Sunday morning was a beautiful travel day. Our goal was to reach the Prado Regional Campground around 3:00, which was check-in time. We pulled into the Lebec Rest Area and looked down at my heat gauge, it should not be that hot. Turned off the engine went back to find coolant leaking out from the engine. Crawled under the coach to find that the “School Bus Pump” was leaking. This is an auxiliary water pump that helps circulate water to the heater in the front of the coach. I tried a couple fixes. First I wrapped some blue miracle tape around the leak, wishful thinking. Next I tried to use a small vise grip to squeeze the 3/4″ water hose and stop the flow. I filled it with water hoping that just might work. We drove a couple miles to the Flying J Truck Stop, parked and was not surprised but disappointed that it was still leaking. I was hoping they just might have a couple feet of heater hose. The one Carquest Auto Parts store was closed on Sunday. I checked with two mobile repair guys, no luck. I unhooked the car and drove to see if either of the Auto Repair Shops had some heater hose. A guy was working on a car at one of the shops, and they actually had a box of heater hose. He cut me off a couple feet, I gave him ten bucks and headed back to the coach.
You might ask, why did I want a piece of heater hose. I knew that the pump was an assist, not necessary. I was going to use the hose to bypass the pump.
I move the coach to a less conspicuous parking spot, knowing I would be dumping a lot of water on the ground. I also knew that I would be looking up at the water coming down from above, making it’s way to the ground. There was no way to fix it from above. I loosened two hose clamps and when I pulled the hose loose the water came raining down. I put the bypass hose on as quick as I could but as you can see in the picture, not before getting soaked. I was thankful that the water was warm, not hot. But the wind was cold. I got the hose clamps tightened down and then added 4 gallons of water. I looked like a soaked rat! The wind was cold on my back but the leak was fixed!! I cleaned up a bit and put on some dry clothes. We hooked up the car to the coach and we were on our way, just over three hours later than planned. We got to our camp site after dark, which makes things much more difficult, but we were able the navigate the campground roads and find our site. After getting the power and water hooked up I took a long hot shower!