Being in the fire suppression business as well as messing with these old war horses I’m confronted with the question all the time “How much preparedness is too much preparedness”. For fire suppression it’s a formula… what are the top 3 fire hazards and have personal fire protection for yourself….. disaster preparedness has a great deal more emotion along with it. You don’t wanna be Chicken Little having your kid fitted for an inflatable suit to play in but you also don’t want to be Scooter stanting on the hood of his Power Wagon holding a coat hanger during a lightning storm in the lightning capital of the US!
We here at the Co-op could not take the chance of not having all of these coaches secured best as possible when it was a fair bet we would see a little heavy weather… and we did. I’m sure if you had your baby here you would want us to take precautions so there was never a thought, I’ve held to palm trees through many tropical issues so that’s just what you do. This action put us another 3 days behind schedule on production, we waved off several people trying to schedule work with us and though it was nice getting rid of some of my hoarding eccentricities, we will need to probably take another day to get this working machine back running again. We did have a little damage in a racoon took a liking to out EPDM membrane roof and chewed a hole all the way to the steel roof panel causing a waterfall in Shirley’s office that took out her desk top main computer, backup power supply and printer. At the same time we got caught up in that MS10 debockle oh and with GoDaddy shutting down my link to our web site here I had the learning mountain to climb learning WordPress, Brian’s gal Brooklin was feeling a little sick so Brian flew up to Alabama to lift her spirits a bit and now the big hit, Twinkles passing too…. I tell ya it’s a tough morning aroud here…
Hey, the beat goes on…. right? And it will we just need to find our focus on where we are and get down to it.
Just because I have a handle on 2 lap tops right now… I’m the weak link, I can only do one thing at a time especially trying to link before disjointed thoughts in my head… I still find I need to stop plunking and get into processing pics before I can go on. Go get some more coffee, lemme cuss at the other screen for a few minutes… be right back…
OK… had to break for the beginning of the week trim shop meeting. Very important to get all of these guys pulling the rope all in the same direction. David G., don’t worry if you feel a little something today, we’re all over your coach. Rob must have the countertops tomorrow or we will make another one for you… it’s just what we have to do…
Lets move on to something I want everyone of you aspiring GMC owners to read and understand. You current owners too may be interested and see if there’s something you may need to look back at but I feel the focus is to get you new owners a clear as possible path to a useful tool for your betterment.
Spacely, you will be my lab rat for this one, I feel you are a great crossection of how everyone needs to approach ownership and use of their coach. I say this in that Spacely is a hands on guy getting a GMC because yes, he wanted it but also figured another object for frustration may just have it’s own fun…. and for those that are into that he is totally right! Get her running and safe then have some fun. That’s how we looked at the evaluation for Spaceley’s new 23′ Birchaven toy 
First issue to address on this coach was front clip rust through. You have to have a stable frame and though maybe another coach may not need this, considering the price he paid for the coach made up a bit for the additional work that needed to go into is. Breaking down the passenger front suspension here is what we found 
not good…. Hank custom made a patch 
then welded, hammered and stretched the patch in place 
Grinding it the a coat of POR-15 and here we are 
That done, we’re shifting now to the B’s & B’s (bearings and brakes)
Now look at how hank is doing the work,,, at chest level… anyone who has messed with the brakes sitting hunkered over can totally appreciate what a 14,000 pound lift with an air bag lift on the lift to bring the wheels up and off the rack to work on. OK, lets pll the drums…. Wow there Nelly 
a little close please 
Now why would someone go through all that %$@#@ to get there and replace only 2 springs! The wheel cylinder has blown apart. After degreasing the insides you can see a second wheel cylinder blew out on the left side 
. Bearings? This is the worse one and the metal filings and burned tan bearing means all the bearing in all 4 wheels needs replacement. 
Sorry, had a pic of the bearing… lost it but trust me Spacely, you need new wheel bearings. So it this Saturn with Uropa circling? 
The worse drum is thin and we hope it will clean up, the rest of them certainly need surfacing. Brakes on the way to good health. Now this is a reliable rear brake 
And now that we’ve seen so much with the rear brakes, just talked to Spacely and we’re doing his front brakes as well.. it’s only right…
Heck, it’s already noon so I’ve shot my time… see ya tomorrow…
