bit long this but last thursday night i drove up to preston in my toad ( now nicknamed l,il wheezie ) to pick up my old rv called wheezie.
its mot was on friday morning and there was still a few little things to do.
first off was the exhaust, it was rotten but the silencers looked ok. plan was to use these and replace the pipework in stainless steel.
well the silencers came off but there was hardly anything in them so we decided to have no silencers.
i liked the idea and as i mainly attend american car rallies etc it seemed good idea.
now the old bus unusually does not have any balencer pipes so the twin exhausts are not linked together. and now as the system is a big bore stainless system it sounds glorious to me. and on hard throttle its like a spitfire taking off and light throttle its a wee bit louder than a burble. but whatever it sounds like its not like any 6.2 diesel ive ever heard.
friday morning we replaced the two front tyres with proper commercial ones and fitted new leisure batteries and the mot was passed. couple of advisories but they can be sorted easily enough.
so i hitch up little wheezie to the back and set off for victoria farm , lutterworth for the weekend.
then the fun started.
somewhere near keele services he began to cough and splutter a bit and my first thought was how accurate is the diesel gauge so i pulled in and filled him up.
it took a while and then i set off again, all was going well then near walsall the coughing etc came back.
so thinking that i had run it low on diesel i pulled off the motorway and got underneath and drained of the diesel filter. no water in there and just the odd bit of dirt.
so away we went again. only for it to cut out at a set off lights. damn.
so i called out the breakdown people who came out in under an hour and the guy checked it all over ( but not well enough) and got it started and away we went. the mechanic following me. 10 mins later same again so mechanic had another play and away i went.
anyhow, i limped off the m6 onto m69 doing 25 mph. then onto the a5 up the steep hill and im less than half a mile away from where im going and he died a death.
friend came out and jumped into little wheezie ( the toad) and pushed me up the hill and into the campsite. now that was funny.lol
now basically, wheezie the rv had a leaky core plug. and had lost its water when i called the mechanic out.
he checked everything ( except the water) because the gauge still read normal, which it does when theres no water to get a reading off. its my fault aswell though as i should also have checked, doh.
anyhow we were now on site and enjoying our first weekend away ( weather was ace) and we had a good friend and mechanic on hand to check the old rv over.
turns out the head gaskets were kaput aswell as the leaky core plug .damn. but we were still having a great weekend.
anyhow, the owner of the campsite ( eddie) generously allowed us to park the rv in the corner of his yard for a couple of weeks untill we can get the bits to fix it.
i ordered the bits from rockauto in the states on monday evening and they arrived this morning (wednesday, unbelievable service).
so the plan is to get the headgaskets and core plugs replaced weekend after next, change the water pump and temp sensor whilst we are there and hopefully we will be ready for yanks weekend at the end of may at stratford.
so even a bad weekend for an rv,er can be a good one.lol
its mot was on friday morning and there was still a few little things to do.
first off was the exhaust, it was rotten but the silencers looked ok. plan was to use these and replace the pipework in stainless steel.
well the silencers came off but there was hardly anything in them so we decided to have no silencers.
i liked the idea and as i mainly attend american car rallies etc it seemed good idea.
now the old bus unusually does not have any balencer pipes so the twin exhausts are not linked together. and now as the system is a big bore stainless system it sounds glorious to me. and on hard throttle its like a spitfire taking off and light throttle its a wee bit louder than a burble. but whatever it sounds like its not like any 6.2 diesel ive ever heard.
friday morning we replaced the two front tyres with proper commercial ones and fitted new leisure batteries and the mot was passed. couple of advisories but they can be sorted easily enough.
so i hitch up little wheezie to the back and set off for victoria farm , lutterworth for the weekend.
then the fun started.
somewhere near keele services he began to cough and splutter a bit and my first thought was how accurate is the diesel gauge so i pulled in and filled him up.
it took a while and then i set off again, all was going well then near walsall the coughing etc came back.
so thinking that i had run it low on diesel i pulled off the motorway and got underneath and drained of the diesel filter. no water in there and just the odd bit of dirt.
so away we went again. only for it to cut out at a set off lights. damn.
so i called out the breakdown people who came out in under an hour and the guy checked it all over ( but not well enough) and got it started and away we went. the mechanic following me. 10 mins later same again so mechanic had another play and away i went.
anyhow, i limped off the m6 onto m69 doing 25 mph. then onto the a5 up the steep hill and im less than half a mile away from where im going and he died a death.
friend came out and jumped into little wheezie ( the toad) and pushed me up the hill and into the campsite. now that was funny.lol
now basically, wheezie the rv had a leaky core plug. and had lost its water when i called the mechanic out.
he checked everything ( except the water) because the gauge still read normal, which it does when theres no water to get a reading off. its my fault aswell though as i should also have checked, doh.
anyhow we were now on site and enjoying our first weekend away ( weather was ace) and we had a good friend and mechanic on hand to check the old rv over.
turns out the head gaskets were kaput aswell as the leaky core plug .damn. but we were still having a great weekend.
anyhow, the owner of the campsite ( eddie) generously allowed us to park the rv in the corner of his yard for a couple of weeks untill we can get the bits to fix it.
i ordered the bits from rockauto in the states on monday evening and they arrived this morning (wednesday, unbelievable service).
so the plan is to get the headgaskets and core plugs replaced weekend after next, change the water pump and temp sensor whilst we are there and hopefully we will be ready for yanks weekend at the end of may at stratford.
so even a bad weekend for an rv,er can be a good one.lol
