On The Road Again
After 5 days in Whitehorse we have been seriously desperate to be on our way. It wouldn’t have been so bad if we were mobile or even able to go anywhere.
So we arrived on Friday night and went into the garage first thing on Saturday morning. They told us, reasonably, that they couldn’t see us on Saturday but could probably get us in on Monday. Then started a process of being told “we’ll try and fit you in this afternoon”, “maybe tomorrow morning” and “we’ll try really hard for tomorrow”. Every time a new truck arrived at the garage it went ahead of us in the queue.
We finally got a mechanic to look us over at 3pm on Wednesday. Just under 3 hours later he was done. The problem of no fuel to the engine was solved by two things:
1) Replacement of the mechanical secondary fuel pump (probably not necessary)
2) The real problem was that the fitting for the fuel line into the first fuel filter (more of a screen to sieve out the big stuff before the real fuel filter) was loose and letting air into the system. This meant no vacuum and the fuel would just run back down into the tank.
So a bill of over CAD$700 later and we are back on the road. This was a bit of a shocker.
So tonight we’ve run around fuelling up, getting water and stocking up. Tomorrow first thing we hit the road – and We’re outta here ! One step ahead of winter.
FromAtoB 
Do you guys carry spares of stuff likely to break…?
In a sort of swop-it-and-see-if-it-makes-it-work scenario should you break down in the middle of ruralsville again.
Hi Colin,
We’ve got some spares but a limited number. With the fuel problems that we had we would have had to have spare connectors for the fuel lines + an air compressor to blow fuel through the lines to the tank to get restarted.
We do have spare batteries and jump leads which have come in handy.
I think we are going to get a generator so we can are a bit more independent of the engine when static !
Mark
Get a Honda Generator, the 2000i is the best cost/benefit ratio. Do not get fooled by ANY other brand (except Yamaha witch is also good). The Honda 2000i is the quietest in the market and very reliable. We have just used ours for ten days in the Nevada desert at the Burning Man festival. It was left on for most part of the day to supply the fridge, air conditioner and recharge the bikes and the Optima Yellow Top battery we used during the night.
Here you can see some pics of how we fit it on our trailer and the full setup in the desert.
Brake lines and fuel lines are vital, if you have space carring a spare set is a good idea while in the US and a must after the Mexican border. Air, fuel and oil filters too.