I've previously discussed our 2000 Ford E350's Carrier Transicold system in some detail before.
We recently spent some time on the road with our wheelchair bus pulling a 30 foot toy hauler trailer that we have stripped out all the stuff in the "toy" area and now have an electric hospital bed and enough room to maneuver a hoyer lift around. Our target was 840 miles away in Orlando Florida at the 2011 Independence Expo. Keep in mind that our rig is an aging ex-fleet operated rig but it has a good heart LOL
Being in a wheelchair and travelling away from home has some inherit risks. Probably the most major one is that if you break down and need a tow you are going to be left on the side of the highway because tow trucks aren't equipped with wheelchair lifts or ramps. With this in mind I travel with enough tools and old spare parts I can stuff on board. Our first problem, a recurring one which is quite frustrating to diagnose, is the Braun Millenium Lift in our truck will fold/unfold/go down with no problems what so ever. But ever so often it won't go up. Half of our trip this is how the lift acted. I jump the main relay on the lift to ground and if your not careful it will raise and fold in one motion. What bothers me about this configuration is that they are switching the ground to make it operate, which means if it shorts out it's not going to blow a fuse and be safe, it's going to raise and fold in keep on pumping! Ok so I'm digressing from what I was wanting to say. Needless to say this problem although annoying I can overcome.
We travel to florida, make the expo, spend some time at Disney World, traded pins, trick or treated at Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party and head home. Our Hopped up 7.3L Powerstroke Diesel performing admirably with our 53' Truck and Trailer rig. We make it to 45 miles from home and start smelling smoke... Well I hope it's outside, but it's not going away and it's starting to burn my eyes. So here's where you get scared truck is 8 feet wide lift sticks out another 4-5 feet and it takes another 3 feet to get on/off the lift when it's on the ground so you need 14-16 feet of space for the truck and egress, the Interstate has sloping grassy area beyond the emergency parking strip on the side. So do I stop immediately taking up the main lane at night and most likely get rear ended at 80mph? no I think not... I push on the gas and hit the next exit, blast through the red lights, and pull into a truck stop well away from the pumps and everyone else but where someone will quickly call the fire department if flames kick up after I stop. I shut down and get Sarah in her wheelchair off the bus. Now fortunately no flames kicked up, the smoke died away after I shut the motor down, Sarah's is off the bus so I start inspecting the problem. I open the hood and the serpentine drive belt is sheared. This is where the spare parts kick in. I have the previous belt stowed away (the belt is a non stock at every parts store I've ever checked, meaning you break down at night and on the 2nd day if your lucky you can get one) I install the new belt but notice what broke it, the Air Conditioner pulley is free and rattling around in the A/C clutch confines and it has a good 3/4" of play. I fire up the truck and the a/c pulley is rubbing on the bolts on the front of the compressor and throwing sparks so I shut back down. I make some calls and the closest place I can find to park our rig was 10 miles away, speculating the life of the belt I figured it would snap in route, but we could probably make it with one cooling off period, so best case belt holds, we are there in 12 minutes, worse case belt breaks and we are there in 2 hours or so. Fortunately the belt held and we were able to get our rv set back up and camp out for a few more days. Both the compressor and the belt were non stock items at the part store, so it took us about 3 days to get back on the road and travel that last 40 miles to make it home.
Anyway, the compressor has been on about a week, I did not plug in the electrical connector to it at the time as I just really needed something that would make the drive belt function for the water pump, alternator and fan. So today I take the time to charge the system back up. the system holds:
10 - 12 oz cans of R134a
Sam's Club had R134a by the case of 12 cans for 76 bucks so I had a couple of cans to spare and still saved money vs the typical 9 bucks a can everywhere else.
It's always something to think about when your travelling with a wheelchair traveller is what to do if you get broke down away from home.
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