a new adventure

[mfancher]

Next week we pick up our cutter DSL.

I inspected it and had it gone over by camping world and Freightliner, Now lets see if it'll make it home for about 600 miles.

[BarnacleBill]

Best of luck and keep us posted.

[zlee]

Congrats! Pictures, please!

[Travel Bird]

Congratulations and good luck on your journey! Yes-please post pics. We love pics!!

[Skatiero]

Yes, do post photos! Really cool!

[mfancher]

600 mile drive and we got there and it is ours!
This would be our first night camping in the bus. Seller agreed to let us camp in the bus until the next day, of planned departure.
Quite a bit to do, change windshield wipers, tail lamp cover, and general tidy up and check of all major systems and fluids.
A few hours later we are headed out with them for a bite to eat. Back to the bus and we are settling down from a long drive and getting ready for some shuteye and LOUD BEEP of an alarm....culprit is the LP gas detector mounted on bottom side of passenger seat. No battery to pull to silence, ok, phillips screwdriver and some wire cutters got it silenced.
Departure day, First priortity, get a new rear tire, and see if we can get the dash A/C blowing cold. No problem on the tire, failed on the A/C, but no problem.
50 miles south to I-10, then only about 550 home. Getting used to it a little bit now and all systems seem fine. Finally get off the secondary roads and we are east bound on I-10 and all seems good. Mary Ellen is following me and she has my back door for lane changing, etc. I'm feeling like a big rig driver and the lack of A/C is not a problem later in the day headed eastbound. My mind is focused on keeping this bus between the white lines, monitoring all guages, and wondering just what kind of surprises lie ahead of me. I know that this bus has had 5K miles put on it in the last 6 years and there are some demons lurking somewhere! Well, Im noticing a slowly climbing temp. guage and a slowly falling oil pressure guage.....im thinking that this is not too good. As soon as that thought crosses my mind Mr, Check Engine Light decides that he will start flickering as well. I'm thinking that the next stop is Freightliner of Tallahassee is going to be our next stop, not Gainesville! I can feel my blood pressure rising and my heartbeat is following. Temp. is approaching the L in normal and the oil pressure is an eighth of an inch above the bottom. I am praying to the Caterpillar gods to get me out of this mess. Check engine light illuminates solid for a minute or 2 and goes out. Next rest stop, Im there. Stop the bus and start checking. A little short on coolant in the recovery bottle, add some. Lets roll again. No more check engine light and my temp and pressure seem to get a little better. Fuel stop in Lake City, FL and back on I-75. We are both getting a little tired now and we decide that Gainesville, FL will be our overnight place. Same symptoms before approaching, but we make it to the Cracker Barrel with the RV friendly parking. We get dinner and they say we can camp there. Generator passes its cool down the bus test and we get a good nights sleep. Friday, we are doing our final leg to Fort Lauderdale. Same symptoms as we approach Fort Pierce for her fuel stop, but less check engine light, and no degradation of performance. I top off the bus and see that we are getting close to 10 mpg. 100 miles down the road we are home. Funny thing is that on secondary roads the temp goes to center and oil pressure comes up. Now we can really sort this thing out. My diesel guru and friend thinks that the thermostat(s) in mr. caterpillar are bad..any thoughts folks?
Thanks for your interest!

[Splitrock]

Nice looking rig. Good luck.

I had two motor homes. Both were HUGE money pits. I put a new crate engine in one. When I sold the last one it was like a kid graduating from college.

My Airstream travel trailer is slightly better in that it doesn't have a motor to fail. Everything else did. I bought it in 2010 to take a trip. I've been working on it steady since and still haven't taken the trip.

[mfancher]

We kinda had to buy this for the price we got it for...and I think we can get it sorted out without it breaking us...but if all fails, I think we could unload it and get our money back...thanks for your post.

Here in south florida, great beach and great weather, but too many people!

[mfancher]

by the way, guage cover was cracked by owner getting mad at somebody and slamming something down on it...
Anybody have experience with what is involved in getting this plexiglas cover removed and replaced?
It looks pretty straightforward with removal of the exposed phillips screws that attach it.

[masseyfarm]

Keep those pictures coming!

Everything looks easy until you go to do the job. Then you find out why the shop charges so much.

Dave

Originally Posted by mfancher

by the way, guage cover was cracked by owner getting mad at somebody and slamming something down on it...
Anybody have experience with what is involved in getting this plexiglas cover removed and replaced?
It looks pretty straightforward with removal of the exposed phillips screws that attach it.

[mfancher]

Everyday is a new adventure now that i have it....
This rig will be the bomb once we get it attended to.