-
Got to have a bad day to appreciate the good ones?
Guys,
Had a bad day today… we were one our way from Medona, ND to Mt. Rushmore… got to where we were supposed to turn and there was a massive sign nothing longer than 28′ 4 miles ahead and from what we had from campground our turn was in 6 miles… so…with about 15 seconds to decide we didn’t turn… Lauren called the campground and she said we needed to turn it was the only way to get there… sign was misleading…. so then the task of turning around… she suggested a few places that wouldn’t work. I found a big lot that I thought would work… turned off got turned around and thought all was well but as I turned out the DS of the coach drug pretty bad and smashed the exhaust tip of the main engine…. I knew something was bad when I saw a massive cloud of road dust blowing from the back of the coach… thinking to myself God what have I done… busted the oil pan , air lines, who knows… pull over as soon as I can on a crazy tight road and find it was just the exhaust… called Prevost and they said don’t drive it… increased back pressure on exhaust could cause major issues… Called coach net and they sent someone out to cut the tip off… they had to use a gas torch… but all is well… I guess it could have been a whole lot worse…. have 8 more nights on the big 14 month trip…. so hopefully this is all the drama we have left….
Bill
-
9 Replies
-
Bill,
Sorry to hear of the incident. You were lucky as an exhaust tip isn’t too bad considering it could have been worse.
I didn’t realize that you were on a 14 month trip…. wow, that is a commitiment!
Safe travels,
Mark
-
Bill I’m glad to hear all is well. I had to order a new tip for my bus as well they run about $3000 plus install. Sure enjoy your blog. It’s fun to see all your travels. Hope that are paths will cross again in the desert@MCC
-
Hang in there Bill, it’s all up hill from here..
-
easy fix, glad you guys are safe and well!
-
Scrapes along the ground or from steep transistions are not uncommon, but I know intuitively now if I can drive up or down a driveway or in a specific area without scraping bottom. I have also learned as I had the coaches over the years if dragging or scraping was likely, I needed to stop and use the level low to raise or tip the coach as required to prevent damage. With our front and rear overhangs and relatively low belly we have a greater risk of dragging than in anything else we drive so I use my ability to raise or lower the coach as needed to avoid the sound of money being vaccuumed from my wallet.
-
Jon,
Yeah I have been kicking myself all day… I should have used level low and had my wife go out and watch for me… I considered it for a second then looked at the grade and said to myself this is nothing compared to the ramp onto the ferry so went for it… bad call on my part and I hopefully learned my lesson… could have been much worse…
Bill
-
Bill,
Don’t beat yourself up on this deal. I think it is safe to say almost all of us have scraped and dragged and only after we did the deed we realized all we had to do was raise it up.
I have become so aware of that now that I am not shy about stopping traffic while the bus raises to allow me to go up a driveway or cross some low lying divider.
-
I put a trailer hich roller on the back of our coach and it has helped me a couple of times:
-
NNNnnooooooo!
Take it off Les. That hitch is not meant to carry significant loads and adding a roller makes it more likely the roller will contact terra firma which means the force on that hitch can be quite a bit more than the welds or structure can handle.
You may get away with some dragging depending on the slope or angle when the bus is on the roller, but sooner or later that is going to bust something.
Log in to reply.