Everyone except me wants or thinks they need a four wheel drive or an all wheel drive van. I am not a lover of driving in snow or even in the dirt listening to my home rattle and shake. I am not a fan of driving miles to nowhere for the purpose of being alone in the middle of nowhere. I find plenty of solitude with two wheel drive and well built road tires that don’t whine and moan at speed on asphalt. However…
We do, from time to time travel off road to get to scenic spots, tourist attractions, beaches or some other desirable destination. So we bought a steel plate designed to be bolted underneath the front of the van to protect our transmission and engine, notably our second alternator which gives us massive recharging abilities. And it has worked.
The other off-road tool we bought and had installed was a winch attached solidly to the front of the chassis from a design sold by Van Compass. The idea was to have the peace of mind to know that we had a tool that could save our butts if all went wrong. And we did sink into unexpectedly soft sand in Barra de Potosí last year. It worked brilliantly.
That was an unexpected need! The other time we used the 12,000 pound Warn Winch it opened a road for us far from help on the lost coast of California near the very isolated town of Petrolia.
We pulled the tree off the road in a couple of minutes and we were on our way. We got a letter of commendation for that public spirited road opening from the Honeydew Volunteer Fire Company after one of their dispatchers happened upon us just as we pulled the tree off the road with our multipurpose winch and she was impressed by what we had done for the community! They sent us a patch which we keep on our fridge.
The Promaster van also has a clever electronic differential block. If you simply press a button on the dashboard the front wheel drive locks the wheels in step simulating a differential lock and I’ve found this useful to get us out of soft sand and loose gravel and on awkward dirt uphill stretches. All of which adds up to modest but useful off-road capabilities, of which we take full advantage to explore the cultures we travel through. But ours is not a full blown off road expedition vehicle by any means and I am anything but an expedition mechanic. So let me introduce you to one who is. Meet Marcus Tuck.
He and his wife Julie drive the blue Fiat Iveco expedition vehicle seen below wedged between the giant German truck and a modest class C RV from Montana. They have been at it for years all over the place and they record their journeys at:
Marcus was deploying a portable solar panel set up to recharge Heinz’s flat car battery in his Dodge mini van home and I laughingly mentioned my broken winch. Minutes later up shows Marcus ready willing and able to strip down the front of the van to tear into the winch what stopped winching. I was overcome and delighted of course as no electrical mechanic in Oaxaca wanted to know. You can see why.
Allow me to spare you the gory details of yesterday, a morning spent not reading Marie Arana’s excellent biography of Simón Bolivar but instead spent holding pieces for Marcus as he pulled out the air conditioning radiator and sundry plastic bits and pieces to understand the source of the problem. In short the winch was installed with a ground wire not strongly attached and the nut worked itself loose causing an intermittent connection which burned wires and plastic and metal. All of which Marcus, a former engineer and highly trained RAF technician repaired with ease. Compared to a modern jet aircraft the Promaster is pretty simple I think.
The intermittent connection burned out one part of the relay such that after Marcus’ intervention the winch will now wind in reliably but it will not wind out. Which is not a problem as all I have to do is release the clutch and unspool the winch rope by hand and then I can wind it in using the motor.
So now the winch wiring is restored better than Freedom VanGo’s installation in Jacksonville and we have a new relay being shipped to us. I’m going to keep it as a spare now I know how to install it (Thank you Marcus) and I will be happy to unspool the winch as needed by hand.
To release the winch drum to pull the rope by hand you turn the little silver lever visible behind the front license plate above. Easy peasy. Meanwhile on the cabin air conditioning front the engine continues to blow cold air and our shore power system is charging the batteries as it should. All is well with the world. For now. Oh and payment? A large bag of Yorkshire Gold teabags ( we have 800!). It’s Marcus’ favorite tea.
