Some thoughts on this trip.
This is the first trip where I wish I had my own truck and trailer. I ran out of time to see as much of the North Channel as I had hoped. Some of that was weather days. Much of that was 'rest' days to let the bad discs in my neck not get to be real problematic. I also kept my boating days fairly short, dependent of course on spacing between marinas. I also took my time, trying to enjoy each moment.
But, we have nowhere to store a truck and trailer and many of our trips have different beginning and ending points. So, it's impractical for us.
I don't think I mentioned this, but on day two, the starboard engine put out Code 72, Cam Position Sensor. Both engines were running great. From then on, I got that code every day of the trip. I called my trusted Yamaha tech at our home Grady dealer. Her advice was if engines are running great, don't worry about it. If you feel the slightest roughness out of the starboard engine, shut it down immediately and limp back on one engine. I had paid too much to get here to turn around with engines running great. On day five, the marina was also a Yamaha dealer. He didn't stock the sensors for the older F250s, so he called around to see if he could get one in a day or two. No luck. He said the Yamaha Canada warehouse didn't even have any, so it would take 2-3 weeks to get some. Hard to believe, but okay.
That dealer brought his tech in who said the same thing my Grady dealer tech said. So I tried not to think about it too much after that.
Boat hauler was right on time of the scheduled morning for pick up. Plan was I would ride with him from Mackinaw City to Ann Arbor, where I could then get an Uber to Detroit airport. I had a direct flight for two days later, but wife got it moved up a day at less cost than a night in a hotel.
Tony's Ram 3500 was humming along down I-75 when he yelled "oh Shit!" and made his way to the emergency lane. By the time we got there, steam was pouring out from under the hood. From that point on, we were quite lucky.
The radiator cap wasn't on properly and we could see where coolant had flowed out from under the cap instead of into the collection bottle. The cap wasn't even hot.
Tony had one gallon of coolant. The radiator took that easily. Them I remembered I still had gallons of drinking water in the boat. It took two more gallons before the radiator was full.
We put the cap on tight. But something else had caused it to overheat and Tony was convinced it was a stuck thermostat. Turns out he was right.
I googled O'Reily's Auto Parts. There was one ten miles down the road. Tony said they carry parts for Cummins diesels and they're open Sunday mornings.
The truck ran slightly warm for those ten miles. Tony theorized that the stuck thermostat had become at least partially unstuck as the engine cooled alongside the road.
Sure enough, O'Reily's had the thermostat, a nifty 5 gallon jug that lies on it's side to catch the draining coolant, and a new cap, just to be sure. Tony asked their permission to pull around back to change the thermostat, assuring them we would leave no trace. They were fine with it. By the looks of the front parking spaces, people changed their own oil there and weren't so careful about it.
Changing the thermostat in a Cummins diesel isn't so hard. Getting to the thermostat and finding all the screws you dropped is the hard part. Fortunately, Tony had one of those flexible magnetic pick-up tools. Working together, with frequent water breaks, it took us about two hours to change the thermostat and refill with fresh coolant.
We could see scratch marks on the disc on the old thermostat, presumably indicating that it was, indeed, the culprit. Tony said that, in a pinch, he has cut that cent disc out to get him to a parts store. Apparently, you cant just run without the thermostat, because the gasket is built into the thermostat.
In any case, the engine ran fine and cool after that. Tony picked up his pace a bit to get me to Ann Arbor, cruising at about 72 mph, where he normally cruises about 65. FWIW, he was getting 10.3 mpg at 72 mph.
So I made it to my hotel at a reasonable hour and Tony dropped the boat at my local Grady dealer for some cam position sensors.
