BUSTED! When You Get Lazy Bad Things Happen...

... and usually at bad times__ Like late in the afternoon, on Sunday, when you're out in the middle of Nowhere  in New Mexico...

*On the road to Chaco Canyon*

Two or three years ago I cracked the outside leg of the rear spring hanger on the right rear spring. Got it somewhere a welder could get to me and got it repaired before it had a chance to fail.

I caught it because I've always been in the habit of running my eyes over the rig just about any time I stop. Fuel. Camp. Groceries... if I'm walking around the rig I'm kinda checkin' her out, looking for such as will cause trouble if I don't fix it up quick.

Well... it's painfully obvious now, that habit has apparently faded a mite...

*Broken RV Spring Hanger/Mounts*

I say obvious because you can see on that broken hanger that it had been cracked half way across for long enough to rust the cracked edge of the hanger...

I'd planned to just have the left side boxed in advance to prevent the same failure... it's priority just kept getting pushed back... bad choice.

Worse... this failure is right beside the dump pipe for the tanks... so I've been by there right regular... UGH! Just no decent excuses.

Yeah... so it's Sunday in the middle of nowhere and nightfall is comin' on fast. What would your expectation of finding a savior be? yup. Me too. My expectation was Nada. Honestly? I just knew I was looking forward to a night sitting in the middle of the road hoping I didn't get blasted by some sleepy driver who failed to see my hazard triangles and flashin' lights.

I tried tow outfits to get me off the road, nobody had a trailer big enough. Even if they had, it would have been cheaper to just light it up in place and let it burn...

On my third call (Luckily I had good signal!!!) I was talking to a tow guy and had an Idea. "Would you know of a mobile welder that might be around?"

"Well" says he; "There's Marvin up by Broomfield. You could call Marvin's truck and trailer repair. If he doesn't have the gear he might know a fella that does."

Well damn if Marvin doesn't have everything he needed and he'd come out straight away... of course he's an hour and a bit away. Ugh... I'm seeing $$$ flying away fast... Service call. The work it'self. Surcharge 'cause it's Sunday. EXTRA surcharge 'cause "You is in a real tight and I can put it to you hard!"

Yeah... I was feeling low__at the same time a lot of relief because somebody was a comin' to pull my sizzling bacon out of the fire.

Well... by the time Marvin got there the sun had long since set. It was dark, with the wind blowin' pretty stiff... and he set to work.

As soon as he started to work I was breathing easy. It was plain that the Chief stud duck of Marvin's truck and equipment repair knew what he was about. (There have been repairs in the past where this ol' buster got raped purty good and with no alternative options!)

We (He) jacked it up. Then he got some chain and boomers and pulled that axle back where it should be and got the separated pieces clamped together...

*RV Suspension repair ON the road*

With them in pretty good position he could tack them in place and then burn them together.

In a shop with all the materials and tools ready to go and lots of light (That pic above is with camera flash) Not, laying in the dirt, in the dark, in the wind, with cars passing around us in the ditch, a fella might make a prettier repair...

... but the welding, with the plating boxing the back side and over each break seam... it's stronger now than when it left the factory so I'm happy.

*Repaired hanger plated both sides and  boxed*

But then came that time when you figure you might's well just bend over...

"So Marvin... what do I owe you?" I asked... knowing I'd taken better than five hours counting the travel time out of the man's Sunday...

"Well..." he kinda mumbled a little bit..."I get $105 an hour for road repairs... but that's for big trucking companies... how about we call it $300? Does that work for you?"

"Oh HELL YES!" I told the man. I was expecting to hear a lot more than double that! I raced to gather the cash before he changed his mind! :-))

All things considered, I weighed the price of his job out to be a bargain. Would have been a lot cheaper if I'd have paid attention and happened to notice those cracks... long before they became breaks in the dark on a lonesome back road on the Reservation!

Lesson to take away... check your rigs over regularly. I mean check close for cracks in the hitches, suspension parts... frayed belts and hoses... wiring faults...

... and every once in a while... give that nut behind the wheel a good tightening!

So... I decided to blow off Chaco Canyon. Took that night as a bit of an omen. I turned around and spent the night in a wide spot back by the main road. In the morning I resupplied in Farmington figuring to just go spend a couple of weeks chillin' and writing at the Goosenecks in Utah...

Got here... to the Goosenecks late in the afternoon... to find that it was effectively GONE.

The State of Utah has somehow now taken over control of this BLM land. Where it had been Free Boondocking since your grandaddy was pestering HIS grandaddy... it will now cost you $10 a night to park amongst the dirt and rocks.

I don't mind 'em charging a fella when they've put in facilities... but there's Nada. And ya'll can't tell me there's a "Cost" for parking in the dirt, in the desert... a few hundred miles from pretty much any damn thing.

It's just another case of; "There's people out there in the world who aren't PAYING! That's immoral! That's not Patriotic! They can't just live! We got to make them PAY to breathe. Pay to exist. If they don't pay__They got no Right!"

grrrrrr...

I'd have just turned away, but I was too tired and too cooked so I paid the tariff for a couple nights. Tomorrow I expect I'll move on and find a place where a man can still be; Just a man, free on the earth.

Still goin' down the road...

... Got a warm dry camp. Cold brew in the fridge.... and some worked for changes brewing in the future... so all's good.

Brian

Making Solid Progress With the Bearing and Brake Rebuild...

I suppose a guy could just pay somebody to do the work... but there's a confidence that is a good feeling to have when you remind yourself every now and again that you're not at the mercy of mechanics...

But, it's been a while since the last brakes and bearings I replaced. The first wheel went fairly slow while I figured out what I was doin'... while trying to avoid doin' something that shouldn't get done! It's still a fairly simple task.

... Even when you do it dodging the weather. Yup... surest way I know to make it rain, and have six other things jump up all demanding attention is to dive into something that really needs finishing before you can move on to anything else! ;)

Well... There's but five bolts on the backing plate and only two wires really to deal with... well... if you discount changing out the bearing races with a couple of hammers, a screwdriver, a piece of PVC, a chunk of 2X4... because you're doin' this job without a press ;)

Now the quickest way is to jack up both axles and pop both wheels on a side at the same time... I thought about trying that... and then chose to be juuuust a mite more conservative and do one at a time. That-a-way if Murphy come around and knocked a jack out, I'd still have one wheel holding up the rig! ;)

First thing right off I realized I wasn't gonna be able to use a jack stand under that lifted axle. They're just too tall. I'd have to jack the trailer up way too dang high. So, I opted to use two jacks. One hydraulic floor jack and a screw type. I figured that if one failed I'd still have one under there.

I also set the jacks on heavy wood plates to keep them from sinking into the soft ground...

With the tire lifted off the ground I quickly found the next weak spot in my system... My compressor. That lil' compressor I have on the truck is great for keep tires on the rig and the bike aired up out in far country... buuuuut... good as it is... she just don't make enough air to operate an impact wrench much :)

*Truck Mounted Compressor Compartment*

So... I had to use the old fashioned lug wrench and cowboy muscle a little more than I'd hoped. Yeah, it's a rough life. But that went quick and I had the axle stripped to replace the backing plate with the new brakes in no time...

For as old as they are, with as many miles... things really didn't look to bad. The pads are pretty cracked and glazed from... ahem... getting warm a time or two :) but otherwise... in amazingly decent shape... needful of replacement... but not OH MY GOD! bad.

*Ready to swap backing plates*

 Splicing the wires isn't/wasn't a big deal... I didn't go run down any special waterproof connectors. I just tightly wire nutted the splice. Then tightly electrical taped it...

... and then coated the whole splice with "Liquid Tape" to seal it up well and strong. I'll be surprised if there's any issues with the connections.

The other task was to knock out the old bearing races and set the new ones in place. Again, the old ones looked to be in fine shape for something approaching 75,000 miles, less than stellar maintenance and carrying a close to max load...

But, it's better on deals like this to just replace 'em rather than have a failure on the road... and have to do this job sitting in a roadside rest... or worse... the shoulder of a highway!

*First Bearing Races knocked out*

One benefit of having a flat bed on the truck is... you've always got a workbench with you!

*New Race started... still a half inch or so to go...*

I had to improvise for drivers. A piece of PVC plumbing fit the outer race perfectly... the inner, larger bearing race was a little problematical... but a combination of a chunk of 2X4 and a couple big hammers actually worked out quick and fine...

The second wheel went about twice as fast as the first... what with my memory being warmed up about what had to be done when.

Working between spurts of rain and other chores I've done one a day. Yup...really pushing hard ;)

Was gonna see if I couldn't get the thing buttoned up and do two today... but it turns out a run to Denver is in the offing... the kid has a surgery that came up pretty quick... so I'll take the day off and try and finish up tomorrow.

 I've just better than two weeks to finish it up... so it's lookin' like I'll be in good shape... but it won't pay to go and get cocky ;)

Brian

The Last Fifth Wheel Maintenance Job Before We Hit the Road for Montana

We leave for the Sydney Beet Harvest in a tad over two weeks and I've got one major project left to do before then...

* My Trailer Brake Parts, a couple bags of bearings and My workbench ;) *

I don't know for sure and for certain that the brakes are all bad. Could be there's only a part or two worn out... but here's the thing with electric brakes; If one part is bad, it's a fairly safe bet there's a few others not far behind.

The brakes and the bearings that are on this old rig are the ones that were on there when it rolled out of the factory... so I KNOW... those suckers have some age on 'em. This rig has been hauled juuuuust a few miles.

... and then the run to Red Feather in June revealed that I had very little functioning brakes on the trailer.

I've not yet even pulled 'em apart... so I don't know what's in there. I haven't a clue what's bad... but I know this from fairly long experience... in the end it'll be a lot cheaper to just R&R the whole gizmo then to try and fix something. Getting back in there four or five times to find and replace the Latest of failed parts is a waste of time.

What I've got sitting there on the truck is $385 bucks worth of parts from Red Neck Trailer Supply to get it done one time and be done with it. 

Thee-oh-retically it's a simple job... five bolts and two wires on each hub and the whole works comes off and gets replaced. quick, solid and I go back on the road with 100% fresh brakes. Also... since they ARE coming 15 years old, with a lot of abuse and precious little attention, I'm just gonna go ahead and replace the bearings too.

That's one of the nice thing about electric trailer breaks. Rather than fighting a whole bunch of miscellaneous little parts and trying to get everything adjusted up to work together right... You just unbolt the whole dang backing plate and replace the whole shebang.Zip Zap and you're done.

At least that's the way it SHOULD work.

Now, the last time I did a set of trailer bearings... was when I cooked a bearing on the road. I was sitting in a roadside rest area along the interstate in Arizona... maybe 20 miles from a small town...

I'd just as soon NOT do that again! ;)

So... I'll collect up the rest of my tools and possibles in the morning and get to swapping parts.

Now... the last job I did was that "two hour" fork rebuild on the bike... if you don't count the roof recoat ;) ... and that two hour bike job only took me what? three weeks?... so rebuilding 4 sets of brakes and bearings ... No Problem... Right? :)

Likely... since I haven't got anywhere to pull the rig inside... It'll start raining every day again just as soon as I get a wheel off :) ... nothing better than sitting in the mud working on electric brakes! :)

Gettin' Ready to Generate Some Sparks and Smoke!
Brian

The Roof Got Done... Now It's Time for the Brakes and Bearings

Been sittin' and waitin'... plenty of work to do... But I got to wait on income to arrive to do it. Still in that livin' this month with what I made last month style of goin' ;)

The brakes were found to be awful weak on the 5er when we hauled to Red Feather in June... but I wanted to start at the top so recoating  the roof came first! and of course the Wasp Wars interfered there. With the final defeat of the buzzing hordes and a few days of hot and dry that finally got done.

"Payment is in Progress" is the statement I see when I checked my account this morning... so shortly... I can get on to that next project.

That bein' that I've got to R & R the brakes. Since the wheel bearings are nigh on to 14 years old and, honestly, haven't been given the best of care... I figure it only makes sense to just replace them too and call it good... Better than bein' half way between nowhere and somewhere and hearing nasty noises and seeing bits and pieces flying around in the mirrors.

Yeah... good... Bearing replacements can be easy - or - they can be a misery. You got to get them set juuuust right to put 'em in place. Not a problem with the rig parked in a field... right?

It's a greasy messy job with my not bein' a lover of grease and mess... plus you have a 11,000 lb rig jacked up with at least one leg in the air.

A shop can just lift up the whole side and do two at a time. I don't believe I'm THAT confident. Think I'll leave one sitting on the ground... just in case the axle I've got the wheel off of... decides to part company with the jackstand.

Since I'm living in it... and am known to be slllllllloooooowwwwwww ... with repairs to begin with, not to mention the constant, repeated and apparently unstoppable application of Murphy's law... it could get interesting...

Anyhoo... I've got my impact wrench, jack stands, jack, wrenches and misc. junk and nonsense waiting on the arrival of my digital income... then it's off to Red Neck Trailer... just north of Denver for the parts to replace the Bearings and Brakes...

Shouldn't take but a few hours right? and we're not leaving for the Sugar Beet Harvest in Sydney Montana until the middle of September... right? so No Problemo... right? What are you thinkin'?

... yeah... Ya'll been 'round here long enough to know that jackin' up a concrete slab with a rubber hammer is possibly my greatest skill!

Ha! and the rig... is now parked a lil' bit away from where it's spent the summer by the Wind Break... Mostly under a tree now... capturing all the cool the tree has to offer.

So I guess that'll make me a gen-U-whine "Shade Tree Mechanic"! and I got my screwdriver and wire cutters all sharpened and polished up too! :)

Gettin' Ready for makin' some Sparks and Smoke
Brian

See If I Can Catch Things Up on 3 Different Deals...

Sooooo... I was on the road in the wind... and then I wasn't.

I rolled up over Hoosier pass to Fairplay and hooked around to get my supper fixin's in Buena Vista. Just twenty miles or so north of town you turn off to climb Independence pass.

Just there at the bottom, before the road starts climbing into the mountains is a pair of sweet little lakes... and a hell of a nice camp at a place called Diamond Pt.

Nice breeze that kept the skeeters clear... and a nice view from my "Porch"...

Come the dawn... I was up and prepping for another day in the saddle...

First things first... and... Coffee is always first.

Lil' more problematical when some fella runs off and forgets to pack his cup in the gear...

...so he has to have a Bowl of coffee to start the day :) ... or three...

Then it was pack up and get to rollin'... Higher in the Rockies...

I have to say, Independence Pass is maybe the sweetest ride in the state... There's several in close competition... but this one is definitely one of those top few...

*That bike makes me look like a runt!*

Reluctantly I dropped off the pass into the place that is... Aspen...

Yeah... NOT... a place that this boy fits at all well...

When you're sitting on your scooter at a red light... and some "lady" walks past in the cross walk... with her high fashion straw hat... her $400 dollar sandal shoes... yadda yadda...

...gives you a glance and then with her nose in the air and turned away... walks past with her face screwed up like she's got a sour lemmon in her mouth... you KNOW... you are not in your "home" country... bwahahahahahaha...

I rolled down out of the mountains to catch a sit down lunch in Glenwood Springs... to fuel me up for the ride through Glenwood Canyon... to find no place in the Inn... at the Wolford Recreation area outside of Kremmling...

Buuuuut... the gal there at the gate called into an RV Park in town and found me a spot... Now... I'm not the RV Park sort... but I'll tell you... I rode past the RV's belly to butt... to pitch my tent on a big grassy square with one other tent... with a big ramada in between... for $13 bucks! long about HALF what a KOA tariffs a biker for.

Nice grassy camp. Hot shower and supplies just down the road a mile... Ha! I had it better than the RV'ers! :)

Next morning I finished my figure eight ride and get back to the trailer to get to work again...

... a day and some got lost with the Robin Williams news... that touched a nerve... and then it was time to get movin' again...

I spent goodly parts of those days getting the coating on the roof. First, a second scrubbing of the old roof to prepare it for the second phase... the primer... and then two coats of Kool Seal elastomeric membrane...

Just popped a fresh refrigerator cap on this morning.

Soon as I got done with the coating yesterday... and after I got re-hydrated from bein' up there in the blistering Colorado sun... must have been all of 75 ;) ... I climbed on the scooter to meet ever'body about 85 miles or so south east.

Took the kids to the Wild Life Sanctuary out east of Fort Lupton. I'll save that post for tomorrow... It's got a few pics and a good story that deserves it's own post.

In the Morning
Brian

How Can Time That Seems to Drag So Slowly... Race By So Fast?

I got here at the end of March... Been the longest period of time I've set in one place for... five years now I believe... and honestly? Sitting in one place don't fit me.

It never has, but that dis-fit has been polished to a high shine these past few years.

So... it seems such a long time  but yet now the end of this time is racing up hard and fast. Gonna have to haul out sometime mid September to get up to Sydney to repeat the beet piling job...

and there's PLENTY that has to get done before then. and plenty has been getting done...

Number one now... or two... depending on how my Itch works out... will be getting the roof coated. I say maybe number two, because I may just have to take a week or ten days and put the bike in the wind to straighten out a few kinks in my brain...

That roof coating as I'm sure you know got brought to a halt by the swarm of wasps that wouldn't let me be... My bug tent seems to have solved that problem... until the night before last anyway... the buggers came back with a vengeance.

I was trying to sit under the awning and enjoy a cool brew when I noticed a straggler paper wasp heading into the furnace vent. Shortly there were two... and as the afternoon wore on more and more...

I tried running the furnace to chase them out... but when it's 85 or so... having the heater blasting at 90 makes things a mite unpleasant inside... and all that seemed to do is stir 'em up...

So... I did what any self respecting drifting biker cowboy would do when harassed AGAIN by the noxious bowlegged varmints... I went inside and sipped another brew while I waited in ambush for darkness...

When that arrived I broke out my lil' roll of plastic and some flashy duct tape and trapped the suckers.

It seems to have worked... I've not seen a single buzzer in more than a day... I think they're all IN there. Ha Ha Ha Ha... pester me ya yellow butted bug eating galoots! Come heater time up north... or along the road somewhere I'll pull that trap door off so the furnace can run again. :)

While all that was goin on... or just before, I dis-remember... I finally got my scooter back together... and honestly I've not a single idea how. The second tube of the forks, with a special pro tool, refused to go together.

I struggled and strove with help and without... and Nada... So the other morning just after dawn I walked over to the garage to make one last solo effort before nuking it with an impact wrench... and once again failed... arrrrrrgggghhhhh!

I stood for a moment scratching my head and then picked up a wrench to "Check" how easy a part turned (for no particular reason)... and it wouldn't turn... but it should have... What the Hell?

I grabbed the torque wrench and CLICK! when it SHOULDN'T have... WHAT THE HELL?

I checked this and that and all seemed Right. It wasn't together... and then it WAS and no explanation how or why or any durn thing... I took advantage of the weirdness and filled the oil, put all back together and then over the next two days put 400+ miles on her "testing"... and all is right... so... OK... I'll take it!

*along a 300 mile circle testing the bike over the Snowies yesterday in Wyoming*

So now... back to the jobs... I also need to R&R the brakes and bearings on the fiver... and the rear brakes on the truck... and the crack in the windshield is starting to look more like a canyon, and really needs replacing... then there's a few other odd bits and pieces that need doing... looks like my skills at stretching green paper are gonna get a work out ;)

...and I still have a few sprinkler heads on Evin's farm to move... no rest for the wicked...

...and just to pester me... the road, and Sonja, keep calling for several days of my knees in the wind... so the next six or eight weeks, if my count is right, should be busy...

A lazy man trying to be ambitious
Brian

Hoping This is the Last of the Wasp Wars.

After getting run off the roof again I sat for a bit and cogitated on the situation. My problem was/is that with the removal of those most effective anti-wasp weapons from my arsenal... I was at a pretty good disadvantage...

A few things I've learned...

... any liquid or aerosol type wasp spray... likely contains solvents so it can't be used for fear of attacking the EPDM roof membrane itself... ruin that and the cost sails above $5000 for replacement.

... Peppermint oil seems to have a short term repellant effect... but in my case anyway... that lasted but an hour or two...

As soon as I got up on the roof to start cleaning yesterday... the buzzin' bastards returned pretty much in force and made trying to scrub it an unpleasant activity... and chased me off... again...

... and then, sitting for a bit cogitating on the situation... a long ago memory struck me.

I was staying with some friends in California for a bit and they had termites. This company came out and tented the whole house with tarps and filled it with gas... no termites. Hmmmmmm...

I didn't need to tent the whole place... just part of the roof... but I did need to get ALL of the malicious furless Varmints!

*Anti-wasp tent and Wasp traps in place*

 Well... I got me a plastic drop cloth... some tape... a few of my leveling pads to weight things in place... a Hot Shot No pest strip and two different sorts of Wasp Traps... Full Scale War By God!

I raised the long unused TV antennae and hung the No pest strip on that. The plastic I draped over all the nest sites, pipe vents, fridge duct, air conditioner etc... leaving a couple of openings for the buggers to get in/out and then set a trap at either end outside of the tent.

That there is what they call a pincer movement. ;)  Hit 'em from three directions at once

That pest strip is made to treat a 140 square foot area 8 feet high for four months... even though the openings to let 'em in ventilate the thing... in the confines of that lil' plastic tent... I expected it to have some pretty good function...and no solvent on the rubber!

Within a short while I had significant casualties amongst the buzzing hoards. Then the wind came up... but behind this wind break the tent held... a few have found their way to the traps... but all late afternoon into the evening... and so far this morning, though it's a cool and cloudy morning... not a wasp sortie has been seen...

Don't know where they are... or where they went... not enough bodies laying around to have exterminated the invasion... no idea how many paper wasps participate in each nest... but they're not up there zoomin' around...

I'm gonna leave the improvised setup in place for several days... It'll catch any stragglers that come snoopin' around...

I can still get to a lot of the caulking I need to do with it there... maybe even access those pipe vents to cut off the caps and clean out the pipes... But I want it to have plenty of time to do it's job.

I figure since this is 'bout the only time we've set in one place for so long... TOO long... that's what gave 'em the opportunity to squat on me. Usually we're only in a place a short bit and then moving on.

Let this be a warning to all RV travelers... Don't stop rolling! If you do... the bugs can find you and make a solid beach head! Hitch up and GO! :)

Hoping for my Bike parts to show up today so I can do the reassembly of my scooter and at least get IT moving again...

Until then... I'm bound for the VA clinic today... oh yeah... Nuthin' but Fun!


Brian

.

Oh No!!! Have You Heard of...

... the Wars? 

There's world wars, gas wars and gender wars. Guerilla wars, conventional wars and nuclear wars.

Most of 'em just like THIS one are unwanted and thrust upon us. 

THIS war is the Wasp invasion in combat with the cowboy militia! 

Right now the wasps won the first battle with the near destruction of my roof. They've now counter attacked and began reinfesting the refrigerator cap. While trying to puzzle out what to do about that invasion by the noxious bastards... I discovered two more lines of attack. 

They have made beach heads under the solar panels as well as under the cap of the sewer vent...

... which might explain the advent of noxious fumes inside!

They might think they're victorious, disarmed as they thought I was. But it's way too early for the buzzing varmints to get  cocky!

I may have found a secret weapon. Early tests showed promise so I immediately ordered the full deployment of the weapon system. 

Peppermint Oil! I've been told that it not only kills the larvae in the nest, but it vigorously repels the adults as they detest its aroma. I mixed it extra strong and assaulted their positions with a lightning raid in the full daylight!

So far the lines are holding. Though a scout or two has been spotted they departed quickly and the main force has not mounted another counter attack.

I am hopeful this war may be over... cuz I got a lot of work to do on that roof!!!

Armed and Ready... Peppermint oil spray bottle is loaded ;)
Brian

Well Damn... Look on the Bright Side...

And, as soon as I can find it... I will...

The refrigerator vent cap that I built a few years back, because I couldn't locate a new plastic one that would fit, was deteriorating... so while I was waiting on Motorcycle parts to do the forks repair on my scooter... I climbed up on the roof to remove it and build a new one...

That right there is when I discovered as I took it loose, that there was a big ol' ACTIVE wasp nest under it...

Yup... Puss gut cowboy nearly learned to fly...

Well rain wasn't threatening... so I left that refrigerator vent uncapped for a day while I built a new cap... I scouted around when I was ready to put the new one on...and not a damned bug to be seen.

I climbed the ladder back up to set the new vent cap... and within 45 seconds the wasps were swarming all over again... KER-RAP!

Well... I'd made this cap black. My idea was that it'd get too hot for the bugs and those wasps would go elsewhere... maybe even make a better convection current for the refrigerator cooling...

Nope. Didn't seem to slow them damn stingin' bastards down a bit... kinda like politicians...  the more you interfere with their mess... the more they get stirred up.

So... bright Idea... spray 'em down with Wasp Spray...

Now... are you girls paying attention??? DO NOT SPRAY WASP SPRAY AROUND THE ROOF OF YOUR RV...

Honestly, the thought hadn't crossed my mind that the insecticide would eat the EPDM roof.... buuuuuut... it did. arrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!

I'd been about to coat the roof with a Liquid rubber EPDM RV roof coating in the next few weeks. It's getting a lil' shabby in genereal... buuuuuuuut now... I'm looking at having to replace an 8' or 10' section at the least... where that spray ran down over the rubber and blistered it as it went...

So, what I figured to be $400 give or take to coat the roof with good stuff before it starts to leak... is going UP like a tax cut (every time they do me the favor of a tax cut mine have always gone up)... :-/  If I took a SWAG... (Scientific Wild Ass Guess) I'd say I'm probably looking at double that now... and that's if I can conjure a decent way to mickey mouse a repair of the blistered section.

A whole new roof is something in excess of $4500... Not Gonna Happen... I don't know that this old rig is even worth that... best I can hope for is that I can cut in the damaged section and squeeze out a few more miles...

If you have wasps I don't know what to tell you to do... maybe if you're real good with a BB gun... all I know is that I've discovered insecticide and RV Roofs don't mix...

They say; "If you come to the end of your rope tie a knot in it and hang on"... 

The clouds just keep stackin' up... the knot is gettin' slippery and this Old Biker Cowboy is close to raising some smoke...

Brian

Truck Repairs, Improvised Tools and Slick Lil' Gadgets

Been busy for a lazy guy. Not sure where I left off... bein' sick as a mutt for four or five days kinda scrambled my perception of when stuff happened. :)

First thing I can think of is that I split my time between tryin' to mow the grass around this farm... and sittin' in the shade wheezin' and dizzy from bein' beat up with that flu bug.

So then I'd go work for a bit on wiring and such on the bike getting her all finished up.

Well... one afternoon I was wobblin' past the front of the truck... and saw one of those green puddles you really don't want to see. Took me some little time to figure out for sure and for certain it was the water pump. Now everything I've ever replaced or fixed on this Ol' Dodge Cummins seems to always tally up in the hundreds; so I might could say I was not looking forward to another repair.

I've heard tales that you've got to pull the entire radiator to get to the damned thing, so I came razor close to just droppin' it into a local shop for somebody else to fix it... but... that threatened to tally up to dollars in the excessive digits range...

... and since my budget no longer contains anything that can include excessive digits... I concluded that doin' the job myself was the order of the day.

A lil' online scouting revealed that while a dealership might charge you $300 bucks for the pump... you can get 'em at NAPA for a lot less... The one I bought cost me $52 and less than an hour of wrenching to replace.

$52 bucks for a lifetime warranty brand new pump at NAPA... and a whole lot more from a dealer... hmmmm... NEVER buy parts at the dealers!!!

I don't know who came up with the radiator story either... but that fool was lyin'.

I pulled the truck up into Evin's shop and set to work...

*Gettin' ready to put a fresh water pump on a cummins*

There's only two bolts to deal with... nice lil' short ones... but before you can really wrench on them you need to get the serpentine belt out of the way...

To torque that tensioner pulley over to release the belt you need a tool...

Now... there's a handy dandy special tool you can buy that costs something north of a hundred bucks the last time I checked... or... you can do it the cowboy way...

*Serpentine belt Tensioner tool*

In that tensioner is a 3/8 square hole. That fancy tool plugs right in there... and of course your wallet is a whole lot lighter.

or... just pick up a length of pipe at Home Depot or Loews that's long enough to reach up above the radiator...

Stick the drive of your 3/8 drive ratchet or breaker bar in the hole, slip the pipe over the ratchet handle and wa la!

A $6 or maybe $8 handy dandy tensioner pulley tool!

Of course you need to drain out a bunch of the coolant before you break that pump loose...

And they don't set that to drain out nice either... so you're likely to have coolant on the floor of where ever you're swappin' your pump... so don't have the pups around when you're workin'.

That stuff is deadly to 'em.

I drained what I could catch into a five gallon pail. Planned on putting it right back in, and then running the truck 'bout 7 miles to another shop to do an oil change and coolant system flush.

Had the pump out in no time... was nice and clean for 203,000 miles.

It was just leakin' out it's weep hole for whatever reason...

There's another lil gizmo in this pic of interest too... See that lil' blue light above the new pump?

I got my first one as a gift from a reader of this blog! I just picked up a couple more for use as camp lights when I'm on the bike. Found 'em at Harbor Freight for like $4.

An LED light that has a hook and a magnet (for multiple ways of stickin' it where you need it)... for a sweet lil' trouble light that'll give a goodly amount of light where you need it.

working in the dim light of that garage that lil' light let me see down in the engine compartment so I could see what in the hell I was tryin' so hard to screw up! :)

It was actually a lot darker in there than the camera flash and the light from the light shows in this pic!

Now... a competent mechanic could probably have the bad pump out, the good one in and be done up and sittin' in the shade in under a half hour.

I... am NOT a competent mechanic... I just get the job done... eventually... I was done before lunch!

I took quite a while with a scrubbing pad and even some 320 grit paper making sure the mating surface where the new pump's O-ring would seal was as clean and proper as I could make it. Didn't want to have to redo things 'cause I got in a hurry.

But bottom line is anybody with a bit of common sense and some ambition can swap the water pump on his old diesel truck and save himself (or herself) a goodly number of dollars in the process.

With the truck repair done... I've been tinkering the past couple of days getting the bike ready for a run... Got invited to a "mini" rally down in Flagstaff... Can't say I've the dinero to get there and back... but what the hell...

... I've been setting here in this place for nigh on two months and that's too long... Time to roll somehow... some way... some where!

So... next week... I'm straddlin' the saddle of that polished up Yamaha Raider and rolling South West for Northern Arizona for a few days...

Brian

Faucets and Journals

Not sure how this got to the head of the priority list... but... a functioning faucet got replaced by... uh huh... a functioning faucet... There's just often no accounting for the way things happen.

But, when there's a faucet in a box... you might as well put it in.

Pretty easy chore. Unscrew one... screw the other in place.

All done. Took all of a half hour I believe...

It does have a lil' better function I guess. The spout rises high enough now that you can get things under it to actually put water into 'em, or rinse 'em out... without a struggle. ;)

'course... now I've got parts left I'll have to either find a place to store until I can give it away or...

or bring myself to bring the earth to a crashing demise... by putting it into the ~ GASP! ~ Land Fill!

Know anybody who needs a lil' water filter?

It'll probably be out on the desert around Bouse come January...


This week I've been finishing up that Journal work I started way back in Montana this past summer...

Built the Stitching frame and stitched up the book block on the Clearwater River...

Then, between unexpectedly not finding leather along my route... and piling sugar beets for a month... the work got suspended...

With the solar batteries replaced, the bad taillight on the truck R&R'd and that faucet swapped... I got back to doing something enjoyable...

Carving leather is a satisfying craft. But I've also reminded myself, in my quest to rebirth my leather shop...

...Carving and working leather is a perishable skill. I need to polish up my skills a bit. I've been away from it for too long I've found. It's gonna take a few projects to get the muscle memory warmed back up again... but it'll come.

Along with shaping leather, journaling is a satisfying thing. There's something in putting your thoughts down on paper that gives their meaning a clarity and power in your own mind that holds a special power. This journal's been built to serve just that purpose.

This one was a special request. I need to whittle up one for myself now. Hopefully that'll have my leather carving muscles warmed back up sufficient to do work I'm satisfied with... and the market whetted for the building of another few here and there to contribute to the diesel and pantry coffers a mite.

While that is simmering along...

... Monday or so I'll be heading back out into some empty Arizona far country so I can get deep into another major project... Novels #5 and 6!!!

Always Moving
Brian

Towns... One of those Necessary evils...

Towns are good... I guess.

Finding a hardware store would be a lot harder... if they were just scattered across the landscape. "Oh yeah... it's right over yonderways a bit. Go out till you see a tree. Turn left till you pass a big rock and then look to the right over around the back side of the hill in front of a lil' lake..."

... addresses for hunting 'em down would be a true pain.

But damn... collect a passel of people inside a square mile and the noise they generate just never quits. Walk outside at two in the A.M. and there's a constant hummmm...

It's almost as if they generate the same sort of interference like radios do when you get two of 'em too close together. You know... take one and swipe it real close by the first and it starts squealin' with some sort of feedback?

Stack up a bunch of those square miles side by side and the cacophony of all that feedback becomes brain jangling. 

I wonder is that what makes people so rough on each other in towns?

Planes and helicopters fly over in a constant aerial parade. Trash trucks bang and roar, hot rods rumble by, speakers thump shaking the very ground from cars hundreds of feet away, barking dogs, thousands of tires humming on asphalt, people hollering, hammers thumping, sport bikes screaming... Hundreds of noises all mixed up together until one single note is indecipherable. Just an unending burden of noise.

A moments silence is a creature that don't exist within the confines of a town. The din simply never, ever, quits. It's a pressure that makes it increasingly difficult to breathe.

When I get back out into far country after having been in town for... a while... The contrast is clear and present.

It's much akin to laying on the ground with a car parked on your chest... and then backing it off... it feels soooooo good! The silence releases that sensation much like taking too tight heavy boots off after a long day and slipping your aching feet into soft camp mocs.

The silence and space is sooooo sweet.

Counting the Sidney job... I've been "In Town" for comin' up on two months... two months too long for this child.

I still have a few maintenance chores to do here before I take out. Figure it'll be easier sitting here with the hardware outfits just down the street rather than in a camp twenty miles outside of some lil' place... I assume I'll be needful of other forgotten bits and parts to deal with a faucet replacement and a few other odds and ends...

The difficulty is... I'm rapidly getting to that place where... "ah... That don't really need to work... I never use it anyway... and if they can't see a big white wall... ten feet high and thirty feet long rolling down the road... that lil' light ain't gonna change anything." ;)

Better to just keep the Raider running well and let the rest wait on ambition.

Just a few more days in town
Brian

Since When is Solar Power Battery Swapping A Violent Enterprise???

What Can I say... Some peoples kids are just destined for difficulties...

So... To swap out a Solar Power Battery Bank, the first thing that's gotta happen is;

The guy that done piled all that junk and nonsense all over and around the battery box...

Has got to empty it out of the way... before he can go to off loading the wore out Solar Power Batteries...

Yeah... he's carryin' too much precious Junk!

Boxes of leather tools, Soldering kits, Bags of rags... you name it... it's likely stuffed in there somewhere...

But, now it's all cleared out and he can go to draggin' them batteries out of the battery box...

Now... a Trojan T-105 deep cycle battery is sort of a robust thing. When there's six of em dropped into a battery box inside an RV compartment... it takes a mite of effort to lift 'em up outa there...

The sun glare makes seeing the work a lil' dark... so you'll have to watch real careful...  First my sunglasses hit the dust... and then... listen real careful...

Make sure you got the volume of your speakers turned up a touch. You don't want to miss anything...



 After I picked myself up out of the dirt... I did manage to get the last few batteries out of the compartment...

So... if these hold up like the last ones... I'm good till 2020...

Which is good... cuz one more solid blow to this dented brain pan and I believe Humpty Dumpty just might have some competition in Fairy Tale land for irrevocable bodily damage.

Sitting in the Dark... Watching All The Pretty Stars
Brian

After Seven Long Years of Heavy Use... the RV Solar Batteries Get Replaced Today

Made a long haul Monday morning, with NASCAR finished, all of 25 miles or so.

Before I leave Phoenix I figured it to be easier to squat at my sisters place and do some maintenance before I vanish into the far country of Arizona...

The Truck tires got replaced when we passed through Denver. That ate up $1400 bucks, or nearly so.... Here in Phoenix I'm replacing the solar power battery bank... Those six batteries will eat up another $750 or so...

Add in the federal extortion that caught up with us on the day we got our first beet check... and the rewards of piling beets are rapidly disappearing.  Yup... working for a living is like having a leaky bucket... pour income in the top and it runs right on out the bottom! ;)

Can't complain too much about the batteries. They were installed in October of 2006... the way I add up the months... that's a bit over 7 years for an RV Solar Battery Bank.

So... the folks that told me I'd better replace those Solar batteries when they turned 3... and 4... and 5... and... well... they were wrong. ;) one more time.

Fact is... the current batteries are working ok... sort of... but it's time. They drop voltage a lot faster than in the old days. The new batteries are ordered and should arrive today. If I'm ambitious enough I'll have 'em in and charging before dark.

How did they last so long? Well, the plan had been to install (4) to (5) 130 watt panels... but... the money to do that didn't happen so we've been living, full time on two Kyocera 130 watt panels. Powering the computers, the lights, the hair dryer, microwave and furnace... on this bank of Trojan T-105 batteries.

The trick has been to hold discharge to 20% or less the vast amount of the time. Finding the "routine" to do that takes a lot of stress off the batteries and greatly extends their ultimate life. The way it does that, I believe is; Staying at 12.4 volts or above pretty much eliminates sulfation in the plates, the death of batteries and the reason for "equalization" cycles. I have NEVER run an equalization cycle... just saying...

Discharge below that, approximately 12.4 volts has been rare. On the days the panels didn't bring the charge level back to 12.8 I topped the batteries off with a generator run. That actually was also a rare occurrence, mostly only in the winter. Between April and November, generator use has been rare.

Learning the routine is not much of a big a deal. It's never been an inconvenience. Only learning a new "choreography" for living. After a bit it becomes automatic without even thinking about it. You only use the lights you need. You turn 'em off when you aren't using them. You use more blankets at night rather than more furnace. You "think" a bit and slowly work into an easy, sustainable routine.

It's not, or shouldn't be a paranoia about the dang voltage. It's just a common sense, relaxed staying aware of what's going on.

In the winter I tip the panels up to maximize the Solar efficiency... that gains 30% or so in charge rate over leaving them flat...

One big key is to have a battery bank sized sufficiently to allow you to use the power you need and leave the batteries still at 12.4 or above. Too small a bank and you HAVE to pull 'em lower... your batteries will sulfate... and you WILL be replacing in three years... or four.

The consequence for me and my way is RV batteries that have lasted 7 years. Maybe I don't know what I'm talking about... but all those others have spent double on their batteries... and the guy who don't know... didn't ... so... you decide how ya'll are gonna run. ;)

That, holding back the income leaking out of the bottom of the bucket... is how you stretch your wandering dollars as well. When you have some trouble pouring the nickles in the top... you'd best make sure they ain't runnin' out the bottom too quick.

Waiting on the Arrival of Batteries
Brian

Loading Again...

The new tires are on. 66,900 miles on the old set of Hankook tires. I could have squeezed out a full 70,000 and more if my ambition was sufficient. Not too shabby for a hard used, not diligently maintained set on a dually weighing out at 18,000 lbs gcvw with the rig on give or take.

When you consider the heavy duty four wheeling that was included in those miles, it's pretty amazing really.

I fully believe, had I taken better care of 'em, those tires rated for 50,000 would have gone 80,000 reliably. 

Kind of tells you the benefit of "upgrading" to the 10 ply rated tires don't it.

The electric issue has gone "dormant"... so what I can't find I can't fix... and I've got little interest in throwing what few dollars we've got at problems... hoping to hit the right part. Soooo... I guess that gets left alone until it decides to show it's face again.

I tried the suggestion of bringing a code up with the odometer routine... except the odometer I've got ain't the correct sort. I believe Mike means that black letter digital sort...and this'un here is the lil' green "neon light" kind... High tech mechanical terminology there you know?

But, the batteries are holding their voltage, so I just can't see replacing them when they still get the job done, and me not Knowing for sure and for certain that they're even where the problem lives.

Anyhoo... I'll put the bike back on the truck this afternoon and start getting ready to pull the fiver off of Northglenn's sidewalk and begin the trek south to Avondale.

Looks like Wednesday or so we'll fire up the Cummins and start moving on farther south.

Trinidad, Raton Pass, Santa Fe and then we'll have to start making a decision... on down to Soccorro and cut west again through Springerville and across the Mogollon?

or... West at Albuquerque to Flagstaff and then turn south to Avondale... keeping to the big road...  I kinda lean toward Soccoro... but only time can tell.

Movin' On
Brian

Parked on the Sidewalk in Denver

I don't know what the neighbors think... when we roll through here 'bout once a year and the rig sits in the street in front of the kids house... with a wheel rolled up on the sidewalk to get it allllmost level. ;)  ... and Bad Cowboy that I am? I can't say that I'm really payin' any attention to that!

We escaped Sidney just as a fresh slew of rain came pourin' out of the sky that shut the last of their picking down for at least a whole day...

It's an easy run down those super slabs from there to here... even if a boring one. And boring to me, because - I just don't care for interstates. You pretty much have to roll too fast to do much if any lookin' around... it's just drone on mile after mile. I strongly prefer, in the rig, puttering along the two lane.

But... this time, with maintenance issues I needed to take care of, and few days to lose if there are problems... I bit the bullet and took the highway.

We pushed the 750 miles, give or take in two days of running... which is the farthest we've rolled in two days in a long long while.

Now... we find ourselves up against another time crunch using up a few days waiting. The tires I need for the truck aren't in stock... supposedly those Hankook tires are so good they're having trouble keeping up with demand. Considering the mileage we've gotten out of our first set of 'em (hard on 70,000 miles) on a hard used dually, totalling in excess of 18,000 lbs GCVW... I'd have to agree with the "GOOD" part.

They won't be in until Monday the 28th at the earliest... We have to be in Avondale the night of Saturday the 2nd... at the latest... that gives only five days to over the 900 miles or so to the track... so... it looks like a few more days of a bit more rapid transit comin' up.

I would have preferred to dawdle 'tween here and there... maybe up on the Mogollon... but I guess not this time. One more week of work (for somebody else) and then I'm cut loose to once again pursue my own plans... 

It'll be Rapid Transit for us anyway... considering our average move is only 175-225 miles or so... and then only one day of rolling between ten or fourteen in a camp. The trickiest day of this run is Likely to be that getting out of Denver and over Raton pass... and of course... there's weather in the offing next week to keep that interesting.

It's probable that pass crossing won't actually occur until day two. We often use either the Walmart in Trinidad or the State rest area just north of town, and then cross the pass the next morning. It seems I routinely run out of ambition on the south run... right about there.

Once this next job is done it'll be a laid back winter of word whittling and warming on the desert... and... replacing the now rapidly aging house battery bank. ;)

Oh yeah... that electrical issue has not reappeared... I'm coming to think it's a combination of possibly a misbehaving "Fuel pre-heat" system... and the short run's (less than two miles) we were making to the Factory Yard. I'm believing that the batteries were being drained by the heavy draw that was drawing for too long... and not nearly enough run time to recharge the lost amp hours in that short run twice a day. So... at this point I'm taking a wait and see attitude and maybe I'll deal with it later, down in the desert... if simply going back to longer "Normal" runs doesn't just eliminate the issue.

Waiting on Fresh Rubber
Brian

You Can't Screech to a Halt... In the Mud...

More a slip slidin' along... until you stop moving...

Started raining 'bout midnite the night before last... and rained all day. Not Hard... just that constant, slow, soaking rain...

... just got the phone word that the "Beet Yard" is closed all weekend... It'll take that long for the fields to dry out enough for the farmers to get back to pulling beets.

It's not that they just need dry enough for the equipment to get through the fields, it's if they're too wet they compact. When you run equipment across wet fields, down deep the ground gets compacted hard as concrete. You won't know something is wrong until next year when you try to grow a crop... and little happens. The ground was compacted so hard the roots can't penetrate...

... so we wait...

There's only maybe five days of work left... if we can get to it. The weather man holds promise. Kind of hoping for wind today to help dry things up.

Then Monday morning we'll hit it hard and run for the finish. There are some piling stations that have been able to get in a few loads so the Tare Lab operated... a whole hour last night! Buuuuut... work an hour... get paid for four... can't grouse too hard.

I'm ready to roll south with our accounts a bit healthier than they were. It's some easier to go down the road knowing there's tire money in the bank if you shred one.

It's looking good for a few days with the kids in Denver... and doing some truck work while there... to get us south and through the winter...

Tires, and a growing starting issue... Batteries? A Mis-operating pre-heater? another alternator? something is intermittently taking amperage so I'll try to find that... Then in the southland this winter those house/solar batteries are aged... been gonna replace 'em for two years! :) this winter should see it done.

But first... we gotta roll through Colorado and get to Avondale for another week of work at PIR (Phoenix International Raceway)

With all those jobs out of the way I've got this winter marked down to a single minded focus on writing. I won't be doing much of anything else. I've got it in my mind to create the next two volumes THIS winter.

 One for the Jeb Taylor series, and the next to continue Ben Jensen's tribulations.

Those will be published if all goes well sometime around  March/April 2014.

I foolishly took it easy for too long and lost the momentum I'd gained with the first three books...  Now with #4, Shadow on the Mountain  just released, that activity is coming back.

So with that lesson well in mind this is to be a winter of words! ;) and that means Work son! Sit down, engage the brain pan and get the movie reel in my head spinning in high gear.

Both series seem to be gaining some momentum on Amazon and in Barnes & Noble's Nook store. They look to be gaining a bit of ground with their ranking dropping into far lower numbers with the two FREE books. That's juuuuust starting to carry through to the next two that are for sale. Sweet!

So... lots going on... lots yet to come...

I Just Need the Weather to Cooperate!
Brian

An Unnecessary Education on the Value of Maintenance

Or at least, it SHOULD be unnecessary at this late stage of The Game.

So... when you get poor... and repairs eat up the money you've not yet made faster than you can make it... those things that can be postponed.... Guess What? They get... Post - Poned!

Uh huh. Maintenance falls pretty low on the priority scale.. Now generally... that doesn't really get your shorts in a quiver... unless of course you're sitting on an airplane... owned by a company in financial distress!

So, there you are, rich in visions... but poor in assets. As in... the truck your ass sets in.

Now... you're rolling into a lil' burg... and the truck goes BURP! WHEEZZZZEEEE UPUCKFLURPEEWHUMP! .... all over the space of 'bout 3 seconds...

It stumbles... and then... the CHECK ENGINE light illuminates and you say; awwwww CuuuuuuuRRRAPPPPPP!

Buuuuuuuut there's no place to pull off, so for a mile or three you keep movin, your eyes jumpin' all over the dash, trying to find something wrong...

It rolls on down the road until you can find a spot along the narrow way to pull over and check, all the while your liver is doin' a tap dance on your kidneys...

You look, and hunt and search only to find nothing wrong... or at least, nothing you can find with a look and a wish with the hood up on the side of the road waiting for some yuppie in a duramax to holler; GET A CHEVY!

Soooooo... you can holler back; So I can park the lump of GM fertilizer  LIKE A ROCK? 

Well, frustrated in your recon under the hood...  you roll on the 15 miles to your next camp... with the CHECK ENGINE light! making your shorts a bio waste hazard...

Buuuuuuuuut everything runs just like it should... alternator, fuel pressure, oil pressure, engine temp... outside air temp... the ONLY thing wrong is your pulse, that nasty smell spreading through the cab annnnnnd... the twisting squirming lump in your gut.

... and you park...

... you get camp set up... while thinking all the while about all the myriad of things that could trigger the EVIL CHECK ENGINE light...and how many zero's are gonna follow along behind the part number of that lil' jewel.

sooooo... you sit in your fading but not yet failed folding chair trying to find a shuttle to take herself to the Airport, 80 something miles away tomorrow afternoon so you can spend the next two weeks figuring your way out of the most recent hole that's opened up under your beer bottle...

... and then you think... well... maybe it could have been... The FUEL FILTER! That's overdue!... and you hunt up an Oil Can Henry's just down the road... 'cause changing the oil in camp is a nasty, greasy, menial job best left to those without the masculine beauty and sensual adonis traits of ethiopian bellied, bald headed onetime Cowboy, Bikers.

Now... you rob that poor motherless son Peter to pay Paul... one more time... only this time he had to take out a loan 'cause you already robbed him of the next two years tax returns... 

... and you go on down there to change the oil and the fuel filter... which... due to that pri-ohr-uh-ti-za-shun scandal mentioned above... hasn't been done since... oh well... never mind that...

So... you're sitting there in the cab and you hear this noise. It's the sound a minimum wage Oil Can Henry em-ploy-eeee makes when they find something some uncaring, useless Dodge mutilator has done to a fine machine.

He was uttering one of those Poh-Lit-I-cully impolite uses of a fellas name. Uh HUH... THAT fella. The one that some are terribly fearful of...

uh HUH... He'd found the AIR FILTER!

I didn't know they had a button for such things at just another variety of a lube shop. But they do. The echoes in that lil' building still have my ears ringin' from when he hit the EMERGENCY EVACUATION button...

***AHHHHHOOOOOOOGAAAA !!!

Alert! RED ALERT! 

This machine is about to BLOW!

 Do not walk. Do not hesitate! Run for the exits.  

RUN NOW! 

AHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOGAAAAA !!!

 

RUN WHILE YOU STILL CAN!  

RRRRRRRRRRR---- UNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN !!!  NOOOOWWWWWWWWWW !!!! 

AHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOGAAAAA***

I would have taken a picture of  said Air Filter... but it was seized by armed  FEMA agents and passed on to Homeland Security to be investigated as a Home grown weapon of mass destruction.

To give you an idea of it's appearance... think of the sourest prude of a celibate old puckered up, double dipped, triple rectified Victorian 89 year old virginal Librarian you can think of; and take a picture of her the instant she bites into the most bitterest lemon you can find while flashing her a picture of a gangbanger with his jeans hanging half down his butt...

Uh Huh... that air filter was... uh... bad... :'( to put it into one word... Plumb Shameful. Well sue me! You can't PUT it in one word!

Well, now that abused, tortured and maligned GOOD TRUCK from DODGE is sitting out there in this new camp with clean oil, a fresh fuel filter... and no longer crying... aiiiirrrrrrrr.... i neeeeeeed aiiirrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

The moral of this story is... Take care of your machinery, one way or the other... 'cause you just can't count on it having the guts to keep moving you like I wrung out of this'un.

Chastised and Hew-Milly-eighted
Brian

Murphy Won The International Championship

Started hearing a small noise...

Sooo... Detached in the Thunder Valley Casino Parking lot and took the old '99 dodge mouse farm to a tire shop to check things out...

Small noise was a bad caliper that came apart... Which, while it was eating the rotor on the left side, hid the sound of a bad bearing disintegrating on the other side at the same time... which all together masked the vibration of a failing tie rod end... Ooooofffff...

Bottom line... We're robbing Peter to pay Paul... And rolling one poor old drunk who made the mistake of stumbling past the Les Schwab shop at the wrong time.

Older, thinner and juuuust a bit poorer.
Brian

Boondocking... Broken Bolts... and Having the Tools to Keep You Going...

I don't have anything like "All" my tools on the rig. Fact is, what I have is probably maybe 10% of what I used to own. Most got sold off when I chose to change the way I was livin'.

Right off let me say that even if you're into minimalism... which havin' carried my camp on the back of a mule a time or two... is a philosophizin' idea that is near and dear to me... Tools are Not a luxury.

Bein' able to take care of yourself, as "self contained" as is possible is to me a part of the art of Minimalism.

There's a confidence that comes from knowing that no matter what comes... You've honed your American red neck ingenuity parts to make do one way or t'other... and keep on keepin' on... No matter what comes.

Sure it's a nice thing to be able to just get on the phone, give 'em your credit card number and say; "Fix it and call me back when you're done."... but that ain't gonna get it done when you're sitting on the back side of beyond, no cell service, you got a broke widget and only two stale muffins, a cracked broom handle, the parts you saved from the blender, two feet of tie wire and half a roll of hundred-mile-an-hour tape to fix it with.

You'll sleep a lot easier in between the dances... if you develop an ability to handle yourself whatever difficulties come along.

If you can pawn the labor off on somebody else, fine... but at least you'll KNOW you CAN handle it yourself when there's no one about to pawn it off on... and that's a great comfort.

What I carry has so far mostly let me do what repairs I'm able to make myself. When it requires axle alignments, frame welding and neurosurgery... I generally hire somebody with the hardware to accomplish that task.

On my recent run to Turlock, one of the saddlebag mount bolts sheared. Now... that bolt was Supposed to be a 12.9 metric grade. In the U. S. of A... mostly our highest grade is 8... in metric the equivalent is 10.9... so... the 12.9 I hung the saddlebags with should have been up to the task...

... Buuuuuut... there's an "issue" with bolts the last decade or more.

Most all bolts these days come from a place across that big pond over west. Those particular boys in question don't feel much in the need of behaving in an honorable fashion when it comes to making things. They seem to operate on the belief; "Those Americans are fools. They'll buy anything so who cares?" The "CON" is often in play.

Bein' a bit honest here, they often aren't too far off the mark are they?

The upstart is... they've been caught on multiple occasions manufacturing counterfeit bolts! That is, bolts that are marked up to a certain Grade... that aren't that grade or even close. I expect it saves 'em a penny or two a bolt, maybe more.

Doesn't sound like much does it? but, take that penny and multiply it by a few million bolts a month or so... and pretty quick it adds up to a whole lot of "Much."

So... I pulled the scooter apart to get at the broke bolt and drilled out the broke stub to knock in an easy out...

*Broken bolt drilled out to be removed with an easy out*

That's pretty much when I came to the conclusion for sure and for certain that the bolt itself was bad...

A hardened bolt shouldn't have been as soft and easy to drill as this'un was. No sir. Whether it was just a manufacturing defect (stuff happens) or a deliberately counterfeited bolt...that sucker was junk when it was sold to me...

What's a guy to do? I'm about four or five states later now than when I bought that scrap metal, and buyin' from a different retailer with a different supplier... So I should be clear of that particular batch of less than prime bolts. :)

The NAPA store in Lone Pine has some bolts on order for me... in the mean time I've installed a temporary bolt; that they did have in stock. It's strong enough, just looks like hell! ;) So all's well... When the new bolts come in I'll R&R all the mounting bolts I used for the Saddle Bag installation.

The only thing I can do is hope these particular bolts are genuine.

Bottom line is, if you're gonna go wanderin' around the back country... you'd be well advised to carry a few tools and even some miscellaneous bits and pieces of hardware to patch your rig together at the least; to get you to a place to make complete repairs.

I've got drills, a couple saws, a bolt bin... which DIDN'T have these particular bolts... but soon will! ;)

... le'ss see... there's wrenches and sockets, chisels, pliers and hammers/mallets, pry bars, tie wire, electrical tape, electrical connectors, screw drivers, fuses, a bit of automotive wire, screws, glues and caulking tubes, clamps, an angle grinder... a compressor... and even a couple of pin guns and a quarter sheet sander! :) along with one big blue heavy duty, hammer blow cable crimper for making battery cables.

If I had a welder with me... I could probably just build a new Adventure RV for us right out here in the desert! ... hmmmmmm... Now wouldn't THAT be a hell of a story to tell!:)

Uh oh... there I go schemin' and makin' folks roll their eyes again... I can't hardly see for all the smoke in my own eyes! :)

Buuuut ... A sad truth is, I better spend some little while and a bit of dinero, going through my tools and hardware cache to replace and square away the damage I've done to 'em over the past three years of running the roads and breaking things. ;)  ... before I go cowboy engineering a desert camp built rig on the fly!

I might not be a mechanic.. but I can still screw things up with the best of 'em!

Making Sparks and Smoke in the Desert
Brian