As more of you guys discover the GMC and how it can fit your life, I thought I would tell you about what to expect when bringing a 40 year old road warrior back to the road.  What I mean is chances are the family you pick up one of these from has loved their family member but for some reason it’s now not fitting their life and a new owner needs to take over.  This process usually takes some time and during that time the coach will have issue arise.  It’s a fault of age more than anything.  Some sellers do misrepresent their coach but many simply stopped their love and time takes over.  Things happen and now it’s up to the next owner to pick up from there and move on.  Please understand that truly…. in the immortal words of Forest Gump…..” _ _ _ _ happens”.

Here’s a story of bringing a coach back to the road, some of it could be said was not understanding the condition from the seller but this is a story of what it took to get on top of the wear curve which all of you new owners need to recognize and not get depressed about.  This couple did just that and the outcome made for an awesome ride for them.

You may have watched during the week as we worked over Tim’s coach , here you see the new rims and tires.  They had a nice set of 16.5″ aluminum rims but understanding tires are all but gone they understood you have to have 16″ rims and tires to know a replacement tire can be had.  There goes a bit of cash but they knew this had to be done and came to us to help.    Their coach had been on display at the GM heritage museum…. yes, a nice machine still let me tell you the story of what the coach ended up needing…

So coming in we knew we needed tires and rims, there were some things on the dash not working, that was a fuse.  The air ride seemed to ne be working so digging into that system we found an original V2 air compressor giving up it’s ghost, the air regulator stopped at like 90psi… replaced that and then we added the backup countermeasure of an air shut/fill kit.    This simple $75 kit gives you the opportunity to isolate your air bag and add air directly.  The air controls weren’t doing their thing.  Found 3 of the 6 air solenoids damaged… replaced all that too.

The first morning plugged in at the shop, the power converter became dead which took out their living area battery.  Tim & Cat both were shocked that happened but after looking at the batteries …. the engine battery was a side poster…. I sent them to Wallyworld for a pair of new batteries, we installed a PD Dynamics converter, the cables were all upgraded to 2ga.

The frig wasn’t working… found a blown 3amp fuse… replaced that and by golly it started cooling…. started then it stopped with only the freeze doing it.   Burped it and then a new frig was ordered.  Got a 3 way in that they are going full time.  So that is a good thing… an expense not expected but hey, the frig died.

Went for a test drive and the front brakes were dragging…. new Teflon front brake hoses and that’s fixed. 

You may call this a luxury but the radio was dead… we installed a new blue tooth radio so they can listen to Pandora

The sewer pipe came loose and drug off the cap end… replaced that.  

He went to dump the holding tank from the week of fun… fired up the generator, the starter Bendix stuck letting the starter on the generator sound like a hay bailer!  STAT…. get me a 1/2″ wrench!!!  Disconnected the living area battery.  The grinding stopped….  Hooked it back up and no noise.  The starter may never do it again…. but it did it once……. Tim & Cat…. watch that.  They may need a generator starter. 

OK, here they are happy and ready to head out after some fun   Tim has his Co-op license plate holders, Cat has her computer and just happy their baby is ready for the road.  I talked about this because…. other than a blown dash fuse and old tires the coach was thought to be road ready…. and it may have been but hey time… age and whatever the coach needed that stuff.  THIS is what you need to expect to happen when you start using a 40 year old machine that has been sitting.  How does it go bad sitting……. remember _ _ _ _ happens.  Was maybe no ones fault, maybe there were a few things not shared, maybe there were a few of them ready to go…… but hey, there it is.

Now, Tim & Cat need to be vigilant on their new shakedown… This is how you live your life in a GMC…. they are old but fixes are easy, sure it may cost a little but it’s nothing to anyother way to get on the road and happy.  Happy when you understand what to expect… happy when you treat folks willing to help with dignity…. happy when you understand what it’s about and roll with it. 

Guys, when you pick one of these up, expect problem, don’t get sour with regret or thinking someone is taking from you…. it’s just part of the big picture

OK… thus is that lesson…. lemme know if I can help.  Oh, have a great holiday weekend and wish me Happy Birthday, it’s mine today… 

So I’m off to enjoy the day with Janie… you should too… not with Janie, she’s mine… you go find your own great lady… See ya.

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