We got what will be a well-remembered lesson in what happens when the alternator in a vehicle dies.
Debbie, Lindsey, and I (and Bob the dog) were heading up to my parents’ place in Nottoway County yesterday to cut their grass. My Dad has been getting chemo treatments for the past 9 weeks, and has felt really fatigued, so we’re trying to take care of that chore for him. With maybe six or seven acres of grass, it’s a big job. It takes about four hours for one person, so we decided hook up Josh’s trailer and take along his commercial Toro walk-behind mower to cut the time required in half. Since it was about 95 degrees, we didn’t want to spend any more time outside than necessary (at least cutting grass, anyway – I’ll fish in his pond all day, 95, 100 degrees, whatever).
We have a 2001 Chevrolet Suburban
It has been a great truck, and has given us relatively little trouble in 175,000+ miles. Lately, though, it has had some electrical gremlins, and we were having a hard time trying to diagnose the source of the trouble. The battery light, and the ABS brake indicator lights would come on, and sometimes the battery would die for no apparent reason. We had a suspicion that it might be the alternator, but didn’t have a good way -short of removing it and taking it somewhere to be tested- to know for sure. We replaced the battery, and that seemed to help for a while.
Yesterday, the alternator decided to give up the ghost.
Sitting in an un-air-conditioned vehicle when it’s 95 degrees is nobody’s idea of fun.
Instead of cutting my Dad’s grass, we got as far as Capital One’s West Creek campus before we made the (what turned out to be smart) decision to turn around and go home. I made a Google My Maps of the progression on our trip, that only covered a total of around 25 miles, but took approximately four hours. You can click on the map to see the full-size version, with commentary.
A map of the alternator adventure
