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Apr. 3rd, 2007 01:25 pmOk, so the whole story so far...
Yesterday, i woke up at about 10am to go get the RV-thing. I got my dad's girlfriend to come along, so she could bring back the Safari, and i would drive the RV. I got there, the guy had gotten the RV back on the road, it was licensed and all, everything seemed good.
We drove it to the SAAQ (DMV-equivalent here) after a test drive, the RV was running really well. Rather rough and different to drive, due to the lack of power brake, power steering, or power anything, really. The only thing that annoyed me was that there seemed to be a bit of slack in the steering, and the shifter for the transmission didn't quite click in place. But the two weren't major problems, just a bit annoying.
Due to the purchase process taking a bit longer, i sent my dad's girlfriend home early, since she had to be back in time for her work. So i finished the purchase alone, went over all the features of the van, and paid for it.
Started driving home, things went really well. I found out the thing went faster than i expected, i thought i was doing only 50mph, then i noticed that the speed indicator was stuck at 50mph... I also had the fuel level indicator near zero. I wasn't sure if it was broken, or really near empty, so i decided not to take a chance and go fill it up.
Fought a bit with those odd fuel caps with key locks on them. Eventually got them to open, filled up, setup the laptop to give me an actual speed reading based on the GPS and all. Then went on my way again. Noticed something falling off the truck, stopped, noticed that it was that gas tank cap... I apparently failed to put it back on properly. Meh... I'll get an easier, non-locked in a weird way one.
Then after a few more miles, the engine started to sound a bit weird, as if wasn't firing on all cylinders, and the truck started slowing down. Shifted into neutral, went back to normal, kept going. Then it started slowing down again.
Did it a few times again, then it wouldn't quite run unless i pumped the pedal a few times. And in the end, it just didn't start. Messed with the dual tank fuel switch, it started up again for about 30sec, ran perfectly fine, i got it into gear, started going... Then it died again.
At that poinr, i called the guy who had sold it to me. He said didn't understand what happened, told me how to switch the fuel tanks, told a few other things to tried. No results.
Eventually, he gave me the phone number of a few garrages in the surrounding area. Almost none were equipped to work on it, or had towings. Finally, i found one, they sent over a platform to bring me somewhere. Since i had nowhere to go, they didn't bring me back to Richmond, the city where i got gas, since there was barely nothing there, not a place for me to spend the night.
They brought me to Drummondville instead, which is a bit larger, but not so much either. The guy wanted to drop the van at a canadian tire, since they usually stay open late. But as soon as we pulled into the parking, the manager ran out to tell us to take the van away, that they weren't equipped to work on the weird mechanic of those, and blah.
No matter how we tried to explain that it's just a ford 302 and built just like an old econoline, they didn't even want to look at it. So after a few phonecalls, we found another place not too far, that specialises in trucks and vans.
So they droppped the RV there. Towing cost me about 150$ there. The place at least seems rather decent, they do SAAQ inspections and also are CAA-recommended, so i think i can trust them. Might not be cheap, but i think they'll do a decent job.
Sadly, they're apparently the big place in town everyone recommends, so it's quite busy. They told me they'd try to check it during the night if they had time, otherwise it would have to wait until today.
Since i had nowhere to go, they first offered to give me a car for the night so i could go somewhere. But they had none left, so one of the guys gave me a ride to a nearby Motel when testdriving a semi truck. That part was kinda awesome, it was one of those huge one with a full sleeper cab and very new. Very impressive...
The motel was weird. They had some kind of addiction to inscense and perfumes of all kinds. The room cost me 80$ for a night. Wasn't too bad, but meh... Would have been happier with something closer to the rates i got off hotwire.
The perfumes and all obviously gave me a migraine after not too long. In addition to all the stuff going on during the day, it didn't surprise me. I also panicked a bit after being unable to find my bluetooth transmitter. Didn't want to be stuck net-less...
I manged to get food. They had a place that was supposed to be really good, so i ordered from there. They kinda sucked, actually. Poutine without much cheese, vegetable pizza almost had canned broccoli and carrots, but i remembered to ask and got them removed.
After that, i eventually tried to sleep.
Woke up again at 1-2am, not exactly sure when. Nocturnalness kicked in... I just chatted a bit and finally went back to sleep again at around 5am. Woke up again at 9-10am, finished what leftovers i had, packed up, and started wandering.
I went to get more food after finding out the garrage wasn't open yet, then went back... Now i'm at the garrage, they didn't manage to check the thing yet. I talked to the guy, and they said they'd check it at 2pm, so i'm waiting... I'll have to head downtown soon after that to catch my train, or a bus, or something to get home.
I work later today...
Yesterday, i woke up at about 10am to go get the RV-thing. I got my dad's girlfriend to come along, so she could bring back the Safari, and i would drive the RV. I got there, the guy had gotten the RV back on the road, it was licensed and all, everything seemed good.
We drove it to the SAAQ (DMV-equivalent here) after a test drive, the RV was running really well. Rather rough and different to drive, due to the lack of power brake, power steering, or power anything, really. The only thing that annoyed me was that there seemed to be a bit of slack in the steering, and the shifter for the transmission didn't quite click in place. But the two weren't major problems, just a bit annoying.
Due to the purchase process taking a bit longer, i sent my dad's girlfriend home early, since she had to be back in time for her work. So i finished the purchase alone, went over all the features of the van, and paid for it.
Started driving home, things went really well. I found out the thing went faster than i expected, i thought i was doing only 50mph, then i noticed that the speed indicator was stuck at 50mph... I also had the fuel level indicator near zero. I wasn't sure if it was broken, or really near empty, so i decided not to take a chance and go fill it up.
Fought a bit with those odd fuel caps with key locks on them. Eventually got them to open, filled up, setup the laptop to give me an actual speed reading based on the GPS and all. Then went on my way again. Noticed something falling off the truck, stopped, noticed that it was that gas tank cap... I apparently failed to put it back on properly. Meh... I'll get an easier, non-locked in a weird way one.
Then after a few more miles, the engine started to sound a bit weird, as if wasn't firing on all cylinders, and the truck started slowing down. Shifted into neutral, went back to normal, kept going. Then it started slowing down again.
Did it a few times again, then it wouldn't quite run unless i pumped the pedal a few times. And in the end, it just didn't start. Messed with the dual tank fuel switch, it started up again for about 30sec, ran perfectly fine, i got it into gear, started going... Then it died again.
At that poinr, i called the guy who had sold it to me. He said didn't understand what happened, told me how to switch the fuel tanks, told a few other things to tried. No results.
Eventually, he gave me the phone number of a few garrages in the surrounding area. Almost none were equipped to work on it, or had towings. Finally, i found one, they sent over a platform to bring me somewhere. Since i had nowhere to go, they didn't bring me back to Richmond, the city where i got gas, since there was barely nothing there, not a place for me to spend the night.
They brought me to Drummondville instead, which is a bit larger, but not so much either. The guy wanted to drop the van at a canadian tire, since they usually stay open late. But as soon as we pulled into the parking, the manager ran out to tell us to take the van away, that they weren't equipped to work on the weird mechanic of those, and blah.
No matter how we tried to explain that it's just a ford 302 and built just like an old econoline, they didn't even want to look at it. So after a few phonecalls, we found another place not too far, that specialises in trucks and vans.
So they droppped the RV there. Towing cost me about 150$ there. The place at least seems rather decent, they do SAAQ inspections and also are CAA-recommended, so i think i can trust them. Might not be cheap, but i think they'll do a decent job.
Sadly, they're apparently the big place in town everyone recommends, so it's quite busy. They told me they'd try to check it during the night if they had time, otherwise it would have to wait until today.
Since i had nowhere to go, they first offered to give me a car for the night so i could go somewhere. But they had none left, so one of the guys gave me a ride to a nearby Motel when testdriving a semi truck. That part was kinda awesome, it was one of those huge one with a full sleeper cab and very new. Very impressive...
The motel was weird. They had some kind of addiction to inscense and perfumes of all kinds. The room cost me 80$ for a night. Wasn't too bad, but meh... Would have been happier with something closer to the rates i got off hotwire.
The perfumes and all obviously gave me a migraine after not too long. In addition to all the stuff going on during the day, it didn't surprise me. I also panicked a bit after being unable to find my bluetooth transmitter. Didn't want to be stuck net-less...
I manged to get food. They had a place that was supposed to be really good, so i ordered from there. They kinda sucked, actually. Poutine without much cheese, vegetable pizza almost had canned broccoli and carrots, but i remembered to ask and got them removed.
After that, i eventually tried to sleep.
Woke up again at 1-2am, not exactly sure when. Nocturnalness kicked in... I just chatted a bit and finally went back to sleep again at around 5am. Woke up again at 9-10am, finished what leftovers i had, packed up, and started wandering.
I went to get more food after finding out the garrage wasn't open yet, then went back... Now i'm at the garrage, they didn't manage to check the thing yet. I talked to the guy, and they said they'd check it at 2pm, so i'm waiting... I'll have to head downtown soon after that to catch my train, or a bus, or something to get home.
I work later today...
