A Flxible bus conversion, the original Family Motor Coach

The FMCA 50th Anniversary Rally (Family Reunion & Motorhome Showcase) kicked off with seminars starting at 8:00 AM.  We attended a seminar at 11:45 AM on the Aqua-Hot hydronic heating system.  The speaker was supposed to be from the factory, but didn’t make it, so a tech out of Arkansas stepped up and winged it.  Lloyd Degerald did a good job, and we now have a better understanding of what factory recommended annual preventative maintenance should include, and why it should be done annually.

Basically, it has to do with the properties of diesel fuel, which require that filters be changed and the burner nozzle replaced on a regular basis.  The filters were obvious but the nozzle wasn’t.  The nozzle has a very small orifice that atomizes the fuel under pressure and spays it into the combustion chamber.  It is subject to clogging and wear, both of which alter its ability to properly atomize the fuel.  This can happen both from overuse and underuse.  Besides changing parts, the best preventative maintenance appears to be regular, but not excessive, use of the unit.

We then attended a seminar by Mike Wendlend on “Sharing Your Travels On The Internet.”  Mike was a long-time reporter for the NBC TV affiliate in Detroit, Michigan, so we were familiar with his work.  He retired recently, and now travels with his wife in a RoadTrek Class B and reports on their travels.  He is FMCA’s official traveling reporter and does a monthly column for FMC Magazine.  He also does a weekly segment that is fed to all of the NBC TV affiliates.  But most of his time/effort seems to go into his online presence.  He uses a lot of technology tools, but we were particularly interested in his self-hosted use of WordPress with his own domain name, as this is what we are setting up.  He did not go into much detail about the workings of WordPress, but there are lots of videos available on YouTube for that purpose.

Although warm today (it reached the upper 80’s) it was pleasant outside due to the 25+ MPH winds out of the ESE.    We hung around the coach, keeping the cats company, until 5:30 PM, when we headed over to the new coach display area for the Motorhome Preview.  We ran into Pat & Vicky Lintner again, who told us that Jon Walker had won election as National VP at the Governing Board meeting that afternoon. (Charlie Addcock was elected National President).  Jon is another long-time member of the Great Lakes Converted Coaches chapter and was our national director before becoming the Great Lakes Area Vice-President, and President of the Great Lakes Area Motorcoach Association (GLAMA, which is still part of the FMCA structure).

Upon returning to our coach we discovered that the head of our “ET” light (roof-mounted remote-controlled searchlight) had come loose from the base and was laying on the roof behind it.  We have no idea when this happened.  The winds here have been strong, but not as strong as driving 65 MPH on the highway.  We got the Little Giant ladder out, opened it to full extension configuration, and I went up to investigate.  Not good.  There are cables inside the base that go through the roof and the holes are not sealed.  There is a retaining ring inside the base that attaches to the head (from inside) with 4 screws.  All of the screws had come loose and were lying in the bottom of the base, with the head unit only being retained by the wiring.  To reattach the head to the base you have to remove the base from the roof.  That’s really not good.  The base is retained by three screws and (hopefully) sealant/adhesive.  How much?  Who knows?  Also, the coach was repainted with the whole thing in place, so the paint is continuous from roof to base.  I set the head back on the base and wrapped the joint with green Frog Tape until I could figure out how to remove the base and fix it properly.