Bus Stuff

The muffler is just the latest in a line of bus issues.

The speedo has been busted for the past 5000 kilometers or so. Now, it’s fixed. Red Beard has no memory of it.

Before Angela’s mom came to visit us in Rio, our buddy Mike in Alameda sent along a goody bag. One of those goodies was a brand new GERMAN steering coupler. If you want to know what quality feels like, heft one of these babies next to your old crappy drilled out tire rubber you made at a campsite in Uruguay. I swear it handles better now. I think we’re good for 42 more years. Thanks again, Mike!

Those plastic cabinet handles are the worst. Open and close one of these cabinets a few dozen times a day for… 3.5 years. They break. Often. I’m guessing we’ve been through 6 of these. I carry two spares.

3.5 years is how long it took for our engine rubber to crack up too. Now, we’re good again.

When I bought the bus, despite it’s crappy outward appearance, it had excellent bones. Zero rust. A real California car. We’ve been out of California for quite a while and now we’ve got rust in the usual places. Under the windshield rubber. I can see light through my floorboard. Now, a leak through the back side window into the closet revealed some on that window frame too. Does anyone know the best/cheapest country for rust repair and paint? Some of these spots are going to need attention soon.

All that rust has come from lots of rain – especially since entering Brazil. Of course, it’s still hot… just wet. This means that our 12V fridge works overtime and the solar panels don’t get any sun. Solution: we bought a cheap generic laptop-charger back in Chile. It dawned on me that this little thing can put out 100W. Basically, the same as our solar panel. I spliced in a cigarette lighter plug. Now, when we’re low and have an electric plug available, I just plug it in and it works like a charm. Cold drinks. Infinite radio and lights. Even parked in the shade or rain.  I’ve even used it to charge/jump the main battery. Pretty handy.