Albany to Oregon Motorcoach Center in Eugene, Oregon, again

We drove our coach just 47 miles, about an hour of driving, from Blue Ox RV Park in Albany to Oregon Motorcoach Center in Eugene, Oregon. Yes, again.

Here’s a map showing our route, heading south:

Route map

An interactive map:

The evening before, we had an issue with the electrical pedestal; one of the 50 amp legs dropped to just 42 volts, which is potentially damaging to a coach. Fortunately my Power Watchdog caught it, but not before the heat from low voltage and high amperage partially melted the plug:

Electrical issue

I switched to the neighboring site’s pedestal, since that site was empty. In the morning, I notified the RV park, so they could fix the pedestal.

Leaving Blue Ox, again:

Passing sites

Arriving at Oregon Motorcoach Center… again:

Oregon Motorcoach Center

Oregon Motorcoach Center

This time we spent the day in their customer lounge while they investigated the things they broke:

Customer lounge

One of the issues was the entry step, which was always retracting when the entry door was closed, even with the step switch off (and key off), which is supposed to keep it out. Something it didn’t do until they worked on the coach. They didn’t find the cause of that, but found a workaround, moving an entry step wire in the front electrical bay; fortunately there haven’t been any unexpected side effects of that change:

Entry step wire

They also cleared the check engine fault code, on some implausible theory that they triggered it when fixing the accelerator pedal (the control to move it in and out wasn’t working, and the pedal was squeaking).

A tech took the coach for a long drive, and didn’t make the code come back. So we toaded up and left… but of course as soon as we got on the freeway, the fault code came back.

So we turned around and headed back to OMC:

Back to OMC

They didn’t have any luck in tracing the issue (and may have triggered some new codes too).

We spent the night there, with the idea that they’d try again the next day:

Spending the night

Spending the night

Not entirely pleased with how things went. I used to like OMC, now I’m not sure I’d trust them with chassis stuff again.

Blue Ox RV Park in Albany, Oregon… back to Blue Ox

We were on our way home after staying a night at Blue Ox RV Park in Albany, Oregon, when a check engine light and malfunction indicator light (MIL) came on the dash. Uh oh!

The fault was ECM SPN 102 FMI 18: “Engine – Engine Intake Manifold #1 Pressure. Data Below Normal Operating Range – Moderate”.

So we stopped at the next rest area, and I followed ChatGPT’s instructions on what I could see in the engine bay, but the fault was apparently likely somewhere that I couldn’t reach (and probably wouldn’t have been able to fix anyway). It was a Saturday, and Oregon Motorcoach Center was closed until Monday, so I made a reservation at Blue Ox again for the weekend, and we headed back. Sigh.

Route map

An interactive map:

Passing our site (the first empty one), and the site we came back to (the next one):

Passing our site (the first empty one), and the site we came back to (the next one)

Soccer:

Soccer

Joining I-5 North:

Joining I-5

I-5

Canola fields:

Clover fields

BlueFire faults screen for ECM SPN 102 FMI 18:

BlueFire faults screen for ECM SPN 102 FMI 18

Road works:

Road works

45th Parallel; we had stopped at a sign for the southern 45th Parallel in New Zealand, so it was fun to see a sign for the northern one:

45th Parallel

More road works:

More road works

Rest area:

Rest area

Looking at the engine:

Looking at the engine

Looking at the engine

Heading back to I-5, South:

Heading back to I-5, south

I-5 South

Exit:

Exit

Back to Blue Ox; at least we didn’t need to check in at the office; they called us and said they’d check us in:

Back to Blue Ox

Our site, #145; we asked for one site over to give space to the neighbor, and for better Starlink signal (there was a tree partially obscuring our Starlink in the previous site):

Our site

Our site

Our site

Our site

Our site

I flew my drone:

Aerial view of campground

Aerial view of campground

Aerial view of campground

Coming back here was not what we had planned to do with our weekend, but I’m glad we weren’t too far away, and Blue Ox had availability.

Eugene to Blue Ox RV Park in Albany, Oregon

We drove our truck about five hours from our home base to Oregon Motorcoach Center in Eugene to pick up our coach after its annual service, repairs, and improvements, then just 47 miles, about an hour of driving, from OMC to Blue Ox RV Park in Albany, Oregon.

Here’s a map showing our route, heading north:

Route map

An interactive map:

Arriving at Oregon Motorcoach Center to pick up our coach:

Oregon Motorcoach Center

Our coach waiting to be picked up:

Oregon Motorcoach Center

Toading up:

Oregon Motorcoach Center

Beltline Road, Eugene:

Beltline Road, Eugene

A skoolie:

Skoolie

“Top speed 61.27435 MPH”:

Top speed 61.27435 MPH

Heading to I-5 North:

Heading to I-5 North

I-5 North:

I-5 North

Albany exit:

Albany exit

Arriving at Blue Ox RV Park:

Arriving at Blue Ox RV Park

Arriving at Blue Ox RV Park

Parked at the entrance as directed:

Parked at the entrance as directed

Office:

Office

Campground map:

Campground map

Our site, #144, the same as last time:

Our site, the same as last time

Our site

Our site

Our site

Our site

Other sites:

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

Indoor pool:

Indoor pool

Eugene, Oregon to our home base near Shelton, Washington

We left our coach at Oregon Motorcoach Center in Eugene, Oregon to get its annual service (early) and some repairs and improvements, and drove our truck about 246 miles, about four hours of driving, to our home base near Shelton, Washington.

An interactive map:

We of course took Paladin with us; traveling in the truck (or any travel really) isn’t his favorite thing, but he’s happy enough with some chill juice, if not stuck in his crate:

Paladin

Paladin

Paladin

Paladin

Paladin

We stayed in a bedroom in our home base while our coach was being serviced.

Albany to Oregon Motorcoach Center in Eugene, Oregon

We drove our coach just 47 miles, about an hour of driving, from Blue Ox RV Park in Albany to Oregon Motorcoach Center in Eugene, Oregon.

Here’s a map showing our route, heading south:

Route map

An interactive map:

Leaving Blue Ox:

Leaving Blue Ox

South on I-5:

South on I-5

Exit to Eugene:

Exit to Eugene

Turn towards the airport:

Turn towards the airport

Arriving at Oregon Motorcoach Center:

Arriving at Oregon Motorcoach Center

Arriving at Oregon Motorcoach Center

Arriving at Oregon Motorcoach Center

We left our coach here for 3.5 weeks, while they did annual servicing and some repairs and improvements.