She may be ready this weekend

I talked to my mechanic and he said that he will get to the tires today and give the rest of the rig an inspection to let me know if all is well. Hopefully I will drive away with a sticker, I can only think of a few things that may be a problem and I gave him permission to fix whatever needed to be fixed, within reason, so I can have the coveted inspection sticker. Thankfully it does not have to pass the emission test.
I'm already chomp'in at the bit to get the new parts I received installed on it. I have two new roof vents and a stove vent. With a few stainless steel screws and that rubber spray I'll be in business. I will also replace the front marker lights with the LED units I bought many months ago.

So, Do I rebuild the Bathroom or make it into a Lounge?

I have been wrestling with this whole bathroom thing for a couple of weeks now. It's a big room, for a small RV. I do like the idea of the convenience of a having the ability to go anytime anywhere. But then I think of my past time on the road driving tractor trailers. They didn't have bathrooms on board.
And then there is the argument that it's a lot of extra hassle if I use it. There is the added weight of the water in the fresh water tank and the ever increasing amount of liquid and yesterday's food in the black water tank that I now have to find a legit place to dump. (pardon the pun)
Gas is expensive and the less weight I carry the better. And I wouldn't have to go out of my way to find a waste deposit area, thereby saving more gas.
But, I do like to be clean. And daily showers are very important to me. The water tank holds forty gallons and if I use the shower, it will use approximately one point five gallons a minute, and that's . . .
roughly a half hour of shower time. That's enough for one good shower and and possibly one maintenance shower. And then I have to find more water to refill the tank, and a place to dump the waste. . .
Ok, while I was on the road I leaned the ways of the asphalt cowboys. Who either didn't bathe until there was a strong storm, or used one of the thousands of showers available at most big truck stops.
It's not expensive, and the showers are the size of a small apartment easily able to fit myself and maybe a half dozen really close friends.
So now I'm thinking I'm not going to rebuild the bathroom. It would make a nifty machine shop just big enough to house my CNC mill. I would like to make things along the way and possibly make some extra scratch. I like this Idea. And I can remove the big tanks that I'm sure weigh a couple hundred pounds along with the pipes.
Besides, I'm a guy. I can always pull over to the side of the road and admire the beauty that is nature.
Get out and check the tires.
Go stretch my legs.
Chase down big foot.
Do some bird watching.
Check my lights.

Looking Forward to the Weekend

The stuff I deal with during the week really makes me glad there are a couple of days at the end of the week that I can call my own. I like to think that I'm not a very materialistic person, I don't have much, but what I do have means a lot to me. During the week I deal with people who look down on others, like me, who have not achieved the status that they, themselves have achieved. Levels that are defined in their own universe.
As I grow older and see more of what everything is about I realized that status is just a way of making a goal for yourself. Something to strive for. That's good. But when I'm looked down on because I don't have . . ., compared to whomever's own personal goals, then I just have to take a deep breath and subdue the urge to beat the living crap out of them.
I don't really mean that. I'm a pacifist and I let things like this bounce off me. Most of the time.
But back to the weekend, Hopefully I will be able to pick up the RV with new tires and proudly drive it back  home. I have not heard from the mechanic yet but I will call tomorrow and see what's up.
I have big plans in the following weeks for the old girl. First I need to fix the gas filler then repair the generator. I'm going to lay a new carpet in the cab and get working on the bathroom. One thing I need to address are the rear wheel skirts, they are in bad shape. I looked online and they want a totally unreasonable amount for them. So my solution is to make them myself. The skirt is symmetrical so between the two I can make one good one for a mold. A little fiberglass and resin and I'm in business.
I watch the 4x4 truck shows and in one particular episode they used polar fleece rather than fiberglass. It looked good so I will try it myself. It's a good cheap alternative.

Second Official Trip Complete

(Continued from the last post.)
I left my friends house and drove to the highway with the intention of stopping to get gas. I pulled off the road to the Irving station and drove up to a pump. At this point I realized that I left my wallet in my car so I walked over to my friends truck where he was filling up and I informed him of the sitch. Then while I was talking I had my hands in my pocket and it dawned on me that I had cash.

I walked back over to the RV and fired up the pump. A split second later I noticed that I was watering the ground. I found the gas leak.

So now I had to drive up to the garage with what I had in the tank, no big deal I had a quarter of a tank.
So now the RV sits at my mechanics garage waiting patiently for new tires.
Hopefully I will be able to pick her up this weekend so I can fix the fill neck and any other little things that need attention. There are not many more thing I need to do.

Buying my baby new sneakers.

It's the weekend, and that means the second outing for the rolling party wagon. This time I'm taking it to my mechanic at JAM Automotive in Barrington NH. (Shameless plug.)
It's about an hour drive over many different types of streets. I'll stat off on the interstate, exit onto a state highway and then onto a few town roads.
I have already completed the first leg, from the storage area to my friends house to pick up my brand new tires. The ride was about twenty minutes and the first drive since I timed the engine.
Last weekend, when I moved it from Portsmouth City Maker Space, there was an unpleasant smell of gas that got worse along the way. I didn't find any gas leaks but I did notice the generator was wet. I knew that the engine was still way out of time so I fixed that problem, although I did not have a clue of what the timing should be. So I took my best guess and set it at around eight degrees BDC. It ran well so I let it be until I got my reprint of the factory service manual.
The book arrived during the week and I learned many good things about the van. One of which was the timing for the engine, which is zero, or TDC. So it's still a little off but it's raining and I have to get under way.
So at 7:00am this morning I climbed in and started her up. After a few minutes it was idling nicely and I worked on securing the cabin for travel. All along I did not detect the slightest smell of fuel. Good. Once she was up to temperature I slid back in the drivers seat, put her in gear and I was off.
There was a slight surge from the engine at low speed, around five to ten MPH. I made it to the stop sign, looked both ways and gave it some gas. She gracefully accelerated up to thirty without any complaint. A few minutes later I got to the interstate and brought her up to fifty five. No problems, she sounded good and healthy. The next hurtle was the sixty five MPH mark that didn't go so well last weekend. But to my relief we hit the target and a little more. No popping or coughing from the power plant. Sweet.
About fifteen minutes later I was at my friends house loading tires.
Now I'm blogging because I told my friend I would be there at eight and it's about seven thirty. I can't help it I get very punctual when I'm excited.

Maiden Voyage

Friday night I finished the front end. My plan was to have the RV out of it's current spot and move it to the next staging area. When I was re-assembling the grill all of the hardware either broke, seized or dissolved in my hands. So here is the front end as far as I could get it during last week.

It looks kinda funny without the headlights. I ordered the parts I needed to re-fit the headlights back in place. While I was waiting I figured I would tend to the grill. It is in good structural shape but the old chrome and black paint looked well worn. So I brought it into the shop to give it a face lift.

The grill was mostly silver (chrome) with black accents, I felt it needed to be updated and reversed the paint scheme to mostly black with silver accents. I know, not too imaginative but it turned out so good.

Here is the grill before I painted it. . .

And after!!!

Ok, they look the same, but trust me the new grill looks so much better and honestly, there is more black and the silver paint has metal flake in it. It's done.

 So on to the maiden voyage, it was nothing special just a half hour drive to my friends house but the intention was to shake out the drive train and make sure everything is working.

I still have not timed the engine but it seems to be running good. I asked a friend to follow me in case of any problems and to give me a ride back to my car. I walked around the vehicle to lock down any loose panels I may have overlooked and to make sure there was nothing hanging or any tools left behind. There was this unmistakable smell of gas lingering around the back but I didn't think anything of it. I had smelled it in the past few days but it was probably from the vent. It has been warm.

I made it back to the drivers side and slid behind the wheel, pushed the key in the ignition and cranked her over. She started with roar and I kept the idle up with my foot until the engine warmed up which only took a few minutes. I dropped it into drive, the RV gently nudged forward to let me know it was in gear and I gave it a little gas. Slowly it moved forward, I was on my way.

I had to give it a little more gas to get it up the drive to the road, a little more than I thought should have been necessary but that was the engine being out of tune. The smell of gas was curiously strong but I continued to the upper parking area where my friend was waiting.

I stopped the RV and hopped out, it was idling really well and sounded great. I walked over to the chase vehicle and told him which way I was going. Hopping back into the drivers seat I could still smell the strong odor of gas, now I was getting a little concerned but not enough to check it. 

I set off down the road with my road side assistance behind me. At one light I made a hard right and I saw in the mirror a trail of liquid behind me, but it stopped when I straitened out. Now the smell f gas was overpowering.

My cell phone rang, it was my buddy behind me. He said that some liquid had leaked out the back and that all he could smell was gas. He thought it came out the exhaust. After being asked how my engine was running I replied that it was running fine, albeit a little sluggish. So I told him that I was going to continue.

About a mile down the road the smell of gas was just unbelievable so I called my friend and told him I was going to stop at the truck stop to look at whats going on. 

I pulled into the station and made sure I was away from the pumps, just in case. I left it running and popped the hood thinking I was going to see gas all over the engine. But it was dry as a bleached bone in the desert. I looked under the rig and didn't see any wet spots on the ground or on the undercarriage.

I stuck my finger in the exhaust tailpipe and quickly withdrew it noting that it was running and very hot. But my finger was dry aside from a little black soot and a developing blister. I visually checked the tank connections and found nothing.

Oh well. I decided to continue. I climbed in and exited the truck stop. The chase truck called me and said more liquid exited but it was nowhere as much as before and this time he noted that it was coming out from behind the exhaust, about where the dump valve for the waste storage tank is. Well that mystery was solved, apparently there was still some liquid in the tank and the dump valve is damaged some some exited.

But that didn't explain the smell of gas, which was getting stronger.

I made it to the highway and gently pushed her up to fifty five, where I would hold it and assess the sounds. Everything was going well except for that damn smell of gas which at this point was making me a little ill. The doghouse was not properly latched and it lifted up. I stopped it from flying off with my knee and held it until I got to the next rest area. I pulled into the truck parking area and got out, telling my friend what I was up to.

Off we continued. We were about fifteen minutes into our thirty minute trip, all was well.

I gave her a little more gas to get up to sixty five, a more civilized speed for the highway. Once the speed-o read sixty five the engine popped though the carb a couple of times so I backed her down to sixty where it hummed right along. That was a timing issue, and the smell of gas may be a symptom of the ill timed valve train. But I never smelled that much gas and not have a major leak. Like a wide open garden hose type of leak.

We made it to the exit and turned off the highway, and at the end of the off ramp came to a smooth stop, with the engine idling happily. All the while I was nearly passing out from smell. We made it to the stop and I backed it into the driveway. I half expected the undercarriage to be on fire but there was nothing. I shut her down and the engine came to a stop without a complaint.

For the next couple of hours I cleaned the inside and looked around for the cause of the smell. I made my way to the generator and removed the hatch. It was quite wet with what looked like fuel. The generator is plumbed into the main gas tank. The last time I worked on the generator I closed the fuel shutoff. And it was still closed, but there was a second shut off at the fuel filter which was still open. I had removed the air cleaner so I could work on the carburetor and never replaced it. Maybe this is where the fuel was leaking out? The generator was wet but the smell of gas was not strong or maybe my nose was so overwhelmed that I could not smell it. 

I finished cleaning and set out with my timing light to sync the valve train. I found the timing mark on the harmonic balancer and painted it with my white paint pen. Since I removed the air conditioning compressor I was now able to see the timing mark on the engine well enough to set it.

I started the engine and pulled the trigger on the strobe light, but I didn't see the mark. I loosened the distributor and turned it a few degrees. I still couldn't see the mark. I knew it was there so I was a little more aggressive and turned the distributor, slowly, a lot. The engine was running well so I looked for the timing mark again.

This time I could just see the mark come into view but I was still a few degrees off so I turned the distributor to where I thought it should be and checked it again. Bingo. Maybe. I don't know what the setting is yet so I left it at ten degrees before top dead center. That will be close enough until I get the right number.

It seemed to run very well and I could not smell the gas any more. But I really didn't smell it before until I was moving. So it will have to wait until next weekend.

I decided this was a successful trip.

During this week I will be servicing the generator.