2009 Road Trips

[Larry in MO]

I can' believe you're having such a bad time w/ metal valve stems. I get mine at O'Reilly Auto Parts. They are a midwest chain but they don't have stores in Colorado.

Metal stem primer:
They come in 1" or 1 1/2" and others (for light automotive work)
The hole size in the wheel is either .230, .453" or .625".
These are good for pressures up to about 70 psi. There are clamp in and snap in models that go upwards of 200 psi if you're into hard rubber!

The hole must be on a flat area and not on a curve or they won't work.
These sizes don't work if you are working on a cast wheel--a special animal and are available but one needs to be concerned about the size of the recess (boss) in the casting.

This guy has a good selection and good descriptions.

eBay Store - aaiautomotiveaccessories: Valve Stems: 45 DEGREE CHROME METAL VALVE STEMS .453 HOLE NEWSINGLE

If you can't find them locally, tell me what you need and I'll get them sent to you. How many including a spare, size of your hole and the length you'd like to have and whether you want it bent in the middle? (insert own joke here:_______________________________)

Or you could wait until the new gov't enacts the Poor Boy Trailer Metal Air Valve Act of 2009. It will probably cost us 949 billion to provide every single one of us 20 of the wrong sized air valves but isn't that what gov't is for? __________________

[Gene]

Thanks Larry fur yur offer. Out here on the fronteer we have to get them dang things brung in with the mule trane. Cus most of us have the truble with ritin' and reedin', them hardy valve stems are askin' fur trubbel. I jist no the guvm'nt gonna hep usen. Nun a youse busniss the size of my hole.

Gene

[maxandgeorgia]

Yee haw, frum down yer' in th' Ozark coun'ry...~G

[Gene]

Photo time.

1st and 2nd, the not very interesting underside of the Safari with vinyl protecting the propane lines.

3rd, LED bulb in one of the overhead recessed lights. The bulbs that replace the incandescent bulbs are on a square card, but I forgot to take a picture of them.

4th, Pendleton blanket replacing the standard Airstream bedspread. With the bed made longer, now we have a real queen sized bed and the space between the end of the bed and the wall still is plenty big, though the photo doesn't really show that very well. Actually it makes it look like it's just about against the wall, but it only makes the space about 3.5" less than it was originally. The Pendleton is reversible, so variety is easy. If you look up Pendleton's website, you can find out which stores have the discounted items (why go anywhere else?). The online catalog has some discounts too, but we wanted to see what we were getting and we had some patterns in mind. Of course, we knew we'd be in Oregon.

Gene

[Gene]

Today I took the trailer to Big O tires to have them put metal valve stems on. I got the Centramatics from Andy and figured they could go on at the same time. I also wanted to see how the wheels went round and round since I repacked the wheel bearings a few weeks ago. Not having done that or adjusted brakes in 30 years, I was kind of nervous about the whole thing.

Repacking the bearings is not all that hard, but it is a very dirty job. Cleaning the old grease out of the bearings means using lots of nasty solvent. A lot of grease can be blown out with a compressor. Despite all the pictures available of someone rubbing the bearings around in a blob of grease and it then coming out the other side, I didn't find that happened. I had to work the grease in from both sides and keeping spinning the roller bearings. I think the tolerances are better in these bearings and grease doesn't push through easily. Andy says his people can do four wheels and adjust the brakes in 3 1/2 hours (well, maybe that's per axle). It took me 3 1/2 hours for the first wheel, 2 1/2 for the second, and down to 2 for the 4th.

When I adjusted the brakes, I began to wonder if they had been adjusted at the factory or dealer. I turned that wheel a lot more than I expected before I could get them to grab the wheel. The shoes looked fine and appeared to have plenty left on them. I will have to check these much more often. There are Dexter backing plates now available that will self adjust, but the price is high and I don't feel like doing a major brake job.

I checked the bottom of the Safari for the jacking points and one of the plates that is supposed to be there, inboard from the steps, was missing. I brought some 2x10's to raise the tires. A lot simpler and safer.

The bearings didn't seize on the way to the tire shop. They had the new stems, took off a tire, tried out the stem, and it was too short! After one guy called a couple of parts store and found nothing, another went on the internet and found a long enough stem in a few minutes on ebay—probably the same ones Larry mentioned in Post #21. He and I spent a while measuring every way we could to make sure the new ones would work with the TPMS sensors I have from Doran. They were real nice and willing to help unlike the shop and parts place nearer my house who couldn't handle something so "difficult". And I found out they will match any other tire store on prices, so I'll be back for tires.

So, the trailer has one Centramatic installed. I checked the temps of each wheel when I got home and they were in the 60's, so no bearings are fried, only about 10˚ more than the air temp at the time. One side was 20˚ higher than the other when I got to the shop, but the sun was on that side. On the way home, winds had kicked up so much dust, visibility was poor and the sun was much obscured. Not sure whether we had Utah or Arizona or New Mexico in the air, but the light was really strange and a snowstorm is blowing in.

It was so comfortable towing the 70 mile round trip I was bemused by how I've become used to it. I remember the first times with the space ship tailgating and how I would look in the mirrors every 5 seconds.

Three weeks and we're on the road. We are starting to wonder how we're going to get it all done, but we always go through that and we always get it done, except for the things we forget.

Gene

[Gene]

Valve stems secured and installed! Centramatics installed. New tires ordered for the pickup. Money flowing out of my pocket stimulating the economy!

I never thought it could be so hard to find the right stems, long enough to secure the Doran 360 TPMS sensors and locks. They are long enough to be even more careful about avoiding curbs. But it's finally done. We drove the 35 miles back home and everything seemed fine as always. I assume the Centramatics do what they are supposed to do and we'll see if the cushions on the bench ("sofa") don't fall over as often.

I didn't like the way the OEM tires on the Tundra were wearing and was concerned they would be much too worn before our upcoming 5-6,000 miles trip was done. So, I ordered Michelin LTX A/T2 Load Range E tires. I can probably get a few bucks selling the OEM tires through the Shopper. Toyota puts crappy tires on some of their pickups, maybe because I have the SR5, not a Limited. For a pickup the size of the Tundra, why they used "P" (passenger) tires instead of light truck tires, is beyond me. Big O matched the lowest price I could find, but the price is still shocking. I've broken the one grand level for a set of tires. Hooray?

Got home, grabbed lunch, went to see a realtor/friend to list some property, came back, washed truck. Being mud season here, there must have been 25 pounds of the gooey stuff to wash away. Finished at 8 pm and we collapsed. Today the weather has changed again, back to late winter, been raining and sleeting. I've got this weekend to detail the truck, but it's cold and damp in the "shop" (local language for "big honking garage"), so I'm avoiding it. The temp is dropping, now down to 39.9˚, so the longer I wait, the worse it is.

13 days and we leave. This is a short trip in miles for us. We are used to much longer ones, but it'll be the longest with the trailer. They'll be some days for traveling fast and long on interstates, some similar as far as distance but on 2 lane blacktop, and a lot of days camping in the forests and alongside lakes big and small. We are used to covering many miles and seeing lots of things, so staying somewhere for a few days is different, but we'll cope.

We will bring weights with us and are going to create a workout program with them so we don't get sluggish and slothful as we usually do on the road. We also need to take long walks/hikes, something we tend to blow off. I do want to bring our combination weight machine with us, but am concerned with where to put it and whether it would be too much weight on one side. Perhaps I could treat it like CanoeStream's woodstove: http://www.airforums.com/forums/f161...ink-49836.html A woodstove could balance the weight machine, balancing the trailer and save on propane. A good saw isn't too heavy and there's always plenty of wood in state parks and on federal land. Watching a roaring fire while working out in the evening is better than slothfully watching TV. The "sofa" could come out on the steetside for the weight machine and the woodstove could replace the Magic Chef on the other side. I think this can work with some small modifications.

If I can figure where to put the treadmill then we'll never have to go outside except to go back to the truck.

Gene

[Boondocker]

Sounds great Gene, let us know how the centramatics work. Where is the first trip again?

[Gene]

First to Jackson Center, get stuff done, try to not buy anything in the store, north to Mackinac Is., then west along the Upper Peninsula and into northern Wisconsin, to Duluth, up the Lake Superior coast almost to Ontario, go into Superior NF along Gunflint Trail, back to Lake S., then over to Ely, Minnesota, eventually up to Lake of the Woods, over to Manitoba, maybe drive up to Lake Manitoba (because it's there), west to Medicine Hat (so we can say "we've been to Medicine Hat and Mexican Hat"), south through Montana and Wyoming and home. A short trip, covering a lot of places we haven't been, and then we will have been to 49 states.

Gene

[eubank]

Wow, what a trip! (And what a trip to do this trip!)

Are you going to have net access so that you can keep us all up to date on the travels? (If so, take lots of pics and post them!)


Lynn

[Gene]

Originally Posted by eubank

Are you going to have net access? (If so, take lots of pics and post them!)


Lynn

I don't want to spend the $$ on an Aircard, so when we are in campgrounds with wifi, then I'll be online. I suppose I could look for hotspots, but cruising towns for wifi is not a priority. I can go about 3 days without internet before serious jonesing starts. Pics? When we get around to taking them and then downloading.

What with driving, planning, working out, hiking, eating, sleeping, staring into space, cleaning self and dishes, catching up on reading, staring at trees, staring at water, checking e-mails, checking the Forum, photos, how can we do all this? It sounds crazy when I put it that way. I'll have to cut back on the staring.

We tend to approach travels like work and when we get home, we hope to get some rest, but, of course, we never do get that rest which will have to wait until the big sleep. If this sounds depressing, it isn't. We enjoy doing lots of stuff, especially me (Barb just collapses). Work is meditation.

Gene

[Larry in MO]

Originally Posted by CrawfordGene

What with driving, planning, working out, hiking, eating, sleeping, staring into space, cleaning self and dishes, catching up on reading, staring at trees, staring at water, checking e-mails, checking the Forum, photos, how can we do all this? It sounds crazy when I put it that way. I'll have to cut back on the staring.Gene

Not so fast--try multi-tasking. You did not mention tequila so I'd opine that you could combine a good anejo tequila AND staring. Actually, after mucho tequila, I have no problem staring, sometimes w/ a close up view of the floor.

[Gene]

Larry, many, many years ago, when I was conversant with tequila, I knew many who became one with the floor, but, somehow, I was always the last man standing (or sitting). Now, however, I haven't had tequila in 20+ years and I fear I, too, would be discussing something unintelligible with the floor, and the floor might even talk back. Alas, two beers now make me say dumb things and feel as tipsy as a girl. What have I come to? What else I remember about tequila was it tasted like I imagined kerosene would taste like if kerosene tasted good.

Raining and sleeting again. I've been cleaning the truck, finding all the scratches, some done by me, some by the cat, some by those people in parking lots. Maybe it's best not to look.

Gene

[eubank]

What, scratches are a bother? Either drink the tequila, or the much easier and faster route (certainly so for the gray-age-approaching) of just taking off the eyeglasses.

'Bout the same weather here: Rain/snow mix, sometimes heavier, sometimes light. I've been hiding inside all day while finishing up the taxes and planning my assault on the newly-discovered leak in the MG radiator. (MGs were designed to leak oil as well as wiring smoke, but not coolant.)


Lynn

[Gene]

Good luck with your MG. My long ago MGB (back in the tequila years) used to leave muffler parts on the road if something was lying on the pavement. Things like a piece of paper or an ant. Every 1,000 miles the oil pressure gauge would go crazy until I changed the oil, then normal pressure for 1,000 miles, then change the oil. Let's not talk about the TR4A.

Gene

[Larry in MO]

Originally Posted by CrawfordGene

... then change the oil.

Gene

Changing the oil IS the problem! I learned this trick from the Harley days of the 60's--brownie pan under the old panhead at night and pour the oil tank carefully back into the tank in the a.m. That was, I guess, recycling way before Al Gore invented it.

My old BJ8 used to change its own oil. All I had to do was add a quart every 1,500 miles or so and it was happy.

[eubank]

Originally Posted by CrawfordGene

Good luck with your MG. My long ago MGB (back in the tequila years) used to leave muffler parts on the road if something was lying on the pavement. Things like a piece of paper or an ant. Every 1,000 miles the oil pressure gauge would go crazy until I changed the oil, then normal pressure for 1,000 miles, then change the oil. Let's not talk about the TR4A.

Gene

The cute part is that our F150 does the same with oil pressure. Scared the daylights out of me the first time it happened. The factory says to replace the oil sensor (defective), but I'm not exactly big on taking practically half the components off the motor just to replace it. So now know: If it's below zero outside, and I start the motor, and the oil pressure goes up and then suddenly drops to zero, don't sweat the details and drive on.

At least the wiring doesn't leak smoke.

Lynn

[Lily&Me]

You are going to have a wonderful trip! Not being fisher-people ourselves, we hired a terrific young man named Chris Granrud to take us fishing on Rainy Lake at International Falls last year. He has the underwater sonar, to make sure you find fish, is at mr_rainy1@yahoo.com, or RainyDaze Outdoors, should you be interested. We caught a MESS of fish, which he cleaned and fileted for us after we returned to shore. Yummy and great fun!

[Aage]

Originally Posted by CrawfordGene

What else I remember about tequila was it tasted like I imagined kerosene would taste like if kerosene tasted good.

When I was in my youth (and I say that proudly because I can remember it, despite that having been in the '60s) one of the guys in our group drank tequila, almost always.

I remember his mantra, "one tequila, two tequilas, three tequilas, floor".

Have a great trip Gene. We'll wave when you're almost in Ontario. You'll almost see us!

[Gene]

Lynn, I know how it feels to look down and see the oil pressure gauge read 0. We were in northern Newfoundland, which like most of Newfoundland, is trees and more trees (also rivers, lakes, bogs and trees).

That lightning bolt of fear went through me, then the brain returned and I figured if we were still moving, pistons weren't flying through the hood, it probably wasn't the oil pump. It only happened at 2,100 to 2,300 rpm, and since that was between around 60-65 mph, I generally went faster or slower, usually faster. I called and went to a couple of Toyota dealers, all of them very helpful, and eventually found out there was a notice out on the sending unit. A dealer in Gander arranged for a new sending unit to be waiting for us at the Toyota dealer in St. John's. Unlike a lot of big city auto dealers, the St. John's dealer was quick, friendly, efficient and reasonably priced. I got Toyota to refund the money for the sending unit. Since I paid for it in Canadian dollars and it was refunded in US dollars, I made money on the deal—that made up for the lightning bolt that went through me.

Everywhere in Newfoundland people treated us very well and it was one of our most memorable trips. It was really hard not to worry about that oil gauge even though I knew it was the sending unit. I considered putting some electrical tape over the gauge.

As we take longer and longer trips with the Safari, will it be No. 3 to Alaska, or No. 2 to Newfoundland as the next 10,000 mile one? I think one of those will be the late Spring, 2010 trip.

Thanks for the good wishes doug&maggie. We won't be fishing, but thanks for the tip which I'm sure some others will be noting down.

Another grey nasty day here. 1 1/2" snow last night, winter snow warnings in the central mountains. One of the problems with crossing the Continental Divide in the "spring" is that at any time through May there can be heavy snows. When we lived west of Denver in the "foothills" at almost 8,000', we saw it snow several times in June including on the first day of summer. We loved the weather there (moderate summer temps, cool nights, real winter), but sometimes winter wouldn't quit. November, March and April are the snowiest months in Colorado. The next day it can be in the 60's and sunny. The good thing is that late April snow melts fast. I'll be watching the weather carefully hoping we aren't delayed for our appointment at Jackson Center.

Today I can finish detailing the pickup. It'll probably be dirty by the time we leave. In a week, we wash the Safari and wax it. The dust storm we had about 10 days ago was followed by snow. That packed fine mud into everything. Washing it out of crevices on the truck was an effort; same will be true on the trailer. I'm not looking forward to it. I used Griot's Paint Sealant on the Safari last August and we've only washed it once since and it still looks pretty good. The Griot's Spray On Wax will be what we use next week. The Paint Sealant is supposed to last a year and it look like it will. Each are easy to apply and require a lot less elbow grease than other waxes. After waxing the Safari, comes summerizing (dewinterizing), getting rid of rust on the hitch and repainting, other odds and end, and then packing. This is when a trailer feels like a full time job.

Gene

[Gene]

Four days to go. How are we going to get it together? Not sleep, sleep in our clothes, find a methlab (there's plenty of them in rural America), better stick with caffeine.

The truck was beautiful last week, but coming back from Denver, rain and snow made for a dirty truck. Barb said she'd rinse it tomorrow when I am at a meeting. She's not only beautiful and smart, she's wonderful! We washed the Safari yesterday and I polished it until I was ready to fall down—only a few more panels to go. I even put some shirts in the small wardrobe—packing has begun.

Last Friday I had new Michelin LTX A/T2 load range E tires put on the truck. Everyone recommends different tire pressure. Big O said they put 60 lbs. in but today I checked and it was 54 or 55, but it was about 10˚ cooler. Last week I called Michelin and the guy I talked to said 50 front, 55 rear after checking. I found out he thought I had a 10,000 lb. truck although I had told him it was 6,900. He seemed confused, then said 45 and 50. I called and spoke to someone else today and he told me they didn't have charts for this truck with E tires because it comes with C tires. He did some math and said 42 front and 45 rear, maybe 3 lbs. more towing. Given the C pressures (30 F, 33 rear) that seemed more sensible to me. I reduced the pressure to 45 F, 48 R since I'll be towing in a few days (easier to let air out, than to pump air in). At either pressure these tires ride much more smoothly than the Goodrich's did.

I'm watching the weather. Maybe a little snow in the mountains, but it should be warm enough for the roads to be clear, however, weather can change fast in the mountains as people found out last weekend. We got through just before everything got bad and I-70 was closed for more than 1/2 a day. There's so much traffic on I-70, accidents are frequent and road closures are too. We have an alternative routes east in case. By sometime Saturday we should be passing through Hays, Kan. where it's supposed to be 83˚. A cold front will be behind us. Cold fronts meeting hot air bring nasty weather. Half of the time we go through Kansas, tornados are nearby. Drive fast and far, aiming for Missouri.

When we are at the factory, the shop opens at 7 am. That's 5 am Mountain time. That is not something to look forward to. One of the joys of retirement is not getting up early. So much for that. We are practicing using the dreaded alarm clock.

Gene