Extra 1/2 gear in coach

Busman, it sounds like you had quite the adventure and got through it relatively unscathed.

I noted that you were considering propane- that is a no go on two stroke diesels. The main reason is that if a piece of red hot carbon, or the combustion flame front, is to get back through the ports into the airbox, the compressed air and propane mix will ignite and promptly remove the blower in a rather spectacular fashion....

I remember when they were trialling propane on our school buses back in the late 90's. The idea was to use the propane as a "filler" so they could lean out the diesel. It worked well for the fuel consumption but left a lot to be desired in the torque department.

"Well I've been and got back, somehow.
Yups, Sydney traffic is chaotic, but they have some decent roads as well !"


You thought the traffic chaotic? It's very light at the moment, (school holidays). Please tell me where the decent road is in Sydney, or let me know what it is you were taking, I want some of it.

Was talking about some of the motorways when I lived there 25 years ago, there were none of them.
Expensive, yes, but it means you can get from one side of the city to the other pretty quick, apart from the airport tunnel in the mornings !

Expensive, yes, but it means you can get from one side of the city to the other pretty quick, apart from the airport tunnel in the mornings !

Ahhh, those tunnels in Sydney, flat out in 5th and then lift the right toe with the Jakes on full rattle, any cars near you when you did that, were now far behind or way out front of you, seemed to frighten the bejesus out of them when you did it, smartened their footwork up real quick, eh.

That front end dropping the air fast like that, what was it, the front axle air bag actuator arm fallen off ?



regards greenie [smiley=vrolijk_1.gif]

Busman, has your coach got a "Kneel" switch? A switch that dumps the airbags at the front to help the passengers to get on or off.

Hi William

i had my bus out for a spin up the coast over the last week as well, must have been parked up at Port Macquarie when you went through. Sure did rain up there.
I got 3.7Klm to the litre so happy with that, foot flat or cruise control always doing the speed limit, but not as heavy as you and only flat towing the Suzuki. No shortage of gears for me with the 10speed autoshift and no bad gear changes either. Luckily my trip was event free.
Good luck with the front bags, sound like you have most of the issue sorted. So ready to go.

Cheerz
Glen

Big Cam,
You got it in one, didn't know it had one but do now !
Unmarked switch next to the screen blower switch, several of these do nothing so have ignored them.
I think what has happened is that I have stopped for fuel and turned off the blowers as the rain was just about done, not realising I had also half switched the next switch as well, although it was not obvious because it was only switched half way across, but enough to make the circuit.

Thanks for the tip, the knowledge gained here has been invaluable

Glen,
Should have yelled out, could have stopped for a beer !
Cruise control is next on the list, holding that pedal down for 12 hours straight is not for these old knees.

But driving her harder does definitely make it go better, I was amazed at the long slow slopes she would accelerate up in 6th , as long as good speed at the bottom.
But if allowed to drop back is a dog uphill. On the St Helena hill near Byron Bay there is a speed camera at the BOTTOM of the hill, limits you to 60 at the start of the hill, ended up in 2nd by the top.
Can understand the camera to slow those B doubles barrelling down the hill (which they do anyway) but slowing the traffic going up ?????

Glad I fitted the bigger air horns as well.
Twice had silly fools pass me then put foot on brakes, just laid onto the go pedal and the horns non stop, they soon took off !
Found myself doing 115 on the way down, was running so well, have set the gps to warn me if do that again.
Will have to go to Fry's spares next week for the wiper parts and some front and side blinds he has taken 3 months to get made then, yeah you are right should be good to go.
William

Jeez, been a while since I posted here, had some password issues that Andrew has sorted, thanks for that mate.
Just thought I would let you guys know what has happened in the meantime. Got the custom radiator made and fitted just before a trip to Ligthening Ridge where my missus picked up a dose of opal fever, damn it. Now wants to go to all the other opal places in Australia.
Trip was eventful (again), had no time to make a shroud for the new radiator so just fitted some 16" ebay thermatics to the front and back.
Pulled into a caravan park in LR and noticed coolant dripping from the back, pull into site quickly and discovered that in the heat (43) the shroud cage had softened sufficiently to allow the fan centre to just graze the fins, cutting a nice circle in them. Found the local radiator guy who fixed it with some special epoxy he has and put it back in, this time with some spacers under the fans, problem solved.
On the way back, stopped to fuel at St George, she won't start, tries but just don't turn over. Fiddling around with wires under the dash and the back of the ignition switch comes off in my hand ! Re terminate the wires and head home, rubbing a couple of wires together when we needed to start up each time.
Cut through the back of Toowoomba to head down the Hampton Esk Rd, on the way get pulled over by someone telling us we have a flat tyre on the trailer, can't stop, single lane, Friday afternoon traffic, had to drag it about 4 Klm before we could pull half off the road.
Put the spare on and headed out again, started towards Esk and there is an overnight stop on the side of the valley near the National park. Magnificent view, watch a huge storm move past us down the valley, debated about staying, naw, home is only a couple of hours away, so lets head down the 6 Km of winding road.
As soon as we were committed the storm veered a bit north and we were in some of the heaviest rain I have ever seen, dodging rocks as they bounced over the retaining walls they have built for that purpose.
On the flat it was no better, the rain was so driving you could not see far enough ahead to spot any possible places to pull off so you just had to keep going.
Ran over numerous small trees and one big one, they just came out of nowhere, fortunately, all pretty much straight across the road. All with some fooker up my arse who would not pass, no matter how many times I gave him a single blinker flick. When he hit the bigger one i saw his headlights go all over the place, must have come close to loosing it.
Got into Esk where there was a heap of water in the main street and found a parking spot to wait for it to go, the follower pulled in behind us and got out of his car, shaking like a madman and started yelling some crap about why I hadn't TOLD him about the tree. HUH?
Rain was slackening so I just drove off, got home a hour or so later, rain, what rain they said. Grrr !.
Since then a tyre monitor has been fitted and many weeks spent on getting a cruise control to work, in the end a chance remark alerted me to the fact that the output from the Tachograph was only 7 volts to the signal generator, the cruise was looking for 12. Put 12 v on the wire and finally, all good.
Current project is trying to loosen 8 bolts that hold the front axle in so caster can be adjusted, not an easy task, I think they have not been out for 31 years. Will remove most of the wandering she has at the moment if we can get the front axle wedged.

So here endeth the story of trip from hell 2. Hope you found it more amusing than I did !

And a couple of other thingies.
Made a shroud for the new radiator, and have swappped the coolant for the same as BBC bus fleet, no glycol, my problem now is keeping the bloody thing warm enough ! The coolant has made a huge difference , don't know how much difference the shroud on the new radiator has made, as they never come on now !

I now also have to option to run each bank of fans (3) off the cranks OR the house 800 AH bank OR the solar system which is now 3000 watts or 90 amps at 24 V on a normal sunny day.
All banks combined use about 46 amps so there is still plenty to run one of the split system aircons when running.

With more klicks under the belt we are getting 3.1 K's per litre, at least 17 tonne in VP and over 4 in the trailer so pretty happy about that.

AND, I only miss one occasionally now even when that happens just dig around till I find one

William

William, Life wasn't meant to be easy[who said that] one trip my wife thought she wanted to go opal digging but that only lasted one day, then another trip it was gold, hire a what it name jigger and walked around for two days and only found a spring out of a old cloths peg, your problems you had on your last trip when you are on your next trip you will have something to laugh about at happy hour Also you are not the only one to have password trouble, at least you have not been a ex member like a few of us :
Colin

Thanks Colin,
I can see the funny side now actually, bit hard when you are stuck on a servo drive with 3 trucks lined up behind glaring at you as they drag the fuel hose to the other side of their rig !!

I am sure she will get over it like calligraphy, painting, playing the flute etc.
At least I have been consistent enough to finish VP !
Cheers
William