1960 4104 third trip ( this one almost ended badly)

[Nel]

SO this past Easter week off the wife and I decided to Take the bus ( now named Rosie), from West Nyack NY to Nashville TN, over 1900 miles round trip. As a true 4104 bus owner and up coming expert mechanic , I made sure that I greased everything in sight , check and adjusted the brakes, topped off all fluids and full diesel tank,100 psi in all six 12r 22.5 tires(don't ask but pretty old) also made sure all the rv mechanicals were working, although I had last minute leaks in the toilet valve and shower to fix but all in all ready to go .
         We decided to hit the road Sunday before Easter, went down route 287 to 78 to 81. It is about 900 miles one way so we stopped along the route a couple of nights visiting sights and doing the Walmart parking lots at night. They are great because you don't need any reservations and they are always walking distance to food, supplies , fuel, etc.and always fellow rv travelers there .
         We made it to Nashville no problems at all the 4104 ran like a champ the whole time , there was one traffic jam for about 2 miles we crawled in because of a semi truck wreck and rubber necking but even then one of the truckers in traffic with us made us stop because he wanted to take pictures of our bus, he loved it , so cool. One thing I noticed was during rest stops there were a few more drops of oil under the engine than I ever remembered but then again these Detroits are suppose to be know as leakers and I did check the oil often.I always kept and eye on the oil pressure ( about 45- 50 psi), temp(177-180), air pressure(90-120) and rpm(mostly 1800-2000), oh and by the way I fixed the original speedo and it was balls on accurate with the GPS (average 55-60 mph). The 4104 is it is slow but steady and really gives you time to watch the country side whether you want to or not.The leather seats and steering wheel position was very comfortable and the 4104 ride is so smooth.
            We had a great time in Nashville and stayed at a Jelly Stone rv park, great place with shuttles to the city, no car needed, we stayed  there 2 nights and left on Thursday on the way back home. About 500 miles of travel and heading towards our third rest stop I noticed the oil pressure not as high as usual, during my routine check of everything , I went to the back and couldn't believe the whole back of the bus dripping with black hot oil everywhere,I lifted the rear cover and the 671 detroit was soaked everywhere top to bottom not to mention the huge shower of oil dripping on the pavement, I thought for sure the big tow hook was in our future.
           I didn't know what gave way because every inch of the engine was soaked, I checked the dip stick and could see a little oil left on the tip, I wiped down what I could after about 20 minutes and started it again and made sure there was oil pressure, then looked for the leak. After a few seconds I could see that a 1/4 " copper oil pipe near the fan side of the engine that fed the oil pressure gauge in the engine compartment had a pin hole worn in it from a hose clamp of a coolant line next to it.  The screw part of the hose clamp that must have been rubbing there for years unseen that finally wore through the copper line and the fan blew the oil everywhere.It was unbelievable, that pin hole size leak could have destroyed my 671 in a few more miles. I never lost complete oil pressure and had spare rubber hose , clamps and oil to do a patch repair and get on the road again, that was a close one for sure, it ended up being down 10 qts. of oil. 
          Other than that all went smooth, I will try to post pictures too.

            PS. Thanks Dan and Sandy of Dtcerrato for the moral support of traveling in our 4104,we love it too.
 

[Chazmon3]

Hi Nel, Great story about how you saved your bus from total engine distruction and being aware and keeping your eyes on it all paid off to say the least. I am right behind you with my 4104. Just getting ready for my first maiden camping trip. I have driven mine a couple hundred miles so far but have not camped in it yet. Thinking next month will be able to take a small trip for a few days. Then I can do what I need to in order to get it closer to being right just like what you have done. This fall I am planning on going from Oregon to Florida to Dan & Sandy's place to do a window swap. They are such great people to have around on the sites with all the info about the years of experience with their 4104, plus being such nice people too. Oh and I also don't like the A/C units on the roof but will leave mine up there for now since they do work but the only problem is that my gen set is worn out but still runs so maybe can eek out some use of it before I go for a basement type A/C units. Chaz

[Nel]

Chaz, Go for it and good luck on your trip, I remember our first camping trip last year and how my wife and I stopped and looked around the inside of our 4104 , saying wow are we finally really doing this and have been enjoying it ever since also working on it as we go. We are always looking for our next adventure.Only word of advice is go over everything mechanical in you engine bay you can get your hands on, even if it looks good, tighten it, pull on it to see if anything can come loose, see if anything is rubbing against something else, etc. We are still looking into the AC situation also, have fun, Nelson

[dtcerrato]

Nel
Hadn't been in this area of the forum lately, nice save on your engine! Your diligence paid off. Probably no ill effect at all although it was heading that way. Couldn't help to notice your mention of tire pressure - I'm almost certain that's way too much! We did over 5000 miles to AK from FL before we realized the ride was way too hard, I was running 110 psi in all our new radials. After finding & going through the load chart for our specific tires, the "correct pressure" as stated by the tire manufacturer for their (our) particular tires @ our loads on front & rear axles as recorded by certified scales prior to the trip - was 90 psi on the front & 75 psi on the rear! Now that's what we're talkin' bout! Comfort like we never experienced - and much better handling. The only thing that went the other way was probably fuel mileage with a smaller circumference at those pressure differences... You may want to look into that. By the way we like the name Rosie, that was my late Mom's name. :-)