Sharkey's Adventure to:

Noon, Thursday, July 26, 2001. The pusher is complete, the bicycle rack finished, and now it's time to load the car and trailer and get completely ready for a 5 AM departure in order to beat the summer heat going through the high desert. Of course, the phone rings, people come over unexpectedly, etc. While washing the EV, I decide to clean out the bin under the hood through which interior air travels from the hood louvers. My intent is to fill this area with drinking water bottles, and I want it to be clean. While scrubbing out the space, I found a baby mouse. Removing the plastic cover over the heater blower, I found two more and a nest. Great. What am I going to do with three orphans? While doing something just a bit away from the car, I spotted Ma Mouse flitting over the controller box, so I partially closed the hood, leaving the plastic cover off of the air space, meaning the babies were exposed to light but not frying in the sun. About an hour later, after washing the rest of the car, they were gone, so I think they got carried away to a more secure nest somewhere else.

All of the camping gear fit easily in the trunk of the pusher, along with extra shoes. I began packing milk crates with belongings, and found a dark blue fitted sheet to cover the load with. Most of the evening was consumed with packing, list checking, and eating, bathing and domestic chores. Finally fell dead into bed about 10:30.

Friday, July 27th, 6:30 AM. I hate being awakened by an alarm, particularly when I'm already almost a week behind on sufficient sleep. Got the car packed, took care of last minute details, and I'm finally on the road. After leaving the urban streets, I allowed the pusher to provide some regenerative braking to top off the batteries from stop-and-go traffic usage, then shut down the EV motor and coasted along for about 60 miles, arriving at Belknap Hot Springs only 2 ampere-hours short of a full charge. Got out of the car and stretched a bit, going for a short walk over the foot bridge to visit the botanical gardens on the other side of the river.

Several miles farther up highway 126, the road grew steeper and I was faced with my first serious test at hill climbing. I pulled over and put the transmission of the pusher into 3rd gear and re-entered the road. The pusher had no trouble holding 45-50 MPH up the steep grade while being assisted by the electric drive in the EV. Power usage was about 90-120 amps for the climb. When the road leveled out, I held the pusher throttle open fairly wide and used the EV's regenerative braking to put a charge on the batteries, almost completely returning the power used to climb the hill within a few miles.

Highway 126 joins 20, then the acid test begins. I'm now faced with climbing over Santiam Pass, the summit of which is 4,817 feet. Shifted the pusher into 3rd again, gritted my teeth and began my ascent. As before, the pusher pulled the hill at 45-50 MPH, and I found myself passing diesel semi trucks, leaving them to disappear in my mirrors. I watched the EV and Pusher temperature gauges for signs of overheating. The EV motor went up to normal freeway temp, and the pusher rose just a bit, but well within acceptable limits. The pinnacles of Mt. Washington and Mt. Jefferson punctuated the sky around me, the air was crisp, and I was jetting into the high country propelled by vegetable oil and pure sunlight!

At the summit, I pulled into the truck brake check area to check coolant levels and pressure, and to put the pusher into 4th gear for the decent. I had consumed about 25 ampere-hours climbing the pass. Joined traffic, opened the throttle on the pusher as before, and put the EV transmission into 3rd gear. Now I'm going to use the EV's regenerative braking to recharge the batteries while keeping the downhill velocity of the car within reasonable limits. After a 6 mile down grade, I had nearly refilled the batteries again.

The road began to level out as I approached Sisters, a quaint little tourist trap that is the first vestige of civilization on this side of the Cascade Mountain range. About 10 miles out of town, the pusher suddenly lost all power. Although the engine was running, I was unable to open the throttle to provide power to drive the car forward. I used electric drive to pull the trailer to the nearest turnout to find out what had stranded me 99 miles from home.

Raising the hood and checking showed that there was no activity from the servo. Using the digital multimeter, I checked for the required 6 volts DC. Not having more extensive test equipment, I could only guess that the servo was hosed, or the PWM circuit that sends signals to the servo had failed.

I considered what the next step was going to be. Having no string or rope, no cable or wire, I had no alternate means of opening the throttle. The best decision at this point seemed to be to continue into Sisters, where I might find hardware to make repairs, or use the phone to call for a tow truck to haul me home.

I drove the remaining ten miles into town on electric drive, moving along at 40 MPH, idling in fourth gear. When traffic would come up behind me, I moved off the lane into the shoulder to allow them to pass. I could have accelerated the EV, but the trailer represents a heavy load on the batteries under way, and I wanted to save as much battery charge as possible. As it was, I consumed 45 ampere-hours, or abut half my total available charge when full, just in the ten mile trek to Sisters.

At the first gas station, I stopped to ask directions to any bicycle shop in town, and was directed to one "downtown" (it's a pretty small town, so having anything other than "downtown" seemed doubtful). My reasoning was that a bike shop might have cable and sheath that I could use to make a manually actuated throttle system.

The people at the bike shop didn't turn out to be alternative transportation nuts, and seemed fairly disinterested in helping me find a solution, saying that their cable assemblies were only a few feet long, and wouldn't reach the driver's seat of the EV.

I decided to take the servo apart and see if I could find the problem, perhaps a broken wire or something repairable.

Taking the bottom cover off of the servo revealed that it had gotten so hot inside the case that the solder had melted right off of the small printed circuit board inside. Solder melts at 600° F !!! I plugged my soldering pencil into the on-board inverter and began to repair the damage, hoping that the unit would recover some or all of it's functionality.

As I said before, Sisters is a major tourist town, literally crawling with out of town, out of state, and out of country visitors. I gave what I came to call "The Tour" to a couple of dozen onlookers who pestered me with all manner of questions, as if I was part of the local entertainment performing for their enjoyment. I wished that I had remembered to bring a bowl to set out for "Donations". Maybe I could have made some spare change for the trip's expenses.

After reassembling the servo, I tested it and it did show signs of life, but was jerky and unpredictable. Removing it again, I took it across the street to the town Radio Shack to see if the proprietor had an idea where I might get a replacement. He directed me to a hobby shop in Bend, about 21 miles away. Calling the store put me in contact with Dennis, who was familiar with the brand and model of servo that I was using. Although he didn't stock a servo this big, he did have one that might work as a substitute, so I returned to the car, put the servo back in and struck out for Bend.

The drive to Bend was uneventful, the pusher "drove" normally, although the throttle release seemed a bit slow. I ran the EV in regenerative braking mode as much as possible to try and regain some of the power I used while pulling the trailer into Sisters. At the outskirts of town, I turned down the throttle on the trailer to slow for the speed change, and then found that the servo had quit again. No problem, I'll just pull the trailer through town on electric drive.

I've been hearing about how Bend was experiencing traffic problems, but wasn't prepared for what I got tangled up in next. The main street through town is highway 97, and the snarl of cars and trucks was intense. Traffic signals would change three and four times before I could get through them with all of the other cars, only to be stopped by the next long line of backed up, jammed together traffic.

While waiting for one light, two young fellows in a jacked-up pickup truck whipped up alongside the left hand side of the EV, stopped, gave me two thumbs up and exclaimed "Nice trailer man!" and continued through their left turn. Thanks, but you guys only see the outside of it.

Finally, I arrived at D's Hobbies and talked to Dennis. He admitted that he had no idea what I was doing with this trailer, but we removed the servo and took it into the store. While Dennis disassembled and inspected the servo gear case, I used a high wattage soldering gun to go over my work repairing the printed circuit board. When we were ready to put the pieces back together, I asked Dennis to cut the entire bottom out of the servo so I could flip the circuit board upside down to let the tabs of the four transistors hang out the bottom and get some cooling air.

Reinstalled the servo, and found that it worked about the same as before, good pull but erratic release. I bought the smaller servo that was in stock as a worst-case spare, and asked what I owed for Dennis' labor. He would only take $5 for his 1½ hours of work!

Back in the car, I realize that it's now 1:30 PM, I'm hungry, and the air temperature is a good 90°. So much for missing the hot part of the day. I'll quiet my stomach after I get out of Bend, so back through the traffic mess, this time with some pusher assistance in third gear.

By the time I reached the edge of town, the EV is about three-quarters discharged at -70 ampere-hours. I'll have to regain this loss if I am to have enough power to assist the pusher going over the two mountain passes remaining between here and John Day. Pulling over to shift into fourth gear, I find that the drill motor that operates the clutch isn't working. resetting the system and trying again brings the proper result, so I strike off for Redmond, charging the batteries as hard as I can over the level roadway.

Traffic in Redmond is less thick than Bend, but it is still crowded. I'd like to stop for coffee, but I want to make some road time, so I head for the connection to highway 126 out of town and I'm again greeted by no clutch action. Stopped to reset the system, wishing not for the last time that the automatic transmission was already installed.

Nothing unusual on the drive to Prineville. Just before town, I dived out of traffic to stop at Ochoco Viewpoint for a bit to eat. The valley that this small town resides in is thick with smoke from a fire of some sort off to the west. From this high perch, I can see the entire town, and can visually follow highway 26 up into the Ochoco Pass, my next major uphill climb. Memory of the last two trips this way reminds me that it is mostly a long, shallow climb from this side, the summit of 4,720 feet almost sneaks up on you before you know you've made any altitude at all. Never the less, I put the pusher into third gear before leaving the viewpoint parking lot, an action that way somewhat premature, as it is quite a few miles of travel on level roads before even the first gentle hills. The engine in the pusher was turning fast, and I kept my speed down to keep from over revving.

True to form, the Ochoco Summit was easily won. I pulled over at the entrance to the campground to take a victory photo and return to fourth gear.

Returning to the road, again I find that the clutch in the pusher won't engage. Fortunately, there is a turn-out just after the summit, and I pulled over to check the operation. Now it's working fine. This is driving me nuts. Yet more fantasies about the soon-to-be-installed automatic transmission.

Descending the Ococho pass, I gained back all of the ampere-hours the car consumed during the ascent and then some. The day is pretty much hot, but not so much that I'm drenched with sweat, and the next bit of driving goes along fairly smoothly, until I reach the next range of hills outside of Mitchell, where the grade sneaks up on me and I end up having to pull over on the hill to shift to third. This time, there is no release to the clutch, so I come to a shaking and stuttering halt. Opening the hood reveals that the drill motor that operates the clutch is trying desperately to do it's job, but is basically just sitting there and buzzing, not rotating. This is a clue! I notice that the radiator fan is also running, so I stopped the drill until the fan had quit, and then found that it released the clutch fine. Now I have something to figure out during the rest of the drive. What I decided is that the alternator in the pusher isn't keeping up with the electrical loads, and since it's a hot day and the radiator fan is running almost continuously, the pusher battery is getting drained, causing the inverter that runs the drill to poop out. Ah ah!

Once off of the summit of Mt. Baldy and Table Mountain, there is no safe place to pull over and shift to fourth, and besides, with the clutch crapping out like it is, I just don't want to stop and risk getting stranded, so I drove the remaining 70 miles to John Day in third gear. This isn't so good for the engine, but I'll be rebuilding a new one soon, so I kept my speed down and dug my nails into the steering wheel, concentrating on arriving at the fairgrounds before all of the camping spots under the trees were taken.

Know what? I made it! Arrived about 5:30 PM, checked in at the office, set up camp in "The Orchard", unloading the car into the tent, and drove over to the display area to plug into the grid-intertied solar power system to charge up. Total miles for the trip, 294, with the battery pack still having 54% of it's charge remaining.

It had been a long and arduous day. I caught a short nap while the car charged up, then met up with friends after the "networking dinner" let out. Caught a shower at Darren's motel room, checked the car, then fell into bed back at the tent.....