BLUNDERBUS "bad idea" Mayflower

[gmarvel]

Great story. Told with humor. I am sure that it was not that funny during the trip. However, when you are finished with the conversion and look back, you will see the humor in it all.

By the way, your Crown probably has a clutch brake. They came out I believe in the late '70's with Crowns. That means you absolutely do not want to go all the way to the floor when double clutching. You will wreck the clutch. When using the clutch to go between gears, you need only go down no more than half way to engage the clutch. You only go all the way to the floor on the clutch when starting from a standing stop. While actually moving you only go about half way down.

You can certainly learn to shift gears without using the clutch while moving. However, that means you need to understand your shifting points and understanding how you coordinate your speed with your tachometer. Throttle control is the key. These are all things that professional drivers learn after first learning how to shift the "normal" way. I would strongly encourage you to first get the hang of double clutching your Crown both going up the gears as well as down shifting. Kick and stab shifting is the fastest way to destroy your transmission and receive another expensive bill.

Properly used, your Crown's transmission can last for many, many years. You will learn to love the control you get from knowing how to properly utilize your manual transmission in the Crown.

My two axle Crown has an Allison automatic, while my three axle Crown has a five speed manual. We are having it changed out for a 10 speed Roadranger with Overdrive. The power and control of this huge bus (it also has a big cam 855 turbo Cummins) with a 10 speed manual will be awesome. I like my automatic Crown. I love my manual transmission Crown. So will you!!!

 

[SquidBat]

Thanks GMarvel, good tips there. I'll go back to practicing my shifting the double clutch method until I'm actually good at it haha. There were definitely a few times on the road (more at the start of the trip) where I went to shift but found nothing but gears to grind (which I tried not to force, obviously). I noticed more difficulties like that when I pushed the clutch in all the way so it probably does have a clutch break.

The trips certainly had its highs and lows but I had good company and that made it much easier to roll with the punches. The worst was when we were at a standstill with the bus sick in the garage and my copilot's class-time looming.

I think the snow in MA might be clearing up enough now that I can think of getting Blunderbuss to an actual garage to be checked out. Let's see how much a $35 "RV inspection" will actually check.

 

[SquidBat]

Insurance, finally - Massachusetts doesn't make it easy

It was a long ordeal but finally it's official. I have real insurance for Blunderbuss!

I'm not sure what the root cause is, but something about MA law makes insurance companies mighty uncomfortable around skoolies.

I knew that the $400/yr Progressive RV insurance I got online wasn't going last long. Another thread on this forum advised me to that. It was however enough to get the vehicle registered as a camper.

In the weeks that followed I must have called/emailed a dozen insurance companies and agencies. I found that being honest and direct about the bus chassis from the start eliminated quickly the businesses that wouldn't be able to fulfill a policy. I made sure they checked their commercial insurance options as well.

Finally, one agency pulled through! A. Gordon Inc. got Commerce Insurance to write me a quote. A few emails and adjustments back and forth, some snowstorm delays, and we had a deal! About $1200/yr for 500k/1M liability insurance and some comprehensive in there too. Bit steep maybe but I don't care. INSURED! Yeuss!

This post is for those in MA who've had trouble finding insurance. These guys did it. Good luck to ya!


PS: Should I cross-post this to "Titles, Insurance, Registration and Money Matters" forum? Somewhere there was a looong thread about insurance or registration in different states but I can't find it.

 

[PDBreske]

PS: Should I cross-post this to "Titles, Insurance, Registration and Money Matters" forum? Somewhere there was a looong thread about insurance or registration in different states but I can't find it.

It's the "Sticky" thread at the top of the list. Here's a link: http://www.skoolie.net/forums/f18/typical-rv-license-requirements-118.html. You may have missed it because the title doesn't seem to indicate it's for people to give the details from their state. I think it just kind of worked out that way.