Greg was driving down the road and spotted something in a pond along side the road. The objects were tiny and he asked me to take a look through the camera to see what the were, I did but couldn't tell. I asked him to stop so I could use the powerful zoom of the digital video camera (the Winnebaigis shakes to much to use the powerful zoom while it is moving). Greg pulled over on the side of the road so I could get a clearer view. I told Greg that the objects were tiny ducks sticking their butts up in the air, they must be feeding. I decided I wanted to get some video of the feeding ducks, I tried but the Winnebaigis was still shaking to much to zoom in and get a clear shot while it is running. I asked Greg to shut the engine off so I can get a clear shot with no shakes. I took about 30 seconds of video and said ok let's go. 

Greg turned the key and nothing, he said Joe its not starting. My first reaction was a locked up solenoid on the starter. I proceeded to take a large wrench and beat the starter to free the solenoid. That didn't seem to work. I began to wonder if the rumblings of the road vibrated a wiring connection apart. The Winnebaigis is a fairly sophisticated piece of machinery that needs each intricate piece in precise position for it to properly run. Being the zealous engineers we are we began to troubleshoot the electrical system for the starter.

Greg began busting the tools out, first the trusty voltmeter. I wanted to check voltage at the starter but decided the third degree burns from the exhaust manifold would hurt a little. Since we could not verify voltage at the starter, the next place to check was the relay. the relay was showing absolutely no voltage on any wire, in any key position. The problem was obvious, no power to the starter would cause the starter not to work. We need to find out why the starter is not getting any power. The wire from the relay seemed to go directly to the ignition switch. I first tried to pull the wiring off the ignition switch but was unable to get the wiring connector to unclasp. At this point I crawled under the dash and began disassembling the dashboard.  My rational was that it was probably in the wiring to the ignition switch and we can always hot wire the Winnebaigis if I get the dash apart. We began using a test light to see which wires were getting voltage in what key positions. About 5 minutes into this process Greg says "Joe, you are going to kill me". I said "why?" Greg replies " I think the reason it won't start is that I still have it in gear!"  I say, "your kidding, put it in gear and try." He did and it started... 

A lesson learned... just because we have an unreliable RV doesn't mean we should immediately think the worst. Maybe the Winnebaigis is a little more durable than we think. :-)

Another fact, Greg now hates ducks because they broke the Winnebaigis! :-)