What is in your OTR toolkit?

[TomC]

Take a full tool box full of every tool needed to work on the bus-including large wrenches to be able to replace braided oil lines, and tools for plumbing and electrical work.

Spare parts like starter, alternator, brake cans, wheel bearings, brakes, etc are just not necessary since most truck dealers carry the equipment and those items listed above are very reliable. Good Luck, TomC

[Jnbroadbent]

Good information in here. If you are making time sensitive trips, then having it and not needing it would be helpful when something happens. It's happened to me plenty of times.

[trucktramp]

Visa card, Discover card, Coachnet membership card, Cell phone, small tool kit consisting of 1/4" 3/8" drive sockets, small assortment of end wrenches, misc. screwdrivers...maybe a hammer.  Oh yeah, a good preventative maintenance program.  It's much cheaper and easier to fix it at home than on the side of the road at 3am.

[chessie4905]

  I especially will carry my coach parts and maintenance manuals. Just remember that any space you save will be used by mom for things like extra kitchen sink, etc. I remember my father grumbling about how much "junk" my mother carried in the coach. Claimed he lost 1/2 a gear on hills.
because of it. They went south in the coach every winter to get out of the cold.

[LowTide]

Clifford,
I know Right?
Thats why I need to go through it and sort. It has been so darn hot here ( probably not as hot as there) but 105 and 108 Saturday, I just haven't want to go out and clean it out. so I ordered the roller blinds and awning cloth plus all new Radius Rod bushing. So I have lots to do.

I was thinking we would be prepared.

Dave5Cs

Radius rods will be on my list this winter, would love to hear how the replacement went for you.

[Purplewillie]

I have a 17' folding aluminum multi position ladder in one of my bays just in case I need to get high
Mark

[belfert]

Sometimes things fail even in the best of circumstances.  I had a wheel bearing fail on the tag axle last fall.  The wheel bearings had been replaced a few years back and should not have needed repacking yet.  (Greased bearings with no evidence of leaks beforehand.)  Things happen on these vehicles no matter how time we spend at home making sure we won't get left on the side on the road.

[luvrbus]

Did you change the wheel bearing yourself on the side of the road Belfert?

[belfert]

Did you change the wheel bearing yourself on the side of the road Belfert?

No, we didn't have the proper tools to remove the wheel, or the parts.  It turned out the spindle was damaged so the axle was chained up for the rest of the trip home.  It was one of the tags so we simply raised the pressure in the drive tires to max.  We also stopped for fuel a lot more often to reduce a little bit of weight that is directly in front of the drive axle.  I got it fixed at home by a guy who specializes in axle repair.

The point of my post was that sometimes things happen no matter how much preventive work is done at home.  A lot of the posts says that don't bring many tools because they fix things at home before they break on the road.  I'm not sure what I could have done at home to prevent the problem since the bearings had been replaced by a shop within the past few years.

[luvrbus]

That is exactly my point you cannot carry enough tools to fix everything that can happen to bus, pre trip inspections,preventative maintenance a few tools you will be fine  

I always jacked the bus up once a year and checked for excess play and for roughness on the wheel bearing only takes a short period of time well worth the time IMO I did have HWH leveling jacks that made it easy to check the wheels

[John316]

We carry five gallons of oil, a few tranny fluid, and a few coolant. A spare set of filters, and several other odds and ends.

We do have a pretty good set of tools, that has helped me fix quite a few minor things (we usually still have to order the part). The only big ticket items that we carry is a spare alternator and a spare starter, because they are 24V (we got them for good deals, so decided to carry them with us, vs just sitting in the shop back home).

Otherwise, MCI tech support number, and we are set.

[belfert]

The plan for this year is to carry a 12 ton air over hydraulic jack and a 3/4" impact wrench if the bus can supply enough air for the wrench.  I also have a 600 lb torque wrench I will bring too.

[Dave5Cs]

You won't be able to keep the air coming for the Impact. It takes a long time for all 10 bolts. Easie by hand.

Dave5Cs

[Debo]

One extra thing I've found useful is a set of crowfoot wrench heads. Mine are 3/8" drive from a ratchet handle. Got a little set of 'em at NAPA and they've been very useful so far when nothing else would fit. Once was removing a very awkwardly-placed fuel hose fitting at the engine using a long extension, and once was torquing drive shaft coupling bolts. Took me years to finally get a set, and now I keep finding new uses for them.

** Just looked mine up, and they're actually a "flare nut wrench set." They work on regular nuts though. **

[lorna]

To the ever present and multipurpose duct tape.... I would like to mention a tube of the epoxy putty (like JB Weld among other various name brands). It lasts a long time if you keep the air from drying it out.

Also I have had the occasion recently to use Rustoleum's LeakStop. It comes in a spray can in both clear (very hard to see where you sprayed it at) and black. This is some messy stuff so you might want to try the clear. I had a fairly steady drip (drip, one-mississippi, two-mississippi, drip, one-mississippi, two-mississippi, drip) from the window air conditioner we built in. I dried the drip (plastic part sticking thru the pan) and hit it with the black then let it dry for a minute or so and hit it again with another shot. No more drips. Worked so well, I will keep a can on hand to stop those nagging plumbing drips from the whatever that thing is that pokes tiny pin holes into the sewer hose.

I have a tube of Henry's 212 Clear elastometric roof caulk (wet or dry roof) tucked away. We used Henry's SolarFlex on the roof of the bus and used the Henry's products to seal the seams. I missed part of a seam and had to patch it a few months later during the spring "rainy season". It really does work on a wet roof. That was over a year ago.