Global Warming?

Global Warming?

OK folks, I don't mean this to be a political rant. However, I will make a couple of statements and then drop it. First, I REALLY don't like Al Gore and his approach to a lot of things including global warming. Secondly, I hope that everyone recognizes that there are two, very divided, schools of thought/research on the subject. When I suffer from the extreme cold, my frustration always gets out of hand.

So, why in the heck did I bring up the subject. Well, the temperatures dropped below zero here last night and we have a forecast of extended very cold weather including several days where the lows will be below zero. We live in Colorado, so I guess we should expect that.

However, I have to keep working on the bus to get the engine back in and get ready to get the heck out of this cold weather. I have a great shop, and even installed in-floor heating. Problem is, I have never been able to afford the solar panels for the system.

I have a natural gas “torpedo” type heater and that takes the edge off the cold in the shop. Our bus has an indoor/outdoor thermometer in it. When I went out to start working a bit after noon yesterday the interior of the bus was 50 degrees (I keep the thermostat set on 50 since it is virtually impossible to “winterize” all of the complicated water system). The outside thermometer was reading 27 degrees (shop temperature). After running the heater for several hours, the shop temperature got into the low 40s. I wear my Carhartts and it is not too bad. My feet get cold from the cold concrete, but I can work for 3-4 hours before I have to give up.

Enough of the complaining. I am making slow progress on the bus. I am taking my time switching components between the engines to make sure I have the best parts of the two. It will take a couple more days to finish getting everything installed and getting it ready to stuff back in the bus. I switched air compressors (large air compressor for the air brakes) and turbo on the engine since they were new from when I first installed the other Series 60 engine in the bus. They are heavy and cumbersome, but I just try to take my time.

Perhaps the worst job was getting the transmission installed. It weighs about 650 pounds and everything has to be perfectly aligned. The picture shows the engine and transmssion on the dolly I use to roll it into the bus. The combination weighs about 3500 pounds.

Once the engine/transmission is in place, it will take a few more days to get the rest of the components (plumbing/electrical/etc) in place.

I sure hope it warms up a bit

That is all for now.