somewhereinUSA out and about - Page 2

somewhereinusa · 08-03-2014, 05:25 PM

Just got back from a weekend with my son and his wife at an Indiana state park. The new temporary shower was a hit with my wife. Here are a few pictures. I also got the flag pole mounting done for the front. Son's bus is the MCI on the right.

Group shot

Scott was the cook for the weekend. He does a lot more camping and is more set up for it.

The camp site

I'm a tired and happy camper, much hiking involved.

bansil · 08-06-2014, 07:28 AM

out and about, where they belong

looks like fun

browncrown · 08-06-2014, 06:40 PM

Love the pics and looks like a wonderful family outing...that's what makes all the conversion work worthwhile

somewhereinusa · 06-13-2015, 04:18 PM

Caution Bus Porn

Scott,Tami,Janice and I are at the first Bus Grease Monkey Rally in Indianapolis.
Here is a link to a web page I started for it. I'll clean it up and add names as I get them and time. Probably safe for work or anywhere else you happen to be lurking.

1st Bus Grease Monkey Rally

Dick

HolyBus · 06-13-2015, 05:50 PM

Where is that exactly? Will it be an annual event? I know Indy well (grew up there. We might be able to make the trip for it next year. Is there contact info?

Quote:

Originally Posted by somewhereinusa

Caution Bus Porn

Scott,Tami,Janice and I are at the first Bus Grease Monkey Rally in Indianapolis.
Here is a link to a web page I started for it. I'll clean it up and add names as I get them and time. Probably safe for work or anywhere else you happen to be lurking.

1st Bus Grease Monkey Rally

Dick

somewhereinusa · 06-13-2015, 10:22 PM

Hopefully it will be an annual event, this was the first as you can see it was well attended.It is at the state fair grounds. Not sure about future events.

Dick

HolyBus · 06-15-2015, 07:16 AM

Sheesh. I grew up right around the corner from that fairgrounds! Used to walk over there all the time. It would be a great place to glamp while visiting family sometime. I hadn't thought of that before.

somewhereinusa · 06-19-2015, 10:02 AM

I just added a second page of pictures from the rally. Link at bottom of first page.

1st Bus Grease Monkey Rally

somewhereinusa · 07-29-2015, 08:02 AM

I'm heading to TN for a couple of days in August. Thought I'd make a two day trip of it. Looking for a bus friendly place to park for a night in the Louisville, southern Indiana area. That would be about half way. Andrews, IN to Dale Hollow, TN.

Thanks,
Dick

HolyBus · 07-29-2015, 08:53 AM

Dale Hollow? Are you going out on a house boat? My family used to be friends with the owner of the rental place. We took a boat out for a 9 day vacation back in the early 70s. Great way to relax. Enjoy the drive/trip!

somewhereinusa · 07-29-2015, 11:17 AM

Going out on two house boats, they tie them together and we dance on the upper deck

somewhereinusa · 08-29-2015, 10:49 AM

We're on our first trip of any length since I brought the bus home from NM. We're at a campground on the KY/TN state line. We aren't in any particular hurry and the first night stayed at Big Lick campground just south of Cincinnati. I wanted to avoid interstates just to see more scenery so I set the gps for shortest route which went quite well. The last 10 miles or so was on a "scenic" road that wound around and went up and down a lot. Not sure what we would have done if we would have met another large vehicle.
I had written down the number for the alternator belt a number of times, thinking I should get a spare, but never seemed to quite get around to it. I did try to get one the day before we left, but there wasn't one in town. It's one of the multigroove types. When I checked things over the first night it had lost some of the backing and frayed the "v" off on one side. Before we left the "big city" area the next morning I spent some time looking for one to no avail. Since it only runs the alternator and is a mechanical engine I have enough battery to run quite some time so we pressed onward. The belt is still working so it getting home should be no problem. I did find some in SD so should be home when we get there, I ordered two.
I did an overhead last week hoping to improve fuel mileage, it's hard to tell because I'm pulling a Land Rover which is a bit heavy and there were some pretty long hills. Found some fuel for $2.19 and mileage was 6.7 last tank before that was 6.8 on flat ground not pulling anything, so I'm pretty sure mileage has improved.
I'm a little concerned about transmission temps. It's an Allison MT643 with external filter and a fluid to water cooler. Temp fluctuates quite a bit running between 200 and 250 and on one occasion was about 280. I think the first order of business would be change the fluid and filter. Have been doing some research, one suggested that adding a tank adding about 3 gallons extra did the trick on the same transmission on the long western mountains.
All in all the trip is great, the mountains didn't really slow us down that much, the weather is great, the mini splits work great, mama is happy. What more can you ask for? Life is good.

Dick

nat_ster · 08-29-2015, 08:51 PM

Glad to hear your out enjoying the scenery.

Nat

Tango · 08-30-2015, 09:18 AM

Good luck with the tranny temp thing. Do keep an eye on it. Anything above 250 radically shortens the fluid life according to Allison (just looked for the online chart I saw but can't find it...sorry). And there is also a lot of discussion going around about fluid types these days. Seems the old Dexron III is no longer in favor and the "new improved" stuff like TranSynd is more desirable. Also a lot more expensive.

Best of luck with it and let us know what you discover.

somewhereinusa · 08-31-2015, 08:47 AM

We made it home last night with no problems. Funky belt made it all the way. Took the"big" roads home, trans temp is lower when I can keep speeds up on the much more gradual grades. Mumsywumsy even volunteered that she had a good time. New AC works great, when I first turned them on got it way too cold in here. They ran for 2 days, if the radio is on the only way you can tell they are working is that it just stays cool inside. The rear condenser is under my bed, I have NEVER heard it run. I did try running one from a cheap chinese 1500w pure sine wave inverter that is connected to a couple of optima batteries just to see if it would work. Worked for about 1/2 hour until inverter shut down for low voltage.

nat_ster · 08-31-2015, 11:32 PM

Cool test.

Nat

somewhereinusa · 11-21-2015, 01:16 PM

I'm on my last trip for the year, might be longer than expected. Had a photo shoot last weekend and stayed this week to visit with friends, do some dancing and work on dog training. Seems I might have made a bad decision. It's about 7 inches last night and still snowing. Mumsywumsy is not happy if I don't make it home for thanksgiving.

The infloor radiant heat works great. It's toasty warm in here and I haven't gotten all of my insulation done yet, very little in ceiling. Just going by feel, the water temp at the end of the loop is cooler than that going in but, still too hot to hold your hand on. The longest loop is the coolest. My infrared temp gauge took a crap so no real measurements.

Got a lot of good dog work in, and went dancing two nights, decided not to dance in Madison tonight, it's 80 miles away.

Here's a pic of the bus, with Molly moving the sheep up to get water.

Molly bringing another group up.

Not planning on leaving until Monday, supposed to get above freezing.

Dick

EastCoastCB · 11-22-2015, 08:25 AM

WHOA!
looks frigid!

we moved back from Indiana when it got cold.

REDD · 11-22-2015, 08:58 AM

Got snow last night as well, bummer! Come on May!

nat_ster · 11-22-2015, 11:01 AM

Cool pic man.

We have snow here already too.

Glad to hear your in floor heating is working well.

Nat

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