Camping weekend coming up!

As the long weekend approaches my preparations for a camping weekend begin in earnest.  The background is that my girlfriend shares the kids with her Ex in the summer and this year she has them for July and he gets them for August. Now they just returned from Norway last week and I promised them we’d go camping this summer.  Since there is only one weekend left in July it’s going to be this weekend in Drumheller. 

Camping on my own I can handle. 

Camping with my girl friend I can handle

Camping with the girlfriend, her three kids (yes three), her  friend and her 2 kids and potentially her husband, I am not so sure about.

Let me be clear we are not all cramming into the Westy.  I think three kids will sleep in the Westy and I’ll sleep in a tent with my girlfriend.  My girlfriend's friend and her husband and her kids will have to fend for themselves (and they don't have a Westy.. Mwaaahahahaha) 

I’m sure it will be fun but also a little chaotic. I guess the good thing is that in Drumheller there is a lot to do. Hiking, swimming in the river, the muesem, etc.    I’m just a little apprehensive because not only am I new to this camping thing (again), but also haven’t had that much experience with that many kids for so long.

 It scares the shit out of me!

So far I have had 3 different leaks in the Westy (fuel twice) and hopefully this weekend goes without a hitch as it’s the furthest so far I have ventured from Calgary in the old van.  It’s only about an hour and a half, but it’s further right?

Fuel leak… again

Well I got the leak at the front end fixed up and yes it cost me.  About $800 all in.  I’ll have to look at the invoice but it was essentially the steering control box and it couldn’t be re-built. 

Friday night I had planned to go camping out to Two Jack Lake as I was going to assist with a scuba class on the weekend.  I figured rather than drive back and forth from Calgary I’d camp and save myself some time and aggravation.  I left work @ 3:30ish on Friday afternoon and was ready to hit the road.  I drove home and started packing up the bus.  Now let me take you back to Wednesday… I was driving past the local A&W and there was a group of older cars there.  I stopped to have a look and they were as interested in the Westy as I was in the old Vette that was there.  One of the guys commented that he smelled gas… not I had just filled up the bus and a little bit of fuel splashed down the side so I thought nothing of it…   Flash forward to Friday again…

As I was packing up the back of the bus guess what I smelled…

So I looked under the bus and didn’t really see anything at first but the foam gasket that surrounds the engine compartment had a discoluoration.  I poked it with my finger and gas started flowing out.  I unpacked the van and started looking around the engine compartment with my flashlight to track down the leak.    Problem found!   It was fairly accessible and it looked like a simple repair.  So armed with a screwdriver and a piece of replacement hose I started the repair.  It took me a couple of tries to secure the hose without it leaking on me but I did it.   My first driveway repair on the Westy!!!  I’ll post pictures later on tonight or tomorrow for those of you that want to take a look and critique my repair job.

So feeling supremely confident and reeking of gas I had a quick shower, packed up the van and headed to the mountains.  I had a great weekend camping and no other problems with the Westy.  Did 4 dives over the Saturday and Sunday and helped certify 3 divers in their Drysuit specialty and 2 divers became Advanced Open water divers.   All in all good times. 

Leaking… not oil Damn it!!

I haven’t driven the Westy in a couple of days just had some things to do that required the other car.  I noticed that my driveway was getting all spotty with the leaks and such from the Westy.  I wasn’t too concerned because I KNEW I had a fuel leak, which has been fixed and I KNEW that the Westy sweats out some oil… no big deal right.

Now I noticed a spot under the front of the vehicle.  Its kinda right in the middle just in front of the tires.  I crawled under the front to have a look quickly yesterday.  I couldn’t find the source but it looks like a clear – yellowish liquid that’s coming from somewhere.  It’s also thick.  I have no idea what the hell it is. 

*****Added some pictures to give you an idea of where it's leaking from (you can see the spot on the driveway) and the approximate colour of it... yellowish. It seems to be collecting  anddripping from the towing loop on the underside****   Have an appointment to take it in to Concept1 here in Calgary on Tuesday.  Grrrrrr

I am starting to wonder if I made a huge mistake buying this thing.  Not only because I haven’t got a clue how to fix anything but also because I don’t have a garage, nor the tools to get in there and attempt anything myself.  I can’t really afford to keep taking it in to the local VW shop here and getting things fixed.  On the other hand, I have to get things fixed if I want to keep using  it… I'll try and get some pictures of it later and post them see if any of you have any suggestions.. (well my ONE faithful reader anyway)  :)

Problems in paradise

 

Good news last night I was at Lake Chaparrel here in Calgary finishing off my Assistant Instructor course for scuba diving.  So that’s done now.  It was a tough course but finally done.  Strangely it felt like a bit of a whirlwind and now all I have to do is get out there and start applying what I have been trained to do.  I managed to nail the skills… 5 out of 5 on one and 4.8 out of 5 on the other.

When I went to leave the lake I loaded all my gear in the Westy and started it up.  It started no problem but it seemed that it was idling very low and it stalled out on me.  It started again no problem but again idled low so I tried tapping the gas pedal to give it a little “Umph” but it stalled again…  grrrrr.  Third time however it started up and idled no problem and no stalls.  Hmmmm.  Not sure what would have caused this.  I’ll probably throw something up on the Samba website or the local VeeDub club and see if there are any suggestions out there. 

I feel like a bit of an idiot having to ask “what’s this for…” or “why is my Westy doing this…” but there is such a wealth of knowledge out there I may as well tap into it right?  Besides we weren’t all born experts.    I’ll update as soon as I have anything. 

WTF is this!?!

I was poking around in the engine compartment last night as I knew one a clamp had wiggled loose and needed to be tied down.  While I was in there I noticed THIS….

I had a local shop here do an inspection and nothing was mentioned but I can’t help but think that components in the engine compartment shouldn’t be held together with duct tape.  I suspect that this is part of the fuel system to handle vapour (notice the Canadian spelling) when the gas expands.  The bus runs just fine with it bodged up so I am not going to touch it for now.   Here are some more pictures as I followed the lines back a little bit.  Any thoughts / comments would be appreciated. 

Now that the door handles are replaced the next project will be the vent windows (I ordered the latch kits for the yesterday).  Should be a bit of an adventure but should be able to handle it.  Baby steps right?  I mean how hard could it possibly be?

Camping August long weekend... YAY(maybe)

I committed to this… or perhaps I should be committed for this but I am going camping to Drumheller, AB on August long weekend.  That wouldn’t be so bad in itself but it looks like there are going to be 5 kids as well.  They are already calling dibs on the top bunk in the Westy for the weekend.  As far as I know only 3 kids are staying with me in my campsite so it’s not THAT bad but the logistics are getting complicated.

Here’s why.

The kids want to sleep in the Westy.  3 kids  leaves no room for me or my girlfriend in there so we are in the tent.  Do you trust kids in there by themselves?

We could disappoint the kids and stick them in the tent but then their mother would be up all not with irrational ears of them being eaten by bears or whatever else lurks in the night.

Maybe I’ll sleep in the tent and leave the Westy for the kids and their mom…

Any thoughts?  Recommendations?  Come on faithful readers I need something here.

Green Monster vs. Green Lantern

I have no question in my mind who would win.  The Green Monster.  I went to go see the Green Lantern last night and to sum it up in a word... lame.  Now I'm no movie critic but the movie really dragged in parts and really felt like it was about an hour too long.  I am not going to spoil it for you by telling you the ending but how he defeats the main villain is really lame and anti-climactic.  That’s my two cents worth anyway.

I have to get under the hood of my bus this week.  There’s an air hose that’s rattled it’s way loose that needs to be clamped down and there’s some general tweaking that I want to do.  There’s also some strange unknown thing that’s just kinda hanging out in the engine compartment that’s held together with duct tape (I’m not kidding, apparently it was a quality repair job that was done previously).  This isn’t a picture of my engine but if you look at the top of the picture there’s that yellow hose… I think that’s it.  I’ll take a good look at it on Wednesday night and get some pictures of it. 

Other than one or two nights coming up this week there might not be too much going on here.  The Calgary Stampede starts on Friday and Wills and Kate will be here (yawn).  Oh, and I have a poker tournament on Saturday at a friend’s place.  Last year I finished a disappointing 4^th (the top 3 got paid).  This year I WILL finish in the money. 

More to come later….

Oh and before I forget, I saw pictures of the new concept camper / Westfalia.  Not bad.  Let's see if someone actually puts it into production.