Our "New to Us" Winnie

[T1 Terry]

Update, right hand side is glued and screwed and Bull bar is in place, just needs another bolts to go in and tighten up ..... then 4 small screws to hold the indicators in the bull bar ...... That just leaves finishing bolting up the LPG tanks, connecting up the hoses and making up a hose to replace the one that leaked ....... and we should be ready to start our run for Balranald ......

T1 Terry

[T1 Terry]

Even with an early start, the heat beat me ... and I ran out of time.

Gunna take a run down to the local service stn that has reopened and has LPG, put some in and see if it leaks ....

T1 Terry

[Dot]

Did it?

[T1 Terry]

Did it?

Didn't happen, the body said it was time for a shower and a recovery nap, so that happened instead
So, it will be tomorrow morning before I find out if I had a win or not ..... I still haven't sorted a method of switching the fans on yet either, so there is that to sort yet .....

But we are closer than we were this morning, just not really close enough ..... I could drive to Managatang and arrive about 2 in the morning .... but I won't ..... I know my limits and that is just pushing too hard ....

T1 Terry

[jon_d]

But we are closer than we were this morning,

That is what is important. Keep on going. Bit by bit.

When you get to the trunk, you're close to finishing.

[T1 Terry]

But we are closer than we were this morning,

That is what is important. Keep on going. Bit by bit.

When you get to the trunk, you're close to finishing.

When I get to the autogas pump and it actually fills the tanks, I'll know I've finally had a win

As I was removing the suspected leaking hose, I discovered the fitting at the T piece that supplies the two tanks wasn't fully tight ..... Because it pumped in 20 ltrs before the leak started, there must have been some twist in the hose or something that caused the hose to shift and loosen the fitting ...... but I'm not taking any risks, so I made a new hose anyway and spent additional time making sure all the hoses were free and not twisted and the T piece was firmly secured to the body so it couldn't cause any issues.

I also replaced both the gas cut solenoids with new ones to make sure there wasn't a problem there, so that required cutting the existing wiring and joining in the new coil wires ... so that ate up time in the heat of the sun as well ..... but crossing the "T"s and dotting the "i"s to try and beat this LPG voodoo the Winnie has developed .....

The engine ran smooth and stayed cool while running to get the coolant circulating, with no fans running, so I'm feeling confident with the part as well, I've installed relays and fuses for each fan, now I just need to add toggle switches to run them manually at the moment and later add the thermostats to turn each fan on as the temp builds at each point measured ......

T1 Terry

[T1 Terry]

Thought some more on the control for the thermo fans and decided to cut a section of the big bus radiator pipe work that had a thermostat switch already mounted, and cut the bottom radiator hose and add that pipe section in there, that way it switched the fans on when the radiator cold end reached 87-90*C and off when it dropped to 82*C or less.

That way, the fans triggered by the trans cooler temp would be pulling through the radiator once the transmission warmed up and the 3rd fan would kick in if the water temp returning to the engine was still higher than ideal, the last fan will be manually operated .....

Started to drain the new coolant .... I shouldn't overheat for a while, I wore most of it I think

The body temp has dropped enough for the sweat to stop running in my eyes and down my back, so time to have another crack at it I guess .....

T1 Terry

[T1 Terry]

Let's just say that the idea wasn't well thought through ..... the sensors are single terminal, so they ground out the terminal when the desired temperature is reached .... the part not thought through is there is no clear path back to battery negative if the sensor is fitted in a pipe that is fitted a rubber hose .....
Fortunately, the light bulb turned on in the brain, before I cut the hose to fit the pipe with the sensor in it

The next fix was a 2 wire n/o switch so the switch closed at the desired temperature .... nil stock order in at every automotive supplier between here and Adelaide .... basically, none in South Australia. I can order them in, but no idea when they would get here ...

I guess I can remove the thermostat housing and drill/tap a thread to accept the 3/8" NPT sensor and hit Jay Car and buy a range on N/O thermostats that I could cable tie through each end of the trans oil cooler to turn the other two fans on ..... I'm not sure I can trust my brain to watch the temp and turn fans on/off manually as I drive .... that would be so much easier to wire up

T1 Terry

[Greynomad]

T1,
I have an easier solution:
Drive to the nearest clifftop, put a brick on the accelerator then slam it into gear and bail out.
Then go and buy a newer m/h with no mechanical problems.

[T1 Terry]

T1,
I have an easier solution:
Drive to the nearest clifftop, put a brick on the accelerator then slam it into gear and bail out.
Then go and buy a newer m/h with no mechanical problems.

There is no such thing as a new model anything with an internal combustion motor that won't have far more and far more expensive mechanical problems than an old tech one.

You can not replace anything in a new car unless you have the dealership plug into the computer and pair the new part with the system .... they simply can't talk to each other until that is done ...... they don't do that sort of thing for free and often won't touch anything that wasn't done by the dealership .... so you are trapped into the $200hr plus fees they charge for any serious work .....

I would only buy a new EV, I would not even consider a fuel burner .... unless I had unlimited funds to pay someone skilled enough to work on it and actually fix it rather than making it worse .....

I enjoy working on vehicles that are willing to be worked on, if they have proprietary lock outs to stop anyone but the dealer from working on it, you can keep it.

The big $$ that are changing hands for agricultural equipment the farmer can actually work on, has killed the sales of new equipment, the trucking industry in the same, the latest trend is to buy an older truck and have someone like Janus convert it to electric with quick battery swapping .... less down time, servicing is a fraction of the cost, the benefits just keep stacking up ..... if they would sell me a system to slide into the Winnie, I'd do it in a heart beat, no second thoughts what so ever ..... I've driven a few new million $$ motorhomes ... yeah nah, you can keep them .....

T1 Terry