With a fresh oil change, a ground wire run on the Throttle Body, and some misc. other repairs, we were off. Today is going to be the proof in the pudding day, as I have to drive the coach over a pass in the Smokey Mtns. A town called Monteagle, TN. Has a 5 or 6% grade for 3 miles when heading west and a little steeper on the west side.
Normally, this shouldn't be a big deal, but alot of folks said I was crazy to put a 350 in the Pineapple as it came with a 455. Well let's just stay I was in the right place at the right time and was made an offer I couldn't say no too. Anyway, now that the 'break in' period was over I planned on pushing a little harder on the motor RPM wise to pick up the pace a little.
While I was doing pre-flight checks, school was in session for our daughter. She got a biology lesson on some of the local critters:
A little studying with breakfast before we left.
Things were running good and I stopped on the way out of GA at an auto parts store and got a spare set of drive belts. One of the things from the night before was we found the set screw that bolts into the alternator to hold the belt tight was stripped. We got it tight as we could but anything over 3000 RPM and it would start slipping and screeching.
I had planned on filling up with premium fuel and throw a little octane boost in for the ascent on the pass, but before I knew it, I was on it and climbing. They had a slow truck lane going up so you could pass easy. As soon as I saw I was on the ascent I stuck my foot in it as hard as I could to try and keep speed up. I had Lucy open the engine hatch as I knew we would be generating alot of heat and I was sure the ground wire was the solution to the FI problems....
Speed started dropping and the motor was loading up. I tried to downshift to 2nd and the belt was having none of is SCREEEEE! Shifted back to 3rd and she was pulling steady around 45 mph and 21-2200 RPM. I could hear the motor pinging, but had little choice as I knew if I backed off, we wouldn't make it. Chug chug chug up we went holding steady and driving around the tractor trailers.
We got to the top and I took the exit to give the motor a rest. Filled it up with premium , checked everything and off we went. It was all downhill for the next few miles and soon we were in Murfreesboro, TN.
This was a pretty big battle in the civil war with many losses on both sides. Not a pretty time at all in our history. The part was in the path of totality and they had a number of souvenirs to buy and many activities planned.
We stopped at a store and reloaded with supplies and continued to out new campsite, Poole Knob, TN. It's run by the Army Corps of Engineers and pretty nice at that.
This site was alot steeper than it looks. I also learned that just because the showers look close on the campground map, they may be 80ft higher in elevation and inaccessible from your site....
An evening walk was amazing with all the fire flies twinkling in the forest like little fairies.
No comments:
Post a Comment