus driver neighbor.  We had strong head winds  out of the north the whole way up.

We had the small coolant leak I posted earlier, just the ol' girl feeling the  cold Gails of October from the big lake they call Gitche Gumee. 

We got settled the first night, batteries charged, so no need to run the generator anything.  My plan of tapping into the OTR ducting worked pretty well.  My little 29000 BTU propane furnace kept it around 67-68 without too much trouble, even in 30mph cross winds. I did find alot of drafty windows and escape hatches.  Would some thin foam backed tape work?

Saturday morning we made some breakfast using electric appliances. The (nearly 2k watts) solar worked well, but being it late in the season and cloudy I thought I'd run the generator some to keep things from getting low. After running the furnace all night we were around 68% SOC.     My  Predator Generator started acting up again.  I bought one second hand at the Hibbing Bus Rally, it acted up there, just stumbled all the time, even under no or light load. Brought it home, seemed to work fine again, sure enough it wouldn't run clean again.   Oh well, so I fired up my trusty Onan 4.0 BFA, which ran fine, but then shut down 30-45 minutes later.  I suspect it's overheating and shutting down, I'll need to make sure I have the right air flow.

Between small generator sessions and solar we were in good shape for the nigh battery wise, nearly 90%.

Saturday night was less windy and furnace did great again. 

Sunday morning after watching the championship game (we went 1-2) we fired up the ol 6v92. I forgot to pre heat it, so with the engine near 30 degrees F, I did the no fuel + start method from the back to warm up the cylinders.   Even then she coughed a little before wanting to fire on all cylinders.

The ride home was beautiful, fall colors on I35 , a small head wind (yes both ways), but it was the perfect temp to be out driving, no need to run heat or AC.  I'm kind of itching to co out again this fall yet now.

We drove 277 miles used 40 gallons of fuel for a final MPG of 6.93 .   I think that's pretty good for mostly keeping up with traffic, dealing with the big hill coming out of Duluth and subsequent ones.   I compared to  this year to last year (same trip) , I got 6.18 mpg, except I'm sure I'm 5,000 pounds heavier.   I think I'm getting better at driving now too.   

In case anybody asks or cares, I always fuel up at the same station and same pump to try and keep things consistent. Unless of course I'm out of the state, but when I get home I always fuel up.

[chessie4905]

Glad you had a great trip. Did you try a good dose of Stabil in its fuel? I've done it with lawn tractors that were stumbling and it always cleaned them up.

[neoneddy]

I have not yet.   I guess I didn't think the fuel had been sitting in there too long, since august or so.

[buswarrior]

Stabil in every drop of gasoline, all will be fine.

Put your small engine mechanic out of work, dose all the fuel you use.

I have a leaf blower starts on second pull for the last 8 years... no other maintenance and it sits all winter...

Happy customer. Stabil in proper mixture.

Happy coaching!
Buswarrior

[buswarrior]

And, excellent trip report.

We should see more of these reports from more peeps

Happy coaching!
Buswarrior

[Iceni John]

An option for infrequently-used gasoline generators is to convert them to propane.   I did that a few years ago to my little Champion 4000W which, as an emergencies-only power source if the sun doesn't shine for three or more days for my solar system, will probably only be needed once or twice a year, if at all.   Instead of originally always starting on the first pull, it now always starts on the third pull, and it seems to run more quietly than on gasoline.   So far, so good.

John