One knows they are crazy when they drive their moho 500 miles,in less than perfect weather to get it polished. West Coast Polishing meets the East. Sam Bulgara is on a training trip and was nice enough to fit us in.
The pictures are after stripping and a bath. Now indoors and once the ice melts he will start to polish.
The last pic is start of 1st cut
— with Richard Winstanley and Sam Bulgara.
Tony we had problems on the way out. Stopped overnight on PA turnpike and went on generator. Was very cold and would not start. Batteries starting to get old. Richard tried charging but as cold as it was it would not turn. Finally hooked block heater up and in a little while it started. We will be returning in the same weather which is no fun if anything goes wrong. We will leave it running over night on the way back.
Since we are leaving for a trip the 1st of May we really did not want to pass up the chance to get this done. The other guy we wanted was booked until June.
Nancy
2005 34' Classic S/O
2006 39' Land Yacht 396 XL
north blenheim
, New York
Join Date: Sep 2012
Posts: 2,847
Nancy, you might want to consider installing a hot water circulator pump. Very inexpensive and worth it's weight in gold. It circulates hot anti-freeze through the entire cooling system so that the engine will start right up and prevents scalding of the cylinder walls, I have been using one for 28 years on my tool truck with great success, Regards, Bob
Currently Looking...
1995 36' Classic 36
Ludington
, Michigan
Join Date: May 2011
Posts: 1,662
What to do in snow storm
Quote:
Originally Posted by bobmiller1
Nancy, you might want to consider installing a hot water circulator pump. Very inexpensive and worth it's weight in gold. It circulates hot anti-freeze through the entire cooling system so that the engine will start right up and prevents scalding of the cylinder walls, I have been using one for 28 years on my tool truck with great success, Regards, Bob
The Cummins heater actually works very well . It screws into the water jacket on the side of the engine. Warms the entire engine nicely. After about 30 minutes even the top of the radiator is warm. I almost always use mine if it’s below 60 degrees. Saves on warmup fuel. Especially when on campsite power that has already been paid for. Getting the Allison warmed up is probably more important than the engine.
I’ve been thinking of putting an outlet in the engine compartment on a timer. One I can set from the dash with an on time and duration.
Uses diesel to heat the coolant to temp, so you don't have to be plugged in. My neighbour works at Hydro and swears by these hot boxes. He told me that in 15 minutes you can light up your engine easily and they're instantly pumping out heat into the cab.
Don't have to buy this one, as they may make a cheaper one, or you can get it cheaper somewhere else, but watchout as some are also 24V.
Cheers
Tony
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Uses diesel to heat the coolant to temp, so you don't have to be plugged in. My neighbour works at Hydro and swears by these hot boxes. He told me that in 15 minutes you can light up your engine easily and they're instantly pumping out heat into the cab.
Don't have to buy this one, as they may make a cheaper one, or you can get it cheaper somewhere else, but watchout as some are also 24V.
Cheers
Tony
But campground power is “free”. I run it off the generator if I’m unplugged up in the mountains. Gets cold at night up there and 11,000 foot starts are much cleaner with a warmed engine.
1967 22' Safari
1977 31' Sovereign
Narvon
, Pennsylvania
Join Date: Jun 2012
Posts: 62
Quote:
Originally Posted by nawwin
One knows they are crazy when they drive their moho 500 miles,in less than perfect weather to get it polished. West Coast Polishing meets the East. Sam Bulgara is on a training trip and was nice enough to fit us in.
The pictures are after stripping and a bath. Now indoors and once the ice melts he will start to polish.
The last pic is start of 1st cut
— with Richard Winstanley and Sam Bulgara.
Currently Looking...
2006 39' A-Series
Eagle River
, Wisconsin
Join Date: Nov 2010
Posts: 24
If I could ask, what is West Coast charging for the polishing job, and how long is it taking? We have a 1994 360 that we'd like to eventually get polished.
Thanks for the suggestions
The starting issue was battery weakness related , resulting from -5f cold soaking all night. Batteries 6 yrs old I plugged in the Cummins block heater and ran the charger till batteries were 12.8 v and it fired off
Should have just let it idle like the Cats and Detroit’s did next to me in parking .
Gen ran fine all night but that doesn’t charge the engine batteries.
I have 120v connections already in place on the rear bumper to plug into extension cords off the gen so you can shut down the the engine and run the gen heat the block and run battery charger or just let the engine idle in the cold and shut down the gen
My stupidity of not anticipating how cold it got that night
Even with aging batteries as long as you have either the gen charging and heating the engine and putting a charge on those batteries or the engine idling,one should be good to go in deep cold overnight in a rest stop
Idling I think is best . I like the hummm of the Cummins in harmony with a Detroit and Cat all night. It’s like a baby’s lullaby. Problem is Nancy doesn’t think so. Ruby and I do just fine
So we finished the polish and are back home. Other than the freezing cold and the poor heater in Moho we had a good trip. 1000 miles everything good. The only problem was toad had a dead battery, but we carried a charger and started it with the coach generator.
It was so cold that Sam was having trouble with the final polish. We agreed to the do the detailing in May when we are in California. It was so cold that some places were not polishing up as well as he would have liked.The coach was indoors but it was still very cold. We were also afraid that the salt and road snow would make a mess of the coach. As it turned out the roads were dry and it got very little salt on it. Over all we are happy but there are a few places that need attention. Biggest problem was getting decals adhesive off.
We will have the detailing done then think about what we want to to put back on it in the way of decals.
The last pic is yesterday back in its storage yard.
Nancy
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