Very Busy Day

 

ADVENTURE LOCATION:

DECATUR, ALABAMA

POINT MALLARD PARK

DATE: AUGUST 19, 2024

A day of many facets greeted us today and some things worked out well. The first thing was the oil change appointment for Sierra. We were on time and the crew went to work on Sierra and finished up in reasonable time. While wondering about the need to add a quart of oil about 2/3 through the normal oil change interval that Sierra has developed we found out some nice to know news to us. Sierra has about 148,000 miles on it. We found that Sierra's 5.3 liter engine has an oil change interval of 7,500 miles. It is also designed to use a quart of oil about every 5,000 miles. So Sierra is right on spec for oil use instead of my old engines that were not supposed to use oil between changes until they had at least 200,000 miles. So yahoo Sierra is right on schedule for oil usage. We were afraid we were looking at an engine rebuild within a year. According to the internet GM data that engine normally gets to 250,000 miles before a rebuild is needed. That should get us to wheel chair time for the OFM.

Next we hit up the car dealer repair shop about a new transmission. It turns out that they have one in stock that can be installed as soon as we can get it scheduled. The shop is very busy at the moment but they expect it can be done in less than two weeks. It will take two days for the install to be accomplished. The job just needs to get on the busy schedule. We are supposed to try to get it scheduled tomorrow. That is an $8000 job but a lot cheaper than a new truck.

And importantly we got in some good walking today. It took three wanderings to get in a full walk but we got it done. The evening one was under shade trees with a nice breeze.

Things seem to be working out that we will have a tow vehicle in first class shape by Labor Day. Now all we need is an OFM in first class shape for rolling.

It has been a busy bothersome day but seems to be ok now. So let us all get a good nights rest, OK.