Well we're here at Gene's

Dave Siegel · June 29, 2011, 04:25:28 AM

We left Naples Sunday morning at 9:30, drove until 3:30 where we checked into a KOA in Gainesville, and within 20 minutes we were hooked up and neck deep playin' hippos in the swimming pool. What's so amazing about that? Well I couldn't get the generator to run right so we have no A/C and only one window opens. Well we sat in the pool for an hour or so enjoying to cool water and nice shade. The A/C works when we plug in so we got comfortable, cooked and ate dinner in the bus and settled down for a night in the bus watching tv.

Monday we were up early and on the road (after another dip in the pool) by 9:30 am. next Our planned stop was Macon, GA. I was real hot Monday and then the rains came, boy did it rain. So hard that we pulled into a campground bout 20 miles south of Macon. When the rain stopped we headed for the pool, but it was too cold and we gotten almost eaten alive by mosquitos. When decided to head back to the bus and apply alcohol on the bites. (We felt that from the inside out would be the best approach, so out came the rum, I worked by the way.)

We pulled out Tuesday about 9am and headed toward Gene's house near Asheville. My outside read thermometer at one point
showed it was 99 degrees on the road, that's hot with no A/C in the bus, and it seemed to be getting hotter but we arrived at Gene's about 3:30, and the first thing he did was get us into his office to cool down in the A/C. Once we cooled down he took us for a walk around, my God we were in Silversides heaven. Everywhere we looked there was a Silversides bus, we had no idea there were so many left in the world.

Gene and his wife have been wonderful hosts and sadly we have to fly home today, but the next time we see our bus it will have a custom power steering unit and will be fun to drive again. (Gene also promised to fix the A/C for our trip home, woophie!!)
Oh yes, I read another post about the cost of driving these bohemoths and it did cost us $400 to drive 840 miles, but we did sleep in our own bed, ate our own home cooking, and watched our own tv.............it was wonderful.
Just thought we would share.

Dave and Jan

uncle ned · June 29, 2011, 04:34:20 AM

A trip to Gene's is a must for every bus nut.

uncle ned

Dave Siegel · June 29, 2011, 04:44:54 AM

You can say that again Uncle Ned. His knowledge about this bus is unbelieveable. His passion to drive them and have fun in them is contagious. Even tho' we struggled with no A/C we still had a good time getting here. Driving the interstates and have truckers pass you, tooting their horns and giving you a thumbs up is the best reward in the world.

Dave

uncle ned · June 29, 2011, 04:51:10 AM

I consider myself to be one lucky person.. I can drive up and see Gene and had Don Fairchild visit for the weekend. Boy what a bunch of Detroit knowledge.

uncle ned

Dave Siegel · June 29, 2011, 04:55:12 AM

WOW! Gene showed us the current project that he is working on: a 1990 all electronic 671. Completely rebuilt from the block out with all new parts. It will be installed in a Silversides coming from Oregon when the motor is ready. They are also putting power steering in that one too.

Dave

buddydawg · June 29, 2011, 05:00:16 AM

What all has to be done to retro power steering? What is the ballpark cost of that conversion?

Dave Siegel · June 29, 2011, 05:21:30 AM

There are several units that you can buy like Sheppard power steering units, but Gene has fabricated a special custom design using a Peterbilt power Steering box adapted to the non-removeable Silversides steering column. (I say non-removeable because the Silversides is four speed manual shift on the column). Gene adapts the Peterbilt steering box to the bottom of the column and then fabricates a special pitman arm to mate to the rest of the steering on our old bus. In back he uses a specially modified gear driven power steering pump. All of this is built into a very limited amount of space.
Cost for this is about $4000.

Dave

MEverard · June 29, 2011, 05:57:44 AM

Dave,
How exciting that you will have a new found driving experience when you pick it up. I'm sure you can't wait. Did you ever believe something that gives you so much pleasure could get even better.

Good Luck,

Mike

Dave Siegel · June 29, 2011, 06:08:20 AM

Thanks Mike, this is beyond exciting. We have owned our Silversides for 15 years now, and the transformation from junk yard relic to beautiful coach has been long and slow. Mostly due to our not having deep pockets and having to save months for each section that we have improved. We have been able to finance this improvement by selling our motorcycle. This will be quite an adventure when we come back up to drive the bus home.

I suppose it will never be done completely but we are enjoying it every time we go out in it. It is a labor of love, and sometimes too long in between trips.

Dave

Paso One · June 29, 2011, 07:51:19 AM

Quote from: buddydawg on June 29, 2011, 05:00:16 AM
What all has to be done to retro power steering? What is the ballpark cost of that conversion?

Hi Brandon not to high jack Daves thread but if your considering adding power steering to your fishbowl I have a list of parts that I took off my donor bus to install power steering on my bus. The main item that gets forgotton is the Radius arm ( lateral ) the P/S bus has a bent version.

buddydawg · June 29, 2011, 08:27:58 AM

Quote from: Paso One on June 29, 2011, 07:51:19 AM
Quote from: buddydawg on June 29, 2011, 05:00:16 AM
What all has to be done to retro power steering? What is the ballpark cost of that conversion?

Hi Brandon not to high jack Daves thread but if your considering adding power steering to your fishbowl I have a list of parts that I took off my donor bus to install power steering on my bus. The main item that gets forgotton is the Radius arm ( lateral ) the P/S bus has a bent version.

It is not on my imediate to do list but would be a nice thing to have. I would like to know what all goes into the power steering conversion.