Sunday, September 23, 2007

The kid is CLEAN!


I finally had to clean the truck becuase it looked like
the Creature from the Mossy Lagoon. I think he is happier now
and will get more respect out in public.

Building in the Northwest

This is the mountain I get to look at every day-- Mount Si.
This is literally the view I have when I stand outside the back doors.
It is infamous for being the peak in "Twin Peaks"..


Building in the Northwest involves a canopy.
It has been raining for most of the last month.

Framing out the inside

Passenger side of the interior with built-in benchs. I ditched
the couch because it's too wide but am keeping
all of the day-glo orange and silver cordura for the bench cushions.


The galley area with the sink cut into the counter
and the fridge set in place. The stovetop is going because it's kind of a piece
of crap and it is straight out of the 70's which makes it a design nightmare.

The bedframe, looking in through the back doors.



We have completed most of the framing inside the truck including the toilet, the galley, the closet, the "pantry", the overhead storage, the benches and the bed. I still have to make the tabletop-- it is going to drop down to bench level so the bench will become a bed.

Look. A roof vent.


It is now fall in the Northwest, meaning rain. But finally the weather
let up enough to get the roof vent in. It has a light and a fan,
but it's kind of a piece of shit-- flimsy. I expected more for 50 bucks.

DAMMIT

The stepvan I got the rear end out of. The truck is rated at 14,000 GVR and mine is 9000. Beefy.


The stepvan came from Mr. Moo & Co. Notice the eight udders on the
cow and the white droplets flying out. I think the mechanical milking
machine went amok, sucked out 4 new udders and the flying juice is
actually pus. It is running as fast as it can to get away from the CAFO lot.


The new read end. SERIOUSLY beefy.

So I haven't been posting because I live in the mountains now and the internets are broken (dial-up, no less). And my cell gets no signal out there.

So I had to pay $1400 for the fuel injector pump, $350 for a new rear axle/ring and pinion, $1000 for a new drive shaft and some other bits and pieces. My truck has decided it wants to be mechanically sound, which I guess is a good thing, right?

I start school in two days and I will be basically living in an insulated plywood box. No solar, plumbing, electrical etc. At least not yet...

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

SHIT GUYS

I haven't been making any posts recently because I had to move out of my apartment, which was a nightmare. Sean, Kat and I were all moving our stuff out at the same time, on top of each other. Also, we were getting rid of half our stuff at the same time so it was like 3 moves going on in one 2-bedroom apartment. Good times. I did get rid of half my 1000 or so books (which is a stunning achievement for me, I must say) and Sean got $400 for them. I was planning to just get rid of them. Nice.

So anyway, I drove my truck into the city and loaded it up. I went to my friend Eric's house for the night because I had to meet the land-bitch the next morning and didn't want to go out to Snoqualime. It was 11pm and I was falling-over tired. I drove right past his house on his little small road and had to go all the way down somewhere and turn around (remember, this is my third day of driving a dodgy truck with questionable steering). I turned it around and then couldn't find his road from the other direction-- shot right past it. So I had to turn around on this almost-country road (which was still a throughway) with a 105-point turn, holding up traffic. The rear axle was scronking and gnashing and it would reverse about 5 feet before the ring and pinion gears started grinding and shuddering the whole truck. I called Eric and he told me where to turn, which I did, and then I drove straight past it again. At this point I was ready to cry or scream.

I turned around again and just parked pointing the wrong way in front of his house, which is what I should have done in the first place. Reversing was almost impossible as the back axle was completely uncooperative and making horrid noises. Then I noticed what smelled like burning transmission fluid. Eric came out and, unfortunately, so did his uptight neighbor who looked extremely pleased. I got out and fluid was leaking out of the engine area. After several awful forwards and reverses, I got the thing parked off the road.

The next day I talked to Seamus. It's not transmission fluid as there is no power transmission. Apparently it's the injector pump, which is a major deal in diesel engines (I have only worked on gas engines and didn't know). There are no spark plugs or distributor on a diesel engine-- the whole thing is handled by the injector pump. The fuel combustes due to the 12,000 to 20,000 psi into the cylinders. Oh. Basically, since the ring and pinion are hosed, the gearing makes the drive shaft jump, especially in reverse due to the way that the gears are angled. So when it's in reverse and the gears start chattering, the drive shaft yanks on the transmission/engine and the whole thing jumps. Since the diesel engine that I have is a retrofit (it originally came with a gas engine) the injection pump is dangerously close to the wall of the engine compartment. The engine jerked, slammed the pump into the wall and broke the throttle intake valve, making diesel pour out all over the place. That was what the fluid was and the smell was it burning off the hot engine block. You can see the dent it made in the steel wall.

On Monday Seamus brought his 16' trailer and we transferred all my crap into it and took it down to stroage. It was Labor Day so there wasn't much I could do about fixing the truck.

We took it down to H & H Diesel today to get fixed. It should only be about $250 which is better than the last time this happened when it was $1500. I drove it down pouring fuel out of the broken seal onto the road. Nice and environmentally friendly. Sigh. It ran out of gas when we were almost there and Seamus had to go and get more in a can.

The whole experience was AWESOME. And now I am several days behind schedule. So if I show up with my project to show off and it's not quite as polished as I'd like, don't blame me. Well, I guess you should as I'm the one who caused the damage.

Sunday, September 2, 2007

It LIVES!!!

The truck is now running and officially on the road. Seamus drove it around a bit to demonstrate the quirks (the steering box and rear axle/ring-and-pinion are a bit dicey), then I drove it back to the house. It's fun! But the steering wheel is not really for steering-- it's more like for influencing.

I got "full-timer RV" (meaning someone who lives out of their RV) insurance through Progressive for less than $75/month-- it covers the usual full-coverage auto insurance stuff but also covers Mexico driving, Fire Department Service, emergency expenses in case of breakdown, $2000 of personal effects inside the truck, roadside assistance, trailer towage, medical coverage for me and my passengers in an accident, storage shed coverage, etc, etc, etc. Sweet! Partly it's so cheap is because I am 39, female, clean driving record, own the vehicle outright and registered in a small town (Snoqualmie).

I am going to drive it into Seattle and use it for moving my stuff because Sean needs to use Seamus' trailer.