La Tortuga...updated 05-03-15

[bansil]

NEW EXHAUST tip


no muffler and 10 extra feet of pipe

and idling and driving down road not louder (atleast inside ) apparently the dogs on our road don't chase the bus any more she does bark back now

[Shadoll]

Between the barking and the air horn.. look out ... comin' through.

[yawnzzz...]

That is a nice pipe. Ill bet it sounds good.
I noticed your drill in a picture on page 3. That is a serious drill. I have the same one.
Almost broke my arm drilling the toilet drain.

[bansil]

For a 3/8 elctric it has alot more torque than my milwakee,dewalt or other brands and it was cheap

[PDBreske]

Originally Posted by bansil

For a 3/8 elctric it has alot more torque than my milwakee,dewalt or other brands and it was cheap

I have that same drill, as well. Can't beat it.

[bansil]

I braved the cold and wet and worked on the shock mounts,i was soaked and muddy thru 3 layers
I marked some plate and drilled my holes

I trimmed up edges some

plug welded the 3/4 all thread to the stand off

Then welded it up


and got it mounted

the lime green thing is just what held shock compressed,it was removed
one to other side I had to cut everything off again.....by the way shock oil isn't flamable when it spray out of the shock.....oops...
I didnt have a torch so I cut the shock mount loose,grinded a deep "V" into it and welded it back together, you can see how far off it was



So I need to crawl back under and move and secure the heater hoses away from brake hose and shock

[GreyEagle]

Nice work...... Keep it up!

[Tango]

Nice welds!

[NilesSkoolie]

Nice, I love working with metal!!!

[bansil]

I packed everything up on saturday, to prepare for, are you ready?

I convinced my wife to try and drive

So I stuffed everything into, under and tied and lashed and removed the heavy stuff from the bus...buttoned up the front shock replacement and sat back and said hell yeah I'm ready....mmm...crap it's only 3 pm, what am I going to do the rest of the afternoon?

So I decided to open an older Cab Franc I had and decorate

off to the plotter

This is my wifes "logo" from when she raced trucks and such heart and crossbones


I turned two $5 lights into $6 lights my wife loves
see....


since we are not insulating the inside of the roof (we hate cold) and we will have a small deck on top as a shade barrier.

We decided to make silhouettes of our adventures and stick them on the roof as memories

such as,

A world map woith a compass, so my wife knows where everything is ;D




A breaching whale off the Alaskan coast



A herd of Giraffes from S.Africa



and we have a bunch of others that will have to wait.

SO Sunday we took off to a high school about 45 min away.

They have a driving course setup that people use,

We walked around the bus and I showed her how short the WB is and her comments went from "I really have to watch my AZZ when I turn, it's alot bigger" yes I laughed and she smiled

The whole idea about "a valve" stopping the bus (with air) and not having to "push" fluid was interesting and it took awhile but we made a bunch of laps, she practiced the basics of stopping,turning and starting etc and understand the basics behind air brakes and the park brake system (enough for an emergency use if it came down to it)

She stopped,set brakes, got up and said lets go shopping!

I climbed into captains chair and said "where too?"
"we're buying a fridge for the bus"

Heck yeah...bye bye little dorm fridge

So 6 stores later...WTH no one had a smaller fridge in stock?!!??

So we found one, and bought it....it didn't fit...so back in and another was picked out.

Moral of the story?? Make sure the diagnal measurment will allow the fridge to "set down" from the loading angle

More pics when I figure out where it's going and what gets modified

[browncrown]

Bansil...really cool artwork! And driving lessons and a new fridge...what could be a better day!

[sdwarf36]

I see some familiar workshop pics--working "on" the bus. My rear bumper is made with that in mind. Reciever hitches are great for final alteration on bent tubing. And I probably have 5 clamps I keep with me. I race out in the woods-and things happen. My bus is known as the "go to" shop.

[bansil]

Thanks BC


Sdwarf what kinda racing? MC's Atv's Trucks?

[sdwarf36]

Originally Posted by bansil

Thanks BC


Sdwarf what kinda racing? MC's Atv's Trucks?

Hillclimbing. Twisty (tar) mountian roads-ski resorts or state parks-one car at a time against the clock.

[bansil]

Our local SCCA does that here, it's kinda crazy I think but people think we're crazy racing between trees and rocks

so we are both certifiable

[JakeC]

Just looked through a lot of your thread. Looks really good! I laughed at the welds on the shock mount. Epic. The new mount looked really good, as does your woodworking.

[Tango]

Must be something about weekend builders and shock mounts. The towers for conventional shocks on mine were added by someone whose welding skills qualified them as a Mud Dauber! You'd think they would have at least overdone it since the welds were so obviously awful, but no. They look like they are held on with just a couple of small pieces of rusty bubble gum. Plus...the left tower is a full half-inch lower than the right. One more "improvement" that needs improving.

[sdwarf36]

Originally Posted by bansil

Our local SCCA does that here, it's kinda crazy I think but people think we're crazy racing between trees and rocks

so we are both certifiable

Heres my ride.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVYGwGTFGmg

[bansil]

What is it?
A friend built a Formula Vee and hill climbs and solos it.

[Accordion]

sdwarf, Cool video. Was that you driving fast like that?

As long as we are on the subject of hills and vehicles, here are a couple of videos of my brother and his Volvo C303 at Hollister Hills in California. It's not about speed, but it is just as exciting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2gcUzDvSis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_q3z8rCED4