The end of one chapter and the beginning of another....

[ibdilbert01]

Got some sad news and gots some good news.  (hopefully this isn't too long and boring....)


I never really got a chance to put away my Winnebago last year, it seemed almost every weekend I was able to enjoy it even through December!  This year I had it out the second week of January. I had taken it up to a friends house where we later drove up to the Cleveland RV show.    This trip would be the last trip my Winnebago and I would enjoy.   It was early Sunday morning, January 13th, I was tugging up a hill near Millersburg Ohio, and all of a sudden I  felt severe turbulence.    This turbulence was bad, very bad, bad enough I almost soiled my britches.     (The beans the night before probably didn't help)


Not sure what was going on, I pulled over, and as I slowed down the turbulence went away.    Rolling about 10mph she ran smooth, anything faster and she was full of harsh vibrations.    I could see a Walmart not too far away, and I limped her into the Walmart parking lot.    I got out, did a routine check, couldn't find anything visually wrong with her.  The vibrations felt like they were coming from the front.   


Now I was only 40 miles from home and I have triple A, it resets every January 30th and I hadn't use any tows.    It was pouring down rain, and I said to myself...  "Self, just tow it, we'll fix it later".   And thats what I did.   I popped a DVD into the player and watched a movie while I waited on the tow truck driver.   Ahh.....   Live was good....


I've had her towed before, and a regular tow truck can lift her up and pull her by her front wheels.   This is exactly what the tow truck driver decided to do.   We left Walmart, got onto the main road, and about 2 maybe 3 miles later the tow truck driver noticed my drive shaft bouncing down the road behind us.    We stop, we get the drive shaft, and continue on to my house.   


My assumptions were a U-joint came loose and I didn't notice it during my "what the heck is wrong" inspection.    Now with the weather being so crappy, I hadn't got a chance to fix it.   


Sometime today Dad got bored and decided he was going to run over to my house while I was at work and fix it.   He found the u-joint bolts broken off flush in the yoke and came back.  While talking to him, he said "Did you take the starter off, its not there!".


I didn't take the starter off, and I thought "Holy carp and bluegill, now people are stealing starters!".  So I go through my pissed moment, then I go through the "Well, they needed it pretty bad moment".  Then I decided to check it out and see if they took anything else.     


Yup, the starter was missing, and almost every bolt within my vision was loose or missing, including transmission bolts.   So all excited with confusion, I decided to go inside and take the doghouse off, only to find the transmission bell has cracked in two.     Apparently that will give you some vibrations....   Apparently those vibrations can loosen darn near everything.   


Now as all of you know, I keep a spare engine and a spare transmission on hand, as a "just in case".    But I must confess, I had already bought a new Winnebago.   


Back in mid December, ol' TJ posted his list of eyebrow winnies for sale.  And as some of you know I've been looking for what I feel is a rare model Winnebago.   A 2 door, 27 footer, early eyebrow.   Holy carp and bass if TJ didn't post one up in Michigan that appeared to be in good condition!  It was too good to be true, it was everything and more that I had been looking for.


I call the guy from work on Thursday, make arrangement's to be there on Saturday, and the seller tells me he has a potential buyer that will also be looking at it on Saturday.   So what do I do?  I tell the seller I can be there at 9am, Friday morning, and he said "great".   


The rig is in Michigan, Traverse City Michigan, about 450+ miles from where I'm at.   And I just told this guy I'd be there the next day, at 9am.   What was I thinking?   So I took Friday off, called Mom and Dad and told them we were going on a road trip and the bus leaves at midnight.   (I'm pretty sure they think I'm a bit nutty, but they were all excited too!)  We left at midnight, got into Traverse City about 8ish, this gave us time to eat breakfast and get an early peak at the potential new winnie.   


At first glance my face must of looked like Chevy Chase when he seen his Christmas lights work for the first time!   The rig was and simply is magnificent.   27 feet of solid 1970 vintage glory powered by a 413 with new looking tires!  And now I must ask myself, will it make the 450 mile trip?!?   So I said "Self, will it make the trip?".


So I ask "Can we start it?"   "Sure" the seller says, and it started right up, ran smooth, then died.   It was out of gas.  Sigh....    We go get gas, try to crank it over, and by now the battery is weak so we have to jump it, then she fires right up and purrs like a kitten who just found a bag of catnip.   


A quick test drive and it runs and drives like it only had 39 thousand miles on it.   In fact, the odometer read 39 thousand miles....    I have no choice to buy this rig, this is my chance to finally get the rig I've been looking for all these years.    So I pay the man, we hook up the jeep and start our way home.     


A few hundred miles later, all is good and we stop for grub.   We get back in the rig and she won't start, the battery is dead.   Sigh....    We unhook the jeep, drive it around, jump it, then hook the jeep back up and off we go.   Voltage meter is reading 14ish volts, so I'm not worried, probably a bad battery.     The next gas station we fill up leaving the rig running.   


The rig is driving nice, really nice.   65mph and shes smooth as glass, quiet too.     The smile is still stuck onto my face, as if my face is made of plastic.    My eyes however, were getting heavy, so dad and I trade seats and he starts driving.   


Now, the headlights start to flicker, and I'm thinking "awe carp and sunfish, going to have to get that fixed".  So we pull over at a McDonalds, Dad runs in to get some coffee, and I troubleshoot the headlights.   I follow the wires, everything looks good, but I notice the "tit-a-ray" switch on the floor was sticky, and while messing with it I could get the lights to go out.   So I told Dad that maybe that was the issue, and we wouldn't use the brights anymore.   


Good plan...   We just get onto the ramp to get onto the high way, and they start to flicker again.  By now its 2am, Friday morning.   We are near Finley Ohio, and now I'm noticing when the headlights flicker, the engine misses.    Dad and I are getting excited, and I'm rattling off the wiring diagram that I have memorized in my head, Dads rattling off ideas too, and the whole rig just quits.....


We coast to the side of the highway.   I tell dad "Lets get the jeep started, get its lights on so we have light to work in".  He agrees and heads back to start the jeep.    I go to the battery tray and open her up, and holy carp and goldfish, the metal battery bracket was dead shorting the positive terminal on the battery, in fact it had melted the positive lug on the battery.    I get the bracket out of the way, the headlights come back on, I run inside and turn the key, and she started back up "to my surprise"!   


We arrive home around 4am with no more issues.


Now I was going to keep this new rig a secret, and I actually started a new user name on here call GERTRUDE.   I wanted to start posting her upgrades this spring and was curious to see if anyone of you would figure out it was me.  I could fix the 72, but I'm not going to.    Shes going to be a donor for the Chieftain.    Because of that, I can't document this and not let the cat out of the bag, it would be too obvious once I start showing pictures. 

[emoney]

Very nice score!  Good for you!  Now.....about that whole "lying to us thing".......

[tiinytina]

WOW the stretch Limo version of your Brave! LOL.. congrats and I'm glad KARMA was on your side!

Tina

[doylexl]

I love the feeling that I get when I get a new project like that. I also think it"s cool that your parents help with the whole process. Glad you made it home safe too, My daughter and grandaughter went with me last week to look at my new project and we had fun.

[LJ-TJ]

 :)rotflmao Fantastic. Hot darn,shucks. Now that's a story. Now that my friend is an adventure. I'm envious of you and your folks. My Dad and I us to do stuff like that. I miss him. Congratulations. For anybody looking for an old Winnebago this is about the way it happens.>GRIN< and a New Adventure Begins. Can't wait to see her at the Jam.

[Wantawinnie]

Cool adventure, reminds me a lot when dad and I went to pick up my Chieftain II last year in Michigan. Congrats on the nice rig.

[Froggy1936]

For some reason the whole story sounds FISHY !!  Frank 

[JDxeper]

Good show, you had more exciment than a simple snow storm LOL'  Good luck on the project!

[ibdilbert01]

Some history on the rig...


It was owned by one owner for most of its life, garage kept.   The fellow died and his wife sold it to another fellow in Traverse city last year.   They got struck on hard times and had to sell it.   I have a three inch binder with materials including every manual for every device in the rig, all sales receipts, including the original sale,  some origional brochures about the new Chieftain line, and a Winnebago Owners manual.


No soft spots on the floor, and the interior is exceptionally nice for its age.    The spare tire has been kept on the roof, and caused the roof to sag, there is some water damage at the rear because of this dip, but nothing major.   Probably the only time it leaked was during the 2nd owners, as they didn't keep the rig in a garage.   I have a neat plan for this repair, can't wait to post pictures of the progress.   


All appliances work, except the roof air, and I have a sneaky suspension the chassis air doesn't work either, but I have means to fix that.   It has a generator, and it works too, starts super easy, and has the extra quiet pack installed.   


I think everything is original except the 8 track player.    The fridge is actually rather large, and the hot water heater will also heat using the heat form the engine.   


It was ordered from the factory with the MorRyde suspension.   It also has HiJackers installed (heavy duty air shocks).   I'll do a video tour in in a bit and post it.   

[JDxeper]

Too Kool, can't wait to see it.

[doylexl]

There is one like this on craigslist with two right side doors in New Orleans and supposedly it only has 8,800 miles on it.

[Wantawinnie]

That is a odd one in New Orleans. Looks to be a double door '74 model with one of those custom floorplans Winnebago used to offer for a office or business setup. I made sure to save those pictures on my computer.   

[LJ-TJ]

Got a link? Hm?

[Mytdawg]

I'm glad that one found a good home.  I was kinda eyeballing it but I had already brought home one stray and I don't have a lot of scratch to spare as it is.  It's very cool looking.

[DaveVA78Chieftain]

Congrats on the cool find.  Many happy travels.

Dave

[Oz]

Sure sounded like the "typical" sort of shakedown trip!  Awesomely cool rig!

[ClydesdaleKevin]

AWESOME!!!  And if there is a zombie apocalypse you can put a lawn chair up on the roof and keep watch with a high powered scoped rifle... :)rotflmao   Just don't park it near a barn if the barn is on fire!

Sorry...couldn't resist!  Just saw season 2 of the Walking Dead and it looks a lot like the one in the series...lol!

Great score and a very nice looking rig!

Kev

[cosmic]

Damn shame. I stopped watching the show after the winne burned. Just didn't have any interest any more. If for some reason another makes its way into the show, let me know. LOL
Now I have 2 t-shirts with that winnie on it.
Sure wish that was mine....

[ClydesdaleKevin]

Looks like they used a junk Winnie for the fire scene, not the awesome one used in the rest of the series.  If you look carefully, the window placement is different from the Chieftain used in the rest of the cinematography. 

I thought it was REALLY funny when the Korean kid Gary was "filing the points" when it stalled out to get it running again...through the front access grill!  I commented to the wifey that the points are accessible through the doghouse, not the front unless you pull out the radiator first...and she told me to SHUSH!  She said most folks wouldn't know that and could care less...just watch the movie and shaddap, she said... :)rotflmao

Kev

[cosmic]

I saw it kevin. i said the same thing to my wife. who said "who cares" I was all upset...

[Oz]

Saw that too!  LOL!  Told Tambra... yeah, good luck getting at the motor throught the radiator!