And WHAT a
Bertha she is now. She’s a completely different bus to the
one we had. When we were driving up the hills in Tassie, the children and I
would be singing “I think I can, I think I can” as Dunc would be going back through the gears.
It wasn’t unusual to be in 2nd
gear going up a hill if we hadn’t been able to build up some speed
prior. Now… 2nd gear is really only
used at traffic lights!
In addition
to installing the new engine, Steve also gave Duncan a driving lesson.
Apparently Dunc was driving it too “gently” (ie: normally) and you have to “drive it like you stole it” to keep the revs high enough to be in “the power band” for best performance. Dunc sat as a passenger in complete amazement as
Steve cruised Berth up a hill in 5th gear.
She also no
longer blows awful smoke upon starting, which will mean much less environmental-embarrassment
for me at the caravan parks.
Actually I might
hand over to Dunc for some more technical info for those interested: (those who
are already bored can just wait for the next blog update…)
OK so the
new engine is in and goes really well - it’s really like driving a different bus.
It is a lot less work to drive her now and I am really enjoying the lack
of having to change gears.
The super
charger, or blower, has been re-built as the governor was literally about to
fall off and effectively stop the engine. So one way or the other the engine
was going to stop and need repairs. The turbo has also been rebuilt, and the
radiator (which was full of MUD according to Steve) had to be flushed clean so
no more heat issues. She has all of her 280 horse power back and is quite
awesome to drive, and on top of that the engine is longer choofing smoke.
Bertha is
back in a big bad way!
No comments:
Post a Comment