Dory 2023 10 wks east coast to quartzsite hamfest and skoolie palooza

[joeblack5]

Howdy folks, we are already a couple of days on the road. I will upload some more from the first 5 days of our trip.

Dory is low floor city bus that I converted to take my mother, 94 and dementing, in a wheel chair to go on trips.
My mom passed several years ago and since we have taken Dory across country and back.. you can find a trip report at skoolie.net
Of our 2019 trip.

Since we expanded with another dog and chickens we decided to pull our small bus Elfie. The end date of this trip is planned in April.

Here some pics of our set up, currently in Meridian,Ms at a Wally/ Lowe's parking lot.. we need to resupply, get fuel and rest from the night drive.

Johan

 

[joeblack5]

03 jan 2023
Dory 2023 trip to quartzsite hamfest and palooza
Well at least we hope so.
Still prepping and finishing critical stuff.
Plan to leave state college,PA in the next couple of days.
Nothing is ready or tested. Don't sleep very well anymore because it feels like it is more then I can handle.

Still have to make ,finish ,install lithium batteries..finalize some stuff on the hitch.
Get different tires for the small bus..

So the crew consists of 2 adults or so it seems, two kids 10-16 , two dogs 13-1/2 and 2 and 4 chickens.

The chickens are riding in the small bus .we made a dedicated chicken run that slides out the emergency back door and sits under the bed.

 

[joeblack5]

We are going 81 south to get in hopefully better weather.
Not sure if Dory can pull Elfie up the hills so we we might uncouple at some moments.

 

[joeblack5]

This is the setup , still have to experiment with the brake buddy b vantage select.

Yesterday I got stuck on the snow so I had a good time testing the winch.
Yes the tires were bald and I was on my way to my shop to install two new tires..
Good excersize for on the road. Changed 19.5" tires by hand. Definitely some art to that.

 

[joeblack5]

10 January 2023

High noon,6 pm .. at the last moment I found a bolt embedded in the small bus ( Elfie) tire. When I fiddled with it , it started leaking air..this is a 245/70r19.5.
Good exercise with the tire irons.

Yesterday my friend Ellis pushed the spare Dory tire on the roof.
Today at the last moment I found the cover back and filled the tire with a spare airbag, low bottle jack, spare water hoses and a wheel nut torque multiplier.

Then drain the house water system to prevent frost damage and off we went 6 pm.

Just had to leave,even if it was only 40 miles, just the feeling of being on the road.
So now at the wally just east of Bedford,pa.
McD dinner, and settling in for the night. Tomorrow some re- arranging and then see if we can get south enough to be outside the frost line.

Johan

 

[joeblack5]

11 January 2023

The things you forget are corrected with the credit card.
Oh well. I forgot my thermometer that I wanted to use to measure between the lifephosphate batteries. It was freezing last night. We had a slow start.. between getting used to be on the road, the general chaos we left in, the chicken routine that needs to be developed. Problem with the batteries..

I wanted to run load range G tires on Elfie because it is a swr and the bus is around 11k lbs...so overweight.. not worried about chassis or bearings but like to have a decent amount extra capacity on the tires.. then it would be nice if they would be same as on Dory so that we would have to spares. Last, i like the way 19.5 looks on elfie.

Hanging on a rest area along 81 just north of Stanton.
Smita drove Elfie with chickens and me, Dory with kids and dogs... Did not get a bracket done for the brake buddy so we had to drive separately.. see if I can correct that tomorrow morning... Then we can see if Dory has the HP to pull Elfie.. haha... Another adventure..
The heat and blinkers failed on Elfie so Smita had a miserable time.

The lithium batteries were and are not balanced, so we made quite a bit of stops to measure the cell voltages. With the previous lead batteries I had set the alternator voltage on 14.1volt to get them to charge faster. Would have been ok with properly top balanced lithium but for now I wanted to give me a bit more leeway and reduced the voltage to 13.7 volt.

We needed to rearrange one of the bicycles that in our rush to leave ended up to inside Dory,. Stopped at a tractor supply to get Bungie cords.. then still a curtain rail was not mounted so a pile of curtains was on our couch.. well that got done today.


Not sure how far south we need to go to get into 60+ weather..20 or I 10.

 

[joeblack5]

Today was a slow day, we started a chicken routine having them outside in the grass..then I fixed the non operational heater fan.. burnt contact on the blower relay..cleaning and a spare relay did the trick.. the flashers were a bit harder.. I had replaced the original flasher with a Audi on, pin compatible it seemed. Did not work either so then wiring, hazard switch etc.. turned out the flasher after all , the Audi fits but has different use for the blades.. I was able to fix the original one.

After that I found my air hose back and checked the tires. I was relieved that they were not far off.

We drove 75 miles just above Roanoke because our oldest had a live internet Spanish presentation. We thought it better to be stable for that in case the Verizon mifi would drop out against the mountains. On the road another skoolie in blue and white curtains passed us.

This second rest area was a barrier block away from I81, so horrible. Around 3 we decide to move to Roanoke Wally before we would get caught in the rain.

 

[joeblack5]

15 Jan 2023

A quick update,. Dory pulls elfie prettie good.. in 6th gear 1700 rpm 55mph.. computer limited.

Drove partially in the night to arrive in meridian ,MS.
Last time we visited a nice industrial steam museum here but unfortunately it is temporary closed.

Now at a Wally Lowe's parking lot to give the chickens some time, refuel, resupply.

Would like to get some good used Michelin 265/70r19.5 xde2+ for under elfies rear axle.. not a very common size.

We are driving i20 if anybody knows something in there local area then please let us know.
Will stay in meridian for a couple of hours to get some sleep.
Dallas is next.

 

[shortbus4x4]

My boss went to Skooliepalooza last year to get ideas for his build, he couldn't make it this year. We did have a Skoolie in our yard this morning to get checked out by service before the owner heads south to Skooliepalooza, boss and I got a tour of it this morning.

 

[joeblack5]

There is not enough readers on this forum so I will stop this thread . We are now at yoshua tree. If interested you can follow this trip at skoolie net ...Dory 2023.
With regrets.
Johan

 

[shortbus4x4]

There is not enough readers on this forum so I will stop this thread . We are now at yoshua tree. If interested you can follow this trip at skoolie net ...Dory 2023.
With regrets.
Johan

I've been reading your updates there.