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Well I got it all back together again. Seems to be running very well with no leaks this time. I found that it got a bit hot earlier today, but after checking the timing it seems about 4 degrees too far advanced. It’s still a 1776 (90.5mm x 69mm), and this time I bumped the compression from a lower 7.15 to a 8.25:1. We shall see how it does with this additional power and heat, but first impression is a very responsive engine.

A few weeks ago I pulled the engine in Tigerbus to fix a few leaks. Unfortunately once I pulled the engine and went to do a pre torque on the head studs, three pulled out. I finally have the case back from repair and hope to get this guy all put back together.

We made our trek east for High Country Bus Festival.

Trip report can be found here

Photos are here:

We made it back with no problems at a decent clip. I have put photos of the trip up and they can be found below.

On the way home the bus rolled over another 100k miles. This is the second time I have personally seen this happen on this bus. So at the very least it’s working on it’s quarter million mile badge, or perhaps more than that.

Samba thread here.

Troop 88 offered a family camp/climbing excursion to Vedauwoo, WY this weekend, so we jumped at the chance to do a camping shakedown before the season really got going. We all had a fantastic time and got a chance to relax for a weekend. As a family camp Wyatt was patrol leader for his family who formed a patrol. I’m sure it was tough making the calls and telling his siblings what to do, but he did just fine. Anyway some photos from the trip can be found below.

After a hike with the tigers, we all wanted to see a bit more so we all headed home to pack up the bus and off we went. I wanted to drive some of 285 with the kids as it’s a very nice area to drive through, problem there isn’t a great way to get there from Parker. We decided to drive some small dirt roads that followed the Platte river. That turned out to be a great choice as we got to just cruise between some beautiful mountains of CO. The river was beautiful and made me want to start to learn fly fishing as there were several groups of people enjoying that sport. One somewhat hairy part of the road was a 12% grade down on loose dirt, the bus did great and we all made it through just fine. We continues to cruise north and eventually stumbled across 285. I wanted to see a bit more scenery so we turned south on 285 and headed towards Kenosha pass. 10,000 feet is quite a chore for a loaded down bus, it performed great however we just went up the pass quite slow. Once we got there we walked for a few minutes & soaked up the scenery. I also got the family to take a group photo, which the kids also wanted a “goofy” photo.

Once back in the bus we headed back north for just a few minutes to the Colorado Trail where the aspens were starting to change to a beautiful gold. I was hoping to be out sometime to catch some of the color, but right place, right time I guess. While exploring the area and walking part of the trail we found the remains of an old railroad track complete with a track switch. All the kids loved working with that for a little while. At the end of the track was part of the trail which lead to an overlook. I also got the opportunity to train for the WDW trip by hiking with Olivia on my shoulders for most of the way. The wind blowing through all the aspen leaves was fantastic & so relaxing. A few minutes later we headed back to the bus and got on the road again.

Our route turned north in Grant, CO where we did some more climbing in the bus and drove through Guanella Pass which sits at 11669 ft. The bus performed like a champ with this as well. As a treat we drove by The Old Geneva Basin Ski Area and looked up a bit of history when we got home. 118 Winds it’s way north into Georgetown with a fantastic payoff at the end of a breathtaking overlook of the entire town from above in the mountains. I hate driving I-70 in the bus so our path was east on hwy 40 as far as Idaho Springs where we stopped for some food. It was getting late and the girls had plans for a sleepover so our next destination was home.

I had a great time but really need to find a combination of gps/software to allow me to track where I drive & also generate a map for reference in the future. I guess I’ll keep an eye out.

Well a few days after we were left on the side of the road I got the garage cleaned out enough to take a look at the damage. Turns out it was a stripped spline in the brake drum of the passenger rear wheel. I had had issues with these drums before and needed to replace them, just didn’t ever get around to it. Searching for the correct part was an adventure however. A local VW shop had the drums in stock so we took a trip up on Saturday to get the drums. I already had shoes so all I needed were these drums. As I went to put them on the bus I realized something was wrong, they were both cast differently and it appeared to need a spacer to work. My final solution was to buy a set of used German drums from a samba member who got me setup. I then found a local brake shop that would turn the drums. After all this I got the wheels mounted and torqued. The bus is in much better shape now and rolling

Well we got the Bust part right.
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So we started packing after the kids got home from school. Of course in our typical fashion it took way more time to pack than it should have. Like always Jason was fussing at me for packing too much. But we got it done, and ask a neighbor to feed the dogs for us. Off we went at 6:30pm. We headed towards Castle Rock. The plan was for me to run into Target, get some snacks and breakfast while Jason went and got gas. I am waiting in line to check out when Jason calls and says that the bus has broken down and he is in the street, and can’t get out of the way of traffic. So I put the food up, and called a tow truck. Jason and the kids were down the street from Target so I walked to meet them. So we waited at the bus for the tow truck to get there. Jason had been able to get the bus off the street and onto the sidewalk. It actually didn’t take too long for the tow truck to get there. The only problem was that they could only take Jason in the tow truck. So the kids and I walked up the street to the A & W to get something to eat and wait on Jason. Jason got home and picked up the suburban and came back to Castle Rock to get us. Lucky for us it is only 8 miles from our house to where the bus broke down. This is the first time that the Bus has actually left us stranded somewhere. So we are home, and not going to Pike’s Peak this weekend we will try another weekend. Jason will spend the weekend trying to figure out and fix the bus. The kids were disappointed, but we will go another time. Jason has a theory that it has something to do with his Colorado license. He received his license in the mail today. Unfortunately it means that we will have to get the garage half way cleaned up so that he can pull the bus in to work on it. According to our home owners we can’t work on it in the drive way or the street. So i think that it will take most of tomorrow to get that done, then he can start to work on it.
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went somewhere you can see photos here