Visit to Winnemucca…

You may recall from my last article that back on December 30th my RV went into limp mode, and I limped into Winnemucca to a Diesel shop where they replaced the fuel/water separator and I also had them do some extra work. I liked the shop and the work they did for me, so I planned on coming back and having them do the other work I needed when I past by heading north.

“Usually I’m traveling 55-60 MPH and it’s only a 6 hour drive to Winnemucca, but as I got closer to McDermitt OR, I couldn’t get the RV to move above 55, then 45, then 35, etc. And then the snow started getting thick. And by then I couldn’t get the RV above 25 MPH anyway. Definitely something wrong.”

So I stopped at an older RV park (that I’ve passed many many times in the last 19 years of RVing) right at the state line between Oregon and Nevada and paid an outrageous price for a spot with just 30 amp for the night. With 6″ of snow on the ground, more falling, and an RV that was limping, I didn’t want to mess around trying to find a bargain so that was where I stayed. There is a casino parking lot just across the border around 1/2 mile away but no power and I didn’t want to run my generator all night. Here’s that story if you’re interested in more detail about battling the weather and then the engine going into limp mode…Back in the USA… 

That was Dec. 30th, 31st of 2022 and to pick up this story thread again, it was now mid-May of 2023 and I was heading north after staying 4 months in Tucson. I’d called the shop a few days prior and was informed that I could bring it in for what I needed.

I arrived in Winnemucca late afternoon before a weekend, after driving for nearly 9 hours and signed in at the Model T Casino and RV Park. I’ve meant to stay here for years but never have. I thought I knew which one it was as the first year I was RV’ing, 2004, I’d stopped where I thought this park was, and it was just a small parking lot across the street from a casino in downtown Winnemucca with 30 amp on power poles. And no other services like sewer or water except places to dump and fill. Turned out I was wrong for many many years thinking that that place was the Model T RV park. Actually, that’s a different park, the Model T is a large RV park (undergoing a remodel right now!) on the edge of Winnemucca so the traffic isn’t all that heavy, and it’s just an easy mile off the freeway. Not even sure that other RV park is even there still. The Model T is easy to get to BUT…fair warning, this place insists on seeing your RVs registration AND your insurance documents at check in. WTF?

So I arrived at their RV entrance and there’s no one in the RV kiosk. So I trudge (‘cus I’d been driving for 8 hours) way over to the casino around 75 yards away, wander around until I find the motel lobby way in the back, hidden behind all the gambling machines, find I have to have my reg and ins cards so trudge all the way back out to my RV, dig those out, trudge way back inside, they make copies of those AND my DL, I pay for 5 nights, then trudge back to my RV, drive to a nearby shaded spot, and park. I’m getting exhausted. Minutes later, the office gal comes out and tells me I can’t park there because that’s the row they are remodeling (entire row was empty, but this first spot in the row still had water and electric, nearby spaces were torn up). So I had to de-camp and move. Dammit. Here is where I parked, 50 amp, W&S. No shade. This row is for big rigs. Pull though too. That’s the casino way in the background. What’s funny, and one thing they show on their website is that they are a 30 amp park. But they have entire rows of 50 amp service. Why they haven’t fixed that mistake on their website after upgrading what must have been 3 decades ago I’ll never know. Keeps the traffic low maybe? So they don’t have to deal with RV’ers to much?

Remember that my AC had died just a few days before but getting this far north in mid-May meant it wasn’t all that hot, in the mid-70’s. And at dusk, the temps dropped quickly. So, overall, I was comfortable even without shade.

Kinda desert looking area. I imagine it’s roasting here in July-August. Note that this RV park has been here for decades and look how stunted and spindly the trees are! Makes me wonder if they ever watered them regularly. Poor things. The row closest to the casino does have nice looking trees though. They aren’t a very shady type though. I couldn’t stay over in that row because it was designed with 10 foot ’50’s style trailers in mind so none of the spaces could fit my 36 foot RV, I know, I drove in a couple and checked.

Reason for staying here though is that this RV park has to my knowledge always been the low cost park in the area. I’ve noticed that since back in 2004 and always meant to stay here, just never made it. Instead paying way too much at other parks in town. Like $44/night. Where this place is $27/night. Doh! I’ll know better from now on. It’s Model T RV park for me from here on. AND it’s right on the street that leads directly to the repair shop I’ll be using.

It was hinted by the motel office staff that the cafe’s fish dinner wasn’t much good, but I tired it anyway. And it was large, but mostly tasteless. I think because they’d just earlier changed the deep fryer oil. It was very very hot and everything was a golden brown. Next day though, when I reheated the left overs in the MW, everything tasted great. Yum. Had some other meal there that I forget, but that was good too. The place doesn’t have any good IPA’s though.

So May 13th was a Saturday, I’d paid for 6 nights but it was still early when I arrived so after getting plugged in and the car unhooked, I zipped over to the repair shop and verified that I had an appointment. Well, of course I didn’t. Dammit. But the office gal penciled me in for Tuesday at 8 AM then she told me Monday at 8 AM.

I arrive at 8 AM Monday, eventually was able to track down the owner, (it’s a big multi-building facility), he gets me in anyway, even though I was a day early.

What the problem was is that the brakes weren’t working correctly and I’d talked to the owner about having them worked on. I’d spent some time researching before I got here and had some idea what I wanted and explained to the tech. He goes to work on it and changes the air filter canister that is part of every air brake system and is a regular maintenance item on these big rigs. Then he tested the air brakes and there’s still something wrong. But he’s not the air brake expert. That guy wouldn’t be available until the next morning. Oh, that’s why it was supposed to be a Tuesday appointment. Hmm. My fault I guess, must have misheard.

Well, anyway, I wanted the tech to do something else for me which was to have him replace the Allison transmission internal filters. And the ATF. A couple years ago, I went into a shop for an oil change and the tech mixed up the fill tubes and started pouring fresh engine oil into the tranni. They fixed that for me but then I had the oil tested by Blackstone Labs and they suggested that though it was okay, I should get the filters and oil changed. So I’d purchased the synthetic ATF and the filters, but hadn’t found anyone to change them for me. Took advantage of the situation and had this trained Allison technician do it.

Next morning at 7 AM, arrived at the shop, the brake tech went to work on it and soon found the problem of why it was ‘hard braking’. It was a bent air pipe. May have been that way from the factory! He’d done some testing prior to removing the wheel but really needed to remove it to get close to where he thought the trouble might be.

And here’s what he found causing the problem. A kink in an air hose. Damn. For years I’ve nearly had to stand up on the brake pedal to make a quick stop, and this was all that was wrong.

This is where several coils of brake air hoses live. Just behind the generator. If the wheels are off the rig, then you can see them up between on a small platform bridging the frame rails. They just lay there. I suspect they are a certain design length so I did NOT have the tech shorten them to prevent future kinks. I don’t think that will happen again anyway. He zip tied the coils together so they should be fine from now on.

After he replaced that section of hose with special high pressure air hose, I paid a huge bill for the work, nearly $2,000, but I’m okay with that. I needed the work done. If I was in better condition physically, I’d have figured out how to test the brakes, found the kink, and replace the canister and done this work myself. And the work on the tranni…had already read up on it so had a good idea of how to get that done. But my knees and hips and lazy attitude prevents me. Plus the main thing is that this was a BRAKE problem. So having a qualified tech was the right way to go.

Got on the road, filled up with diesel and after 4 miles of driving could tell that the brakes were now excellent! I did not know they were supposed to be that good.

Since it was early in the day, wandered around Winnemucca in my car looking at stuff, took some pictures which I’ve since lost of the meandering river they have there. Did notice some homeless encampments around town. Same everywhere. When the middle class is destroyed by a careless government, that’s what happens. I wish them all good luck. Did a bit of shopping, but that’s about it.

I still had two nights left that I’d paid for but since I was feeling pretty happy about getting the repairs all done, I got a refund for the last night. Promptly lost the refund money in a video machine in the casino. Hah!

So that was my Winnemucca visit. Really an expensive visit overall, but worth it I think.

Next time we’ll head for John Day and hang out there a couple days again. Thanks for reading!