A word to the wise for any snowbirds living in potentially freezing temperatures who may be trying to squeeze every day they can out of their “summer” stay…

If you prepare your rig for departure, leave immediately!

We were feeling pretty good about staying here at Jerry’s Acres this long, considering we left right after last year’s first major dumping of snow in late September.

Then we decided to schedule our departure for this week, and started to get the rig ready over the weekend.

This included cleaning, packing, and yes, putting some water in the tank. Now we’ve had a couple cold days and nights. Freaking cold. Low twenties last time I checked.

After the first night, we had frozen lines and a blown water pump fuse. We plan to winterize the house and leave tomorrow, with hopes that things will thaw out before we reach our first stop.

If we don’t leave now, you may see us on the next season of Ice Road Truckers.

Nope, not a sewer dump, but a snow dump.

We knew we were pushing the envelope by staying here this long.

Last year at this time, we were already in Nevada, working as Satan’s Minion and far from the treacherous winter snowstorms that blanket our little piece of the Rockies.

This year, Fall really hung on, and we were happy to be able to watch the Aspens transition from day-glow fall colors to stripped down versions of their former summer glory.

Our plan was to leave this weekend, but we still have so much to do, and wanted Wyatt to get one more lesson in on Saturday morning. He can use all the help he can get. So we decided to leave on Monday or Tuesday.

But now, the newest weather forecast calls for snow showers and the heaviest snowfall of the season, with no reprieve in sight until Wednesday of next week.

Looks like our ETA for our friends in southern Colorado….Tinytown, Lake City and Pagosa Springs…won’t be until a week from today, when hopefully we can pull our trailer out of the driveway and up into the muddy, steep 6 percent grade that climbs up to our main county road.

For now, we’ll light the fireplace, bundle up and settle in.

The snow’s about to hit the fan.

Rene mentioned in this post a while back – quite a while back, now – that I would eventually write about what happened to our truck, “stranding us” on the mountain.

Well, we didn’t exactly have to resort to cannibalism, which is  a good thing considering Wyatt is already missing one leg, but I digress…

Now that I’ve finally produced the silly little DIY video below describing how to replace the alternator on our Dodge Ram 2500, that time has come. But let’s take a step back, with the hope of actually making this post helpful for someone.

Symptoms of an Alternator Gone Bad

After putting more than 50,000 miles on our 2006 Dodge Ram 2500 pickup truck, we experienced our first major mechanical issue. With a little deductive reasoning, and the right tools, it turned out to be not that major at all.

We never once noticed the voltage gauge acting abnormally. Well, at least I didn’t. And we never noticed the truck having a hard time starting. Again, I didn’t. Until of course, the morning we needed to be somewhere and  were heading out in a hurry at the crack of dawn.

The first indicator of our bad alternator was a dead battery, or batteries in our case. Upon turning the key, the engine attempted to turn over and abruptly ground to a halt. Determined to make it to Wyatt’s class, I quickly disconnected one of the batteries from our fifth wheel and was able to jump start the truck.

Second indicator of an alternator gone bad: it got really hot! As we drove off, I realized that extra battery might come in handy. When I returned to the truck with it, I noticed a burning smell – one of those acrid, electrical burning smells. Acknowledging that it was unwise to drive anywhere – let alone more than an hour on Rocky Mountain backroads – we agreed to stay home and figure out what to do about the truck. Rene parked and I popped the hood. She quickly confirmed the distinct smell, and I touched the alternator. My melted fingerprints have since grown back, thank you.

Dodge Ram 2500 Cummins Diesel Serpentine Belt Tensioner Pulley Location

How To Identify the Serpentine Belt Tensioner Pulley

After a quick consult with el Jefe – Rene’s dad and my mechanical guru – we confirmed the alternator was shot. We also confirmed it was a bad idea to drive the hour to town. If the alternator seized up we could have thrown the serpentine belt and risked much greater damage. Raul told me, “you don’t need help, you just need a boost of confidence.” And that’s exactly what he gave me.

My biggest challenge was identifying the Cummins diesel engine serpentine belt tensioner pulley. Once I found that, I knew I could do the job. This pulley allows you to relieve the tension from the belt, allowing you to remove it from the alternator.

With that done, swapping out the alternator is just a matter of pulling a few bolts.

The serpentine belt tensioner pulley (7) is located directly below the alternator pulley (8) on the Cummins Diesel engine in our 2006 Dodge Ram 2500. It has a square hole in the front into which a half inch socket wrench handle will fit. I was looking for something to loosen, but the pulley is spring loaded – simply pulling down on it releases the tension off the belt.

Tips for How To Replace Dodge Ram 2500 Alternator by Yourself

If you have someone help you, replacing the alternator on a 2006 Dodge Ram 2500 with the Cummins diesel engine might even be easier. This job, however, really couldn’t get much easier. Here’s how I did it alone:

1. Disconnect both batteries to avoid any risk of electrical shock
2. Relieve tension from serpentine belt by inserting half inch socket wrench handle into the front of the tensioner pulley and pulling down.
3. Secure wrench handle to fan shroud using vise grips (zip ties might work for holding the handle in place,or have someone hold it).*
4. Remove belt from alternator pulley
5. Remove wires from back of alternator.
6. Remove the two long mounting bolts that hold the alternator in place.
7. Replace old alternator with new one and tighten mounting bolts.
8. Attach wires to alternator.
9. Place belt back onto alternator pulley
10. Reapply tension to belt and don’t forget to remove the socket wrench (and vice grips if using them).
11. Reattach battery cables.

*Another option might be to just slip the belt off one of the bottom accessible pulleys to relieve tension, but i read about people having a hard time re-routing the belt correctly, since no handy diagram – like the one above – is to be found under the hood..

That’s it! If the batteries are dead, jump start the vehicle and allow the batteries to charge for at least ten minutes. We didn’t need  a jump. The truck fired right up when I was done, which is  surprising considering how things went for us when we needed to leave at the crack of dawn again the following weekend…

Troubleshooting Dead Batteries with New Alternator

Proud of the job I had done, I was determined to ensure I had done it right. After taking a long test drive, I started the truck periodically for a few days. Feeling confident all was well, we let it sit idle for a few more. Imagine our surprise when the truck wouldn’t crank the following weekend.

We rarely see many cars on our dirt road, especially before dawn. But just as I began shaking my head, Rene flagged down some poor fisherman heading to the lake. I say “poor” because Rene insisted they try to push our four tons of truck back out to the road, uphill. As soon as I released the brake, I nearly ran them over.

Even more perplexing than how on earth she thought these guys could budge the truck, was why their running car would not start our engine when I had jumped it off our trailer battery a week before. Rene describes in detail how the Purcells saved us with their F350, but she neglected to mention one important tip. When jump starting a heavy duty truck, use another heavy duty truck, and connect both sets of batteries!

So what happened? After having the shop investigate further, we discovered the batteries had been cooked. I successfully replaced the alternator, but the batteries were clearly already shot. The bad alternator apparently over-charged them, most likely due to a faulty voltage regulator.

On the Road Again

So while I did save us a couple hundred bucks by replacing the alternator myself, we are still out a few more after replacing the batteries. But with two new batteries and a new alternator, we are now ready to hit the road. A good thing considering the snow is starting to fall here on Jerry’s Acres.

For the last few mornings, snow has been blanketing the mountainside but melting off by noon. This is nature’s not-so-subtle warning that one day very soon, we’ll wake up with four feet of the white stuff and have to dig our way out of here. Before that happens, we’ve been making progress getting the rig loaded, checking off lists and eating through our gigantic freezer.

Recently I got into a discussion with a friend about whether or not it was cheaper to stay home or hit the road.

I believe being on the road is cheaper.  How about you?

If you know what you’re doing, it’s possible to live more cheaply in an RV than a stick house (provided that you don’t have mortgage or rent to cover).

Being the meticulous bookeeper that I am, I track all of our expenses in Quickbooks. Here’s a general breakdown of what we spent four months at a time on the road, and here at Jerry’s Acres.

January 2010 to April 2010 (on the road)

Booze & Entertainment: $364

Food & Dining Out: $1798

Health & Beauty: $19

Campgrounds: $537

Pet Expenses: $624

Home Repair: $115

Truck Repair: $39

Utilities: $217

Fuel: $1090

TOTAL: $4,803 ($1,201 per month avg cost)

May 2010 to September 2010 (at Jerry’s Acres)

Booze & Entertainment: $400

Food & Dining Out: $2915

Health & Beauty: $138

Pet Expenses: $987

Home Repair $506

Truck Repair: $556

Utilities: $590

Fuel: $1563

TOTAL: $7,655 ($1,913 per month avg cost).

This excludes business expenses, one-time building upgrades, and static monthly costs like taxes, insurance and club dues. These costs are for two people and one dog.

But yes, living in a stick house is indeed more expensive! Even up here on a remote mountaintop, we find things to indulge in. We eat way more high end good eats when we have a full-sized refrigerator to stock, and a large kitchen to make a mess in. Also, driving the one hour each way to town isn’t cheap either, which is why we only do it twice a week to take Wyatt to his lessons and stock up.

My own tips for living cheaply on the road include:

1. Invest in a good solar setup. Doing so will save hundreds by allowing you to boondock in free places.
2. Never pay full price for a campground. Passport America and Escapees are the only two discount camping clubs worth the cost. Passport’s 50 percent discount will pay for itself the first time you use it and Escapees 10 percent savings will pay for itself after a few nights. If you’re too cheap to do that, good sites like FreeCampgrounds.com, RVParking.com and FreeCampsites.net are good sites to search.
3. Buy the $10 Escapees Day’s End Directory. This guide to free and cheap boondocking spots all over the country will save you tons of money.
4. Diesel rigs are the way to go. While diesel may not always be the cheapest fuel, the mileage you get out of a tank will be better than with a gas engine. And their power kicks butt on the highway!
5. Stay away from popular places and touristy areas. You’ll pay three times what you would normally pay for a comparable campground outside the entertainment zone. There’s so much more to see outside of these crowded areas.
6. Eat in! It’s tempting to try every new eatery in every town you go through, but save those for special occasions.

We’ll have more tips for you as we head out for our fourth winter on the road. Until then, stay warm and be sure to point your rig west…we’ll see you in the desert!