Back from trip

[TomC]

Back from my trip from L.A. to bay area to Lake Tahoe to Mammoth Lakes then home. Drove 1171 miles burned 220.5 gallons at an average of $4.039/gallon and got 5.31mpg including 43 hours of generator time (I use my generator for 2 of the 3 roof A/C's going down the road). Everything ran well. Had to use the misters-for about 2 minute bursts a few times. Cruised at 1850rpm which by my GPS was 60mph. Had a good time-was nice to NOT have anything go wrong mechanically or have any leaks develop.  Good Luck, TomC

[Oonrahnjay]

was nice to NOT have anything go wrong mechanically or have any leaks develop.  Good Luck, TomC 

    Yeah!  Glad it was a good one.   B

[treeplanter]

Welcome back! glad to hear you had no problems.

[bobofthenorth]

Had a good time-was nice to NOT have anything go wrong mechanically or have any leaks develop. 

Bank that for the time when you go out and 17 things DO go wrong.  On our last trip I managed to get the genset to quit dripping diesel out of a hairline crack on the bottom of the secondary filter.  Should have been a simple fix except that the guy who built the engine substituted a filter with a 3/8" bolt instead of the standard 7/16 bolt to hold it on so of course his bolt didn't fit my replacement filter.  Not a huge problem but when I got the right bolt the head would make power but the regulator wouldn't stabilize it enough for my transfer switch to operate.  Eventually I traced the regulator problem to a broken solder trace on the back of the regulator board.  So all is well again but definitely not a trouble free move the last time out.  If only I could bank that towards a trouble free trip next time.  Not likely.

[lvmci]

Tom, so nice to hear you had a great vacation, relaxed and refreshed I hope, lvmci..

[Melbo]

I will be in tonight

Not to jinx anything but we also have had a trouble free run so far

I will post the stats in your thread Tom tomorrow when I have the totals

Melbo

[Lin]

My theory is that there will be a certain amount of maintenance problems required to keep the bus.  These issues can come up at any time.  Therefore, if I find that there is something for me to do while at home, I feel that I have fulfilled part of the mandatory problem quota, so it will be less likely that something will go wrong while traveling.  However, the reverse is also true; if nothing goes wrong for a long time, the likelihood is it will soon even if we are traveling.

[treeplanter]

As Lin states problems are bound to occur preventive maintenance is recommended.The best place to breakdown is in your driveway, not on the road, on a steep grade, in the middle of nowhere, with no cell phone signal, three hours into driving your bus to it's new home.

[wg4t50]

Happy for Tom C, guess I should fess up about my grand venture from Va thru SD  into Wy & Mt, then south thru Denver to Okla City,Dallas south to Nacogdoches (Foretravel factory)  for a few upgrades, the hone o Va, over 4700 miles, averaged 7.5 mpg towing the F150 with the CanM 800 Max, about $3.70 gal average.  Did enjoy riding the ATV/Quadracycle up in the Big Horn Mt in the snow cap.
Not a sign of an issue.  

[Oonrahnjay]

Not a sign of an issue.   

    Nice.  I love hearing stories like that! 

[Geoff]

I was getting 5.3 fuel milage towing a 10-12k trailer up and down the mountains of Southern California and Arizona  over Highway 40 to my home in Prescott AZ.  Not too inpressive, but what the (*^&), what are you gonna do?  It would cost a lot more to upgrade a bus/engine to get a mile or two per mile more on fuel. 

If the bus doesn't overheat and you can climb those hills with a radiator spray system (not misters) you are a winner!

--Geoff

[wg4t50]

Geoff,
So correct, heck, even with the ISM500, total weight in the 36-37K range with toad, I found the hardest running was south bound from Sheridan Wy to Denver Co, elevation in the 5-6.500 ft level and very strong head winds or strong quartering winds from 2 oclock sure made running 70 mph tuff on the fuel burning, eventually I did slow to about 65 and droped to 5th gear (Allison 4000R) mainly for keeping water temp under 200f, outside temps in the 90+ area, just my mental limit on temp.  After my MC7 toy, it was so nice to just drive and buy fuel, did not even check oil till got home, was still at same level mark on stick. antifreeze level in same range in the recovery bottle,  Sort of like driving the family car.  Now about ready for another venture, nice being an old geezer.

[Melbo]

Did I really post that "not to jinx it"

I was 50 feet from the storage yard gate (I was going to fuel up in the morning) and the road sloped to the left and it died. I got about 10 gallons of diesel and filled the filters and it fired right up and put it to bed.  Took long enough that I am now behind schedule a little so I will post how many miles and how much diesel we burned when I get fueled up this weekend.

DAMMIT fifty feet from the gate 

Melbo

[B_K]

 

[Melbo]

Well here is the final (including the fuel to fill the filters when I had the BRAIN BURP) totals for the trip.

We went 2550 miles ran the generator 33 hours and burned 350 gallons of diesel.

So we averaged 7.0 mpg. Had a great time and the weather in the midwest was cool compared to most years.

Always good to hear about good trips with no hassles.

Melbo