The first major “incident” of the trip happened as I headed for Portland, several miles west of Hood River.

There was a good amount of traffic heading west, including a number of disgustingly smoky haulers that were pumping black smoke into the clean Oregon air.  Pass them going up the hill, then they pass you going down the hill at some ridiculous speed.  Then smell them again.  Etc.

I finally got fed up with this when a suburban passed me, towing a trailer full of logs that were not secured at all.  I pictured myself in one of those bad insurance company commercials.  It was time to pick up the pace and leave these idiots behind.

Note to self:  Even though the F-250 is rated to be able to tow almost 3 tons more than I am normally hauling, apparently there are still limits.  Especially when you have poorly-installed aftermarket parts.

Passing the log truck at about 75mph going up a hill, I heard a loud bang, and the truck started making a terrible noise.  GPS shows an exit coming up, which I limped toward in disgrace.  At the bottom of the ramp, I could either go left which seemed to immediately go up hill, or right, over a railroad track and then to a loop where I could turn around easily.  Right it is.  Whoops.

The road, of course, had a gate on it, which I didn’t realize until I had driven about 500 feet around a bend.  The road was barely wide enough for two cars to pass.  There were no shoulders.  I am just under 50 feet long.  Assuming I get the rig fixed, I am going to have to back up a hill, around a bend, and over a railroad track.  Did I mention that I suck at backing up?

The loud bang was my intercooler line (from the turbo to the hot side of the intercooler) being blown off.  I thought there were supposed to be systems to prevent an overboost condition, but those systems may also consist of the driver paying attention to the redline of the turbo gauge, which I thought was just there to add color to the dashboard.  It’s also possible that the line (well, pipe, really) was never attached properly anyway.  The angle at which it seemed to have been connected did not appear to be correct at all.  Who knows.

After disconnecting the entire assembly (an aftermarket unit from Banks), I managed to remount it and everything sounded ok again.  Now the backing challenge.  Did I mention I suck at backing up?

It took about 20 minutes to back up, including a several minute wait for a train that decided to go by just as I was about to cross the tracks.  Good times.

An uneventful drive to Portland otherwise..

Posted in: Travel Hell