Here’s the trip report from hell. Left Santa Margarita for Poway pulling our 29’ Keystone Cougar. Spent a couple of days at our daughter’s house
readying for the trip. Left for the Mexicali east POE on the 11th, but had a blowout on the 8 east near Seeley. Had the auto club come and change the
tire. The poor technician had to work in 123 degree heat, so I gave him a nice tip. Upon reaching El Centro my wife was insistent on buying 5 new
tires, although the ones on the trailer were about 4 years old with less than 20K miles on them. So we got new tires and spent the night in El Centro
rather than continuing as planned to San Felipe. Going through the border was a breeze as the customs agent saw my wife’s handicap placard and let
us park right there for our FMM’s. Then we drove all the way to GN, waaay too long a trip for us. The road was in great shape with only a short
detour north of Puertecitos and the occasional pothole here and there. But pulling the trailer I was going pretty slow so we managed to avoid or slow
down for them. The bad section of Mex 1 from Punta Prieta to Jesus Maria is mostly patched and resurfaced, best shape in a long time. Border stop and
both military stops only gave a quick glance in the trailer, didn’t even have me pull out the slides for a more thorough inspection. Camped at the
Malarrimo Saturday night and headed to Bahía Asunción Sunday morning in time for shrimp tacos at Don Ramon’s. I had to park in Vizcaino for some
banking business and got hassled by a cop because of the way I parked. He jerked me around for a while and asked if I wanted to follow him to the
police station or pay there. I told him that I would follow him to the police station but under no circumstances would I pay him there. So after a few
minutes he gave me my license back and said to drive safe and park better next time. After having a lunch of tacos de camaron (some of the best on the
peninsula) I got stuck in soft sand trying to back our trailer into our lot but was helped out by the local llantero Jose. While he was backing in the
trailer (we had the truck in 4X4 low with the tires deflated) the hose to the trucks heater broke off. So here we sit with our trailer not close to
being level, but still good enough to live in for a couple of days while I have a local mechanic come and patch things up. So despite it being one of
the most harrowing trips we have ever had we’re now able to enjoy the view overlooking our beautiful bay. Life is good in Bahía Asunción!lencho - 7-14-2025 at 02:44 PM
Depending on how things are configured, you may be able to just connect the two heater hoses together with a coupling in the engine compartment,
bypassing the heater core in the passenger compartment.
I did that with a K5 Blazer that suffered leaky heater core in La Paz, and ran it several years that way (the La Paz Chevy agency told me "But señor,
why would we stock heater cores in this climate?"), and it was fine till I drove up to Washington one spring and had to go over a couple mountain
passes in snowstorms with no heater.
As you might guess, I picked up a heater core in Oregon and installed it right there. shari - 7-14-2025 at 04:19 PM
hey....could have been worse! you are here in paradise now! Get those margaritas goin!BoenBaja - 7-15-2025 at 08:53 AM
Thank you Lencho, that is exactly what I plan on doing. The piece from the trucks heater broke off inside of the manguera at the firewall, so I’ll
have Papo, a local mechanic in Bahía Asunción, remove it, replace it with a longer tube, and reconnect and clamp the hoses.
