Service Needed.

I have been running a little rough since leaving TGO and last night in the middle of a monsoon like rain storm, not only did the lights to the jeep go out, but I struggled to climb the smallest hill.  Alan was trying to make time towards Memphis, but when I slowed to 25MPH going uphill on RT 65 and the trucks were flying by at 75MPH, he wisely decided to pull off the highway into a Flying J and wait for morning to try and diagnose the problem.  A call to the freighliner hotline and they agreed the issue was probably some bad fuel and/or a clogged fuel filter.  Although we have a spare filter on board, Birmingham (Alabama) Freighliner Service was only about 30 miles down the road- so rather than do it himself, Alan unhooked the jeep and Bev hopped in and followed us there. There sure was a ton of slow moving traffic going into Birmingham (who would have guessed?) but that suited me just fine given the situation.  The lightened load and slow traffic made my effort easier and we arrived at the service facility without incident. 

A quick fuel filter change and we were good to go. Alan learned that they filled the new filter with ATF fluid (not diesel fuel) and then installed it. That not only insures the filter is full to avoid any loss of prime to the motor, but the ATF cleans out the system!  We now have a quart of ATF on board to go with the spare filter should we ever need to do it ourselves.