Mechanical Diagnosis

 I was in Chris’ workshop at two pm precisely after the ill fated Swiss Citroen van, the 2023 Jumper with assorted failed impenetrable electronic issues pulled out of the bay. It shuts down and stops running at random so I was glad they managed to back it out to make room for me. 

My problem of the day is the aftermarket second alternator that charges our house batteries as we drive. We had the original 280 amp accessory replaced by a Brazilian Bosch unit ($700) in Brasilia a thousand miles ago and it has been making ghastly groaning noises since we got to Paraguay, leaving us reluctant to drive. 

The Swiss have been stuck six weeks in Pequeña Baviera (little Bavaria) campground trying to figure out what’s wrong but right now they are waiting for a new engine control unit to be shipped from Lausanne so we get their space in the engine bay. First thing to do is remove the skid plate.

Then Chris and his Paraguayan assistant checked the belt alignment and it was not great. 

The thing that freaked him out was the heat generated by the alternator which he worried might be causing problems in the alternator’s bearings. It’s a 280 amp unit limited to about 100 amps output which means it is not going working too hard, one possible cause for overheating. But the belt alignment is a big issue. We had a new belt pulley installed (we carry a few spares for this irritating aftermarket alternator) in Brasilia…

…but the failed alignment had already started to wear the pulley bearings. Chris decided to replace the bearings inside the pulley. 

He has a complete metal working shop as he used to travel the world 200 days a year repairing -of all things - cheese making machines. He told me a story about encountering US empty container while driving laws in Texas. He was surprised to learn empty beer bottles in the US are not allowed in the center console of a car. I was astonished to learn that in Germany it’s not a problem as long as you are under the breathalyzer limit. Live and learn; I thought Germany would be way stricter. Anyway, rollers and belts…

He also found a slightly bent pulley support so that will need to be improved upon and the hope is that once the alignment of the belt is restored noises and heat will disappear. 

But because he is cautious he is going to have the alternator checked at a shop with an oscilloscope in Caacupé (town of talented engineering shops apparently) before he tries reinstalling it today, Tuesday. If it runs smoothly we will be free to explore Paraguay while we wait for our new inverter and 110 volt battery charger to arrive. 

With the alternator removed GANNET2 runs silent and sweet. I hope she will after the infernal alternator is re-installed.

Life in the campground continues with no great excitement, the heat in  the afternoon is intense but overnight temperatures drop and allow for pleasant sleeping. Relying on our solar panels allows us to have plenty of electricity which is wonderful but we try to be conservative in our use as sunshine can easily be replaced by clouds in this rainy season. My biggest worry is Rusty living in the heat but I think I worry too much about my old dog.

He digs holes in the sand by himself or if he feels like it he  sits next to me when I go and sit and read in a cool shady spot under the trees. We take a short walk on the grounds in the early morning and in the heat of the day he finds a shady spot to observe the comings and goings. Plus he eats like a horse so I don’t think he’s suffering too much. 

Paraguay Tin Foil Hat Refuge

 On the mechanical front there is no change. There are horrible grinding sounds coming from the front of the van most likely from the new second alternator. We hope Chris can check it on Monday but I drive GANNET2 only rarely and reluctantly in the meantime.  It is exceeding frustrating. 

The interesting news is that our new solar system is working perfectly. It does require parking in the sun to get best results of course but we have seen  50 amps of power from our 860 watt array.

Even on bright overcast days we get 25 amps such that we have had enough energy to live well just from the solar array. We are able to not use Starlink as the  campground Internet is strong and we try to use our inverter judiciously only turning it on to run my CPAP at night when we charge my devices. However I would call the solar panels a huge success. 

They are also less glaringly intrusive the longer we live with them…

We went to look at a granny unit for rent which we were told was “just up the road.” Mostly out of consideration for Rusty we thought maybe a house would be a pleasant retreat from the heat. We hadn’t counted on the road to get there. We had to drive GANNET2 just one and a half miles but these were Paraguayan back country miles.

They are in the business of turning a sandy track into an all weather Roman Road one stone tapped down at a time.  This is road building the way your great grandfather might have seen it trotting by in his horse and trap.  Mind boggling. 

If you were parachuted here  from your commute you’d probably blow a gasket but…we’ve seen worse on this extraordinary journey so we pressed  on. 

It was a matter of working here and there to the surprisingly heavy traffic. 

Cars trucks and motorcycles kept coming and going and dodging the big gringo van. 

Oh, just to complete the picture…

And the side road off the main track just got worse.

It was washed out with trenches dug out by water running down hill, a small cement bridge, patches of soft sand. It reminded Layne of crossing Guyana and which road we have no desire to revisit.

Nice house, big garden, air conditioned bedroom, big German fans, cool tiles for Rusty, no workable swimming pool, terrible approach road requiring car rental for $30 a day.  We decided even at $30 a day or $12 a day for a month we wanted to stay mobile. If we can get GANNET2 safe to roll our plan is to visit Bolivia as a replacement battery charger is at least two and maybe  three weeks away. Don’t want to be stuck down this road in rainy season. 

We had a weird interaction with the campground owners who celebrated the husband/mechanic Chris’ birthday. (Loki is draining an empty beer can). 

We only got invited at the last minute by Chris’ volunteer live in helper, a German woman called Inge who has befriended Layne and she asked why we weren’t going to the potluck. So we went, somewhat unwillingly at this point but choosing not to snub the kindly Inge. 

Inge made room for us among the Swiss couple (on the left) with the terminally broken Citroen Jumper van, sitting next to a German couple we befriended in Argentina so we were linguistically outnumbered supported only by Mark the Englishman who owns a house on Chris’ land.

We’ve had lots of campground gatherings and only the French for some reason make a habit of excluding others. Mostly everyone mucks in even if the common language in the end is English. We did the right thing and then left when Mark got up. Had we organized the evening everyone would have been invited. 

I overthought the whole rather negative episode but Layne reminded me we are here for mechanics not kumbaya so rather than drive for Asuncion to find a shop to fix the damned second alternator we plastered smiles on our faces and ended up having a pretty interesting conversation with Teo and Pia our German friends who spends eight months of the year in their rather capable but cramped Toyota Landcruiser. They had to have their dashboard air conditioning fixed. We all have problems. 

He is retired from a life as a university history professor and researcher. He traveled the Amazon with a back pack in his twenties riding the ferries in a hammock and staying in jungle lodges in areas where we have driven.

He has lots of stories to tell unearthing Mexican history in Oaxaca and so forth. His wife Pia still works part time as an architect from the road as well as during summers spent in Germany. Teo was telling me about the reduction of Jesuit missions founded in Paraguay and viewed as a threat by Spanish authorities in the 18th century because they educated the Guaraní Indians.

And then as we talked I said I thought Paraguay would be a great place to settle if you were looking for an undiscovered country to retreat to as the world around us seems to lose its bearings. Teo looked shocked. 

We’ve met lots of German settlers here he said and they are very odd. He told us how they had needed mechanical help so while Teo did manly things with the German mechanic Pia was stuck with his wife for three hours and she got her ear talked off explaining how the Covid vaccine injected Bill Gates chips in the bloodstream and all that weird stuff. Apparently thousands of Germans got spooked not by Covid but by the German government’s response and Paraguay is easy and cheap to settle in. So here they are.

I asked Chris the first day here why Paraguay and he said blandly they had wanted to emigrate and the arrival of Covid pushed them in a hurry and Paraguay was easy so they chose to settle. I haven’t asked for a more detailed explanation but I don’t want to open the flood gates to the conspiracy theory flood that our van has allowed us to escape. I’m strictly here for the mechanical work.

Anyway if you think Jewish space lasers are real and vaccines are a conspiracy you’ll find fertile ground in Paraguay to sow your nuttiness. The requirements to get a temporary residence card ( which leads to permanent residence) are very low and no one as we have seen knows a thing about this country. The road to Bolivia is lined with German/Russian Mennonite communities apparently so people have been emigrating here for a long time. If you look up Filadelfia Paraguay you’ll get the scoop. And Mexico’s requirements for temporary residence have been increased so much many gringos can no longer afford it. That’s a bit of a change. For us the open road remains the attraction.

And where possible not the Roman type of road, thank you.

Settling In

We have to wait three weeks for parts to arrive. We are going to look at an apartment to get out of the 100 degree heat. 

Besides the climate we are both incandescent at having to stop after a thousand miles. Rationally speaking who cares, a month more or a month less but we are missing life on the road and meeting people and seeing things. 

To cut the whining short I’ll leave it at that and get back into the details when we can get out of this murderous heat. It’s so hot I have to put my phone and a power pack in the fridge to charge the device. 

The 860 watt solar panels have put out 50 amps an hour in the middle of the day. 

Chris checking the shore power connection and the charger. 

The 3000 watt inverter and 125 amp charger in one huge block. The charger has failed and I suspect in Brasilia they hooked it up incorrectly and screwed us up. Also the second layer storage is making strange noises so I’ll have Chris check that out. Nothing can get done right the first time it seems.  

The workshop. Inside is a broken Swiss Citroen van whose main computer has failed such that it may have to be shipped back to Europe for repairs. They drove Canada to Alaska to here but won’t get to see Patagonia. 

Loki doesn’t mind the heat as much as we do.  

The fridges in the common areas are monkey proofed: 

I can’t wait to show Rusty his new air conditioned digs with his own garden. I hope it lives up to billing.

Bad News

 Our inverter/charger has lost the ability to charge our batteries. This means we no longer have the ability to charge our batteries by plugging in to electrical outlets.

As long as it’s sunny, or we are driving we can recharge our batteries. If we want to stay still on cloudy days we run out of energy. Because we are looking to live and roam and not simply drive from A to B we want the ability to charge the batteries any way we have to, but solving this problem may require a return to Brazil. Which does not make me happy. 

The urge to leap in and offer advice is irresistible  but our van has appliances powered by 110 volts and the difficulty of locating a 110 volt 30 Amp charger  in 220 volt Paraguay is one obstacle. Brazil uses both systems so 110 volt parts are available there. Plus Paraguay has steep and irrational customs duties on imported parts. If they are available. Also Brazil has an active RV building industry that uses both those 220 and 110 volts systems. 

Caacupé Cathedral 

I have no idea why our Go Power inverter/charger no longer charges  but the coincidence of a new installation combined with a sudden failure is forcing me to the conclusion that there is cause and effect. The only reason I care is because I am reluctant to drive four days back to Brasilia to have the same hands install a new system  but we may have to. And hopefully they will be more efficient with equipment they know from experience. 

If Chris the mechanic and campground owner cannot get the parts we may have no choice but to return to Brasilia. 

Rusty is suffering the heat and developed a hot spot so we took him to the vet so that one was one positive thing, they have a good vet it seems in Caacupé. It also seems the town which is quite pleasant is a shrine of some sort to Our Lady with an annual pilgrimage I believe. My heads full of inverters and chargers at the moment.

This is a massive irritation as we were enjoying our solar and air conditioning and Starlink upgrades. The carpentry has made the interior more comfortable and we were busy route planning and looking forward to it. We have been rather grumpy as a result. 

Loki’s antics with a beer can have helped. He’s the campground pest rescued  from a cage. He irritates a lot of people including Layne but I get on with him fine. He hasn’t pee’d on me yet and I’ve stopped him stealing my glasses  so I’m hoping he will continue to be civil.  

He lives in the fenced in area around the house where the swimming pool is so you need to keep your possessions guarded. The common fridges have been monkey-proofed to protect the contents but I enjoy watching him leap around the rafters and swing through the trees.  When I go for a swim he comes running up to me and climbs on my head making him difficult to photograph.

He likes the dregs of beer cans too.  

Not entirely compensation for not being able to travel.