Crater Lake Trip

[raytwntrvlr]

We headed out from Kansas City Tuesday and made it to Ogallala Nebraska. About 475 miles. Mileage was great at hand calc. 13.5. Checked oil first thing in the morning and it was exactly where it was when we left. Next stop was in Buffalo, Wyoming. Another almost 500 mile day. Both days saw a lot of farm land, pretty much just getting to the foothills in the afternoon. XM radio makes these long days tolerable. Next morning, check the oil and again right at the top edge of the top dot. Perfect.
Now we are getting into Montana and some serious grades. Truck is pulling our Winnebago just right. Rear facing camera on trailer makes travel safer and easier for me.
Then just after noon and near the summit of the pass heading into Butte Montana, we had an event. Truck suddenly lost power and went into what I would call limp mode. At the time we were making about 60mph in 7th gear. Nothing too radical.
Lucky for us, there was a nice wide shoulder to pull over on. I let the truck idle for about five minutes to cool the turbo, then shut it off. Waited about five minutes and started it up and the warning message was gone and the truck seemed back to normal.
I was able to reassure my co-pilot wife that I had read about this very thing on this message board and not to worry. But she worries anyway. I wonder how many of us have had this happen and if there is some explanation.
Anyhow, we are in Missoula Montana for the night Having a beer and some supper.

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[Synfulz]

Have a safe trip. I lived near Crater Lake so always up there. Beautiful lake and area to visit. Crater lake basin fed the water to the reservoir and dam I operated down below at Lost Creek Lake.

 

[Bob902]

Make sure to post some pics of the lake!

 

[EJH]

If you aren't, be sure to run premium gas towing in these mountains out west. I was stuck near E last month coming back from Montana with only 87 available The truck preformed like crap towing until a few fill ups brought the octane back up. (The truck towed in 1-2 gears lower than usually for the speed, rev'd a lot more, in general it was not pleased).

We also use a rear camera on our TT. It really makes it easier and safer

 

[canyonslicker]

There’s a lot of high ethanol content gas up there, personally I would stay away from it towing or not. I won’t cheap out because I had experience with that fuel in another vehicle that says it was just fine to use but not in real life!! A little harder on the wallet but probably a lot better for your copilot..

 

[raytwntrvlr]

Yes, the selection of fuel up here is not great. Nebraska is big on ethanol (corn) and as we went on was able to find only one station selling 91 octane w/o it. $5/ gallon... I filled up. So far I have found 91 octane available for about a 50 cent premium. Worth it when towing. heading to Spokane today to visit some relatives. I will post some pics when we get to the lake. Pretty much staying at the KOA on the way out so nothing much to see there. Finally getting some cooler air. Finished the first two days of travel at over 100 degrees. Much nicer in Missoula.

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[WingShot]

We headed out from Kansas City Tuesday and made it to Ogallala Nebraska. About 475 miles. Mileage was great at hand calc. 13.5. Checked oil first thing in the morning and it was exactly where it was when we left. Next stop was in Buffalo, Wyoming. Another almost 500 mile day. Both days saw a lot of farm land, pretty much just getting to the foothills in the afternoon. XM radio makes these long days tolerable. Next morning, check the oil and again right at the top edge of the top dot. Perfect.
Now we are getting into Montana and some serious grades. Truck is pulling our Winnebago just right. Rear facing camera on trailer makes travel safer and easier for me.
Then just after noon and near the summit of the pass heading into Butte Montana, we had an event. Truck suddenly lost power and went into what I would call limp mode. At the time we were making about 60mph in 7th gear. Nothing too radical.
Lucky for us, there was a nice wide shoulder to pull over on. I let the truck idle for about five minutes to cool the turbo, then shut it off. Waited about five minutes and started it up and the warning message was gone and the truck seemed back to normal.
I was able to reassure my co-pilot wife that I had read about this very thing on this message board and not to worry. But she worries anyway. I wonder how many of us have had this happen and if there is some explanation.
Anyhow, we are in Missoula Montana for the night Having a beer and some supper.

Yep, the same thing has happened to me a few times. Have not been able to figure out the problem. Speculations include: camera losing sight of the road, non-Ford OEM brake controller (Redark), dirty/malfunctioning sensors. The good news is, it hasn't happened for some time with at least a half dozen trips on the same mountain roads.

Have fun at Crater Lake! It's beautiful.

 

[IdahoRanger]

Sounds like a nice trip. You will have some nasty smoke going through Idaho but not sure if it is as bad on the northern route where you will be. If you were taking the southern route through Idaho to Bend it is pretty ugly smoke wise now.

Hope the rest of the trip the truck behaves.

 

[EJH]

Sounds like a nice trip. You will have some nasty smoke going through Idaho but not sure if it is as bad on the northern route where you will be. If you were taking the southern route through Idaho to Bend it is pretty ugly smoke wise now.

Hope the rest of the trip the truck behaves.

Smoke is bad around central Oregon too. There is a fire (Cedar Creek fire) to the west of LaPine. It is hit or miss depending on the wind whether the air will be poor, but at the moment, west Bend is lousy.

 

[MXGOLF]

That sounds like a great trip. I did Crater Lake on my motorcycle some years back and it's so awesome. I called up the day before and got a room at the lodge even. Way cool. Yes the smoke is supposed to be really bad for the next few day due to the change in wind direction. Some roads and or highways may be closed. I was camping in Maupin 4 weeks ago and had to go home a day earlier due to a fire west of Maupin. My route home on 216 was closed due to the fire and had to go back via The Dalles.

 

[Mustang2Ranger]

I tow up grades with 20% ethanol in the tank (splash blending) in various temps hot/cold

While it may decrease gas mileage, it is higher octane and has a cooling effect with the cylinder temps

Livernois also has an E30 tune. Haven't gotten that far yet, but they did say it is safe to tow


I don't think your problem was related to ethanol. Maybe bad gas in general, but I would say the continuous grade and load in those temps caused the limp mode, once you let it rest it was fine

Crater lake is great. Did it with my parents when I was younger. They have a tuned, intake/exhaust modified CAT diesel pusher with sprayers in the radiator shroud hooked directly to the 100g fresh water tank. Soon as the radiator temps heated up we would hit the water pump switch for master power and then use the aux switch we installed to control it from the driver seat

 

[raytwntrvlr]

Saw this on my early morning walk through the RV park. Someone is showing some love for their 4th gen Ranger. XLT 4x4 in very nice condition. Should last a good long time being treated this way.

 

[raytwntrvlr]

We have completed our Idaho and Crater Lake segments. Idaho was great, as usual, but the smoke in the air wrecked the photo ops. Still wonderful country and nice folks. The Crater Lake experience was beautiful. We camped at the park so we got the most out of our short stay. The lake is the star attraction, but the surrounding caldera formations are just as spectacular.
I'm not too fond of the "full service" gas stations in Oregon. Last time we were here I was driving a diesel and could fuel up myself. Don't understand why it's okay for diesel and not gas.
We are now in Reno for a few days. This is where we got married 49 years and 4 months ago. This place has really changed since then.
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[raytwntrvlr]

Well, as you can see, I'm not good at posting images. So how to delete the duplicates? Sorry for the extras.

 

[Synfulz]

Well, as you can see, I'm not good at posting images. So how to delete the duplicates? Sorry for the extras.

Pictures look great. To delete extras select edit your post (3 dots on lower left) then just delete picture on right side.

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