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| Belated trip report [message #326817] |
Wed, 06 December 2017 18:02  |
gibsongo
Messages: 116
Registered: October 2012
Location: Montreal West, Quebec, Ca...
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Belated Trip Report
First trip of any significance (i.e. over 500 miles) with my coach - a 1976 23" Norris Upfit with "new everything" (frame, motor, tranny, Honda EV6010, fitech, etc. etc.). Montreal to Elkhart IN for the GMCMI rally (could be the subject of a long post in itself), across Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana and up to Calgary Alberta, where I picked my wife up at the airport, then north to Jasper to visit my son who was working there. Back to Montreal through Edmonton AB, Manitoba and Ontario. All in all, 10,000 kilometers (6,000 miles) in just under 30 days. Temperatures ranging from the 80s in Illinois and Indiana to a few nights of-10 C (14 F) in Jasper. Thankfully we had good sleeping bags!
I wish I could say the trip was completely problem free, but.....then it wouldn't be a GMC would it? But by and large, things went very smoothly. I did need a tow in southern Minnesota a stuck thermostat after gassing up resulted in most of the coolant spewing out 5 miles down the road. Good Sam told me that since it was after 8 PM the best they could do was tow me to the next rest stop then I would have had to start the process over the next day - guess which membership I am not renewing next year! Luckily a friendly state trooper gave me the name of a local towing company that came quickly with a truck that was borderline too small (a bit scary but we only had 6 miles on back roads to go) and dropped me at a small garage total cost $120 ($60 for the tow, $60 for the thermostat and coolant). In Northern Alberta, I started getting some hesitation just after refueling, but I was really filling to the brim because service stations were few and far between. Once I stopped doing this, the hesitation disappeared. Other than that, some bearing noise that that surfaced in Minot ND and was with me for the rest of the trip, which turned out to be the differential the only component that didn't get rebuilt in the initial restoration process. Those big bearings are expensive!
Some observations. The engine that Frank Borrmann built (Borrmann's Garage, Bluevale Ontario) an like a top less than a quart of oil burnt in 10,000 KM. The MAC dash looks great (I have the big one the NGMC), but driving with hands at 10 and 2 mean that both the oil pressure and water temperature gauges are obscured, as well as a few other less important ones not great for the regular scan. Good thing I was using the Fitech monitoring panel which allowed me to catch thermostat problem in time and not lunch the motor. I will be giving some thought to this over the winter perhaps a digi-panel, perhaps relocating a few critical gauges and replacing them with ones that also have an alarm function.
Then finally there's the question of heat. I found that even though the AC on this coach apparently works very well compared to its peers, temperatures in the mid 80s are about as high as I can bear and still drive with a smile on my face. I know many will recommend it, but tooling down the pike with the genny running to power the roof AC is not something I want to do. My question is: how effective is window tinting at mitigating the "goldfish bowl" effect in the cockpit? Having been back from the trip for almost 2 months now, the itch of Tucson AZ in April is something I am thinking of scratching, but I'll admit that the desert has me a bit scared.
Finally, Jasper Alberta is spectacular. Jasper National park is a 10,500 sq. km. area where development is carefully controlled to preserve the stunning beauty of the area. Lots of tall snow-capped mountains (at the end of September at least), lots of wildlife (moose, elk, mountain sheep, black and grizzly bears and even the odd wolf)...and no McDs encroaching on the scenic vistas. Go you'll enjoy it!!!
Gordon Gibson
1976 23" Norris Upfit
Montreal West, Quebec, Canada
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