Getting Stuff Done

I genuinely just intended to ride into town, pick up a few things, and come back. Somehow that evolved into a ride around Dorena Lake and into Umpqua National Forest. Not that I’m complaining. We have returned to temperatures suitable for human life in the Pacific Northwest, and it was just too tempting to take a “side trip” many times longer than my original journey.

As with my first visit here on the KLR, I took a left up the first gravel road I found. This, right here, is what I’ve set up the V-Strom to do. I had a fun blast through the twisty paved roads around the lake, then switched to easy gravel roads here in the forest. It worked almost perfectly. It was only once I was in the forest, out of cell service, that I realized my offline maps hadn’t downloaded onto my phone. That’s my fault, partly because I forgot my new phone didn’t have them, and partly because on previous visits I’ve had my Garmin with maps already loaded. I’ll fix that before my next visit. As a result, I didn’t go too far up the gravel road, nor did I make any turns off it. I just got to a point where I felt like turning around, and came back the way I went in.

Then, the next thing I knew, I had a working diesel heater again.

The plastic screen inside the jug was just pressed into place, easily removed with a knife to start it and pliers to finish it. I bent and trimmed the hardware intended to mount in an actual vehicle diesel tank so it would fit inside the jug. No permanent mount is necessary because it fits perfectly inside the cap that normally holds the spout on, rubber seal and all. I attached the existing fuel line, primed the system, and before too long it started burning and heating. I immediately turned it off, because the temperature is still warm and I don’t need any additional heat in the van right now. But this did let it run through its normal automatic shutdown procedure, which I hadn’t gotten to do when I drained the lines after the old tank broke. This process concluded with a nice cloud of smoke coming out the muffler, meaning it burned off all the leftover soot from that earlier incident.

My heater is good to go. Because all the auto parts store had was 5-gallon jugs, I’ve more than doubled my capacity from the original 2-gallon tank it came with, plus I already have an unmodified 5-gallon jug just to refuel it. I should be able to get by for quite some time between diesel fill-ups now. Time will tell if I’ll need to install a one-way vent valve of some kind to let air into the jug as it uses up diesel, but not let diesel fumes out.

It feels good to be getting back to projects, as well as exploring on the motorcycle. My next big project will be to clean up and reorganize the trailer, mainly to make room for my inflatable kayak on one of the shelves. I’m not looking forward to this job, but it has to be done. At least it’s cool enough to do it now, though I’ve lost my excuse for procrastinating on it.