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Equipment Failures
We all know nothing ever breaks when the bus is home. When it is parked in its garage or at least in close proximity to our house everything works. But when we are away from home that’s when stuff breaks. Sounds pretty obvious, but it is the way it is, and a part or system failure can ruin a trip, or become a slight inconvenience, depending on how prepared we are.
Since all our conversions are set up differently, or equipped differently there can be no intructions on how to cope with failures written that will cover all of our coaches. Add to that problem the fact no two of us carry the same tools or possess the same skills and we end up with every coach owner having to deal with problems based on how his coach has been equipped and set up, and his own skill levels.
The reason for posting this is right now the weather outside my window sucks. It was 19 degrees when I last looked, there is snow on the ground and sure as anything those are the conditions it seems I am always confronted with when something breaks. If it is on your coach, it is going to break. That is my mantra. So far I have not been proven wrong.
So my free advice, worth every cent you paid for it, is to think about the systems you use, and then imagine if one quits, what is your plan for dealing with it. The usual response is “that is when I use my credit card and cell phone”, which likely is the only answer for some things. If my engine quits, or I have a failed tire, or my bus is on fire that is probably the only answer in my case.
But there are many other failures that can just as easily mess up a trip, but for which there are options regardless of who our converter is, or how skilled we are at doing McGiver type repairs.
This is not all inclusive, but how will you cope with no hot water, or even no water due to a failed water pump? Do you have a way of dealing with a failed inverter? What if the generator will not start? Do you have a plan if the bus will not come up to the driving height? Can you get along if the alternator on the engine has quit? My point is simple. With a few exceptions we have alternate ways of dealing with mechanical failures, and ideally the time to determine what they are is when you don’t need help. Sit and think about your coach, how the systems are set up, and what happens if your widget breaks. Do you have another way to get along without the widget?
Do you keep a list of email addresses and phone numbers for people you know can help, such as someone very familiar with your conversion? What you do during the week during daylight hours may not work on weekends at 2:00 AM because you cannot reach your converter. An afternoon of doing “what if” scenarios, and then making sure you have the parts or tools or information you will need is going to solve a whole lot of potential problems. One thing is for sure, and that is most problems seem insurmountable from the lack of planning, so even if you do a lousy job of planning for a problem, it is still better than if you depend on luck alone and did no planning.
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5 Replies
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Forget all that ‘planning’ stuff. What we really need is a red button on the home page of this site that immediately reaches Jon.
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I agree Jon , I try to think about all those things I carry spare parts replace things before they fail. Have plan B . I like it Jon , somebody told me one time why are you replacing that part it’s not broken yet, I told them I don’t have time to fix on side of road , better to replace it now than wait until it fails , I think , although I throw out alot of parts it’s better to know its new , a new part can fail to … So what do you do , I replace the parts !!!!
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Peter sounds like you work from front to back. LOL.
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How you doing Glen?
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Over the years I have had various failures. But for the most part the problems were dealt with by using “plan B”.
A failed 50DN was kind of a non-event because I ran the generator while going down the road, used the Cruise airs instead of the OTR, and turned on the chassis battery charger to keep the chassis batteries topped off.
I had a broken eye bolt on the fan belt tensioner on the first coach. I used the eye bolt that was used on the AC compressor belt tensioner because I could work around the lack of air conditioning, but not a radiator fan.
I have had tire failures on the road and the right size tire was not available so I got a used tire of the closest size and put that one on the tag where it did not matter much.
A brake chamber diaphragm failure was dealt with by caging the spring brake and plugging the air line.
The bus fire required a tow truck.
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