Day 13, 14 - Atlanta, GA

Since the RV wasn’t going to be ready anytime soon, I went with Chris to the Caterpillar shop to pick up their expedition RV. This was on the other side of Atlanta (sort of) in the middle of the afternoon. Relatively heavy traffic. The shop missed one thing in configuring the computer so the governor kicked in at about 35 mph. Of course this didn’t happen until merging onto the freeway. We turned around at the next exit and the tech was able to make the change in the configuration after plugging in his laptop.

On the way back to their home, I got to drive their Sprinter. Pretty nice though throttle response was a little sluggish. Chris said that the turbo needs time to speed up. The truck was hard to lose even in heavy traffic as it is almost as high as the tractor trailers. And it performed pretty well easily keeping up with traffic. And being a former military vehicle, it sort of stands out. In the middle of the highway in the middle of Atlanta, there was a double-wide building being towed. It took up two full lanes on the highway which backed up traffic. Why this would be allowed in the middle of the day is a mystery.

Here Chris is using the manual hydraulic pump to lift the cab. He had installed an air conditioning unit and one of the hoses needed to be spliced before it was ready for charging. We also fitted Dynamat sound damping insulation under the floor of the cab. It was almost 90°F this afternoon though there was a light breeze which helped. It wasn't as humid as it could be.

The engine in their truck is the same Cat C7 model that is in the RV so it was good to see what I am in for. In this application, the engine is pretty loud as you are sitting right over it in the cab. The manufactuer of the sound insulation claims a 3 db reduction. That would be impressive if it even came close to that. Charging the A/C was frustrating since the valve on the hose wasn't engaging the valve on the freon canisters consistently. So that is another shop project. Tomorrow, the plan is to continue working on the truck.

The refrigerator cooling assembly is supposed to be at the RV dealer this evening but since the holiday weekend is here, it probably won't be worked on until next Tuesday. The delay is frustrating but I'm glad that I didn't make any reservations for the trip back. I'd rather have everything fixed.