Wow, what a change. Good for you! Good luck with your journey!

 

Best Wishes Jarhead! Keep us posted, when you can! Good Luck!

 

Wow Honeybear!! you did score and in combination with your labour you seem to have life sussed. I think you will have a GREAT year and no doubt will find numerous nuggets along with some really wonderful times.

 

Can I come?

But seriously, I was gearing up to make a big warning post about the age of the tires. Sounds like a good deal on the newer ones. However, you need to check for the 4 digit date on them.

http://www.ehow.com/how_4621263_read-tire-date-codes.html

5 years and older and you're taking a chance on blow outs due to lost elasticity.

Wish you the best!



Sierra Dave

 

But seriously, I was gearing up to make a big warning post about the age of the tires. Sounds like a good deal on the newer ones. However, you need to check for the 4 digit date on them.

http://www.ehow.com/how_4621263_read-tire-date-codes.html

5 years and older and you're taking a chance on blow outs due to lost elasticity.

Wish you the best!



Sierra Dave

Thanks Dave, I too am quite anal about the date stamp on tires and the newer ones that I swapped out to are only 4 years old and on the road for 2. They are undoubtedly much safer than a set of two decade old tires. As a one time Firefighter/EMT I showed up to too many MVA's with tire separation and blowout as their cause so I am always on the lookout.

I figure they have a few thousand miles left in them then I will try to yet again score another set.

Everyone should check their tire's date stamp I think...

 

God bless you and protect you on your journey.

 

Thanks for your well wishes guys... Lord knows that I will need them.

Damn shame I tell ya... Just realized that the forum must block the Adsense ads on the video embeds. Not gonna see any ad revenue from my vids unless you all kind folk can click the text link above on the video player(s) to view the vids on my channel.

As I have brought my tools along with me I will be (hope to be) building playhouses along the way for needy kids and have set up my channel to try and garner the Adsense pennies. I know that it isn't much but one day I hope to be able to travel the road and have the ads help pay for my fuel expenses. Set up a Google search page on a website of mine that sits idle until the economic rebound for helping in that if any of you are interested in using it for a while as your default search engine. (every click through on the ads in the results helps a bear out)

http://www.honeybearplayhomes.com/honey-bear-search.php

Gonna design an advert to place on the motorhome to guide those who see me drive down the road to that page. I hope that if it doesn't cost them anything that they might use the search and in doing so move me a few feet further down the road with their clicks.

If any of you care to subscribe to my channel I plan on taking vids of my journey and uploading them as I go.

 

Good find & good job cleaning it up! I'm envious. : Good luck in your travels.

 

Hey Honey Bear check out my Gold Prospectors United group page. Might help you find some areas where you might have some good luck panning.

 

Thanks txplowgirl

I have been to a good number of the Washington locations on your WA page in the past. This time, I think that I am gonna pony up the $70 bucks for a GPAA membership to see if they have any good spots to pan along my journeys to add to the open sites that I will hitting. I am pretty sure that I won't run out of places to prospect.

I just need to build that trailer hitch mounted sand filter to fit it inline between my motorhome and the river. I have one 30 gallon open top barrel to fill with sand which feeds into another 30 gallon reservoir for bleach treating and one 5 gallon bucket filled with activated charcoal to then hit an inline water filter before it makes it to my 100 gallon water tanks in the coach. Been a while since I last built one but the water as I recall tasted better than at home.

 

Best of luck to ya, if you're going north there's a big ham meetup and picnic at Byer's lake campground between Anchorage and Fairbanks July 28-Aug1. Lotsa like minded people from those I've talked to. Forget California. Slap some 1/4" hardware cloth on that windshield and go for it...

 

Thanks... Yeah, if I had the cash for gas I would surely head up north but as I don't I plan to mosey from the mountains of the Wennachee forests of Washington to find my way in California for the Winter. Making my 14 day stops along the way here and there.

If I was in a convoy of fellow RVers on a gravel road then I would surely place a rock guard from the metal bumper to the metal roof to keep my windshield and headlights safe.

Alaska is too late in the season for me to begin the trip from the lower 48. I don't have the cash nor the gear needed to survive that trip. Maybe next year perhaps...

 

Oh!

Add a secret cut off switch to the gas flow. And hide a key very well on the outside somewhere. Maybe on the roof.


Sierra Dave

 

Add a secret cut off switch to the gas flow. And hide a key very well on the outside somewhere. Maybe on the roof.


Sierra Dave

Good idea about the key but I beat you to it and last month hid the key to one of my outside storage bins on the coach in a rather difficult place to reach unless you have arms that are as long as mine (I'm 6' 7") and in one of the bins I hid one key to the door deadbolt in another bin I hid one key to the main door lock. If one was lucky enough to locate all three of those keys and gain entry then they have to locate the ignition key that I hid elsewhere inside the coach. Pretty much a hide and seek from hell to the poor bastard who tries. I reckon that they would if they really wanted to simply break in and try to hotwire it. If that happens they will run into the alarm set to the door with a pretty wicked set of horns and if that ain't enough the kill switch to the ignition relay might keep them from trying to move the bus.

Couldn't kill the fuel line with a switch as it is mechanical but I am looking for a shut off valve that I can inline along the 30 feet of fuel line. Additionally, when I can source and or afford the steel plate I plan on boxing over/in my 100 gallon fuel tank to keep those who would try to puncture a hole to drain it from even reaching it without a good deal of work. No way to protect the fuel lines though once they bust the boxed in tank's new bulkhead. Fuel lines are easier for me to repair so if it was a toss up between the tank and the line I would rather it be the line. I'm thinking that when it comes time to do the tank reinforcing I might just simply add the inline cut off somewhere in the boxed in area to make the lines beyond useless should they cut them to access the fuel. Maybe a key type shutoff that would be a 1/4" hole in the sheet metal with a square bolt valve stem in the middle to keep them from realizing what it was. Have to do that twice, one for the engine line and one for the generator line.

Might seem like overkill but I had a friend who lost a full tank ($500+) of fresh gas in one night when they camped out down in Slab City one year and somebody drained the tank right underneath them while they slept. Then another friend who bottomed out right onto his tank and ripped a sizable hole to which he lost all of his fuel before he got it patched. That was a long walk out of the mountains he said and as I will be spending a good deal of time off road it seems like a pretty good idea to reinforce it as best I can before I ever run into such an event. Even as remote of a chance as it is I want to protect me, my coach and my limited financial resources if I can.

Now if I can only find the hardware to make my engine run off my LP tank I will be set. I have yet to source the kit for that yet.

You can't go wrong with the GPAA. I've been a member of theirs for the last 6 years. The mining guide that you get is worth every penny.
Good luck on your journey.

Good to know about the GPAA being worth the money. Plan on signing up on Monday.

Really great find (I'm VERY envious) and great work fixing it up.

Good luck this year. Just remember us little people when you are rolling in gold money!

and

I am positively green with envy. What a wonderful magnificent fantastic event in life. I hope you have a wonderful time and find tons of gold. The very best of British to ya!!

It is gonna take a very good day to ever fill up my 100 gallon fuel tank so I too hope that I find enough gold to do that occasionally. Gonna test out a few of my personally designed/built sluices to increase my odds. I am realistic in the possibility that I may never find gold but thankful that I have the motorhome and the food to keep me sheltered and fed for the next few years at least. Maybe do some fishing and trapping for small game along the way. I can smoke what I catch in my DIY ammo can stove with built in smoking tray to make my catch last longer.

That reminds me, I need to can some bacon, chicken and hamburger meat this weekend. Imitation soy meat is not something that I would enjoy for the duration of my trip.

I am mulling over the idea of seeking out a traveling companion for my trip to help pay for fuel expenses. Gonna place an ad on Craigslist as a feeler to see if I get any possible candidates.

 

Really great find (I'm VERY envious) and great work fixing it up.

Good luck this year. Just remember us little people when you are rolling in gold money!

 

I am positively green with envy. What a wonderful magnificent fantastic event in life. I hope you have a wonderful time and find tons of gold. The very best of British to ya!!