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Elite Veteran
  
Location: Victoria, BC. Canada | Morning,
Missed the 7:00 pm ferry back to the Island last night by 5-mins. (insert sad-face here) Coming through Seattle en-route to a short visit at buddy Jay's place in Arlington, she decides to toss a power steer belt @ 65 mph in heavy traffic on the I-5. My bad, should have changed out the belts when I did the power steering pump before we left. Figured I could get one more short trip out of em. Not.
So, again, another learning experience in an FMC: you can actually drive these things without power-steering. Sure, it's like manhandling a very large post-war Russian farm tractor, but it's doable. Okay, freaky at times, but doable.
Driving it without PS reminded me of when I was younger and my buddy let me drive his coveted TR-3, but on a much grander scale. You can feel the road much more-so especially in the turns. As I went, gunning for the ferry, I mused about a 'variable-ratio' power steering set up for the coach, sorta like the system on the Nissan cars/trucks I sold for a while back in the 80's. Full-on assist for slow maneuvering in parking lots etc, but gradually backs off as speed increases; drivability increases exponentially.
This was our first rally and Vicki & I would like to thank you all for making us feel so welcome and included. Beautiful setting by the river, great food and a lot of laughs. My memories of all of you will be those of a friendly and engaging group of fellow enthusiasts and we will truly look forward to the day ahead when our trails will cross again. We'll be back and I'll bring less whiskey next time :-0
Terry
#846
PS. Thanks again to Sandy for the wonderful blanket! |
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Elite Veteran
Location: Medford, OR | The whiskey was good, too good. I paid for it on Saturday....Thanks Terry!! It's hard for me to say goodbye at these rally's, bums me out. It's really cool to meet the people whom you chat with on the web about old relic motorhomes and whatever else. I got to convoy with Stephen for an hour or so on the way out (first time watching another FMC travel down the road) and we had people giving us the thumbs up on I-5. The stories and information where great at this rally too....We talked/listened/laughed our asses off about knocking Tammys head off (the little bratwurst), Me, Jim and Bill S talked Land Rovers and old busses/trains, their Transit Conversion is unreal, very nice. Manitoba Dave had massive mechanical information to share and his wife Helen celebrated her birthday Sunday night and we all sang around the campfire with buzzes, Harry Day tried to get me to fully understand vacuum vs. absolute pressure, his wife Sandy made blankets and cookies for us all! San Diego Bruce is working on traveling confidence and the FMC, he's getting there.... Stephen made some unreal sausages he purchased from somewhere back east, I could of ate the entire pot. Larry E tripped over a large rock near our campfire and hit the ground, a lot of people hit those rocks at night!!....and Coos Bay Joe was a retired crazy helicopter pilot with a really nice FMC. After hearing Terry's I-5 passing traffic story and accidently reaching 85 mph, I decided to run #850 a little harder on the way home, I cruised at 63mph (ewe...lol) and even hit 70 once on accident. #850 worked and ran flawlessly, I didn't have to turn a wrench the entire trip. I ALMOST broke out a screw driver to tighten a hose clamp under the kitchen faucet that was slowly leaking. I have a few improvements I want to do to #850 after learning new FMC stuff at the rally. I learned new things, some I will forget, some I will never forget. Looking forward to the next one.......I just hope I can afford the gas!!! |
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Elite Veteran
Location: Victoria, BC. Canada | Great account of the festivities, Dan! Cept it wasn't 85, it was 80 and according to my GPS, if it's accurate, my speedo is about 5 mph too high up there.
Wonder if our coaches remember each other from the factory? Did they have a 'thing'? :-0
Terry
#846 |
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Expert
Location: Cottage Grove, OR | I agree with Terry in that Dan did a great account of the festivities. And yes, we burned a whole pickup load of firewood in the FMC firebox! A side note to Dan's caravanning with me was that initially Larry E. was behind me and Dan behind him. Larry pulled over to retrieve the FMC rally signs (which I had forgotten!) so Dan was then behind me. It did take me awhile to realize it was Dan and not Larry.
In about a week I will get a photo album posted. I am going to forward some pictures to Bill Rogers and he will put them together with some video that he did and then he will post a video of the rally on uTube. It would be good if other attendees can email their pictures to me so that I can have more options for the pictures I include. While photos and video's are great, actually being there is much better so start thinking about attending a future rally.
See you there! |
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Elite Veteran
Location: Medford, OR | Yeah Terry, my coach can't wait to see yours again. I can give a rats a$$, but #850 is going to make the trip to your place or near the WA/Canada border one of these days....I guess I'll go too....lol |
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Elite Veteran
Location: Victoria, BC. Canada | Yeah Danno' - best hang on tight to dat' bitch when she decides to head north; sometimes it seems we're just 'along for the ride'. One of my issues is keeping my foot out of it. At the helm of an FMC, it just feels natural to be blowin' past sh#t. Might be the end of me...
Lemme' know if you decide to do something with your seat backs we talked about; maybe I can help some.
Terry
#846 |
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Veteran
Location: Olympia, Washington | Good recap Dan almost felt like I was there except for the tripping in the dark part. |
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Expert
Location: Cottage Grove, OR | George, we missed your lanterns! |
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Elite Veteran
Location: Medford, OR | That’s why know body tripped over those boulders two years ago!! George had us a lantern at every picnic table. |
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Expert
Location: Cottage Grove, OR | I have put together a photo album for the recent rally at Caseys Riverside RV Park in Oak Fir, Oregon. Have look to see what we do and how we enjoy ourselves.
Be at the next rally that you can get to and you will have an enjoyable and educational time as we did at this rally.
Here is the link to the photo album in the Album section of this site: http://fmcowners.com/mbbs22/photos/photo-thumbnails.asp?albumid=190
Please note that Bill Rogers took some video's at the rally and will be posting an edited video to uTube. When that is competed, we will post a link to it here so standby. |
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Elite Veteran
Location: Victoria, BC. Canada | Excellent pics as usual Stephen! Already looking forward to the next one.
Terry
#846 |
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Expert
Location: Cottage Grove, OR | I am glad that everyone liked the picture album on this site that is linked above. As promised, Bill Rogers put together a video of the rally location and scenes from the rally. The video is posted on YouTube at the following location: https://youtu.be/EEXebUKArqQ
Our thanks to Bill!
Enjoy!,
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West Coast Fall Rally: Oct 12-15 in Oregon
