Our "New to Us" Winnie

[T1 Terry]

Margaret's foot is a bit of the two steps forward and one step back type of thing ..... it isn't hurting so she over does it on a walk or something, then 3 days recovery .... but in general, the wound site is recovering nicely, down to roughly the site of severe gravel rash rather than the exit wound from a high powered rifle shot .......

T1 Terry

[Dot]

OK and good See it when you get back.

[jon_d]

The bowser didn't click off?

How unusual.... The winnie does seem to attract the most unusual faults.

I wonder what the other customers did?

[T1 Terry]

The bowser didn't click off?

How unusual.... The winnie does seem to attract the most unusual faults.

I wonder what the other customers did?

Not an uncommon problem with LPG bowsers. They are vanishing breed and poorly maintained .... it is in the service stations interest for the pump to sell as much as possible, so a verbal complaint would likely be filed in the "yeah nah, no one else has complained, maybe it's your vehicle that has a faulty 80% fill cut off .....

The problems the Winnie suffers are not that unusual, very few people will actually diagnose the real problem and simply replace stuff till the problem goes away or the vehicle doesn't return .... nothing new there either, that was probably 70% of our business and generated the most return customers when I had my automotive business, we fixed things no one else could.
That reached the point where the workshop that couldn't sort the problem, brought the vehicle to us to sort, that way they didn't lose a customer .....

T1 Terry

[jon_d]

The problems the Winnie suffers are not that unusual, very few people will actually diagnose the real problem and simply replace stuff till the problem goes away or the vehicle doesn't return

Yep, very common. Ignore the root cause. Just find a temporary fix; and hope that it doesn't breakdown on the proverbial Chinaman's Hill.

[T1 Terry]

You sound upset that I know ways around spending the big $$ and getting back on the road at a minimum outlay. All those years on crap wages at least has some benefits

Made up the last LPG hose, changed ends from one hose to another till they all fitted better without rubbing anything, ran the engine to make sure it all worked and there were no visible leaks (white cloud and frost build up where the leak is) ran it until it came up to temp to make sure there were no water leaks .... all good there, removed the rad cap and turned it off, no major water leak, just the occasional drip, I can live with that ..... so we should be good to hit the road when the boss says it's time to go

Might try to catch up with the friends I haven't seen so far this trip before we are on our way back to Mannum ..... via all the friends we didn't see on the way over

T1 Terry

[jon_d]

You sound upset that I know ways around spending the big $$ and getting back on the road at a minimum outlay. All those years on crap wages at least has some benefits

No, not upset. More bemused by the ongoing problems

I was looking back through this thread and its history. Been going for 10 months now. I hope it's fixed soon.

Time is not recoverable. We all age with time.

[Dot]

Maybe he is making the probs up as not wanting to go home???

[T1 Terry]

You sound upset that I know ways around spending the big $$ and getting back on the road at a minimum outlay. All those years on crap wages at least has some benefits

No, not upset. More bemused by the ongoing problems

I was looking back through this thread and its history. Been going for 10 months now. I hope it's fixed soon.

Time is not recoverable. We all age with time.

I'll stop adding that to the bolognese sauce if that's the case

Should we go through the forum and patch all of Jon's posts regarding repairs to Tofu .... bugga can't remember the second part of the name, but it begins with T..... but Jon's bus anyway I think that might add up to more than 10 mths of repair time keeping it on the road ...... It's just one of those things when you buy an older vehicle cheap, you spend time fixing things ......
The time it has been here getting things sorted, has been handy, we still could live in it and we were close enough to buy the bits I needed to do the repairs while we waited for the grandson to arrive ..... we are also here to support a good friend who is going through a rather rough time of it at the moment, so it has all worked out well.

Replacing the water heater while we were here made that job so much easier, a trip to Adelaide each time to buy replacement John Guest fitting that failed one after another would have been a nightmare, being able to find radiator hoses that I could make up a replacement for the top radiator hose, getting the coils and spark plugs in a timely fashion, we could have carried on without them, just like Jon did from the point he fitted the import engine, he didn't rebuild it before he installed it, he drove it like it was until it died, then he fixed it ....

T1 Terry

[jon_d]

Good question.

IWhen I was 46, bought a bus that was completely worn out. Spent 4-5 years underneath it working on all the mechanicals which included the motor and gear box. Then the fit out. It's signed off, registered and notified.

The bus is now 53 years old. I'm always tinkering. It's my hobby.

My philosophy is to fix it once and in a controlled fashion. I don't want the worry about breakdowns when away.

My next big project is the diff. That will be May-June next year.

On our trips, the worst breakdown has delayed us 1.5 days. I've chickened out on one trip by myself due to an unknown gearbox noise.

The bus has travelled 4 ks shy of 40,000 kilometres. I'm pretty happy with that. Tassy, Uluru, Parkes, Nullarbor, Mundi and local Victorian trips.

This trip coming, will be the longest.

I'm 63 now. Retired 5 years.

Somehow have to weave a big lap discussion at hope soon.... or WA Coast.