Portland is famous for the "72-hour" rule about parking RV's or TT's on the curb, regardless of all circumstances like "I'm making repairs". No sympathy, just tow warnings followed by a tow truck in a couple days.
Gotta find a friendly driveway or backyard to get safely parked.
Latest books for improving crumby old RV's:
"Wiring 12 Volts for Ample Power" Revised Edition 1995 by Smead
"Living on 12 Volts with Ample Power" Revised Edition 1998 by Smead
Both of these books are concerned with sailboat electrical/mechanical machines, switching, battery design and feeding, and the #1 load of refrigeration. Sailboats demand a level of quality in power systems that RV's and Travel Trailers (even the aluminum twinkie-shaped ground-aircraft models) are never built with. If your sailboat has a problem with electrical, the vessel could be lost and everyone die. In a road vehicle, everyone could be terribly inconvenienced by staying at a bedbug motel.
First chapters start with theory and tools and moves on to the practical.
The books came via InterLibrary Loan and Multnomah County Library.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Tow Vehicle repairs
Driving ~4000 miles a year for the past 5 years has taken a toll on the 1995 Caprice 9C1/LT1. She doesn't feel as fast, stop so well, or handle rough roads as well as I remembered. That's only 20K, and the car only has about 135K on it, but time passing seems to count as well as miles.
The main job of this car seems to be moving around town loaded with stuff. Capacity is legitimately 1500 pounds (7 external bicycles on racks!) with driver-only, as well as 5K on a trailer with a 300-500 pound tongue weight. With a loaded 4x8 trailer, this is no problem. We can move brush and rocks all day, go to Mr. Plywood, pick up loads found in Craigslist FREE! section or things found by the curb on big trash day. The problem is holding up the nose of the travel trailer high enough that it doesn't scuff on rough roads at speeds over 10mph.
With the air suspension pumped up to 80PSI the car rides just about right , even with a TT attached. But, it sags after a few days. I have a leak. Leaks on air suspensions are inevitable. We've all seen the 7 year old Lincoln riding down the street with the stock rear tires crammed up into the wheelwells and the front riding somewhat-normally. That's not a "fashion statement" other than "I don't have the $1200 that it takes to get this hooptee to ride flat". The Caprice still has some springs to ride on, so it wasn't bad, except with a loaded trailer.
These are signs that neglect is setting in. A neglected car isn't as safe as it can be. Lacking confidence in a car is almost worse than not having one. Time to spend some money. I'd had good luck with The Line-Up Shop in Portland with a previous Caprice, so a visit was in order. I had a $150 credit with a local GM dealer that would somewhat ease the pain of some Delco parts, and TLUS was fine with me providing those.
Result: New brakes on all 4 wheels, one new ball-joint, alignment, HD shocks in rear, air suspension replaced with Moog cargo springs (thicker than stock diameter, variable coil rate, no air-bladder system to break or wear).
The car drives like new. I can look forward to getting a new pair of tires in the fall, but they are okay now. It's no 4300 pound Porsche Cayenne, but I'm only into the car for $2200 (not counting fuel or insurance) over 5 years.
I suppose that putting any money into a V-8 sedan is a testimony to my belief that gasoline will continue to be available at some price for the next 100 years. At $3/gal gasoline is CHEAP, when you consider the amount of work that can be done with that fuel. I'm going to keep buying and using gasoline to run my machines as long as I possibly can.
It beats walking....
The main job of this car seems to be moving around town loaded with stuff. Capacity is legitimately 1500 pounds (7 external bicycles on racks!) with driver-only, as well as 5K on a trailer with a 300-500 pound tongue weight. With a loaded 4x8 trailer, this is no problem. We can move brush and rocks all day, go to Mr. Plywood, pick up loads found in Craigslist FREE! section or things found by the curb on big trash day. The problem is holding up the nose of the travel trailer high enough that it doesn't scuff on rough roads at speeds over 10mph.
With the air suspension pumped up to 80PSI the car rides just about right , even with a TT attached. But, it sags after a few days. I have a leak. Leaks on air suspensions are inevitable. We've all seen the 7 year old Lincoln riding down the street with the stock rear tires crammed up into the wheelwells and the front riding somewhat-normally. That's not a "fashion statement" other than "I don't have the $1200 that it takes to get this hooptee to ride flat". The Caprice still has some springs to ride on, so it wasn't bad, except with a loaded trailer.
These are signs that neglect is setting in. A neglected car isn't as safe as it can be. Lacking confidence in a car is almost worse than not having one. Time to spend some money. I'd had good luck with The Line-Up Shop in Portland with a previous Caprice, so a visit was in order. I had a $150 credit with a local GM dealer that would somewhat ease the pain of some Delco parts, and TLUS was fine with me providing those.
Result: New brakes on all 4 wheels, one new ball-joint, alignment, HD shocks in rear, air suspension replaced with Moog cargo springs (thicker than stock diameter, variable coil rate, no air-bladder system to break or wear).
The car drives like new. I can look forward to getting a new pair of tires in the fall, but they are okay now. It's no 4300 pound Porsche Cayenne, but I'm only into the car for $2200 (not counting fuel or insurance) over 5 years.
I suppose that putting any money into a V-8 sedan is a testimony to my belief that gasoline will continue to be available at some price for the next 100 years. At $3/gal gasoline is CHEAP, when you consider the amount of work that can be done with that fuel. I'm going to keep buying and using gasoline to run my machines as long as I possibly can.
It beats walking....
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