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Thu Nov 11, 2010 5:18 pm

Count me in, PM sent.

Thu Nov 11, 2010 6:44 pm

As of today, I have confirmation from John, and Neal via his post (plus his Cheryl). I haven't heard from Pat yet but I'm not worried. One more helper might be nice but no more otherwise there wont be enough room for everyone's buses...and we'd be bumping heads. :) Anyone else?

Fri Nov 12, 2010 1:50 pm

Whew, my generator issues on the bus seem to be resolved. Rivvy pop-top camper will be ready to roll soon.

neal

Fri Nov 12, 2010 2:05 pm

Didn't know about this or I'd have got the weekend off to help. Karl helped me out many times. Let me know if you plan a second weekend.

Fri Nov 12, 2010 9:21 pm

Sluggo, this is the second weekend. ;)

Fri Nov 12, 2010 11:37 pm

I am sick. We will have to reschedule. :(

Sat Nov 13, 2010 12:55 am

That means i might be able to make it! let me know when!

Stuart

Sat Nov 13, 2010 9:49 am

Stuartzickefoose wrote: That means i might be able to make it! let me know when!

Stuart

Me Too!

Sat Nov 13, 2010 10:00 am

Thanks Sluggo and Stuart...We'll try again, probably in early January. Not only am I sick, but Neal's bus broke down on the way from Portland to Eugene. He was meeting up with John so they could carabus together. Evidently, this weekend wasn't meant to be.

Sat Nov 13, 2010 12:46 pm

Just a blown tire. Blown beyond repair, and a feeble slowly leaking passenger tire excuse for a spare. If it ain't one thing....

rest, regroup,
neal

Sat Nov 13, 2010 1:46 pm

Hey neal i have a full set of load rated tires and rims if you need some to get by. tread isnt so hot, but they are good tires. pm me.

Sat Nov 13, 2010 8:43 pm

Thanks Stuartzickefoose, I appreciate the offer.

I got hooked up with two matching serviceable tires (thank you John and skin daddio) that got me back to Portland. The front wheel that didn't blow is now on the nose for a spare.

Kind of weighing options at this point, but leaning towards a new set, with a couple spare spares that could go on the parts bus when it no longer is a parts bus.

neal

Sun Nov 14, 2010 12:50 am

Well that certainly didn't go as planned. Sure enough got me electrical issues resolved, packed up and headed out.

Inched and crawled our way through Portland and finally were cruising when something seemed vibrationally wrong. My rear wheel bearings immediately came to mind. The suspicion became ever more quickly evident something was really amiss as the severity increased to the point we pulled over, and hitting the drunk bumps, I felt and knew it was a tire.

Front driver's side Hankook destroyed. About two thirds of the sidewall on the outside had broken away just under the tread.

A bit chagrinned now to realize the folks driving by just before that, pointing excitedly from their windows, weren't merely admiring our groovy vintage bus, but trying to warn us of imminent disaster.

So, yes, navigated to the shoulder and stopped without incident, a billow of nasty black smoke blowing by and found the culprit.

And ya know, keeping a viable spare is a great idea. Too bad I had a miserable flat excuse for one. So Cheryle went hiking to call triple A and I set about mounting the flat spare. The triple A guy tried filling the spare with air, and got it kinda full, enough I drove from the shoulder a couple miles to a truck weigh station where Cheryle was. The spare didn't look too good, and I thought it was rapidly losing air, and it's been riding the nose for some fifteen years, is a passenger tire, snow studs removed, and a 175 14 rather than the 185 14. I didn't trust it, especially the rest of the way to Eugene then Coos Bay.

So we put Bertha on the hook and headed to Woodburn. Figured we could camp the night at the Schwab dealer and get a couple new tires in the morning.

However, our driver took us first the the 76 station he was out of. Got full pressure into the spare, and checked it for leaks, yep, but a slow one at the bead. I was still hesitant to embark on the spare, and asked where the Schwab place was.

Just as we were going to head over, the owner of the station ran over pointing out my triple A was a plus, good for 100 miles, well within Eugene. Why not? I'd much rather land at John's than spend the night in the parking lot of Woodburn's Les Schwab store on the off chance they would have a tire. So we loaded Bertha onto a flatbed truck and headed on down.

Conversation with our driver was uhmmm, a bit disconcerting. 45 years old, on his second pacemaker. The batteries went dead on the first one after 10 years. This was after a few heart attacks following the stroke he had at age 24. And then described his equally disconcerting domestic life.

The spare held it's air, so was able to drop Bertha off the flatbed and pull her into John's drive for the night.

And there was much rejoicing.

In the morning, the spare still had it's air, so as none of the local tire stores we contacted, Les Schwab first, had any options for us, John gave skin daddio a call, and fortunately he had and kindly loaned us a pair of rather decent appropriately rated tires on rims to us for the drive back, the further Coos Bay endeavor on hold.

They drove well. Thanks to everyone. John and Kim were outstandingly gracious hosts, and we enjoyed meeting Steve despite the circumstances, looking forward to a visit without the distractions.

And now it would seem I'm in the market for new tires.

neal

Sun Nov 14, 2010 1:18 am

like i said, 4 load rated tires good for another few thousand miles. already mounted and balenced. let me know. Glad you got outta that mess! sounds like a killer night!

Sun Nov 14, 2010 11:23 am

Stuartzickefoose wrote: sounds like a killer night!

It was.

-John

Thu Dec 09, 2010 3:23 pm

Has anyone heard from Pat? I called but didn't get a return call. I sent a PM but got no answer there. The way he jumped in and helped in October, I didn't think he'd disappear on me in November. But, here it is mid December and I'm getting a little worried.

Thu Dec 09, 2010 3:43 pm

I sent Pat a private message on November the 12th confirming a part I was hoping to get out of the stash - but it STILL shows as being un-read according to thesamba.

also, samba shows that he hasn't logged in since November the 10th.

Thu Dec 09, 2010 4:10 pm

same with me on Pat and parts .. I hope everything is ok.
:roll:

Fri Dec 10, 2010 11:24 pm

Hmm...so what parts were you two looking for?

Sat Dec 18, 2010 5:34 pm

PM sent - "Karl"
thanks