We're here! ... we moved Friday but I just now got internet. We are in Acadia National Park, and from what I saw yesterday this is the most beautiful place I've been so far.
The motorhome seems to be really fixed; although it may take a little while for me to stop holding my breath and trusting it again.
The problem turned out to be the main wiring harness on top of the diesel engine, which connects all the sensors to the computer that runs it. And we saw the old one.... it was a monster tangle of wiring bundles running in all directions, with little connector things on the end of each bundle. The whole thing layed out flat would have easily covered our dining room table. There was one little bundle that had damage to some of the wires in it, and the wire coverings had been broken and damaged. The diagnosis was that one of the original fasteners had broken or come loose, allowing that section of the harness to fall out of place and at certain conditions to swing over into the edge of the big radiator fan blades ...... where it was slowly getting chewed up. Thus the problem initially occurred only when I was coming to a stop in a downhill situation ..... and momentum swung it over into the fan (and the problem was occurring more frequently... rapidly).
What is so astounding to me is this harness is in a location which is very near inaccessible, and certainly not visible. They just had to eliminate all other possibilities and then decide to replace it. The motorhome "box" is built over the engine compartment, and the built-in bed is partially over the engine ..... so only a small removable access panel is available from the top, and that doesn't allow visibility to much of the area. They said they put their smallest mechanic in there and he was almost hanging by his legs much of the time. Don't know if that is true.... but it sure is a vulnerable feeling to think they'd have to tear your motorhome apart to repair some things. And I think all rear diesel engines are in the same situation.
Bottom line .... I think we've just found the achilles heel to this style of motorhome.
Bar Harbor is a small village (4800 permanent residents) plus 3 other similar villages, that are on the island of Mount Desert, which is several hundred thousand acres. Acadia National Park takes up a very large percentage of the island, but not all. There are the villages and a few areas of comercial development (resorts mostly). But the entire island is covered with hiking trails and very nice one way loop roads along the coastlines. One wonderful thing is the easy accessibility to the coast ..... well, that is a misleading statement because it is most all very rocky and steep, but there are numerous walking paths down to the waters edge, and at least three beaches. Only one is sand however .... the others are finely ground rock grains which are almost like sand but don't stick to you and when viewed under a microscope appear as small grains of various colored rock and granite. Dogs are welcome on the beaches at this time of year (but with 50 degree water no one was in it). But (leashed) dogs are seen with their people all over the place.
The highest point on the east coast is here on Cadillac Mountain ... 1530 feet. The name Cadillac is from a Frenchman who laid claim to much of Maines shores in the early 1700's ... and went on to found the midwest city of Detroit ..... and later a car was named after him.
By the mid 1800's the island had been settled by fishermen, lumbermen, shipbuilders, etc ... and was then 'discovered' as a vacation playground by the socially prominent families of the northeast. It remained so, with summer "cottages" (the word cottage here has no reference to size of the building) being abundant until a 1947 fire destroyed a large majority of the island. Most homes and resorts of the time were never rebuilt .... and donations of those private lands is what started the first National Park.
There is a marathon going on here 'as we speak' .... in a drizzling rain ..... but, wow! what beautiful scenery to run thru!! The route runs mostly along one of the coast loop drives.
Temp. was low 40's last nite .... high of 52 today ..... but oh, so beautiful! I know exactly the emotion that Meriwether Lewis felt when they finally made it to the Pacific Ocean and he saw the coast and said "o joy, the ocien" (his spelling).
Later, Marilyn
Yea! Everyone is well again!
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