Raising the Titanic

[jagnweiner]

. It brought back memories of JAGS awning ripping off the side of his rig, did not need that happening to me.

Thanks. I'd just about blotted that out of my memory. 

 

[ChiefM]

Sorry.... Did not mean to bring back bad memories, PTSD is some bad stuff... ???

I try to learn from others mistakes first, not my own... it usually ends up costing me lots of money when it's my own mistake.

 

[ChiefM]

Well it looks like I need to do an update. It's going to be long, so beware...

I got the old gal running great and I drove her to the house, no leaks, no runs and did not miss a beat. Wife cleaned her up and she loaded my clothes, food and other needed supplies. On the morning of moving out, I fired her up and after a kiss from the wife I was off to North Georgia !!! About 40 minutes into the trip I stopped at my normal gas station to top off the fuel tank. Well good thing I did, the Titanic was gushing anti-freeze from under her. Hoping it was just a loose hose, no such luck.. bad water pump. I headed back to the shop, 8 hours later and with the help of my friends I was off again. Now it was after 5pm and I was looking at a 6 hr drive.

Everything was going great, I hit the Atlanta city limits and the motor home started pulling to the right really bad, so I pulled over, no loose rim, no flat tire, did not see an issue, so I continued on but I was only able to go about 45 mph. I had just pulled onto 316 heading into Winder GA, about 30 miles from my destination when all of a sudden the transmission started acting funny. It was now 11:30 at night and a transmission line had blown. Tired, a headache and feeling like I had been beaten I spent the night on the side of the highway. The next morning I got up, put a rubber hose over the break, filled the transmission with the 4 qts of fluid I had on-hand and I was off again. I made it to the Armory at 8 AM, parked the motor home and plugged into some shore power. I gathered my gear, went into the Armory and I  took a shower, shaved and worked a full day.

I went and looked over the motor home after work and I found the reason she was pulling, the drivers side tire was missing some of the tread. But least at I am finally here and working. I got some cable and internet today so I have a little bit of home creature comforts. I am going to replace the 2 tires at the end of the month, the 2 I did not replace before I headed north.  Living in the old gal has been a learning curve, just one or two things out of place or not put away and it seems cluttered.

I have learned what you can and can't run off a 20 amp service at the same time. I have the new curtains up in the bathroom and I am going to start on some of the interior fix up probably next week. I will be up here working till sometime near the end of September,  looks like the deployment is a no go, sequestration. Good thing is the Titanic will be more than ready for a trip to Talladega in October!!!!!

 

[Just Lou]

Chief, I admire your spunk and attitude.  This is a battle you can win.  Just keep at it as time and resources allow and the accomplishment alone will be something to be proud of.

Thanks for what you've done for us already.

 

[ChiefM]

Thanks Lou,

The funny thing is when I was doing the tune up and replacing the radiator and all the belts and hoses, I almost replaced the water pump. It was right there in my face and I didn't do it. I now wished I would have when everything was out of the way. With only 49 thousand miles on the old girl I figured it was good to go for a while. Miles that doesn't mean anything when the coach is a 1986. It has become a labor of love and I hope the next outing is not quite as exciting and eventful !!!!  I told the wife I always thought the first trip would be the whole family in the motor home heading to the beach, not just me. She was glad I was by myself to work out the kinks and it wasn't her sitting with me on the side of the road. She does not have as much patience as I do.

I have a few things I need to look at but nothing major. I will do a thing or two after work and get her to 100%. 

 

[PatrioticStabilist]

The nice part is if you have a problem you are like my husband he can fix it.  If its me, its lots of money but so far I've been lucky and I do say lucky and not had major engine or mechanical problems YET.  and I say yet because it will happen at some point.

In about a week getting ready to take the old Eagle back to Indiana.  We have been using it here in Houston to live in when we are down here working. 

Sounds like you have about everything fixed, good luck to you, hope you get to enjoy it soon. 

 

[ChiefM]

I found out yesterday that I will not be deploying so I will be heading back home and to my shop at the end of the month. I started looking over the old girl last night for the trip home. Oil and coolant levels were good so I went in and fired her up, idled so smooth. I pushed on the brakes and guess what....NO BRAKES.... lovely. It has been raining and will rain all day today and some tomorrow. I guess I will have to wait till next week when it is drier and crawl under her and figure out what is going on with that.

I have everything inside working great. I do need to get some LP and see if the stove and heater work. Trying to get the generator working is the last major thing I know of I want to get working.  I have started filling in little nail and screw holes in an attempt to do some interior painting soon. 

 

[Stella]

I admire you for your ingenuity and patience. It is fun being a "back seat restorer" with you!

 

[ChiefM]

This is my story from the last week.

Last Wednesday morning I woke up and my stomach was killing me, bloated and felt like a train was running thru my guts. I took some over the counter meds meds with no relief. After 2 hrs I went to the emergency room. Once I got tho the hospital I started vomiting almost every hour on the hour. They took blood, gave me a CT Scan, injected me full of nausea medicine, said I had food poisoning and told me to go home. Was told if I was not better in 48 hrs to see my doctor. Friday morning I was not any better at all, dehydrated from throwing up non stop and feeling really bad. My doctor looked at the tests from the Wednesday morning emergency room visit, gave me 2 bags of fluids and changed me meds.

After being up all night Saturday night I finally had enough and went to the emergency room again. The doctor listened to what was going on with me, redid all the tests, blood, CT, Xray. About 2 hrs later they discovered I had a 100 % blockage in my small intestines. The biggest surprise for them was I had been sick for so long and I did not have a fever.  The blockage seems to come from scar tissue from having my appendix removed over 35 years ago. Sunday morning they went in and removed the blockage, stayed the night at the hospital but I am at home now and resting. I was pretty sore yesterday, not too bad this morning except where they have the 3 small scope incisions.

Man this had been a crazy year, I am ready for a little normal.

 

[99WinAdventurer37G]

Glad to hear they found out what it was and there was a fix for it.  Hope your feeling better by now.

I've enjoyed reading your fixes for your project, and am sure now you will be glad when you can get back at it.

 

[Stella]

Holy Cats! You have really had a go of it!  Glad you are recovering nicely.


PS: this year has been all kinds of crazy for us too. Beginning to forget what normal actually feels like. But at least we will all really appreciate it once it returns!

 

[ChiefM]

Thanks Stella,
Finally back at work and living in the Titanic again. Ants invaded while I was home recovering. They loved the new loaf of bread. I have them under control now. Got some guys and they are going to help me bled the brakes this afternoon. Hoping the master cylinder has not gone bad. I guess I will find out this afternoon...

 

[Stella]

I had a friend who lived in an RV and swore by putting a light circle of ajax scouring powder around each tire to ward off ants. Have no idea if that works or if it is an environmental no-no but thought I would toss that out there.

Wishing for a bit of luck on that master cylinder.

 

[jagnweiner]

We had an ant problem on our recent trip out to Utah.  We went with a light circle of RAID Ant and Roach Killer, sprayed along the baseboards.  Took care of the problem.  Can't imagine it would be any less environmentally friendly than Ajax.

Good luck on ants, brakes, and physical recovery, Chief, from one Army grunt to another. 

 

[ChiefM]

Thanks,
I am back at work and feeling a lot better. The last 2 days I have not had any issues. The little incision points are a little sore but no tummy issues at all.  I sprayed some raid around the tires last night and I am doing along the baseboards tonight. We had inspections today so no chance to look at the old girl today. Everyone will be gone tomorrow so we are going to work on the brakes tomorrow morning.

I put my name on the want to deploy list and have a few friends higher up that may assist me on getting into the unit going over later this year, got my fingers crossed... I know it must sound insane wanting to go to a battle zone but the money is so good.

 

[mariaburchell]

Wow! You definitely had a challenge there; I am going through the same thing I have a 1978 Sports Coach, I just tore the ceiling off what a nightmare! I don't know if it will be worth fixing.  Water was puddled in the back corner, under the ceiling or above depending on how you are looking at it. The entire ceiling is made of foam glued to the ceiling paneling. What a mess!  Only good thing is that the framing is mostly metal with a little bit of wood. Bad thing is wood frame is total mush.  I might just have someone haul it off, not sure I'll look at it tomorrow and decide  What type of board tiles did you use on yours?

 

[ChiefM]

I used Luan for the walls in the shower, the water damage made it pretty easy to take off just the wood and leave the foam. I did see some thin plywood at my local hardware store that I may use next time I have to do an more wall repairs. It seems to be just a tad bit thicker than the luan and it is sanded on one side. I only have one ceiling piece that has any kind of water damage, I will probably use a piece of FRP when I replace it later on.

I also wondered what I had gotten myself into when I got mine home and started tearing it apart. I am a better mechanic than I am a carpenter and it has been a challenge but it turned out better than I could have imagined. Now I hope to do some interior updating soon. Good luck on whatever you decide.

 

[ChiefM]

Has been a week of very good news, I am not deploying to Afghanistan, I am being transfered so I can get promoted to CW4 in October, the tranfer also includes that I am going to be the next spervisor of the maintenance shop in Atlanta. I was not selected by the board to retire. We have also found a great house with 10 acres of land about an hour from my new upcoming job that we are looking into purchasing. SO any further upgrades to the the Titanic are on hold for now. She is still serving we well and I will continue to live in her till we close the deal on the house hopefully within the next 60 days. Dang I hate moving but this is going to be worth it.

 

[Ken & Sheila]

Congratulations on the promotion!

The Titan will just have to wait. We all have our priorities changed for us at times. At least this change is caused by something good!

ken

 

[ChiefM]

WOW,
Thanks Ken & Shelia.

On the way to see and close the deal on the house, someone went to the bank and paid cash for it. It was a great deal. There is nothing right now that catches our eye so we will continue to look. We have horses so we need land with the house. I still may try to do some upgrading in the near future.