First trip in our GMC Motorhome.
In May of 2003 we we packing our new (old) GMC Kingsley for a trip across country to Kansas City to transport my mother in comfort to see her twin sister, whom she had not seen in years. When she was younger and in better health, she travelled often by train, (Amtrak), and enjoyed the scenery on the way, especially Colorado.
She loved Colorado, and never forgave me for moving from Colorado to Nevada. The electric generation plant I had worked in there was closing down, and I was forced to find another place to work. I found a new power station being built near Winnemucca, Nevada, and they were searching for mechanics and machinists with experience. They offered pay much higher than the plant in Colorado.
When my mother complained, I just told her, “Mom, I love the scenery, too, but we can’t eat the scenery!”
I had worked in Nevada for over twenty years now, and my mother was starting to have heart trouble. She couldn’t travel by air anymore, and the train ride was too long to endure. She was 87 years old, and I looked for a way to take her to visit her twin sister in comfort. A road trip in a car would have been cramped and uncomfortable, but the thought occurred to me that a motor home might be just the ticket.
A coworker of mine at the plant happened to be trying to sell his motor home, since it wasn’t exactly what he wanted. He wanted to tow a boat, but being front wheel drive, it would not pull a boat out of the water on the boat ramp.
It was an old GMC, with Oldsmobile Toronado running gear, and was considered top of the line when it was new in 1977. The price was affordable, and it ran well on a test drive, so I bought it.
I knew that a vehicle that old would have reliability issues, so when we were packing, I made sure to pack a well stocked tool box. With my years of experience, I figured I could do an engine overhaul beside the road, if I had to.
I never had to, but it was close a couple of times!
On the first day out, we stopped for lunch in Battle Mountain, Nevada, and either my wife or my mother remembered something we forgot and left in Winnemucca. So I suggested that this had been a long day already, let’s just consider this one a shakedown cruise and go back home. They all agreed, and thought this was going to be a fun trip when we got back on the road tomorrow.
Besides my wife, Carolyn, and my mother Olga, we also had my granddaughter Melissa with us, too. The RV sleeps six, so we had room to spare. I installed seat belts at the dining room table before I left, just in case of hard stops or accident.
The next day we got an earlier start because we were already packed and ready to go. The driving was easy, the ride was smooth due to the air suspension, which is one of the luxury items this coach was noted for.
The 455 CID engine had lots of power on the hills, at least the little ones on the way to Elko. We stopped there for gas, and stopped again at Wendover, Utah, to eat lunch and fill up for the long trek across the Bonneville Salt Flats.
We had no trouble getting to Salt Lake City, and we filled up just south of there in West Valley. Utah is famous for the long distance between gas stations, so never pass up a chance to fill ‘er up!
We turned east at Spanish Fork and drove over the Wasatch Mountains on Soldier Summit. It was still spring as we went east, but still had wonderful memories of the spectacular blazing colors in the fall, when we had taken road trips through there when we lived in Nucla, Colorado.
It was getting dark when we rolled into Moab, Utah, and I found a space to park in the first RV campground I came to at the north edge of town. The beauty was overwhelming, as always, but I got busy hooking the RV up for the first time. The electricity was easy, but when I hooked up the water, it started leaking under the coach. I shut the water back off, and advised everyone to use the bathrooms and showers a few spaces away.
I left the holding tank shut off so some of us could use the toilet, and I would just empty the tank somewhere down the road. I didn’t want to trouble shoot the whole water system while traveling, and I didn’t fix it until several days later. The holding tank was plenty big enough, and we continued on our way the next morning.
Before leaving Moab, we filled up-again, and bought snacks and drinks at the convenience store in town. Our route took us through Nucla, Colorado, to visit old friends, and then across Dallas Divide to Montrose.
I tried to find a part for the water system, but of course, nobody had anything to fit the old RV. I found a crack in the input connector/pressure reducer, caused by small amount of water freezing during the winter in Nevada. Because of the design, the water won’t drain completely when the drain taps are opened, but must be blown out with compressed air.
That was the first part I made when I got back home later. I designed and made a unit with offset connections that drains completely without any air needed.
From Montrose we went east over Monarch Pass. Near the top we were in low range on the transmission, and I had some worries whether we would make it over. The elevation is 13,312 ft. and the carbureted engine was getting too much gas and not enough air. To add to the difficulties, the engine was getting hotter, and I watched the roadside for pull out spaces to stop and cool off. Near the top, the engine started to stumble just as I found a place to pull over. It was steep enough that I did not trust the parking brake and Park position on the shifter, but found a couple of big rocks to put under the tires.
It felt like vapor lock, but it could’t be, as black smoke was billowing out the exhaust in back. I lifted the engine cover, and I could hear the gas boiling in the carburetor! This engine was drowning in gas, and all I could do was scratch my head and study the owner’s maintenance manual, to no avail. I had a lot to learn about this GMC RV.
After most of an hour just waiting for the engine to cool down, the engine started and ran much better, so I took off the parking brake, put it in Low range and drove over the top of the pass. We were just a few hundred yards from the top.
Coming down the east side of Monarch Pass is a test of brakes. Years before a school bus lost its brakes and crashed through a gas station in Salida and killed most of the football team, as I remember.
The brakes on the GMC RV met the challenge, with disc brakes in front, and of course, I used the Low range on the transmission to good advantage, also.
We averaged about 5 miles per gallon climbing up the mountain, and got 11 miles per gallon coming down.
As we got out on the flat prairie in Kansas, I felt like our troubles were over and we were nearing our destination. But as I pulled into Goodland, Kansas for fuel, I felt the brake pedal drop down a notch as I held the brake pedal down. I was pretty sure the master cylinder was only half working, so I went out and lifted the lid. Sure enough, the front reservoir was nearly empty and the back one was nearly overflowing.
I suppose I could just transfer a little fluid from the back to the front to get me where I’m going, but I don’t like to mess around with brakes, so I found a NAPA parts store and pulled in. I asked for a master cylinder for my RV, but he didn’t have any information on that. So I asked for a master cylinder for an Oldsmobile Toronado. He went back and brought out two Olds brake cylinders. We went out and looked and one of them was a match!
I bought it for about $50, as I remember, and a can of brake fluid, and it only took me about an hour to remove the old one and install and bleed the new one. The brake pedal stopped higher and harder now, so I felt much relieved, and we went on to Independence, Missouri, where Mom’s twin sister Aunt Ora lived in a retirement home there.
They were overjoyed to see each other at my cousin Jim’s house, and his brother Glenn was also there. They all wanted a tour of the RV, so even though we didn’t get to straighten it up, they all went inside and checked it out. They were impressed, as are most people.
One of the hazards of driving a GMC RV is visitors every time you stop somewhere. It seems like everybody’s Dad or Uncle had one when they were kids, and the nostalgia just blows them away. So you have to be ready for interior tours any where at any time.
We left my mother with her sister, promising to come back in a week and pick her up, and after one night in an RV park, we headed south for Durant, Oklahoma, my wife’s home town, and near the town where Melissa’s grandparents lived.
We got family reunion’s all over!
(To be continued.)
