Good morning!!!!

[check]

good morning all
good to hear from PJ. Glad new job going ok.

finally got a call from local guy who owns the motorhome I was interested in seeing.
Going over at 3pm today to check it out. Asked BIL to come along, he owns an excavating company with lots of big
equipment, more mechanical than I am. I need to crawl underneath this rv and check for leaks and wear on the suspension air bags.
Very hard on my neck, so he will do half and I will do half. If it's nice, will go for test ride, not far from rt 95. Need to get it up to speed and observe.
not sure how well it has been maintained, plus it's been sitting basically for last year. I asked for a cold start.

https://www.rvtrader.com/listing/2008-Coachmen-CROSS+COUNTRY+382DS-5022876536

66k on engine, not much for a Freightliner with Cummins/Allison combo.
More issues of age. At 15 years old, may be some deferred maintenance. For sure, some new tires, belts, all the wear items. I owned an old motoryacht....very similar issues.
Every system must be proven. Has been kept in garage, which is good, but I bet roof has issues or needs resealing. Thankfully have owned three rv's and am very well aware it's not if things will break but when. Maintenance is everything. I'd much rather replace a part than worrying about it failing in Georgia.

remember I broke down in North Louisiana last time (truly busted down in Baton Rouge) and had to return home to PA with a broken motorhome that had parts backordered for weeks.
Once burned, three times learned. Of course no way to get perfect reliability.

very good school board meeting yesterday, nice to see folks in person, usually we just zoom. Got a lot done too.
now to make breakfast with those nice brown eggs given to me.

Ron, isn't it nice when it all goes together smoothly?

Wow, Drew, that is a nice looking RV!

 

[LS Tractor Owner]

Good morning to all! Low of 19°, going up to 34°. Going to stay in the low 30's all week. Today is a transition day, another storm coming in, maybe some snow tomorrow.

Got some initial cuts done on the metal for the tamers. More of the same today, including the bends. Hopefully will get them done.

Mostly, sorry about the fall. At least you weren't moving fast.....

Ron, congrats on a successful assembly! Sassy assumed the role of supervisor!

PJ, glad you surfaced! Good to hear the job is going well!

Drew, hope the RV is as good as it sounds. You may have found the elusive 'diamond in the rough'.

Buppies, tell the Mrs "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" Hope she has an enjoyable day!

Max is going for his grooming this morning, so got to get moving.
Everyone have a great day!

 

[RedNeckGeek]

Good Morning!!!! 43F @ 7:00/AM. Plentiful sunshine. High 57F. Winds NNW at 10 to 15 mph.
The 10-day says rain starting again next Sunday, continuing through Tuesday.

Good news about the new jobs, Paul & Kyle.

The insurance adjustor still hasn't reconciled her estimate with the contractor's, but she did call to tell me the claim isn't closed, and apologized for using the form letter with the wrong language.

Still working the Sprinter/Transit and now RAM van choice. Found a good article to cover the basics. Glad I'm not insisting on AWD or 4WD, and still undecided Diesel vs. gas. All of 'em are horribly expensive, though. Still need to look up towing capacity on all of them. And insurance. Wouldn't be surprised if it wound up being two grand a year.

High pressure oil lines arrived for the Ford, so I got a start. Big PITA climbing up into the engine compartment, but I found a piece of carpet to lay over the radiator to save my knees. Got the end of one of the lines disconnected, but had to make a tool to do so. And it was still difficult, as the fitting uses a wire compression ring that slips over a barb, and it's hard to find a way to pull hard straight up in the cramped quarters. Might end up taking out some intake plumbing before it's all done.

Other than that, not sure what I'll get up to today.

Hope everyone enjoys the rest of their weekend!

 

[kenmbz]

Morning all, staying around 40 today.
Got the son off to friends, and the wire run through from garage into house.
Straight shot across basement next, and then 2 hard turns into utility area which is open.
Getting there slowly, son GF coming over later.

Alien - good to hear from you and hope at least some of the issues can be curtailed.
Watch some happy movies and try to think of all the stuff you can still do.

Ron - happy birthday to your Uncle

PJS - Glad the new job is going well, good news, is well, good.

Wngsprd - hope the card is found, lost card can be a pain, glad you servicer has ability to pause.

Buppies - Happy Birthday to the Mrs. !

RNG - glad insurance isn't slamming the door. Hope they can get you whole.

Went to Bomba for tacos with the wife yesterday-they do a good job with being dairy free so I don't get sick. Nice to be out and about while the son was at band practice.

Cleaning up house in store for today.

Be well,

Nice clear 12' run for wire, at end is a hard left and then a hard right, so another ceiling cut in store.

 

[ronjhall]

Happy Birthday Mrs Buppies !!!

 

[Looking4new]

Happy Birthday Mrs. Buppies!

RNG "The insurance adjustor still hasn't reconciled her estimate with the contractor's, but she did call to tell me the claim isn't closed, and apologized for using the form letter with the wrong language."
Was the form letter in French, Swahili, or some other language that you can't read?

 

[KilroyJC]

Mrs did an AWESOME job - I have to get pictures off the phone and post later.

When we come home, dog always sniffs the car to make sure we didn’t go up the woodlot without her. She got psyched out, because yesterday we used the pickup

Diggin that ditch:

 

[pennwalk]

You gotta love a woman who can dig in.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Dennis how did you test fluorescent tubes?.

Put them in a shop light.

 

[KilroyJC]

You gotta love a woman who can dig in.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Happy birthday Mrs Buppies!!!
Where in SC do you go? I want to take wife somewhere in Apr for our anniversary, since I have the time.

 

[RedNeckGeek]

Was the form letter in French, Swahili, or some other language that you can't read?

Gosh, I haven't heard such stunning wit since maybe third grade!

 

[RedNeckGeek]

finally got a call from local guy who owns the motorhome I was interested in seeing.

https://www.rvtrader.com/listing/2008-Coachmen-CROSS+COUNTRY+382DS-5022876536

Looks like I'm barkin' up the wrong tree lookin' for a Sprinter, Drew. I could have a MH like that for less cost and it's already fixed up for "camping".

 

[rswyan]

31F with light snow @ 13:30, calling for a high of around 36F for the day. Looks like we got a few inches overnight:

(awaiting problem with uploading images to be fixed )​

Definitely a far cry from what it was yesterday, glad I got the feeders filled. A couple of pictures of that fallen ash from when I was out there doing that:

(awaiting problem with uploading images to be fixed )​

Woman opted not to make the run to the grocery store yesterday, sounds like She is regretting that now today.

So I got all cleaned and gussied up and we headed out for the Big Date Night ... down at Menards ...



Woman wanted to know what I had up my sleeve, as I had put on really nice clothes ...

Backstory on that is that when I'm working and running out to the store for something I rarely care what I look like or how I'm dressed. I'll wear rags as long as the holes aren't too big and there isn't anything hanging out. Drives her nuts.

So She "suspected something was up".

Truth was I was just getting one more wear out of the jeans and shirt I had worn out to dinner the week before before I tossed them in the dirty clothes to be washed.



Got everything we went for ... including a stick of mahogany, red oak, and maple. Also got a couple items that weren't really on the list: pantry moth traps and some bug traps for house plants that I spotted.

After we left Menards, I suggested we head over to Alladin's Eatery - a restaurant we spotted last week when we went out for relatives birthday dinner - and She was game.

Glad we did.

Turns out it was a chain of Lebanese restaurants that was started 1994 in Lakewood, OH and has expanded throughout the Midwest and Southeast.

On the way over, I suggested that once we got there, we order an appetizer and look over the menu while deciding whether we wanted to eat in or just get take out and go home.

We ordered some kibbe to start, which She decided She really liked and we decided to just go ahead and stay for dinner.

I got the Alladin's Favorite Combo plate which had kafta, shish kabob, and shish tawook, and She got Chicken Sambusek plate ... which She really liked as well. Even cleaned up her entire plate ... which is something that almost never happens.

We ordered a piece of Turtle Cheesecake to take with us for desert, which was good ... but not quite as good as the cheesecake we had at Bonefish Grill the week before.

Turns out this place had been there since 2014 and we had never noticed it ... probably due to poor signage illumination.

Think we'll definitely be heading back at some point in the future, looking forward to trying their Baba Gannouj next time.

All in all, a great trip with lots of laughs.

Got the DVD player hooked up after we got home and watched the 2nd Harry Potter movie ... after I gave the disc a quick cleaning with some rubbing alcohol.

After that She went to bed but I ended up staying up to the wee hours scoping out YouTube's on router tables and doing a little research on those.

Agenda for the rest of the day today:

Dig out the new razor blades and get Her started on cleaning tiles off.

Fire up the torpedo heater out in the garage and cut up the wood for the holder for the Forstner bits and maybe get that glued up.

Finish cleaning off the router table and take further stock of what needs to be done to get that refurbbed. Looks like the top panel on the back needs replaced, along with the top itself.

Clean out the bottom of the cavity in the wall where I removed the tile and wallboard.

See what we have in the way of thinset and grout.

Maybe take another stab at removing those stubborn seats in the tub/shower valve. Thinking about ordering a drill chuck with adapters that would allow it to be used on the battery-operated impact and/or my 3/8 drive butterfly impact. I could then cut the seat wrench so it could be chucked up and used.

The seats are only brass ... so would need to go easy on them to avoid tearing them.

More research to do on that.

Hope everyone is having a good Sunday ...

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Mostly, have people started calling you Brandon yet?

 

[Thomas]

Please give Mrs. Buppies BIG ole birthday hug for us.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Now 37°, probably about the high.
Overcast, cold drizzly day.
Good worship.
Went to Mexican for lunch, was good.
Now just updating records, starting to plan an anniversary trip south somewhere in April. Ouch on hotel prices.
Wife was showing me a picture of Crabtree falls in VA and said she wanted to go. I said we were just there a couple years ago. Well it was 2013, so almost 10 yrs. time flies.

 

[m7040]

Looks like I'm barkin' up the wrong tree lookin' for a Sprinter, Drew. I could have a MH like that for less cost and it's already fixed up for "camping".

You may want to look into the Storyteller vans for off road camping without having the drone of a generator.

With a Name Like Beast MODE 4x4, This Camper Van Means Business

A new overlanding rig has entered the chat, and it's a doozy. Based on the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter 4x4, it has factory quality and is priced well.

www.motortrend.com

 

[wngsprd]

Hope Mrs Holly Buppies has a perfectly enjoyable day!

 

[PJSprog]

Got up to 40°F here today. Started with some mixed rain / sleet / snow flurries, but only enough to lightly cover some stuff. Roads and walkways just stayed wet. More snow predicted for Wednesday.

Wife wanted donuts this morning, so I trekked over to the bakery in New Baden and picked up a half dozen. Not what I really needed for breakfast, but delicious nonetheless.

Been playing around in the studio most of the day. There are worse ways to spend a Sunday.

Good afternoon, gents.