Trip Report - Pickerel Point Campground

[Jim Stoltz]

Just returned from the Pickerel Point campground in the Promised Land State Park. I probably say this every year when I get back, but I'm always blown away at the way Pennsylvania maintains that park. It's super clean with modern bathrooms, paved roads, level sites, 50-amp electric, full hook ups, etc. and so on. 

The Allegro ran nice and cool like I had hoped. Too cool actually. It was hovering around 160 degrees on some of the downhill runs. It never got above 200 climbing the hills in the Poconos.

The only drama was when my nav got confused and I got off course. It was a tricky intersection with a right and then an immediate left. I wasn't familiar with the area so I relied on it to tell me what to do. Well, because the intersections were so close together it thought I missed the turn and recalculated. I saw that it wanted me to go about a mile down the road and make a left. It was really rural and I didn't want to get into a bind. I knew at that point where I needed to go so I turned around in a gravel lot. While leaving the roadway, I heard a thunk and a scrape. I got out to investigate and the drain valve on my air tank was torn completely off and I lost all my air pressure. I have an air ride suspension in the rear that draws from that tank. Luckily, in auto mode the valves only open when it thinks it needs to pump up. With no air pressure, it would have drained the bags and it would be sitting on the ground.  I switched it to manual mode which keeps the valves closed unless I open them.

Now the left bag does have a slow leak so when I got home I put jacks under it until I can extract the broken fitting and replace the valve.

I met up with my friend that has the '85 Allegro. I hadn't seen it yet and it is absolutely pristine. 25,000 miles on it, garage kept and a record of anything that was ever done to it in a couple of thick binders. Notes about every issue, when it was washed and waxed, maintenance, etc. 

Anyway, here's a few pics:

My Allegro:

His Allegro:

[Russell E Johnson]

Well Jim, that is a glowing report about the cooling and the campground. Glad almost everything went well. Hope the valve is easy to replace and the repair goes well.  Nice looking MH you have in that Allegro.

[Jim Stoltz]

Thanks Russ. I went to Lowe's and got another valve. This time with an elbow so it doesn't hang down so low. Going to pop that in now and run the air pressure back up.

What's funny, sort of, is that on the way out I was thinking that I hadn't drained the moisture from that air tank in a while. After I heard the scraping and investigated, I saw water dripping from underneath. Turns out it was that air tank draining after that valve was torn off.

$18 worth of brass and I'm back in business.

[Russell E Johnson]

$18 is a great repair price, and the water draining our was a nice added bonus. :)  Glad everything is working out so well for you.