The Co-op: It was road test day for me!

After the morning get together and the cat was out of the bag I couldn’t do any heavy work Jared smiled and said……What about a few road tests?

You must understand while you’re not toteing that bail…. Drive testing a coach verifying the thing actually works all at the same time is kinda nerve wracking!

I mean how many parts could fall off?  Its a solo flight over hostile waters……no backup and constantly you are listening, sniffing, eyeballing everything having to do with that machine with a PARTICULAR interest on whatever had just been done……no pressure!

Today’s subjects have been getting their last love taps while I was out so this will be double fun!  First is the Tail Gator and our first lab rat test on our new single fuel tank modification…..I mean lets just jump right in there!!!!!!

So after the new tank was installed, the key mechanism flew apart and it took us a week to order the rebuild parts and tunics cube that tower of power back togetherGetting back its now time to put it on the roadNow we’re focused here primary on the fuel tank, then on FiTech third on drivability.  We had previously put in 15 gallons, 5 at a time to see what it took to get fuel to the pump.  It took the usual 10 gallons to get the “wick” wet.  The guys put in another 5 gallons to get me to a gas pump …..thank you very much so I’m sporting 15 gallons heading out for the first single tank fill up.and to prove the point we wanted to address, I set the fill at full speedYrd boys and girls I was throwing fuel at that original filler hole and she was taken in!  Never seen THAT before!  I went around the coach touching each wheel checking for heat….all the while watching under the coach for a dreaded leakno leaks!  PLING, the filler popped off…….a look at the pump readout confirmed our hopesi had just pumped in 31 gallons on top of 15 gallons as hard as s it would flow!  That’s 46 of the designed 53 gallon tanks accepted almost the complete tank without kicking back….and when it did it didn’t blow fuel on the car next door!  It just stopped!  Holy Moly it worked!  The tank didn’t fall on the ground, no leaks and even with a broken seal at the filler beach inside the door I had no fumes as I pulled out……..another biggie!Pulling into an open lot, I manually dropped the air ride @ 2″ rake to the back.  The coach never had an original air ride system.  18 years ago I fitted it with manual solenoid sets and a dual air gaugei found “proper ride height is just over 90psi for the early style Harrison 4 bag system the coach got back then.  From there flipping the left and right rockers to raise for 60 seconds puts pressure @110 which makes the rear height right to me for in town driving.  Of course this will change when the coach gets loaded but things “seem to be functioning between acceptable parameters” as Data would say.

The FiTech readout was doing its thinghare to get a pic with the sun overhead but monitoring rpm, air/fuel ratio, fuel flow from the new tank and vacuum man I had input!  My phone doped program said the speedometer is 5mph off at 45….I was doing 50.  Watch that Fernanda……use a GPS app.  The springs in these old speedo heads are looking calibration…..

My Sunday morning 35 mile motorbike ride half done to my secret place…..it wasn’t the same as on 2 wheels but still was a great ride..and at the canal I always stop for a pic or 2Oh man, this is a badass looking set up…….light metallic sporting a refined Royale striping…. Dual low pro AC units, Alcoas, Ramcos, color keyed fiberglass bumpers……smooth and clean….a feral Star Trec shuttle craft!

Oh, and it ran great too!  Heading back I picked up road test machine #2Mechanically, it drives out like Tail Gator!  FiTech fuel injection, this is the one that all 4 injectors got clogged by rust from the fuel tank.  Driven all the way from out west with no troubles, we installed the fuel injection system…..the coach sat in Florida with low fuel a couple of months and WHAM…….rust!

Using a larger surface area 7 micron filter and a new set of injectors I’m now out here to see what happens!  As of today, everyone has the 2 original steel tanks like this one…..how to assure they will not effect and live with these new learning fuel injection systems is a key.Yep, that’s the new Amazon replenishment center just opened up on my bike ride route……so much for that easy ride!that building HAS to create its own cloud cover!

Anyway both fuel injection systems acted as ed some, the new single tank and to filtered up 2 original tanks got me home tooBoth will go home soon, both each with an extra fuel filter and the road test foe single fuel tank begins.  We have sender calibration to dial in but that too will pass.

I had a great, productive day not picking up over 10 pounds but helping still to push this rock up the hill.

Its 8am , the crew is here and I’m on my broomstick…….see ya later

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