More Bus Stuff

More Bus Stuff

We are still trying to figure out the glitches on the bus, with new glitches rearing their ugly faces too. I walked to the front of the bus Wednesday morning and there was dash light illuminated that is never on without the key being on. What in the world does that mean?

The light did not seem as bright as it normally is so during a break in the near constant rain, I took my voltage meter outside to check the voltage on the batteries. This is a 24 volt system and they should read above 25 or 26 for the big diesel to turn over. They were under 17!

I was looking at things in the engine compartment Monday trying to see if anything was out of order that might have caused the other temporary glitches. I checked the voltage then and it was a shade under 25. That is a little low, but I did not think much about it.

Going down to 17 volts in two days means either a major drain on the batteries OR that a cell in one of the batteries has gone bad during all the stress on them the last few weeks. I replaced these batteries during tent revival in London, Kentucky in August of 2014. They are good NAPA batteries and I expected to get 5 years out of them. They have cranked the bus 4 years and 6 months so it may be time to replace them.

August 2014

I installed a 24 volt smart charger when I replaced the batteries in 2014 and I am using it for the first time now. Hopefully, these will charge overnight and crank the bus Thursday morning. IF the bus cranks, I will monitor the batteries during the day Thursday to see if they are going down. It would be better to change them next week in Ellisville where there is a good NAPA store. Plus it is raining cats and dogs here.

IF the batteries do not take a charge overnight and the bus will not crank, then I will do whatever has to be done. Oh yeah, owning a bus is more fun than you can imagine sometimes.

I do have some good news. We have Good Sam Roadside Service for the bus, which is similar to AAA except for RVs. I called them the night of our breakdown north of Houston after Prevost had a well qualified tow company on their way to us. I was hoping Priority towing was on Good Sam's provider list, but they were not.

We were ready to get off the side of I-45 as quickly as possible so I had a decision to make in a hurry.

I could take a chance and wait on Good Sam to dispatch a truck that may be way to small with a driver under qualified or allow Priority Towing to do the job. I decided to stick with the recommended professionals and then I applied for reimbursement consideration from Good Sam the next week.

I honestly did not have much hope that Good Sam would come through. My brother checked the mail at home Wednesday and there was a check from Good Sam for the full amount of the tow! Wow! Praise the Lord!

We had already set aside the money to pay the credit card charge for the towing and now we can put that money back into our regular budget, maybe for batteries. I am sure that Kelly Jo would like to put the reimbursed money into her vacation fund, but no can do.😀

More good news, we are having a great revival this week at Cedar Creek. Hey, that is the whole reason we do all of this and that makes it all worthwhile.

Thank you for dropping in today.

Davy