Which doesn’t mean a lot in the scheme of things except that I survived another week without killing myself or anyone else, even those who might really need it.
I haven’t done much on the bus this week other than to get the Coleman roof wart mounted and locked down, only to find out that the fancy little thermostat I have that is made by Duo-Therm probably won’t work on this unit.
It seems the Duo-Therm unit uses a RJ-11 phone jack and cord and my roof air uses a more standard type of stat that’s been around for decades. I wonder if I can find a pinout and make the Duo-Therm unit work somehow.
In other news, I’ve wrapped the pecan tree with metal and it is driving the squirrels crazy trying to figure out a way to get up there. We did this so we could harvest at least a few of the pecans that the squirrels have destroyed for years. So far, we’ve picked up about 10 gallons of fallen nuts which are spread out and drying on a couple of tables in the room next door.
We aren’t going to starve the poor defenseless tree rats either… small or damaged nuts we toss over to the base of the tree for them to munch on. The larger ones we save for drying and future use in pies and other tasty comestibles, also later this winter when the trees are bare we’ll be able to keep the critters happy with a sweet nutmeat now and then.
It’s Saturday!
September 5th, 2009A Slow start today
August 14th, 2009For the last couple of days I’ve been down with my back/hip aching and burning. This is a result of a minor bus incident last year.
It was really my fault. I was pulling the differential out of a 1998 Prevost that was a burnout shell that we were stripping. The bus was sitting on the ground, the engine and transmission had been pulled, the airbags had all been burned off because of the heat from the fire.
I needed about 2 1/2″ of side clearance to get the pumpkin out and though that I’d jack the shell up with a couple of 20 ton hydraulic jacks, then push it sideways off of the jacks. This was going well and I was laying in the engine well where the transmission use to live, raising the jacks as high as they would go. All of a sudden, one jack started to slip and the bus went sideways, in slow motion. I rolled to the center of the engine well to escape the 10 ton moving mass and thought I had made it when all of a sudden, a sharp searing pain hit me in the left hip and lower spine.
As I came back to consciousness, I checked myself for movability and felt something moving in my back that shouldn’t have been moving. Every time I moved, I would almost pass out again.
About that time, Cat and Todd came out of the shop to check on me and helped me out of the engine compartment.
From what I can tell, a piece of 2X4 got wedged up under one of the bare wheels, and when the bus moved sideways, it was flipped out like a tiddley-wink and smacked me.
I decided it was time to go home so Cat and I got in the bus, made it to the store for a 12 pack of beer and headed to our camping spot.
The next day, I was black,blue, purple, green and various shades of those colors and couldn’t move. It took a couple of days before I could even get up and walk without help.
Since that time, I’ve figured out that I probably broke some pieces of bone off my spine or pelvis, that occasionally get together and create the same sequence of pain and almost blacking out all over again.
Someday, I hope to have enough money to see a Dr. and have them do whatever it takes to repair this small malfunction, but until then, I’ll have to live with it.
The moral of this story is that no matter how careful you are, check, check, check and recheck your setup. This could have been deadly if it had hit me somewhere else.
Please– Be Careful out there when working on your projects.
Scanning
August 8th, 2009Well, I’ve spent 3 days scanning the newer edition of the Detroit Diesel Maintenance Manual. This is a 1989 Edition and has much more to it than the older versions I have.
So far I have 780 pages scanned into PDF with probably another 100 or so to go, then I’m going to try and make it into a searchable document so that it will be much easier to find needed information than the older PDF copies sold on eBay and at some coach websites.
My original premise for this website was to give knowledge away, free, but after I had given untold free downloads of manuals that I had been collecting for years and then had a major computer failure, I asked some of those same people to give back.
Funny thing. I only heard from one person and he was kind enough to upload what he had to my website.
This kind of takes away my faith in the human spirit.
So I find myself in the position of needing to charge for my manuals just so I can pay for expanding my library again and keep my web space costs in hand.
Thanks to Matt, who so graciously gave back when I needed it.
Another Hot Day!
August 6th, 2009I didn’t succeed in getting the toad lights wired the other day. I ended up working on the Stowmaster Tow bar instead. It seems it hasn’t been used in so long that it was stuck and couldn’t extend to lock. Considering that it contains a stainless steel bar sitting in nylon or plastic bushings, it probably wasn’t rusted.
I used copious amounts of WD-40 and PB Blaster, which did no good at all. I eventually had to get out the three pound hammer and beat on the side while forcing it sideways to extend each side. after most of a day, it now works well and locks in place with no problem.
As it has sat for at least 4 years.
It’s going to be miserably hot today, so I probably won’t get much done outside. Maybe I’ll work on scanning the newest copy of the Detroit DD71 service manual I have, (1984). It’s much more complete than older versions!
Hot Days!
August 4th, 2009Looks like today is gonna be a hot bugger… again. I’m glad the mowing and tree clearing got done yesterday. Today I need to work on the toad wiring between the bus and the toad. I’m not sure it’ll get done, but at least it’s a good thought!
Hello world!
August 3rd, 2009Good Morning!
This is the first post of the new blogging feature. I’m hoping to have others use this to their greatest advantage.