Coach Journal (Week 2)
Day 6 - 8/10/04
It's been a few days since we've been by - nothing has changed, not even the plants or chairs have been taken. I'll have to put a sign out or something to make it clear that they are free for the taking. Today is yet another cleaning day. Trevor's plan of action was to look into the air gauge situation and do various air brake testing to ensure there are no leaks lurking anywhere. Interior Nothing to report here really. I cleaned some more walls and ceilings which was the highlight to my day really. We brought the dinette cushions back from the house, so I cleaned them off and put them in - nice to see things looking more and more like The Coach again.
Exterior - Trevor kicked on the engine, which faithfully cranks over each and every time now, and proceeded to do an air brake test. He was able to do all the tests necessary to verify the safety of the brakes except for one. The final test involves engaging the brake after the engine is turned off to see if they hold their pressure for at least one minute. Unfortunately, the air gauge is an electric one and is hooked up to the engine for power. So when the engine's off - the air gauge is useless. We'll have to modify that at a later date to run off of the 12v. In the meantime we'll have to pick up a manual air gauge (about $40 at your local big trucks part store) which will run off the airlines themselves to do the testing. This is a little hairier because Trevor will actually have to tap into the airlines to stem off a line for the manual gauge - risking damage to the lines. We also attempted to tackle the toilet stench situation. Trevor blocked off the output for the black-water tanks and we filled them with water to help soak out a little of the sludge that's in there. After draining it he filled it again and sprinkled in a few packets of waste digester that we picked up at our local CampingWorld. Hopefully that will do the trick and we won't have to put too much more time into it.
Day 7 - 8/11/04
Another cleaning day for me. Tracy and Wayne (neighbors across the street) came by to see how things were going. They politely asked if anything on the lot was up for grabs and I very happily showed them all the things that were free for the taking and asked them to pass the word around to other neighbors.
Earlier in the day I did some RV insurance research. I called RV America (a broker) to get some quotes and they came back to me with a deal with Progressive Insurance for over $1000 a year, $250 to start the insurance up, with a $50 cancellation fee (standard $100k/$300k/$50k coverage with $5000 for medical and 24/7 roadside assistance and towing to nearby service centers). This was more than I had anticipated we would have to spend - especially considering we would cancel the insurance the moment the rig was moved since it will be parked for a significant amount of time while we work on it. That and I wanted unlimited towing to anywhere we wanted - not just to any service center they picked. I poked around on CampingWorld's site to see who they recommended. I came across a company by the name of GMAC - a division of General Motors that specializes in RV insurance. I was skeptical at first given that CampingWorld referred them - nothing against CW, just didn't think they'd be the cheapest option out there. Much to my surprise they are incredibly cheap. They offered the same bundle as Progressive, BUT they had unlimited towing to anywhere we pleased - all for the bargain price of $460 a year. The only difference is that they don't cover collision for professional bus conversions over 10 years old. I quizzed the guy and found out that this pretty much just means if we're in an accident they won't pay for any damage done to The Coach. They'll pay for any damage done to other parties involved - they just won't cover the rig. I'm not really too concerned about this considering a lot of damage we can fix ourselves - and short of falling off a cliff, what could we possibly do to the thing that would cause massive damage? It's bulletproof for crying outloud! So I've signed us up for the year - very happy to have found them.
Trevor did a lot of misc. inspection and assessment this evening.
He looked into the heating and AC and has determined that there are two furnaces
and two AC units. 
All
seem to be in working order - but the vent intake for the AC will have to
be cracked open and maintained as it's pretty darn noisy. The toilet still
smells and the flies continue to reside in the tanks - not a favorable sign.
The tanks will probably need a lot of attention when we have the time. Best
approach would be to pick up one of those tank cleaning hoses that is basically
a rigid length of hose that you lower into the tank. You can manipulate it
from above, with the flexible end, moving the water jet to the far corners
of the tank. We'll also probably get a metal bristle brush to scrub out the
inside of the pipe once we remove the toilet and then come back later with
a pressure washer. Such fun! The smell is tolerable - better than it was -
but I can only imagine how delightful it will smell after being parked in
100 degree heat with the windows closed. Put that in a bottle and sell it!
Trevor noted that there is another air pressure gauge in the engine compartment
that is in fact manual and does not need the engine to be running to work.
So he had me monitor the gauge while he stepped on the brakes for a minute.
Didn't
even drop 1 psi so we're in good shape. We tested the lighting and found that
none of the lights worked - except for the spotlight on the roof. Since that
won't really aid in our defense if the highway patrol decide to pull us over
for having no head, brake, or turning lights, Trevor will have to crack open
the wiring panels and start tracking down the problems.
Day 8 - 8/12/04
Guess
what I did today! So I cleaned some more and started going through the dashboard
compartments to see what sorts of goodies are in there. Found an extra underbay
key! That was a great find considering they're an unusual key (the round kind
you'd find on a kryptonite lock) and probably a pain to get replaced. I was
happy to see that the piles of free stuff out front are thinning out now that
we've given official consent. The chairs are gone as well as a few other misc.
items.
Trevor's
list of activities today mainly revolved around the electrical system. He
pulled out the captain's chair to get better access to the electrical panel
snuggly positioned under the driver side window.
Oddly
enough he was able to get the marker lights going which weren't working last
night. He was also able to get the headlights to work which was nice. But
(in Trevor's words) he got overly ambitious and flipped on the high beams…"blink!"
- out they went. Probably a short somewhere. The lights in back still fail
to work so Trevor spent most of the evening back there with his volt meter
tracking down live wires. Good news is that most of the wires back there are
live - just not by the time they get to the lights. So at least we won't have
to trace down breakages in the lines somewhere on board between the dash and
the rear! Bad news is that the wires are something scary.
About
every 3 or 4 inches they were cut and crimped back together - no soldering
whatsoever. So any one of those crimps could have a break. We'll have to just
start cracking them open and testing for juice until we find a break. When
you've got a bundle of 10 or so wires sprawled throughout the back door cavity
- you're talking maybe 50 crimps. I can understand the quick-fix mentality
here - rewiring a vehicle of this magnitude is no easy task - so cutting lines
and crimping them back together to get around shorts in your system is a good
fix for the short term. But we're going to have to add that to our list of
"big projects" Running new wiring through the whole thing will be an interesting
task - probably one we'll do slowly over a long period of time. But it will
be necessary and unavoidable eventually. Fortunately Trevor was able to get
the left rear lights working, and after cracking open the lights on the right
he found that his problem was most likely the light bulbs - or lack thereof.
After adding 2-way auto bulbs to our list we packed things up and headed home.
I have to say that things are coming together quite nicely so far. The only
investment we've had thus far is for the oil change and the air pressure gauge.
Not bad for an RV that's been sitting for 8 years with minimal maintenance.
Next week we'll probably add air to the tires and kick the blocks out from
under the axles and see how things look from there. At this point we're just
busy cleaning things up and getting ready for the grand departure.