I ended up getting to the Teton River rest area about 35 MI past Great falls yesterday with no overheating, but I did pay close attention to that thermostat showing the water temperature and every time it started to creep up- I’d lift up my foot and ease off. There were only a few hills that I needed to go 20 on.
I stopped at the rest area and it was pretty hot here yesterday, apparently it was a record-breaking day here in Great falls over 100°. It was definitely warmer inside the bus than when I stepped out. I turned off the engine when I went to use the rest stop facilities, and when I came back out, no ignition again.
I made a few calls and sat there a while hoping I could get it to start eventually, but by 2:00 p.m., nothing was happening.
I ended calling I state truck center in Great falls and they sent out a mobile tech who couldn’t find the problem either, but probing around in the electrical area, some circuit must have gotten bridged, and we got the engine to start up.
So I went 35 mi back in the other direction to Great falls. It was over 100 in the bus and there was no way I was really going to be able to sleep in the bus overnight, so I went across the street to a hotel by the truck stop.
I went over this morning and gave him the keys and talked to the tech but the problems I was having, and showed him little bit of what’s been done so far. He seems to think it’s a power issue coming from the batteries and that may be one of the cells is bad so he was going to start by checking there.
He saw that the power was acting intermittently so I’m not sure if it’s the battery, and I’m just waiting at the hotel in the air conditioning until noon when I’ll need to check out to see what they find out before my time is up.
I really really want to start making some progress towards home and it’s super frustrating to keep getting stuck and wait.
I wish I had the skills to figure out the problem myself and just keep going.