| Author |
Message |
Terrance A.Haag (Mrbus) (205.188.209.11)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, September 27, 2002 - 9:58 am: | |
What a great way to travel. The three years we have spent converting our O-5 has certainly been worth it, we have put over nine thousand miles on her this summer, and just returned from a trip of just over five thousand miles, through Minn.,So.Dak. Wyom.,Colorado, Ok., Texas Lou.,Miss.Tenn.,Ark.,Mo.,Ill.,Wisc.,Upper Mich.,Wisc again and back to Minnesota. This has been spread over six weeks, and in all of this we only saw four other conversions. Two Marathon type Prevost, which we met under way, an RTS two tone blue we met on the Ill. toll way just north of Rockford, and a 4106 parked in an RV park in Galveston with no one around it. Makes one realize just what a minority we really are.
The old 8V71 purred just like a kitten the whole journey, and averaged just under 7 MPG, towing our VW Rabbit and running the 8K APU most of the time for the AC, very acceptable in my opinion.
We stayed in some really interesting places, and mostly ran from post to post as some on here refer to it. One RV park in Galveston that is listed here as a great place to stay, is a nice place, but if anyone is going to be there during a busy season, I advise requesting one of their new sites. The new sites are about twenty feet wide, and there are only about fifteen of them, so reservations would be in order. The other sites are about twelve feet wide, and you neighbors sewer hookup is directly under your picknic table. The place is directly on the beach, and is run by the city park board, other than the close quarters, it is in a beautiful location.
Fuel prices ran from a low of $1.25 to a high of $1.59, seems the further north we traveled the higher the cost.
We suffered on minor road failure, the exhaust pipe connected to the manifold on the right side broke just past the clamp. This can be attributed to my own fault, because I did not put a support hanger on the muffler, and had the entire weight of the exhaust on that side hanging on the pipe. It sounded like hell when it let go, but was in fact a pretty simple fix,(read patch)I pushed the pipe back into place, sealed it with a three inch band clamp. wrapped a short length of chain around the front of the muffler, bolted the chain to the engine cradle and we were back on our way. I left it that way until we got home, now it will be taken apart and done right.
All in all a great trip, and we are already planning our next adventure. Hope to see some more conversions on this next trip.
Gus Haag |
Quest (198.29.191.148)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, September 27, 2002 - 11:06 am: | |
What a great experience you've had, makes all the hard work and anticipation all worth it. It is good to hear from a completed conversion and how well it performed, what a joy and the freedom.
I can only suggest that you find that camp you mentioned in the Places we Stay portion of this board and add your comments for all to benefit from your fitting appraisal.
Thanks so much for sharing your great adventure with us. OOOooohhh, look ma, what we have to look forward to.
q |
DaveD (206.47.206.169)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, September 28, 2002 - 1:29 pm: | |
Sounds like a great trip. We've only made some shorts trips (500 mi or less) so far. This is a real encouragement.
DaveD |
|