Ongoing Progress

For those who have not received previous notes, the hydroplane trailers' hydraulic rams failed just before we were suppose to go the Hayden Eagles car show. We could raise the boat to take it to the car show, so we took it over there off tilt (it made the boat and trailer 10.5' wide). After the car show I took off the two hydraulic rams and the hydraulic pump. We found a local business that could fix them. So off to Coeur d'Alene tractor for repairs. They re-built everything.

 

Today's opportunity was to re-install the hydraulic pump and the two hydraulic rams. The test went successful and both rams went UP the exact amount Both raised the front and back rams 14".

 

Now we are testing to make sure the hydraulic pump has stopped leaking after being re-built.

 

If you are interested in watching the unlimited hydroplane races in Seattle this week-end, you can go to http://www.kirotv.com/index.html. They will be streaming video this week-end (mainly Sunday starting @ 9:00 am)

 

Today we picked up the TWO newly rebuilt hydraulic trailer rams and the newly rebuilt hydraulic pump motor. Coeur d' Alene Tractor stepped right up and did us a great service.

 

The good news, the parts were only $20, but the labor was a little more (but still MUCH less then buying ONE new ram).

 

It only took them a week to fix all three items back to brand new (internally anyway, they still look original on the outside... LOL).

 

Tomorrow I will start installing all the stuff and then test. Cross your fingers.

 

If the repairs work (which I have NO doubt they will work GREAT), I won't have to tow it down the road like I did to the car show the other day (the boat was 1.5' wider then the motorhome). I used one + lanes to tow the boat over to the car show..... LOL

 

Today's car show (cleverly disguised boat show) was a perfect day weather wise. Josephine showed well and the boat showed very well.

 

It was nice having the MH there to get out of the sun and to have a summer refreshment (in a plastic glass, disguised as Pepsi).

 

We lit the motor towards the end of the show and several people came running over to see what was happening. They loved that little V6.

 

We towed the boat over off tilt, I used most of all the lane.

 

In talking to several people about the boat trailer hydraulic ram, we found a couple of local places who can either repair and replace with a new one. Tomorrow I remove the broken ram and start making phone calls.

 

We were visited by many of our local friends. It was great fun. Thank you to those who came out to the show.

 

On your mark, get set and ready - GO !!!!!

 

Jason came out and finished the paint repair work today. I attached the NEW aluminum piece and WE ARE READY TO GO !!!!!!!!! To the Hayden Eagles Auto Show this week-end. Both Josephine and the Express will be attending with all the Pride we can muster.

 

After packing up and leaving Saturday to help deliver Dan's boat to Seattle, Jason was left her to fend for himself. After arriving back home we went out to inspect his work and WOW, it blended very nice.

 

Then my computer CRASHED and almost everything was lost (again). Thanks to Kathy, Scott and Del all the recent pictures have been recovered. I guess the semi good news is, I took the opportunity to upgrade to a free copy of Vista that we got from Gateway when we purchased this PC.

 

I don't understand, but not all the things that worked before on this PC, now don't (it won't load pictures off my digital camera stick now). So I use Kathy's old PC and cut a CD to move the files over to this PC. I'm sure one day I will figure out what's going on, but right now I have bigger fish to fry - mow the lawn, take a shower, eat dinner. It will bubble up one day as a higher priority.

 

It took about 24 hours for me (us) to restore the pc. This is the second time in a month that I have toasted this PC. The first time I was doing a search on Google, it hit me with a Trojan horse virus.this time I was doing a search on Yahoo and again I was hit with a Trojan horse virus. The new Vista software supplies Bing - hopefully this crap will STOP !!!!!!!!!