Re: What work or life experience has helped you in the upkeep of your Foretravel? Reply #25 – April 22, 2013, 09:58:15 pm Wow! I feel humbled. Now I understand why this forum is so incredible. It feels comforting to be in company of such a culmination of wealth of knowlage. Thanks to all of you for sharing your knowlage.Respectfully, Phil Quote Selected
Re: What work or life experience has helped you in the upkeep of your Foretravel? Reply #26 – April 22, 2013, 10:00:59 pm The depth and breadth of on-the-job knowledge here is awesome! I feel so unworthy...I got interested in electronics at about age ten and in 1957 (14) became a ham radio operator with the callsign K7EXJ (which I never changed). Then I earned my FCC Commercial Radiotelephone licenses by age 17. After graduation from HS I went to work for the Washington Highway Department and worked for a couple of years as the "office engineer"; mostly because I could spell and write and no one else on the crew could.In the 1960s I joined the CIA and worked overseas until the 70s working first on highly sophisticated (at least back then) cryptographic equipment, radio systems, then computer systems, and more.Back in the USA I worked as an electronics engineer for a heavy equipment manufacturing outfit that was building equipment for a ship owned by Howard Hughes. That's how I became the only ex-outfit guy to work on a CIA project as a civilian. I was one of the guys manning the heavy lifting gear on the Glomar Explorer.I did many jobs for that manufacturing company including a job as production manager for their Mexican subsidiary in Mexicali, MX. Then I took a job as a subsea engineer on deep sea drill ships. My job was to maintain the "BOP Stack" which was a 2-story device designed to protect the rig from a blow out. From there I became a watchstander (deck officer) running the dynamic positioning systems which used Honeywall computers to keep the rig on station in up to 7,000 feet of water with no anchors.Once I got my USCG licenses I then worked for a series of tanker companies including Sun Shipping, Exxon Shipping, Chevron Shipping and others. Mostly on runs to Alaska and then back to the USA. Somewhere in there my wife and I built a 32-foot sailboat and spent 5 years cruising the Pacific with first one kid and then two. Back home we sold the boat and bought a farm in central Washington State where I learned that people with Unix computer skills were greatly in demand. I ended up owning a network engineer firm that we just closed down 2 years ago. But I didn't retire completely because several of my customers keep paying me to do stuff for them. In between I learned to fly power planes and gliders, did a lot of mountain climbing, hiking and backpacking, started kayaking both white water and ocean, and learned to love mountain bikes.Pretty much a typical life for those of us on this forum, I think. Craig Quote Selected
Re: What work or life experience has helped you in the upkeep of your Foretravel? Reply #27 – April 22, 2013, 10:14:55 pm Curiosity, perseverance, systems oriented, solution oriented design engineering background and a Dad who taught me that anything is possible if you work at it and are willing to ask for and accept help when you need it and recognize when that is.Here is a wealth of what we need when we ask for it. Thanks. Quote Selected
Re: What work or life experience has helped you in the upkeep of your Foretravel? Reply #28 – April 23, 2013, 08:45:45 am Gee Craig, I hope you still have time to accomplish something . What an impressive resume. Ain't it grand what can be accomplished in life if your willing to try. Love to set down with you some time and trade stories. Quote Selected
Re: What work or life experience has helped you in the upkeep of your Foretravel? Reply #29 – April 23, 2013, 09:18:07 am Humm let me see... I got nothing! see yaken Quote Selected
Re: What work or life experience has helped you in the upkeep of your Foretravel? Reply #30 – April 23, 2013, 09:40:05 am Hey Ken, if it weren't for guys like us they wouldn't need this forum Quote Selected
Re: What work or life experience has helped you in the upkeep of your Foretravel? Reply #31 – April 23, 2013, 12:09:39 pm I can think of nothing in my working life that prepared me forthe proper care and maintenance of a coach. I went to sea on cargo ships and tankers as a deckhand at a very young age. as I gained the necessary seatime I wouldreturn home to attend navigation school, and eventually Ireceived the certificates of competency for second mate, chief mate and finally master mariner. I sailed as master on severalvessels before sitting for the pilots exam. for the final 25 years of my career I worked as a coastal and harbor pilot.now I tend to think of myself as captain of my coach, but dw actslike an admiral and even the dog barks orders at me, so I guessI have come full circle and am back to deckhand. Quote Selected
Re: What work or life experience has helped you in the upkeep of your Foretravel? Reply #32 – April 23, 2013, 12:27:47 pm Quote from: Wayne Macauley – April 23, 2013, 12:09:39 pmNow I tend to think of myself as captain of my coach, but dw actslike an admiral and even the dog barks orders at me, so I guessI have come full circle and am back to deckhand.WayneThat is truly a sad story. I feel your pain buddy. Quote Selected
Re: What work or life experience has helped you in the upkeep of your Foretravel? Reply #33 – April 23, 2013, 12:54:18 pm Quote from: kenhat – April 23, 2013, 09:18:07 amHumm let me see... I got nothing! I married Steve Plus my father was a model/tool maker who believed in doing all his own maintenance and repair. Even at a young age, I was his "helper", so I was introduced to tools as a kid (I also preferred my Tonka trucks, Matchbox cars, and an Erector set to anything resembling a "girl" toy, much to my mother's dismay). I wasn't allowed to buy my first car until I knew how to change the oil and rotate the tires myself.During summer breaks from college (and then for a number of years after graduating) I worked for IBM Research and had to set up, maintain, repair, etc. the equipment I used, including vacuum deposition and electroplating equipment. I learned all about o-rings, gas distribution, the value of a Fluke 87, "volts jolt but mils kill", proper application of teflon tape, and that the squeamish should never to use a microscope as a magnifying glass to pull out a splinter (I still get woozy thinking about it - looked the size of a 2x4). Of course I'm not the one who does the work on our coach, but I do try to help where I can and know the difference between a flat-blade and a Phillips head (and a square drive) And I ask a lot of questions.-M Quote Selected
Re: What work or life experience has helped you in the upkeep of your Foretravel? Reply #34 – April 23, 2013, 01:05:37 pm Maybe not Deckhand more like Helmsman.Gam Quote Selected
Re: What work or life experience has helped you in the upkeep of your Foretravel? Reply #35 – April 23, 2013, 05:03:44 pm Well.. I suppose it all started when my "need to know" and curiosity had me at about 12 yrs. old -- taking the family mantle clock apart to see how it worked (yes - I was able to reassemble it back to working condition ). A few years later I had carefully re-built my first two-stroke engine in shop class, took it home -- and caught hell for my impatience when I fired it up in my bedroom on a can of my Mom's Aqua-Net hairspray. Yes-- windows were wide-open, but my sisters ran screaming out of the house when they heard it and saw fumes coming out from under my bedroom door ;-)By 18 I was rebuilding and restoring the mechanics of "non-runners", interesting cars (mostly British) that I bought cheap -- as I wanted something different to drive. At 20 I bought a 1967 Jaguar XKE Roadster that was mint except for a snapped exhaust cam for $1850 -- out of a garage covered with kids toys. And that moved me closer to not being intimidated by any machinery. I worked as a full-time car mechanic up to about the late 70's -- when I went back to school and entered the field of Non-Destructive Testing & Materials Science , and when Westinghouse Power Generation Service Division hired me. Other than NDT, I also learned and applied vibration analysis on large rotating machinery, infrared analysis, laser alignment, and I used to dynamically balance large turbine-generator sets ( Fossil-fueled steam, combustion turbines, large fans, gearboxes).After 4 years of that (mostly living out of a suitcase with the constant travel), I was a NDT Lab tech, and then Manager for Sundstrand Aerospace, a provider of on-board electrical, flight-control surface hydraulic components, and APU's for the Space Shuttle, B1-B, and other military fighters. After leaving that company, and starting my own application engineering and equipment sales agency I had for 14 years -- I would work on special app's and provide the instrumentation and transducers for Morton Thiokol, Toyota, Martin-Marietta, Los Alamos National Labs, the computer HDD industry, heavy mining, White Sands Missile Range, Kirtland AFB -- and many others -- always related to materials testing and/or predictive signature analysis of rotating elements to avoid catastrophic failure.I remember one trip having a noisy squirrel-cage fan in my motel room that was irritating and keeping me awake at night. So I removed the grille, and using my portable IRD 246 field unit, I balanced it to run smooth and quiet. In automotive applications, I was a consultant to Toyota when they launched their Lexus product line in the U.S. My job was to identify the source of any objectionable vibration in the large sedan -- by using NVH (Noise, vibration, harshness) technology utilizing real-time analyzers, precision microphones, and strategically placed accelerometers. I did find a problem I tracked to a bad set of heat-treated balls & ramps in the constant-velocity joints on the rear half-shafts. Once Identified -- Toyota shipped in hundreds of sets -- and would change out the owners bad ones -- at their own home if necessary. They were very..very serious about maintaining the quality in the Lexus product. Oh! -- the original problem only manifested itself under hard acceleration, between 55-58 mph -- through a slight buzz that one felt through the steering wheel. Other than that -- the car was almost ghostly quiet all the way up to the fuel-cutoff that limited it to 140 mph ( that I observed in the right seat, passing through Atlanta, the regional service director driving, and I was looking down at my analyzer spectra -- asking him "how fast are we going now?)Anyway -- my composites testing in the professional motorsports world with the company I formed called Racetech Test Group -- and my own working with the materials through my own racing of formula cars (crash repairs or improving aerodynamics) gave me more than enough knowledge to tackle the few f-glass repairs on the U300 I'm now almost done with. Electrical is probably my weakest area -- but I did learn a bit from all of those years of working as an auto mechanic, and building my own wiring harnesses for the race cars. I do wish there was something like an "Auto-Logic" unit (common these days for reading a complete set of fault codes in higher-end vehicles) for the Foretravel. Imagine one operation to read all the systems in the Coach and tell you where there were failed sensors or wiring problems!Today -- I'm assigned as a project coordinator on the Ivanpah Solar-thermal project, involved in oversight of the suppliers and manufacturers of components for the hundreds of miles of transmission towers. So -- still in materials science and testing. But as Nuclear might be spooling back up with some recent developments, I might be re-assigned as an Auditor in that industry. I've not worked Nuclear since my Westinghouse days, But -- not much has changed since then, really. We've not built a new plant here since the last constructed one I worked on -- 30 years ago.So to sum it up, I have a blending of hydraulic's/pneumatic's,dynamics of reciprocating power units, materials, suspension systems, and their failure modes to keep me a little bit less prone to getting blind-sided by the Foretravel. However -- as complex as this machine is, I really only believe I have a slight edge over other less-mechanical oriented owners.All the best,Michael Quote Selected
Re: What work or life experience has helped you in the upkeep of your Foretravel? Reply #36 – April 23, 2013, 07:30:45 pm Ken and Gayland, your both full of beans. I have seen your work. Some people have strong mechanical aptitude and others don't. I know you both are in the have half. And Michelle, you and Steve are a great pair but I know you have a better mechanical aptitude than most men I know, just like my daughter. Boy does that irritate her husband who isn't half bad himself.If you are mechanically inclined, all you need is some guidance from the more experienced Forum members to accomplish great things on a Foretravel. That's why this forum is so valuable to me. It gives me confidence and a fall back position if I need help. I wonder what the savings this forum provides its members in a year would be. Thank goodness we don't have to pay for its value. Quote Selected
Re: What work or life experience has helped you in the upkeep of your Foretravel? Reply #37 – April 23, 2013, 09:58:31 pm Dogged persistence Quote Selected
Re: What work or life experience has helped you in the upkeep of your Foretravel? Reply #38 – April 24, 2013, 12:11:04 am Kent... I am hoping to make something of myself someday. I'm kind of taken with geology right now and enjoying learning something that almost no one in this area can make a living at. But I don't have to make a living at it. Love to sit and chat. And would LOVE to see your coach!!!Craig Quote Selected
Re: What work or life experience has helped you in the upkeep of your Foretravel? Reply #39 – April 30, 2013, 12:22:21 pm Hmm. All I've got is almost 2 decades of keeping an old p30 chassis class a SOB alive and running, sort of, for the most part. That in itself was a bit of an education. The rest of whatever I've learned about vehicle maintenence comes from being hooked on stage rally, wherein you bounce a race car off the trees through logging roads as quickly as possible and expect the car to live. Doing this on a budget involves picking up a great deal of fabrication and mechanical ability whether or not you have any talent for it. Much as I'd prefer to just drive the car and have someone else put it back together, I "get" to do both ends of the deal. Although I've had a great deal of help and educating from a buddy of mine that's been in the car repair business for a long long time and who has a shop and a lift and at least one of every tool Snap-on sells. I highly recommend gathering up friends like this. Quote Selected
Re: What work or life experience has helped you in the upkeep of your Foretravel? Reply #40 – April 30, 2013, 05:20:51 pm Michelle,According to a gal that worked for me flat and phillips screwdrivers are "Plus" and "Minus" types.Keith Quote Selected
Re: What work or life experience has helped you in the upkeep of your Foretravel? Reply #41 – April 30, 2013, 05:34:56 pm Quote from: Keith and Joyce – April 30, 2013, 05:20:51 pmAccording to a gal that worked for me flat and phillips screwdrivers are "Plus" and "Minus" types.She had that backwards Quote Selected
Re: What work or life experience has helped you in the upkeep of your Foretravel? Reply #42 – April 30, 2013, 05:35:20 pm 34 years of C-130 avionics maintenance, FTs are built like airplanes. Quote Selected
Re: What work or life experience has helped you in the upkeep of your Foretravel? Reply #43 – April 30, 2013, 11:30:47 pm Spent 30 years on tuna boats, 15 as chief engineer, then 12 years as chief engineer on ocean going tugs working out of Oregon. So, at least I know ( lefty loosy, righty tighty andIt's volts that jolt and amps that clamp!) well..... Maybe a little more than that but it sure helps when I work on the coach or try and figure something out. That's MY story and I'm sticking to it! Richard B. Quote Selected
Re: What work or life experience has helped you in the upkeep of your Foretravel? Reply #44 – May 09, 2013, 09:13:34 pm I was a motorhome mechanic for 33 years, so have seen a lot of changes. Also spent 13 of those years working for foretravel in Tampa. Quote Selected
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