A couple weeks ago, the weather was good, the trailer was loaded, all the fluids were changed in the Escalade, and Dad was ready to hit the road. He left Alaska on Wed afternoon and was expected down here Saturday-ish.
Jump to Thursday afternoon. I get a call that Dad lost a wheel outside Destruction Bay (near Whitehorse).
At the time, we didn't really know how bad it was other than it needed towed and repairs. Dad was able to get back on the road after about a day and a half and a new tire, new brake line, some wheel studs, and lug nuts. None of the doors close right anymore and the back deck hits on one side when you open and close it. But he is back on the road.
He stopped in Coeur d'Alene for a couple days to get some rest and visit with my brother. I get a call later in the week that he tried to leave, got half a mile, turned right and the Eacalade just up and died and he smells smoke. They towed it all back to my brother's house and after a couple hours of remote diagnosis, we determine that something in the fuel pump circuit has shorted and it is blowing the PCM/FP fuse when it tries to run the pump.
Rather than go up and fix it and risk it breaking down again, I talked one of my buddies into loaning me his truck and another buddy into bringing his Duramax Suburban so we can just haul everything down here and fix it where we have good tools and such. So we load up with a trailer and take off north. We promptly stop and turn around when we pick up a nail and get a flat tire. Got that fixed.
About a third up Whitebird hill, the borrowed truck starts getting real hot. We slow down, kick it down a couple gears to get the fan speed up, shut off the AC, but nothing helps. We end up pulling over and letting it cool off. Ok, not a huge deal. It is a hot day.
It cools off. We keep going and this time both the engine and the trans are getting too hot. Both trip over-temp codes in the computer and we stop to take a longer break in the 100 degree sun on the side of the road. While there, I scavenged a chunk of aluminum from a car that burned to the ground at that same pullout.
After a while, everything cools off enough and we get back on the road. The rest of the trip was spent going extra slow and careful up hills to avoid overheating again.
