Well, we are on our way to South Carolina, after a bumpy start!
We had our whole week planned. Leave Friday morning. Be in Virginia Friday at 5PM in my brother-in-laws shop to change out one air bag and two brake diaphragms. Saturday with our daughter and other family. Sunday church. Bum around with my family Monday. Travel down to South Carolina Tuesday. Meet Dallas & Cat Wednesday and check out the campground. Campground auction Thursday. Friday back to North Carolina to meet some church friends there. Bum around Saturday. Speak at Three Pillars Church in NC Sunday for their induction of members ceremony. Travel back home Monday.
Was it Shakespeare that said "The best laid plans of mice and men do oft go astray"?
Ain't it the truth!
Friday morning was hectic. I had about two hours of last minute customer problems to straighten out. Then our kitty decided she did not want to go & hid for another hour. I know, we should have captured her BEFORE we started the bus! Next time I'll remember that. Of course, that's what I said last time!.
We finally left at 11PM. Two stops in town for last minute details. That left us just enough time to make it into my brother-in-laws shop at 5.
TRAFFIC!!!!!! It seems everyone else was going to my destination and they all either wanted to sightsee or had a maximum limit of 25MPH! Just made the shop in time.
We got old "Tons 'O Funds" blocked up over the pit and started taking things apart. Wheels & tires came off fine. All the lower air bag bolts & nuts zipped right off with his Snap-on air ratchet. No go on the top ones, though. They were too corroded. Now, I know other people use the torch to nip those off but I don't care for fire under my bus if there is another option; so, he tried the air chisel. That worked fine one the first 4 but the others were too far away to reach with the short chisel he had. "No problem" he says. "The Snap-on man will be here in about 15 minutes anyway & I'll buy a long chisel". In 15 minutes we have a new chisel. First burst of air he split the brand new Snap-on chisel right in two! Unbelievable!!! Good thing the Snap-on guy hadn't left yet!
Got all the bolts off, removed the old bag, and found the plate (which I failed to order although I was told to do so) was cracked. No problem! Called my son-in-law, who owns a machine shop & had him come down to weld it up. He takes one look as says in ain't going to work but he'll try.
Meanwhile, my brother-in-law & I are going to replace the two brake diaphragms on the same axle. Piece of cake I had been told.
Not on a bet!!!!
Got it taken apart with no problems. Inside, we found a wild looking diaphragm with some kind of metal plate on it. Never seen anything like it in my life! It didn't even LOOK like the replacement ones we had!
I decided to put the new ones in anyway if they would fit. They did & we did. I have found out later that the old ones were something Bendix tried & later decided they didn't like it. No kidding! I didn't like it either!
By now son-in-law has the plate welded so we start putting that in. What a pain! Finally got it in. By now it's midnight.
Buttoned everything up & she's looking good.
Now to test everything out. Started her up & started building air. Son-in-law was right! I got air leaking from the plate big time! We fooled with it enough to make it safe to drive & figured I would look for a new plate locally Saturday morning. At least the brakes are working fine & NOT LEAKING!!!! HOORAY!
Saturday morning & no plate to be had here. Lots of people stock 'em but no one has one right now. ("I just sold my last plate last night, have some in next week!".....)
After consulting with all parties, I have decided to continue to SC with my leaking plate. Everyone thinks it will be fine, just a big inconvenience.... & I hate an air leak!
Mike at U.S. Coach is shipping a new plate down to my brother-in-laws shop for installation on the return trip.
Hopefully, the rest of this trip we be better.
Dallas, I don't know how you transferred your Gremlins to me YOU ARE GETTING THEM BACK WEDNESDAY!!!!!!! ;D ;D ;D ;D
To be continued............
Hi oldmansax,
I hope you loose thoose gremlins before wednesday...
Remember, If you get the bus over 80mph, they will fall out!
nick-
What ever you do DON"Tget them wet
Quote from: Nick Badame Refrig. Co. on April 14, 2007, 11:52:35 AM
Remember, If you get the bus over 80mph, they will fall out!
nick-
So that's why my bus behaves itself so well. 87mph is WAYYYY too fast for them to hang on.
Jay
87 SaftLiner
Hmmmmmmm......
77 is as fast as I have had it so far, You know how bad the roads are up where we are.
I'll see what I can do Tuesday in NC ;D ;D
I'll feel like a gear swapper again! ;D
My speedo has been pegged at 80 MPH numerous times since it reads 10 MPH low at highway speeds. In reality I have only been to about 75 MPH when using my GPS.
This explains why I have so many gremlins in the engine. I need to go faster.
Brian Elfert
Speedo's.......now We're talkin' !!! :D :D :D
Tom,
They really aren't MY gremlins. The were originally Christy and Larry Hicks.
I was just being a nice guy, trying to get them some help when they were in a foreign country, and as you can see... This is the thanks I get!
I think Christy let them loose in the chat room and they've been hitching a ride with whoever was handy, and since Slow Rider is being rather slow in putting all of his hard earned money into a bus that doesn't have a friction motor, they leave him alone!
Brian,
I really don't want to picture you going 75 in a speedo! :o :o :o ::) ::) ::) :o :o :o
I was the one that inferred "gremlins".....I think, But now I am starting to question myself.. repeatedly..... :-\ :-\
I can only get 78 mph out of my MC9 with the trailer behind it going down a really big hill with a tailwind...
( of course that's providing that the trailer hitch doesn't break.. ) ::)
I hope the little guys behave, I thought I had mine trained pretty well.... ;D ;D
Hope all goes well with the Auction deal. ( Dallas & Cat ) probably will have to do more working on their bus
if they have to move again. That first 50 miles is the hard part..... 8)
TOM shame on you. Its not Shakespeare - its Burns from "To a Mouse on Turning Her Up in her Nest with a Plough"
"the best laid schemes of mice and men gang aft agley ...."
http://www.robertburns.org/works/75.shtml
Tom,
Great post! Thanks for taking the time to put all that down. Aren't the gremlins a standard option for the busses?
Kind Regards, Phil
Cat, you would not want to see me (or probably a LOT of other bus nuts) in a Speedo. I look so bad, the last time I went to the beach, even the TIDE went out!! Then I was standing in the water & somebody tried to tie their boat up to me! >:( I have not been back.
Dallas, I needed a scapegoat and you were the first fellow that came to mind! At least, somebody is thinking about you. ;D ...... Christy & Larry are welcome to claim them anytime! Talking about Slow Rider, I am thinking about coining a new term. Some of the terms we now use to denote a person who would like a bus but does not yet have one I think are degrading...like "wannabe". This inplies they want to be something but lack a quality that makes it possible. Now, we all know that busnuts in general all lack something, usually it's in the catagories of either "sense" or "money", so by calling someone else a "wannabe" we are denigrating ourselves. Therefore, by the power vested in me by myself, I hereby coin the term, "BUSNOT"; to mean, someone who wants a bus but does not yet have one. :D
DRDave, they tell me as long as you don't answer yourself, you are still OK! I talk to myself all the time; I am a wonderful orator and I have an attentive audience!
Bob, my apologies to the Bard. I am not a big fan of Robert Burns and probably would not have remembered reading about a mouse & a plough. I DID have a mouse in a bus once.....
Phil, gremlins were standard on GMCs, optional for additional charge on most Eagles, and not available at all on MCIs, although some owners had them installed. I never cared for them myself, although I once saw a very good looking midget driving a Diamond Reo ...........OOPS, that's another story.
I am writing this Sunday morning, looking out the window at flood of rain. I need to get up, get dressed, go out & disconnect the electrical service so we can go to church. Now I wonder where I put my rain coat ??? ??? ??? .......It's probably in one of the bays with my Speedo.........
Tom & Phyllis
Somewhere in Virginia in the rain.......
Thats Funny Tom..
BusNut= One who owns a headache bus
BusNot= One who is in search of a headache Bus
I'm all for it....
Nick-
Tom I am so disappointed in you. Not a fan of Burns - you went down several notches in my eyes with that statement. ???
Speedo's ........my wifes's brother in law.......(no relation to me) wear's those, did anyone ever notice the older we get the butt travels from the rear to the front and nothing ever fits again?......Speedo's ....yeah right!
Poor Dallas, the voices in his head won't speak to him any more. I wonder why it is that men that wear speedos are the ones that never ever should, just as women that wear bikinis should never look at one, much less put one on.
Tom, I hope the rain is slacking off where you are. The sun finally peeked out here about 12:30 but it has clouded up a bit since then. Sitting in the rain is no fun but driving in it really sucks! You guys be careful. I can't wait to meet you, though I do have a new job so I gotta work the day of the auction and I was really hoping to be off so I could see the fireworks, er fun! Cat
We made it to Lumberton, NC! :)
The airbag plate leak does not seem to be any worse & the bus runs & operates fine.
The wind has finially died out. Driving yesterday was a challange.
We spent the night here & visited with an old friend we have not seen in over 30 years.
THIS IS A LOT OF FUN!!!!! ;D ;D ;D ;D
We should make it to Timmonsville today so we will be a day ahead of schedule.
More to come.........
The Gremlins got passed on to me! The 45'er ruined a brand new tire less than 3,000 miles on it! Tag axle steering dampening shock bolt worked loose allowing the tag tires to shimy back & forth causing the tires to wobble and wear off the tread half way around the tire! Had a terrible vibration most of he way to FL and when we got there we discovered the wore out tire half the tire has like new tread all the way across and half is slick as a babies behind! We got some chain and went to work chaining up the tag axle for the trip home, while under there I found the loose mounting bolt on the dampening shock! Well we went ahead and chained it up as we weren't about to chance a blow out on the way home! After get home I find it's shook it so bad that it's toed out 1" so tomarrow it gets re-aligned, new bolts in the dampening shocks, and a new tire! Who wants these gremlins next?! BK ;D
BK,
Those are still Toms gremlins.....
They got down here today and are spending the night at the old campground.
We went down to see them but went in the car so our poor little GMC wouldn't get them back.
I wonder if your gremlins were some of the ones Christy and Larry lost when they passed the 80 mph mark in Florida?
They probably left quite a few laying here and there along the road.
Dallas
Quote from: Dallas on April 17, 2007, 07:51:17 PM
BK,
I wonder if your gremlins were some of the ones Christy and Larry lost when they passed the 80 mph mark in Florida?
They probably left quite a few laying here and there along the road.
Dallas
Hmmm, that could be! I wonder what rte they took? Seems to me that the shimy started at about 3:00 AM just south of Huntsville at about 80 mph! Dad got a head start on me and I'd gotten hung up in traffic so I was try'n to catch him! (which I did because he missed the exit for the Flying J at Birmingham, and had to turn around and come back! That ol' TMC still a good runn'n ol bus!)
I tell ya though we're really gonna miss the old TMC 102A3 with the remanned engine I just put in it a yr ago, when the church that's buying it takes possion of it after the 18th of May! (last day I had it booked on the schedule when they said yes to my price!).
But hey I got my 45' Setra and 2 more 40' Setra's and got my eyeball on trad'n the 2 40's on another 45'r! Hey Christy an Larry when ya com'n by to pick up yer gremlins? BK ;D
Any gremlins that are still hiding in Tom's bus can head out with him and he can drop them off somewhere, maybe KOA would be a good drop-off point. Whether or not he win's the auction, it was great to get to meet Tom, Phyllis and their kinda shy kitty, Stuffy. We had a great visit with them and would love to run the campground for them. If that isn't in God's plan, we still have the knowledge that bus nuts are super duper people and last night we met two more of them. Cat
Sure, we sneak out of Florida when the gremlins are on a break and not looking ;D & I'm keeping a low profile so they can't find us again :D . . .so what do you guys do??? ::) Just keep teasing and prodding, trying to get us to come out of hiding :P.
You don't really think I'm dumb enough to pop my head up when you guys are out there exposed to the gremlins. . .do you???? ;). Christy
Hope you keep all the gremlins on the east coast, course if they come to Arizona in the next few months they will die of the heat. You know maby the heat out here is good. I sure like it better than all the cold and white rain.
Now if we can just get some real rain because it is sure dry.
ED
MCI 7
Cornville, Arizona
I didn't think you could get a piece of equipment this size without gremlins. ::)