[AT] Glow plugs

[Dean VP]

It sure was a challenge especially when you are a dyslectic typist.   If I remember right ours was an
American brand as well.  Once I got the kerosene burning furnace working right it would heat that
whole trailer very well. It couldn't keep up with the -40 degree weather until I took it apart and got
the fuel flow adjusted right. I did that one night when it was below zero outside. In the process left
a little too much fuel in the bowl and when I lit it back up it burned really hot for a while. Since
the furnace hadn't been heating properly there was more soot in the chimney pipes than normal so when
the furnace started working right it burned that soot right out of those pipes in a big hurry. Was
waiting for the chimney pipes to glow but they never did.... Thank God. The trailer got up to 90
before the bowl burned out and things got back to normal.  In looking back on all this I don't
understand why I didn't burn something up during that cold weather.  I must be luckier than I am a
good typist!  :-)  With all the" learning experiences " I went through with that trailer in two
consecutive brutally cold winters I should have an I/Q of 180 or better.   I don't recall our furnace
being very frugal with fuel during those 26 days in a row where it never got above 0 degrees F.  As I
recall during that period we were burning close to a 55 gallon barrel of Kerosene a week.  I was one
happy camper to get away from those Iowa winters and then also get rid of that trailer and move into a
stick home.  

But apparently my IQ didn't move up much or it drifted back down over time and we purchased a 38'
long, 8' wide (did I get it right this time?) 5th wheel with four slides, new in 2006, for attending
antique tractor shows (notice tractor reference) and wintering in AZ.  That stinking RV drove me nuts
for 9 years until we finally sold it this summer. It was a upper middle class 5th wheel and based on
the price we paid for it, it should have been relatively decent. It was a 2006 Keystone Montana
3400RL.  I could spend the next two weeks writing daily stories about that piece of junk. Montana is
supposedly the highest selling 5th wheel brand in the US.  Ours must have been built the day after the
workers had spent a 3 day weekend at the Indianapolis speedway who never got to see the race. It was
built in Goshen, Indiana. Never, never will ever own another RV.  End of discussion. Everything I had
ever learned about repairing stuff came into play on that piece of junk. There was one thing I never
fixed that we found on our first trip. It was so funny I left it the way it to show at campground
story telling time. On our first trip, one of the pins came out on one of the hinges to a closet door.
I looked at that loose pin and couldn't figure out how in the world that had worked its way up  out of
the hinge. But we had so many other things to work on I just left it out since the door worked ok
without one of the three hinge pins.  Well a long time later and I mean a long time later I finally
got on top of things and took a hard look at that pin and hinge. How in the world does a pin go up and
work its way out. Got to understand the engineering aspects of this. Then a bolt of lightning hit.
And I started laughing uncontrollably.  The hinge had been mounted upside down! I left it that way
during the whole 9 years we owned the 5th wheel.  Whenever anyone in the campground would not believe
some of the things I had to fix on that 5th wheel, I would show them the upside down hinge. We would
have a good laugh and go back to our group fire and have another beer. I better not get started on my
war stories about RV's. I can honestly tell you, you would not believe some of them!


Dean VP
Snohomish, WA

If we can employ guards with guns to protect money, we can and should employ guards with guns to
protect people. Bernard Goldberg.


-----Original Message-----
From: at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com [mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com] On Behalf Of
Indiana Robinson
Sent: Sunday, December 27, 2015 5:22 AM
To: Antique tractor email discussion group
Subject: Re: [AT] Glow plugs

"a 42' wide 8' long trailer"

Dean, that trailer must have been a bear to get down the highway...
:-)  :-)  :-)
I recall most of those freeze problems (Learning experiences) in 1961 at
the BSU campus trailer park. The sewer line ran almost straight down but
would still freeze with a trickle of water. The first time it froze was due
to a slow leak from the commode flap valve. It was worse because it
happened with nobody home and caused a minor flood.
That trailer was a 1956 8'x45' American. Very well made unit. Most of the
neighbors trailers of that time period just had those little trailer oil
stoves. While they put out a lot of heat you could freeze out at the ends
of the trailer. That American had a furnace with heat ducts running to both
ends of the trailer and an adjustable heat outlet at the bathroom. It was
always warm all over and used very little oil to heat it.
The park was very long and narrow and had a utility building near the
center not far from us. It had nice bathrooms with big showers on one end
and a good sized coin-op laundry room at the other. Back then there were
still a couple of trailers there that didn't have any kind of bathroom in
them at all. One was one of those small old masonite trailers painted with
aluminum paint from the 1940's or before. For some reason they ended up
being placed down at the far end of the park about 1/8th of a mile from the
bathrooms. I felt so sorry for those people... We had a full bath but
small. As long as the weather was good I usually took showers at the
bath-house. Big showers and a water heater that wouldn't quit. I also took
a lot of showers at the PE building especially in hot weather. I paid a
tiny towel fee and could just walk in and take a shower, then swap my towel
for a clean dry one, stick it in my locker and go back to the next class.
Dang, that has been a long time ago...

-- 
-- 

Francis Robinson
aka "farmer"
Central Indiana USA
robinson46176 at gmail.com
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