Computer Woes!!!!

Computer Woes!!!!

Tuesday 12/15/09 was a **HORRENDOUS** computer day

First, we encountered problems with our internet connection. We use Hughes Net via satellite at both the house and in the bus. It is generally pretty reliable unless we get a ton of snow on the dish. While we now have DSL and Cable internet available at the house, we have chosen not to have double internet services. We use the satellite connection in the bus and simply move the modem into the house and connect it to a fixed dish when we are home. It turned out the Hughes had a problem on our satellite and we were without internet service for 24 hours. To some of you, that is not a big deal. But for us it a huge issue because of our business and personal needs.

Then, our personal network got all funky. I got that squared away without too much problem.

The devastating blow came when my HP laptop crapped out. I need to vent here a bit. My HP is a TX2000 series tablet notebook that is very convenient for traveling. We bought it in August of last year just before we left for Europe. My other laptop is a great Toshiba with a wide screen and lots of features. However, it is large and heavy and would have been a real pain to carry all over Europe.

It turns out that this series (along with the TX1000 and TX2500) have a major problem with the motherboard. They fail with regularity at about 2-4 months past the 12 month warranty period. The internet has some very active forums on the issue. If you are interested, do a Google search on “TX2000 boot problem”. There appears to be a significant movement towards a class action suit. I will quickly join in, as HP has tried to sweep the problem under the carpet.

The HP failure triggered a hectic couple of days to try to get my Toshiba synchronized with the HP. I had told myself to focus all of my work on one computer, but I had a huge number of files on each computer that were not synchronized with the other.

Based on my research, I found out that the HP motherboard failure did not damage the hard drive. Several folks had purchased USB hard drive adapters that allow you to remove the hard drive and install it in a housing that can then be used as an external hard drive. That allowed me to have access to my data. A business associate put me on to an excellent synchronization program (http://allwaysync.com/index.html). I spent several hours synchronizing my main directories.

The real challenge came when I tried to get my iTunes and Outlook Express files transferred. I have an extensive Outlook contact/calendar/notes database that I use daily. Microsoft, in their infinite wisdom, places the data files in locations that are almost impossible to find. In addition, they block access to these files for “security” reasons. I finally got all of that done after about 4 hours of research on the internet and finding a way to search all of the hidden directories.

Changing subjects, I wanted to write a few words about what has become a family tradition: Cookie Day. Our three daughters and many of the grandkids come to the house a few weeks before Christmas and make cookies. Each girl (and Pat) furnish at least two recipes and all of the ingredients for those recipes. In total they made over 1000 cookies that was the basis for 65 plates that could be given to family and friends. Our daughter Judy writes an excellent blog and she talks about the cookie day festivities including pictures and a couple of the recipes (here).

Concerning the bus engine project, progress has been very slow. There have been all kinds of personal and business activities that have diverted my resources. I have been trying to take my time to make sure that all of the hardware/wires/hoses/etc. are properly mounted and secured. I have been spending quite a bit of time inspecting all of the fabricated parts from the initial installation to make sure there were no design/fabrication problems (none found so far). I am about a half day of work from being able to move the engine into the engine compartment. From there, I have about two days of work to hook everything up.

I am way behind schedule, but that seems to be the norm for this bus conversion project.

Continued Cold!!!

Continued Cold!!!

This morning (12/9/09) they were reporting 16 degrees *BELOW* zero at the airport (official site for Denver) with a wild chill of – 36 degrees. Our thermometer read -10 degrees. Looking at the weather map, lots of areas are having terrible area. However, you always tend to focus on your own situation.

As I mentioned in the last post, I don't have any permanent heat system in the shop. Indeed, it is not insulated. However, my natural gas torpedo heater has been able to take the edge off the cold in the shop. I went out and the shop was 13 degrees (the bus heat takes helps a little bit, but it uses quite a bit of diesel fuel to keep the bus water systems from freezing).

I just could not face the extreme cold today. I have a huge project involving getting my files and office area organized. I figure that this terrible project is probably bearable given this kind of weather.

Concerning the bus engine project: it continues to be a challenge. It turns out that almost every bolt-on part has several versions. I have had to get almost every bolt-on part from my old engine so that the replacement engine will be compatible with the bus. That includes wiring harness, front engine mount, alternator mount and drive system, etc. The latest is the exhaust manifold. The Series 60 has a three piece manifold and the center section on the replacement engine was significantly different from the original engine. I had to make a trip back to the Detroit dealer and get the parts from my engine. Getting the correct three parts assembled was a real challenge.

When it warms us to a reasonable level, I will get back to work on the project. I am becoming very concerned that we will not be able to leave Evergreen in time to get Pat to her convention in Phoenix. All in all, a very frustrating project.

We are approaching the holidays and that always increases family commitments. That is fun, but it sure conflicts with getting the bus running.

Folks talk about prolonged periods of wind adversely affecting one's mental attitude. I can assure you that this cold streak has had a huge impact on mine.

That is all for now.

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.

Let's catch up on a few things

Let's catch up on a few things.

First of all, it is difficult to write this blog when we are not on the road – after all, it was intended to be a travelogue! Secondly, things have been quite hectic and writing this post always seems to be a bit low on the priority list. So the following are a few things that have been going on.

Family. We have been catching up on spending time with our girls and their families. We have had some quality time with the two youngest granddaughters. Two of the grandsons called to ask if I would take them to the junkyard (is the Pope Catholic?). We had a great time at a wrecking yard that specializes in cars out of the '40s and '50s. We made a great day of it. We have had to stay in touch with one family via phone, because of schedules and various bouts with colds/flue/etc. We did have a really fun lunch with our daughters to celebrate their birthdays. It was just like the old days – just the five of us. We still love to get together with all the family, but this was a very special day.

Work. I have been very upset with our web hosting company (Earthlink). I finally decided that we had to migrate all of our personal and business web sites to another service. We chose Go Daddy. They seem to be a good service with domestic support. We have been able to reduce our monthly cost by about $50. The project was huge. I have had to set up a new credit card processing company and rebuild the e-store for rvsafetysystems.com. Rebuilding the e-store will take a lot of time and will take place over the next few months.

Earthlink support for web hosting was not bad at first (several years ago) but is now staffed by offshore folks who barely speak English and don't have a clue. Worse yet they don't care. For the past several years, they have occasionally lost some of our email. Fortunately we have it backed up with a different service.

Bus. Those of you following our engine problems will recall that we had a problem with the engine that got progressively worse. In July, the problem became bad enough that we had to park the bus. I removed the engine and took it to the local Detroit Diesel dealer. What should have been an $8K rebuild ended up being quoted at $15K. That was way more than we could scrape together. I bought a recently rebuilt engine and then attempted to get my engine back from the dealer. The wanted $2K for about 4 hours labor to tear the engine down. The following was a post I made on one of the bus bulletin boards – it details the most recent events.

The Shepherd engine saga continues.

Stewart Stevenson is no longer holding my engine for ransom!!!

Those of you following the horror story about my Series 60 engine problem, will recall that I bought another used engine in Ogden UT. This engine has 200k on a documented DDC dealer rebuild. However, I needed to get my engine back from SS. I had taken it down there expecting to pay for “Step 1” or “Step 2” rebuild. The damage turned out to be worse and the final estimate was over 15K.

I then tried to get the engine back, but they wanted almost $2K for the tear down and inspection. In truth they had started work on the engine and were trying to recoup some of their costs. I have been negotiating with them for the past couple of months.

Finally, I made a proposal that they keep the block and head as a core (thus they could benefit from their work) and I would get almost all of the other equipment (ECM, turbo, air compressor, shallow pan, clutch/flywheel, etc) plus all of my special fabricated parts. They agreed and said that they would call it even. I was amazed at their offer. Maybe the branch manager got tired of my emails and phone calls.

So, I ended up with $2-3K in parts and no bill to pay! The turbo, ECM and air compressor were new when I installed the engine, so I really wanted to keep them.

Now, I have all of my parts and the FUN??? begins. Getting all the wiring and accessory parts assembled will be a bit of a challenge. The accessory configuration of the two engines was quite different as was the ECM “cab” wiring. Plus it has been so long that I have forgotten where some of the bus electrical and plumbing connections go.

Nobody said this hobby was for the faint of heart.

Since I made that post, I have been able to work with the dealer to obtain all of the sensors from the engine (as backup). I am installing the parts and getting ready to stuff the engine back in. Hopefully it will be back in the bus later this week.

That catches us up on the big events since my last post.

Hello from Boonville, MO

Monday evening July 27, 2009 (third travelogue of this trip)

We are at a Super 8 hotel in this fun little town. We have stayed here a few times, but we were always in the bus and stayed in the parking lot of the Isle of Capri Casino.

I feel like a race horse trying to catch up on all that has happened since we started this interrupted trip. So let's start with the days leading up to this leg of the trip. As I noted in the last blog, we had to return to Evergreen to work on the bus. I got the engine out and delivered it to the local Detroit Diesel Dealer on Tuesday (7/7). I discussed the terrible findings in our last post to this blog. For the next several days, we went through just about every emotion you can think of. We were dealing with what to do on the bus and trying to make a decision about the major FMCA rally in Bowling Green, OH.

We finally decided to drive to Bowling Green in one of our cars. We had paid for the booth and it would look bad to have an empty booth with our name on it.

We departed Evergreen Friday (7/17) at 7:00 AM with almost 1300 miles to cover in 3 days. Everything went well for the first 100 miles. We stopped at a rest stop and during the stop I got a call from a potential customer that was quite intriguing. I decided to start driving while still on the phone with the customer. After we got on the road, I hit the cruise control and the Durango seemed to struggle getting up to speed. I did not pay attention and kept talking to the customer. As it turns out, I had the transmission selector in probably second gear and when I looked down the engine was quite a ways into the red region on the tach. I knew that was not good. We made it another 20 miles and the engine started knocking. We called AAA and had them pick us up on a wrecker. We got the Durango back to the house about 2:00 PM and quickly packed the PT Cruiser with a downsized load and left at 2:45. By this time we were completely numb, but determined to not let a silly thing like blowing up an engine stop us.

That night we make it to North Platte, NE and stayed in a Super 8 motel. Plain ,but it did not matter. This seemed a bit strange to us, since we often stop in North Platte and stay at the Wal Mart in the bus (great parking).

The next day we drove to Davenport, IA and again stayed in a Super 8. We had a great time, as there was a huge car show at the local mall. We even had a great dinner at a local restaurant.

We made it to Bowling Green in the late afternoon on Sunday (7/19 my birthday). We had reservations at what turned out to be the “hotel from hell”. The two rooms they tried to put us in did not have the fridge and microwave we asked for and were very dirty. I don't think many of the “guests” spoke English. We quickly got on the phone with the Holiday Inn folks and found a great Holiday Inn Express in Perrysburg, OH (map), about 15 miles from Bowling Green. Pat negotiated a pretty good rate and we crashed for the night.

I will stop here and we will continue to try to catch up in the next few posts.

Hello From Greenville, OH

Hello from Greenville, OH

Saturday evening July 25, 2009 (Second travelogue of this trip)

I am calling this the second travelogue in spite of the fact that we had to detour home and deal with the engine problems in the bus.

This travelogue will be rather short and is intended to let you know that we have survived some rather traumatic issues with our vehicles (yes plural) in the last month. It will take me several blogs to catch up on all that has happened this month. I have not had the time or inclination to do any posting in the past few weeks. As you read this blog and the ones that will follow, you will begin to see why our heads are spinning like tops.

The Fleetwood rally turned out to be a very good rally for us in terms of sales. By most standards it was a small to medium rally (415 coaches) and a small number of vendors (34). I think many of the vendors did reasonably well, which is a hopeful sign that the economy has bottomed out. This was a Fleetwood sponsored rally which almost did not happen. Fleetwood filed chapter 11 and the courts had to approve the expense of the rally. They now are in the final stages of being purchased by a holding company that seems to have their best interest at heart (an all to often false statement). In any case, the Fleetwood folks seemed upbeat as did most of the attendees.

In our last blog I mentioned our engine problems in the bus. We got the bus home without a problem, arriving there on Friday (7/3). Over the next 3 ½ days I removed the engine and took it to the Detroit Diesel Dealer. The results of the engine tear down can be seen at: http://rvsafetysystems.com/Engine_problems.htm. The quote was over $15K. We do not have that kind of money, so we have been scrambling to find acceptable alternatives. More in another blog.

We drove our car to Ohio for a major FMCA rally. In the process we destroyed the engine in our Durango. We then went back home and loaded the PT Cruiser and headed out again. The rally turned out to be a good one for us. More in another blog (detect a theme here?)

We are currently at the Greenville Inn (map). We stopped here to do some genealogy research. We hit the jackpot with some great information (more later).

Well, that is all that I have energy for right now. I will try to fill in all the holes in the next few days.

Hello from Gillette, WY

Hello from Gillette, WY

Wednesday afternoon July 1, 2009 (First travelogue of this trip)

We are at the Fleetwood Factory Rally at the Cam-Plex facility (map). Actually the rally ended yesterday.

For the past several days we have felt like a yo-yo with some pretty significant ups and downs. As you read this belated blog, you will see why we are mentally drained and “wiped out”.

First, let's catch up on our travels. When we last posted it was May 22^nd and we were on our way home from a couple of rallies in Goshen, IN. Since then we had a family vacation in Dillon, CO from 6/12 to 6/20. We had a ball! During the week, all three of the girls and their families were with us in a couple of condos plus one daughter's family town house. Very relaxing and lots of quality time with the eight grandkids. We usually have the family week in our various campers at a campground, but this was a fun alternative.

For this trip we left on Wednesday 6/24. It is less than 400 miles to Gillette, but we planned to do the trip in two days. We stopped in Douglas, WY. We had planned to stay in a campground since it was pretty warm, but the one we could find was full. We pulled off onto a circle road for an area that was not yet developed. We were not sure if we would be asked to move, but we had a peaceful night. The next morning, a sheriff stopped by and asked if we were OK and then drove off.

We got to Gillette on Thursday and got settled in. Friday afternoon we set up for the show. We had a very good show. I did two seminars and Pat did two craft classes. I was busy the whole show and really did not get to “relax”. Booth traffic always comes in waves and this time the waves were almost overwhelming at times. That is a good problem, but it still causes moments of anxiety when I have to leave the booth to make a customer call at the coach or fill extinguishers when customers are waiting in the booth.

Our plans for this trip were to travel to Ennis, MT for an Eagle bus rally and then on to Bowling Green, OH for the big FMCA rally and a converted coach pre-rally. Unfortunately most of that will not happen. That is the down part of the “yoyo”. Ever since I got the bus on the road, I have had to add some coolant every 1-3K miles. I figured that I had a very small leak somewhere. I recently installed a temporary catch bottle on the pressure relief valve outlet and discovered that the coolant was being forced out of the system. Worse yet, I discovered that the coolant was being turned gray in color. On this trip the problem has gotten worse. I am pretty sure that I have a head gasket issue. I went to the local Detroit Diesel repair shop and they concur. They were kind enough to give me an outrageous quote of $6K-8K!

I have had a few moments during our stay here to think about our problem, post my problem on the various bus bulletin boards and make several calls. I have gotten some good input and this has helped me form a couple of optional plans.

For sure we have canceled the Eagle and Converted Coach rallies. They would have been great fun, but we were not going as vendors, so we would not be loosing sales. The FMCA rally is troublesome. We will probably not be able to get our vendor fees back. We are looking at alternatives to get to that rally.

Today we are staying over at the Cam-Plex grounds and relaxing and catching up. Tomorrow we will head towards home. We will stop at a well known diesel repair shop to see how they might approach the job. In Gillette we had worked out a scheme to take out the rear window and pull the head with the engine in the bus. By removing the bed platform (easy) there is full access to the engine. Worse case, I can remove the engine and take it to a repair shop or do the work myself. I had the engine in and out several times during the conversion, so I know I could pull it in about 8 hours. I still have all the equipment necessary for the job.

I will probably make another post to this travelogue to let the readers know how we will approach the repair of the bus.

That is all for now.