A bunch of my friends in the Wanderlodge Owner's Group get together at Maxton for the time trials.  I had planned to pickup the bus to coincide with this event.

I called Covington's on February 9th, and let them know that I would be there on the 31st of March.  I asked if the bus was ready to go, they said yes, the new compressor built air and the bus was ready to go. I told them about the trip I planned to make, with my family to Maxton after picking up the bus.  I asked them to please road test the bus to see if there was anything else that needed to be done in order for the bus to be safe to drive.

I called again on Monday the 27th of March, to remind them that I would be there to pick the bus up on Friday, the 31st.   I asked if it had been road tested, they said it had, and I requested that they make one final check to make sure the bus was road-ready.  I again related my travel plans and that we would be traveling to Maxton, then back up north to Detroit with my family.

At the last minute, we decide that it would be just Sara, Ranzo and Me on this trip, Cassie decided to stay home.  We actually rented a Chrysler 300 to make the trip.  We left Detroit at 6:00 pm Thursday the 30th, stopped in Williamsburg, KY and slept in the car, continuing on to Knoxville, TN for breakfast at the Cracker Barrel, continuing on to Ringgold GA to pick up the bus.

We arrived at Covington's Detroit Diesel at 11:55 on the 31st.  Later than we'd hoped b us still within our timeline if all was ready.

The Eagle parked at the Pilot Travel center in Georgetown, KY

It wasn't ready to say the least.

When I went to the service office, they called one of the guys and said: "Hey--Run the jump batteries out to that Eagle bus and get it started"  I said: "Whaaaaat?, it's supposed to be road tested and ready to go"  they responded with:  "I don't know about that, it's been sitting a long while."  "When I called Monday, I was told that it was all ready to go"  I received no real reply.  They started looking for the keys, but couldn't find them.  I told them that busses, before conversion, usually don't have keys.  They said, "No I thought for sure that one had a key", but they couldn't find it.

Doug, the mechanic lucky enough to be selected to help us carted the batteries out and hooked them up then we went to start it.  Well sure enough, there was an ignition lock, but the panel was opened up.  We went back to the office but there was no key.  I started thinking about the chain of events, "Bought on EBay, Towed by third party to the shop....."  It never had a key.

When I packed for the trip, I threw in my electrical connector/tool box.  I just happened to have an extra ignition switch.  I installed it, but the "Start" button wouldn't work.  Doug hooked up his remote starter switch and cranked it over.  obviously, the injectors were dry.  He had to loosen the air cleaner coupler hose so he could get some starting fluid in there.

After a lot cranking, it started, but immediately started to run away. I dashed around Doug, and was just rounding the battery cart when the engine dropped back to idle.  Sara ran back to the rental car at the same time.  Doug was all bent over laughing so hard he couldn't contain himself.  He said:  "Where was y'all goin?"  I said--"Well, in a boat, where I am most familiar with Detroit series 71's, the emergency shutdown is at the helm station.  In the bus, it's at the driver's station."  The Whaaaat? came Doug's reply.  "You know, the Air door, Mouse-Trap, the emergency shutdown."  "Oh, Yeah" he said, but he was still laughing.  I never saw anyone laugh about a runaway 8v71 before.  Scared me for sure.

Well, at least it's running.  Sounds good too.  Not much smoke either.

We talked to Doug about where we should fuel up, he recommended Cochran's truck stop, two exits South.  I told him that's fine, we're heading south, over to North Carolina, then north up through Virginia back up north.  Doug stopped in his tracks and just stared at me, and after a moment, said "I don't know about that".  I asked "Why?"  He said "You should have seen the inside of this engine"  I said "they sent me pictures, You guys cleaned it out, right?"  "Oh yeah, we washed it all out and cleaned it up, but I'm not so sure about the condition of the engine".  I told him "In the marine world, this kind of crud in the air boxes is not uncommon, comes from idling so much".  He said, "OK, if you say so".

This brought me up short and I said, "Hey I called over a month ago asking that this be road tested, and that I was going to drive it 1500 miles or so home.  the service manager said he'd do that and it would be ready.  It's real obvious that this bus is not ready, and you have serious doubts that it'll make it.  I'm pretty concerned"  "I hear what you're saying" came the reply from Doug.

"It won't even start on it's own"

"Oh, they should come back after it runs and charges for a while'

"They should?"  (I have never seen batteries that were unused for a year and a half "Come Back")

"I can't take that chance, do you guys have batteries?" 

"Uh, no, sorry.  We don't do batteries"

"So, where do I get them"

"Same Place, Cochran's, they'll have em"

I went through a last minute check on what I needed to know to drive it, and shook hands with Doug and made ready to go.

I pulled out and exited the driveway, headed down the road, but I would have to be dead not to notice the CRUNCH-CRUNCH-CRUNCH-CRUNCH coming from the front end.  I drove under the I75 overpass, cut through the gas station and made my way back to Covington's.  I pulled into the driveway, which is steep and in my frustration, killed the engine.  I walked back up to the shop, found Doug and we went back down to jump start the thing.  He hooked up the battery, I turned on the key, and he started it with his remote key.

I told him to drive it up to the shop, and I'd roll the battery cart back up the hill.  Doug got in, put it in first gear....and killed it.  Really, that made me feel like less of a greenhorn that's for sure.  He hooked back up the jump battery, I hooked up the remote starter button and restarted the bus.  He drove it back up the hill and I caught up with him.

Doug called out the shop foreman, he looked under the coach while Doug turned the wheel back and forth.  After a while, he came out and said that he thought the inside of the wheel was rubbing on the tie rod end. "Wasn't nothing we done" I think was the comment.  By this time there were like three other guys standing out there.  They all just looked at me like I was from mars.

"Look," I said "I called over a month ago, and then just on Monday to let you know I was going to drive this 1500 miles home, it was supposed to be road tested and ready.  You got a jack?  We need to make sure it's the wheel".

One of the guys got the jack, lifted the front and sure enough, we spun the wheel and it was grinding on something on the suspension.  I asked them if they did tire work, they didn't and asked who did.  Cochran's again was the answer.  I said OK, next stop Cochran's and went on my way. 

Got to Cochran's, pulled into the fuel lane and tanked up.  Holy Cats $285.

I asked if they could take care of my tire problem, they said they could but the mechanic was just getting back from lunch.  The old guy who I would imagine is named "Cochran" had a real great southern drawl, I could barely make out what he was saying but he was clearly a guy that had many years of helping out travelers.  He asked me what the problem was, and I told him we needed to try straightening the rim, and if we couldn't we needed to see about a used rim.

He said, they could definitely do that, and he told me where to park and the mechanic would get to me shortly.  Didn't take very long at all before he had me on the jack and was taking off the wheel.  I recalled that the previous owner told me something about a mishap with a tow driver and having to have one of the wheels replace after towing it to it's resting place where I bought it outside of Atlanta.

By now, it seems unnecessary for me to say how obvious it is that Covington's never road tested the the bus.  The work we paid for to have the engine removed and replaced, is by far, by orders of magnitude the greatest expense we've had for the bus.  In addition, they knew we were going to traveling over 1,500 miles on our return home.  I'm amazed that they had no concerns about sending us off, after installing an engine without so much as the courtesy of a "Drive around the block" road test.

Unbelievable

We took some more time to install new wipers and unfortunately, they didn't have 8D batteries at Cochran's.  They said the Freightliner dealer, which is across the street from Covington's would have them.

At that time, we were ready to pull out of Cochran's it was 6:00 pm.  it would have taken about seven hours to get to Maxton.  That would have put us in at like 1:00 am.  If everything was a known and reliable condition, we would have gone.  Given the uncertainty of our situation, in a bus that hasn't been road tested, no start batteries, we thought the best course of action was to try and make it home.

 I drove over to the Freightliner dealer, but the parts guy said that 8D's are only used in busses, and they don't stock them. I decided to just keep heading North and keep checking at truck stops.

Rained real hard as soon as we got on the road.  Sara was pretty nervous in the brand new 300 at 70, but in the Eagle, it was a breeze.  Everything I've heard about Eagles' drivability truly falls short of the mark.  First stop was at the Flying J in Knoxville, TN.  Topped up to full, 11.32 gallons. at 105.9 Miles.  Holy smokes, that's 9.35 mpg, and we idled for four hours at Cochran's.  We may be getting 10mpg!  Ha d a good meal while we were there.

We headed north a while longer but the big meal took it's toll, we pulled over at the first rest area north of the Kentucky State line and slept for the night.  Remember, we had no batteries.  Idling all night long, at least six hours from 12:30 am to when we left at 6:30 am.

Stopped in Georgetown, KY, 184.2 miles fueled up 36.5 gallons. That's only 5 mpg, but remember, we idled overnight.

Stopped in Walton, KY for breakfast.  As I was parking, the Oil light came on, I checked the gauge was fluttering around ten. Nothing on the dipstick. I went inside and bought two gallons of Delo and threw them in.  Oil gauge returned to normal and there was oil on the tip of the dipstick.  Remember, I can't shutdown the engine to do a proper oil check because it won't start back up.

Sara is also complaining about the oil slick that is forming on the chase car.  I know 71 series engines have an external lubrication feature, but what level of oil consumption is normal?

We had a good breakfast at the flying J and I decided to dump a third gallon of oil in in it.  We had a long way to go.

Headed north into Ohio, stopped for a 20 minute rest break at the rest area in Monroe, OH.  Made it to Findlay, OH at 4:30 227 miles and 31 gallons of fuel.  That is 7.2 mpg, Less than before, but there were lots of hill climbing, and we did run flat out at 70+ for quite a while.  I also added another gallon of oil.

Headed for home outside of greater Motown, another 120 miles and just five miles from home, the oil gauge started bouncing.  I really had a tough time with traffic, and literally two miles from my house, the gearshift stuck between first and second, luckily it was 30mph or less for the rest of the way home, and the crazy way a Spicer 4-spd works, reverse and second are in the same position.

As soon as I got it lined up in the driveway where I wanted it, I shut it down.

Sure enough.  No Batteries

We drove a total of 636 miles, with no batteries.  Had I killed it, which in a bus with a manual transmission and ONLY FOUR GEARS would be real easy to do.  We would have been calling a tow rig.   A few old timers asked me about the bus and when I told them it had an old four-speed crashbox (Yes, no synchros) their eyes got real big and said something like "Yer kiddin me".  On any sort of an incline, I lost power big.  but the spread between third and fourth is a big jump, so even on mild hills, I'm poking along at 35-40mph in third.

Having a DDA dealer install a used engine ultimately was a bad call.  I could have had the bus towed to Detroit for five grand.  Between the used engine, the tow to Covington's and the shop bill at Covington's, we are at twice that.  I would still be OK with everything though if the bus was in road-ready condition.

It's not.  The level of slipshod work is unimaginable.  I'm going to walk around and start taking pics of everything that was slapped together, shabbily installed, or just plain not done at all.  that will be in the next installment of this ordeal that will hopefully have a happy ending.