On The Road

This has been a tough week, and I can say that now, as my head cold is on the way out, my stress levels are down and our van, the redoubtable GANNET2 is whole once more. All three things are undoubtably related and made worse by our ferry deadline Monday.  We are ready to go with 24 hours to spare. This is the hero of this story:

Konstantin - “I am not an electrician” - but who has the mind of an investigative logical scientist figured out how to repair our second alternator, the one that charges our house batteries.

His father maintained the electric tram fleet in what was then Leningrad and he has learned how to deal with electro mechanics from a good teacher apparently. His hometown changed names with the new political era and became St Petersburg once again but he and his wife, a Microsoft employee emigrated to Seattle. Lucky for me they did.  

It happened three weeks ago that I noticed our engine was no longer charging our house batteries, those are the ones we use to run our living quarters in the van, the ones we use for lighting cooking and heating or cooling. At first I mistakenly though it was an inverter/ charger problem but an investigation by a camper manufacturer in Puerto Montt revealed the alternator had blown its regulator. 

We ordered a replacement from the very helpful folk at Nation’s in Missouri and Layne flew to Key West to pick up the tiny part. We also ordered a second one again a future breakage.

Adam, owner of Nation’s Starters and Alternator put together a package of new parts for us to refresh the installation and all I had to do was go back to the mechanic to do the installation. 

That was where the wheels came off. We had an appointment Friday and when I  showed up the shop was closed. Friday as the last day we could cancel the ferry and only lose $1,000 of the three thousand dollar boat tickets…after that we either ride or forfeit the entire fee. Decisions, decisions and I said we go for it. At worst we can get the alert alternator repaired in Punta Arenas after the ferry ride. The van runs fine without the second alternator but we can only charge the house batteries with solar or by plugging in to an outlet. 

It was a long frustrating rigmarole but I got the alternator back by Friday afternoon from the electricians shop where the imbecile mechanic had forgotten to pick it up despite our so called appointment to install it. I had everything we needed except the know how to install it. What to do? 

I had a stroke of genius at that point, or possibly in an act of desperation I asked Konstantin if he could help. He’s one of those overlanders who built his own van buys parts and installs them himself and has the sort of mechs I am self reliance that is outside the grasp of a thinker like myself. We drive over to his campground on the edge of a lake on a sunny Friday afternoon. 

He got stuck in while I watched coughing and sniffling. Julia came to help her spouse who issued terse instructions in expletive laden (apparently) Russian. 

He couldn’t finish the job Friday and we got together again Saturday when he finally figured out the problem. I shall skip the long story of  a lot of trial and error and testing and puzzling the problem; it turned out that when the regulator broke a fuse also blew to protect the circuit so after tracing the wiring and using Nation’s very helpful online troubleshooting guide Konstantin figured it out. We have amps! 

It’s possible I suppose a dedicated local electrician could have figured it out and if it happens again I would be a much more useful guide but Konstantin’s attention to detail gives me confidence that we will travel with plenty of electricity from here. 

I will say that Patagonia Campers Chile who build RVs in Puerto Montt gave us some useful help when their electrical guy explained the shortcomings of our battery bank using mixed battery sizes. Our 100amp battery was suppressing our two 250 amp batteries so he removed it and our storage capacity seems to have jumped. Our solar panels are charging more strongly we have paradoxically increased our capacity with 100 fewer amps. So that was one good outcome. 

I carried a spare water pump as I know they give out and ours started to show signs of failing as it kept losing small amounts of pressure. I got it replaced and my neighbor Christoph showed me his trucks for setting the pressure for best performance. I learned something else. And all this while we were waiting for the ferry do we have not actually lost any time.

Konstantin and Christoph enjoying the moments after technical job well done while Julia and Layne menu plan for our last meal together Sunday before we get on the boat and the Russians go south on the highway and the Germans get their missing part back from customs hopefully next week. 

Monica and Christoph’s Unimog expedition vehicle wrecked its rear drive shaft and a new one has been sent from Germany but getting it out of customs is proving to be a problem. It’s seven feet long and weighs 250 pounds so you can’t smuggle it in as Layne did with our parts…

We all break down from time to time. Everyone has stories and all of them suck. This time we’ve been lucky. I hope our luck holds.

These are the Instagram accounts of our friends and neighbors here. Overlanders use Instagram and WhatsApp to keep in touch in this modern era. 

 Some photos from our recent drives around town:

Llanquihue on the lake:

Puerto Montt:

More Puerto Montt: 

When the sun shines it’s beautiful around here. 

Another typical street in middle class Puerto Montt: 

More ferries to come: 

I’ve spent enough time in Puerto Montt and I’m ready to jump out too.