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USA

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-- From 2012/07/02 to 2012/07/08
-- From Panama City Beach, FL to Mobile, AL
 
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The road tacklog
From Panama City Beach to Mobile
from 2012/07/02 au 2012/07/08

On Monday, July 2 at 9:30 I was to the cabinet of the dentist for the installation of the crown, I came out half an hour from it to go to buy a fan at Lowe's of course in 110 volts to be used in the camp-sites. I arrived in the early afternoon in Mobile, AL, at the Kenworth workshop instead of Volvo to make the servicing of my truck and especially to find a breakdown occurred at the time of my return to Panama City Beach. It was the pressure in the air tanks for brakes, clutch and others which did not go up to 12 bars but only to 10 bars… For starting it needed more than one fifteen minutes so that the indicators of alarm switched off. After explanations to the person in charge of the workshop an appointment was taken for the following day at 7:30. I established my bivouac on the car park under a torrential storm.

In the evening at the bivouac on the carpark I discovered at the time of my ablutions a water damage caused by a leak at the Shurflo Accumulator. Definitely the evil continued its assiduities since my return to the USA. Of course I subjected this new problem to the garage. The day of July 3rd was hot from all points of view, temperature, moisture and sown obstacles. The servicing of my truck did not raise any difficulty on the other hand the resolution of the breakdowns was a long and disappointing test. The cause of the loss of pressure in the air tanks was discovered, a broad crack at a flexible hose caused by a friction on the frame. After research a company was found to manufacture a new one. Alas at the reassembly another leak was discovered on a rigid hose from the compressor along the engine. I discovered that the big garages in the USA do not make brazing as it was the case at the time of my trip in Africa in the early 2005. A similar breakdown had stopped my truck on a laterite track, no more air pressure for brakes and clutch. A member of the team of technical assistance had dismounted the punctured part of the metal hose to make it brazed at the nearest village. Waiting lasted only two hours for outward and return trip. Here in the most technological country of planet I ordered the parts at MAN-Bresse, France, taking into account the 7 hours time lag. Waiting was four days and the end of the week for the Truckworx garage. For the water leak the cause appeared at the disassembling of the accumulator, an irrevocable crack due to the pressure inside, 125 psi. After long Internet searches, a dealer was found in Clearwater, FL. The order had placed with delivery on Thursday, July 5 by UPS. I did not have any more water supply in the body. This day finished around 15:30 under a driving rain. After placing the orders at MAN-Bresse by Internet I found a camp-site at 8 km by having a pressure about 10 bars for brakes and clutch.

It came back in my memory a sermon by Historical Buddha, Sakyamuni:

“… The fundamental nature of things
     Is, in the final analysis, the extinction.
    Vacuum is vacuity,
    because all that is, is not…”

Quotation of Xiyou Ji by Wu Cheng'en in a French translation by André Lévy and in the English tranlation by I.

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Dave Crack
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SHURflo Accumulator Crack

In waiting of the spare parts delivered by MAN-Bresse, France, with celerity I stationed in I-10 Kampground by modifying the road plan again. Weather was very unsettled, rain and sun with a temperature from 27°C to 34°C and a moisture from 50% to 75%.