UTMC

Bigshankhank wrote: ↑

Sat May 02, 2020 6:44 pm

THIS MOTHERFUCKER RUNS!

Congrats!

[media] [/media]

My gawds. I just looked at the beginning of the thread.
Not only was Obama still president. But the orange person hadn't even officially been declared republican candidate yet! The world was still some sort of normal!

DerGolgo wrote: ↑

Tue May 05, 2020 1:06 am

My gawds. I just looked at the beginning of the thread.
Not only was Obama still president. But the orange person hadn't even officially been declared republican candidate yet! The world was still some sort of normal!

Perhaps the resurrection of BSH's RV will start returning reality to it's normal state?

All Hail The Messiah RV!

DerGolgo wrote: ↑

Tue May 05, 2020 1:06 am

My gawds. I just looked at the beginning of the thread.
Not only was Obama still president. But the orange person hadn't even officially been declared republican candidate yet! The world was still some sort of normal!

Keep in mind this thread started with a different machine, albeit the same model. However the Messiah RV has a nice ring to it, we used to refer to my other daughter's VW Cabrio as Zombie Jesus car after its engine shit the bed and we got it put back together and driveable again.

Bigshankhank wrote: ↑

Tue May 05, 2020 6:56 am

Keep in mind this thread started with a different machine, albeit the same model. However the Messiah RV has a nice ring to it, we used to refer to my other daughter's VW Cabrio as Zombie Jesus car after its engine shit the bed and we got it put back together and driveable again.

See, I was no longer even aware of that change.
I'm sure you elaborated what bug bit you to get another RV, and what happened to the first one.
About how far back should I go to find out about that?

We got rid of the first RV last year once we hit numerous snags, including but not limited to sever frame and body rust, missing holding tanks (which are not replaceable short of custom building new ones) and electrical gremlins throughout. We found the current rig which was in better shape overall and happened to have the same engine and wheels as the previous one and so were able to swap over those parts on which we had already spent considerable funds. Even though it didn’t run I convinced all parties involved that it was a worthwhile purchase, and that faith has been rewarded. We considered keeping the 1st one but turning it in to a kitchen truck but we realized how absurd that idea really was and hauled it away.

Woo hoo! Well done!

Looks like on the vid you're still, uh, leaving a wet trail behind you wherever you go, tho. Get that sorted?

Nevertheless, BRAVO!

--Jaeger

Jaeger wrote: ↑

Tue May 05, 2020 12:06 pm

Woo hoo! Well done!

Looks like on the vid you're still, uh, leaving a wet trail behind you wherever you go, tho. Get that sorted?

Nevertheless, BRAVO!

--Jaeger

So that wet trail is diesel leaking from a return line, and/or coolant leaking from the lower radiator hose. I knew it was leaking both juices but decided fuck it, I was leaving town later that day and I would risk burning it to the fucking ground just to say that I drove it once around the block. I already ordered the replacement diesel return lines and those will be an easy project my daughter or son or someone can handle without me being there, and frankly draining the cooling system and replacing the lower and upper radiator hoses should be a learning experience for one of them, also.

Today, on the auspicious 1 year anniversary of the first time we got this machine running and driving, we spent more time on it replacing (finally) the leaking diesel return lines. I pressure washed it over this past weekend as it had accumulated a considerable layer of mildew and dirt. Also last weekend I spent some time trying to get the generator to fire up and while it sputters and grumbles on starter fluid the fuel pump appears to be kaput. Still, there is life! This thing just continues to make me happy.

Ah, the annual update! Spiffing!

I can't right now whether you had stated this before or not, but does it have a name?
Because the thought just occurred.
Being that it is large, a 1984 model, and seems to keep making dictates on your life/has become part of your family yes, of course, he's part of the family, he's part of every family, we all love him. We must love him.
"Big Brother"?
Or, if you wanna see who paid attention, some variation on "Room 101 Mobile"? "UberRoom 101"? "VRooom 101"?

Since its predecessor which started this project was predominantly brown, it was named the March Hare. Thus this was named March Hare V2.0 but I think that is generally acknowledged to be a temporary moniker.

Bigshankhank wrote: ↑

Wed May 05, 2021 5:08 am

Since its predecessor which started this project was predominantly brown, it was named the March Hare. Thus this was named March Hare V2.0 but I think that is generally acknowledged to be a temporary moniker.

So, "March Hare".
Is that March the noun, like the month, or like the event that is "the March"?
Or is it the verb?
Imperative form like. "March, Hare!"
Or some adverb/adnoun foolery?
Is it the Hare that Marches? Or is it the Hare that assists others with Marching? Or the Hare that already has marched, and hence gained that honorific?

Promise. If you end up installing a bunch of Chinesium™. You must thereafter deferentially refer to it as the Long March Hare V2.0.

Time for my rare but repeating updates on this beast. The daughter took it all the way to Gainesville and back last weekend (approx 180miles each way) and is currently in it in Miami at some Burning Man east coast equivalent shindig. But the news is, it is going places! Interior is still a mess but the fact that it runs, steers and stops most of the time is pretty remarkable.

Post script, there was a charging problem on the trip to Gainesville which they thought they addressed with a new alternator. I had replaced the alt belt (this is an old-school setup with three separate accessory belts rather than a single serpentine one) prior to that test run but didn't test the alternator. OK so FF to the Miami trip and it still wasn't charging, like literally 0V going back into the battery so the daughter and her paramour decided to tighten the (new) belt a little more causing it to break so they just bought a spare battery and didn't shut the engine off until they reached their destination. Once there, prior to leaving they swapped batteries and ran a charger off of a generator to get it to start up and drove it home. 300 miles. Without an alternator. These old Detroit Diesel engines were dead-rat simple, I guess that's why they used them in military Hummvees.
BUT IT MADE IT.

So all-mechanical injection system, I take it?

As horrible as Diseasel engines are. The idea of a vehicle that needs its battery only for lights, signals, and the radio, is oddly appealing. Driving around sans electricity. Before the crash, and after actually, I had long dreamed of having a Lanz Bulldog Roadster for the grocery run.

Reading your epic tale of AlternatorAlternatives™, @Bigshankhank, my mind wants to picture a vehicle with a hand-crank to start the engine (if you can crank-start a 10,336 cc single-cylinder hot bulb engine, and you can, you can crank start anything), and a completely separate solar panel and battery to provide the reasonable amounts of electricity that modern headlights, signals, and radio require.

DerGolgo wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 24, 2022 4:32 am

So all-mechanical injection system, I take it?

As horrible as Diseasel engines are. The idea of a vehicle that needs its battery only for lights, signals, and the radio, is oddly appealing. Driving around sans electricity. Before the crash, and after actually, I had long dreamed of having a Lanz Bulldog Roadster for the grocery run.

Reading your epic tale of AlternatorAlternatives™, @Bigshankhank, my mind wants to picture a vehicle with a hand-crank to start the engine (if you can crank-start a 10,336 cc single-cylinder hot bulb engine, and you can, you can crank start anything), and a completely separate solar panel and battery to provide the reasonable amounts of electricity that modern headlights, signals, and radio require.

Yep, mechanical injection pump, driven directly off the crank. For this mechanical simplicity they are considered quite appealing to the prep/doomsday crowd.
As to your hand crank concept, with the right reduction gearing to overcome the astronomical compression ratio (20:1 IIRC) and perhaps a slave gear to crank a small charger for the glow plugs this might be doable.

Bigshankhank wrote: ↑

Sun Feb 27, 2022 5:20 am

As to your hand crank concept, with the right reduction gearing to overcome the astronomical compression ratio (20:1 IIRC) and perhaps a slave gear to crank a small charger for the glow plugs this might be doable.

I was picturing a flywheel and centrifugal clutch maybe, but I'm sure that mostly appeals because of unnecessary complexity. Would go well with the glow-plug charger, though... crank it up, a nice, heavy flywheel, and by the time the clutch engages it to the crank, an attached dynamo might have the glow plugs going all glowy...

Such a dynamo, even if only throwing out single-digit volts, would surely be entirely sufficient to run some LED lights and signals and maybe a raido, so my solar-panel would be superfluous. Shame.