La Camioneta
Senior Member
(Am I the A-hole)
Soooooooo.
Another member contacted me about helping deliver his bus to Guatemala, since I'd recently made the same trip down in mine.
Ran through all the pre-trip things like spares, tire pressures, links for Mexican insurance and document/exchanged currency needs for entry into Mexico. Started emailing early August.
Fast forward to Thursday 12 Oct, two days after the agreed 10 Oct start date.
I rent a car in Georgia on Wednesday and get a Home 2 Suites in Biloxi. Get a call that he'd hit someone in a parking lot in FL and would be delayed due to the police report, etc. Okay.
Around lunch, get the report his bus shut off and he's on the side of I-10. In the months of preparation, all suggestions of getting a phone capable of Waze/live maps/ were laughed off as he has 'National Geographic road maps', Get to the hotel, find a shop close by and send him the number to call.
Meanwhile, I have to extend the rental and swap cars. Decline the request to make a six-hour round trip to bring him diesel in cans I'd have to buy in the trunk of a rental Charger.
He gets fuel delivered, no start. I send links and pics of hand primers for the 466E. Go to bed, wake up call is he didn't hear back from me. Did you check the messages I sent about the primer? I didn't think to do that.
Get him numbers for tow company, has bus towed in and gets it started. Lost battery and fuel door keys so he drives back to where he thinks he was parked, no luck.
Get a call around dark that he can't see the road signs and he will sleep in the bus again. Ok.
Next morning, due to lack of technology he is unsure of his location. He had driven past the exit and had to come back. Free hotel breakfast and a well-needed shower for him and we drop my rental off and get underway. I take the wheel as he has a total of 400 miles driving anything the size of his bus.
His worldly possessions include around 400 books in boxes, several file cabinets, 900 yards of fabric, a couple industrial steel desks, etc. The bus is super heavy. Rides great overloaded to death and all that, but with the 545 trans the fan stays on all the time and 58 is as fast as it can go staying under 210•.
Run down the road for a while, check the tire temps with my palms. Inside rt dual is a lot warmer. Wheel into a truck stop, buy him a tire gauge and discover the d front is at 60psi, r front is close, and all four rears are 30-40 psi low. Correct that issue and show him that you can't stop at the first click in a skoolie, as from that point I added 14 gallons to the bottom of the filler neck. His original mpg estimate from two trips empty was 12. Once we established the proper way to fuel, it settled at 5.3.
Continued to Victoria TX. I got a room, and he wouldn't accept a bed or shower and wanted to sleep in the bus. Ok then. I was glad to end the 8 hours of turning down his endless folk-music from his cd collection, which ended with the return of 'the Kingston Trio's' as my nerves were shot after navigating Houston traffic.
Refuel the next morning and we're off. Manage 62 while its cooler then back to 58. Have to stop at a Home Depot so he can get another ignition key made. The metal unions of the rubber brake lines from the master cylinder to the body lines are rusted into globs and really make me nervous. As it is Sunday, we go to Oriellys. They would have to order the fan belt and cannot get the brake lines.
Onward to the border at Los Indios. I make it through the narrow car lanes to the TIP office. Okay, time to take your paperwork in and get your TIP. Show him the window, you need title, registration, MEXICAN INSURANCE.
I didn't get it, figured I'd get it here
(Same with pesos)
I begin cursing loudly. And of course the insurance booth is open, but the guy there said the agent would be back Monday.
Hand passports to the soldiers, get turned around to the line to re-enter the US. Get passports back.
I have plenty of time to book my rental car at the Brownsville airport and inform him it was neither real nor fun during the hour we waited in line. And of course Customs had to do a full inspection on the way back in. Passports returned again and Wazed myself straight to Avis.
He seemed real concerned about me 'abandoning' him, with nary a thanks for driving him halfway to his destination on my dime, nor an apology for wasting months of my time and being aggressively unprepared despite months of discussion and coaching.
Good luck dude, you're going to need it.
Going forward vetting will be more than 'trust me, bro'.
Soooooooo.
Another member contacted me about helping deliver his bus to Guatemala, since I'd recently made the same trip down in mine.
Ran through all the pre-trip things like spares, tire pressures, links for Mexican insurance and document/exchanged currency needs for entry into Mexico. Started emailing early August.
Fast forward to Thursday 12 Oct, two days after the agreed 10 Oct start date.
I rent a car in Georgia on Wednesday and get a Home 2 Suites in Biloxi. Get a call that he'd hit someone in a parking lot in FL and would be delayed due to the police report, etc. Okay.
Around lunch, get the report his bus shut off and he's on the side of I-10. In the months of preparation, all suggestions of getting a phone capable of Waze/live maps/ were laughed off as he has 'National Geographic road maps', Get to the hotel, find a shop close by and send him the number to call.
Meanwhile, I have to extend the rental and swap cars. Decline the request to make a six-hour round trip to bring him diesel in cans I'd have to buy in the trunk of a rental Charger.
He gets fuel delivered, no start. I send links and pics of hand primers for the 466E. Go to bed, wake up call is he didn't hear back from me. Did you check the messages I sent about the primer? I didn't think to do that.
Get him numbers for tow company, has bus towed in and gets it started. Lost battery and fuel door keys so he drives back to where he thinks he was parked, no luck.
Get a call around dark that he can't see the road signs and he will sleep in the bus again. Ok.
Next morning, due to lack of technology he is unsure of his location. He had driven past the exit and had to come back. Free hotel breakfast and a well-needed shower for him and we drop my rental off and get underway. I take the wheel as he has a total of 400 miles driving anything the size of his bus.
His worldly possessions include around 400 books in boxes, several file cabinets, 900 yards of fabric, a couple industrial steel desks, etc. The bus is super heavy. Rides great overloaded to death and all that, but with the 545 trans the fan stays on all the time and 58 is as fast as it can go staying under 210•.
Run down the road for a while, check the tire temps with my palms. Inside rt dual is a lot warmer. Wheel into a truck stop, buy him a tire gauge and discover the d front is at 60psi, r front is close, and all four rears are 30-40 psi low. Correct that issue and show him that you can't stop at the first click in a skoolie, as from that point I added 14 gallons to the bottom of the filler neck. His original mpg estimate from two trips empty was 12. Once we established the proper way to fuel, it settled at 5.3.
Continued to Victoria TX. I got a room, and he wouldn't accept a bed or shower and wanted to sleep in the bus. Ok then. I was glad to end the 8 hours of turning down his endless folk-music from his cd collection, which ended with the return of 'the Kingston Trio's' as my nerves were shot after navigating Houston traffic.
Refuel the next morning and we're off. Manage 62 while its cooler then back to 58. Have to stop at a Home Depot so he can get another ignition key made. The metal unions of the rubber brake lines from the master cylinder to the body lines are rusted into globs and really make me nervous. As it is Sunday, we go to Oriellys. They would have to order the fan belt and cannot get the brake lines.
Onward to the border at Los Indios. I make it through the narrow car lanes to the TIP office. Okay, time to take your paperwork in and get your TIP. Show him the window, you need title, registration, MEXICAN INSURANCE.
I didn't get it, figured I'd get it here
(Same with pesos)
I begin cursing loudly. And of course the insurance booth is open, but the guy there said the agent would be back Monday.
Hand passports to the soldiers, get turned around to the line to re-enter the US. Get passports back.
I have plenty of time to book my rental car at the Brownsville airport and inform him it was neither real nor fun during the hour we waited in line. And of course Customs had to do a full inspection on the way back in. Passports returned again and Wazed myself straight to Avis.
He seemed real concerned about me 'abandoning' him, with nary a thanks for driving him halfway to his destination on my dime, nor an apology for wasting months of my time and being aggressively unprepared despite months of discussion and coaching.
Good luck dude, you're going to need it.
Going forward vetting will be more than 'trust me, bro'.
