As I’ve said many times working with these old machines is not a list of things to do but where you end up stopping!  It’s the bane of my existence and since I’ve also said to you many times this page is as much for me as it is for you…..I have to fold out my soap box now…..actually it’s the stool I use to reach the Zip Dee locks…..if you have one I know you have a fold out step stool too…….my point here has nothing to do with the step stool..well maybe it does.

Expect anything and everything to go wrong and you will probably not be disappointed.  It’s just sad to say this but more than 20 years of this has proven it to be true.  let me give you some real world situations as I plunk stuff down this morning.

So 18 years ago, I built “Texas Tux” for Tom H. and his wife and for that time the coach performed well…we all have been proud of it  

TT came back to us for the new dash AC set up    That’s the old one…what all of you guys have.  We figured on a new MacDash…..the MacDaddy  trimmed out to match his interior  and the walls were new too   Trying to get to the projects end Katlyn can into the big house where TT was to install our new 2 wheel E. Brake system  which was on our “to do” list.  

Pulled off the drums to connect the cable and WHAM…reality hit us all square in the face!  Tom is a very fastidious and precise guy.  He had dated his rear wheel cylinders so he KNEW when his brake work was done last    Ole Texas Tux has made us all proud over the years of it’s service…so much so it’s hard to remember when some things were looked at last.  So Tom had a complete brake job done in March of 1999.  And the puppy has been stopping on dimes giving change for what 19 years?  Crap…time flies when we’re all having fun!  This also means the hardware and spring kits are at least that old or more…Bearings too….. These all are parts we have found simply fail given enough time……..calling Tom we both agreed TT does not need to be on the side of the road with brake or bearing failure.  So while my interior ants are crawling all over the coach, we’re backing up adding several preventive maintenance things…….stay tuned.

NHere’s something we added to Tom’s coach that we’ve been looking for….Yeah baby, rectangular LED headlights with LED angle wings…..all self contained like the original 7″ round headlight we found some time back.  The new batch of LED lights from China have his a new level if hi-tech and a new low in price.  The same as the 7″ round set-ups….$200 a set  What do they do?  Here are Texas Tux headlights on lowbeam  which does this to the fully lighted shop   I couldn’t get a pic of the “angle wings” the camera just took a pic of bright…… So TT is getting all kindsa love.

Wait but back to the soap box..here’s one I was shaking too much on to take any pics.  So we’ve been woking over a recent coach purchase with all mechanicals….spiffing up the dash..tires, wheel…you know…all the stuff you need to be sure of before you get out on the road.  We’ve attempted now 3 deliveries each final check found something else……. frustrating for everyone but at least it’s here.  Get to another delivery yesterday……… All of us have had our heads down focused on the mechanicals, you’ve got to, and all the stuff on the list and the extra bundles of joy we’ve run into over the rest of the work.

The coach has been inside of the big house most of the time going on the lift for FiTech, fuel tanks and such and it’s been a beautiful Florida spring…beautiful clear skies, few storms and just overall the reason we live in Florida.

Yeah, so the coach..we feel… was ready to go…..John came to drive his bundle of joy home…….it rained the weekend and pulling the coach up to deliver we found a still raining motorhome!  None of us had even thought about doing a leak test…wasn’t on the list…wasn’t even on our radar!  Not a good thing….. we got the coach back inside cause it was raining as the guys stood there….Arthur jumped on top because the water was coming from over top of the dreaded top rails……. The awning up tome was a slather of silocone and open holes!  Who knew!

Now this means EVERY coach that goes out has to get a leak test…unless the customer wants to take the chance!  Guys, the GMC body is built like an aircraft fuselage, it has expansion joints..dissimilar materials bonded together….in short water leaks are a constant, vigilant process.  You have your coach sealed right now and there’s no leaks….drive down a washboard road and see how things are!  Maybe not…maybe yes you just never know….I mean what’s having a coach that won’t run worth to ya?  What’s a coach that has more rain on the inside than out?  Bout the same!

Hey, lest weekend I thought we would have a generator to run the 2 beautiful roof AC units on “Rock the Alps”.    Heck, I wore dirty cloths to sweat in driving last weekend!

It’s all crazy how many things can go wrong in a 40 year old motorhome…….2 weeks ago, John D. came over for some preventive maintenance… a fresh starter.  Half way home…bout 15 miles he blew some kinda hose…can’t remember it was too long and many issues ago……..but changing the starter had nothing to do with the hose….just like 2 weeks ago doing an oil change on a coach that was about to be sold didn’t make the oil cooler hoses start leaking at the radiator……….

How much of this is funny?  We might roll back and  LOL all of this but it’s very unfunny to those it effects.  I am telling all of my customers we cannot predict delivery dates because of stuff like this….. nor can we accurately predict what we will run into working on coaches…….. the coach condition determines when enough is enough…we…you and I can’t take a chance against the motorhome…we will always fail!

It’s much less up to us and wether you do the work or we do…parts go bad, things fall off, things are missed and stuff that should have been done didn’t……..like I said it’s the forever struggle of my life!  Hey but at least we’re here to do something about it……… so folks that this happens too….it’s hard but relax……if something can go wrong it will unless you check it out first and do something about it…and man, expect the unexpected!

I should probably be pushed off my soap box now…..I’ve said probably quite enough hey but you asked…well maybe you didn’t but you didn’t push the “esc.” buttom so it’s your failt you day is blown too.

Jared is here and I need to go out and change an oil temp gauge…may see ya later, we’ll see and thanks for dropping by…see ya later

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