In this video I talk about how cold it has been and our recent weather event. It was a good one. We got 7 inches of snow here at Okierover Base Camp. We had a couple of days with temps in the low teens and 24 hours of single digit temps.
I never really thought about it but I have 120°F (49°C for the people who have never landed humans on the moon) of temperature variation in the course of all four seasons.
In this video I briefly talk about the Pawnee Bill Ranch and Museum. They have a reenactment of a real Wild West Show each summer.
I also talk about a now defunct Chevy dealership in Pawnee, Oklahoma. Moss Chevrolet was in business from 1941 to 1966.
An advert in the Pawnee Bruin Yearbook from 1952.
Relax…it’s not a real wolf pelt.
Thanks for reading, like, subscribe, tell your friends, and Happy Rovering.
My buddy Mr. Fisher came over to bring some used tools over for my grand kids to play with. He replaced his old tools with new ones with more modern batteries and technology.
We talk about my lights and reminisce about trips and gear in this longer than normal video.
In this post I rough-in the wiring for the lights on the outside of the Big White Bus. My plan is to have external lighting that I can control from the comfort of the sleeping area in the back of the Range Rover Classic.
I have selected the lights I’m confident will provide the light I might need… setting up camp, entertaining guest and generally lighting up the exterior so I can see any threats that might be lurking while I relax in the the comfort of the sleeping area.
Three of these strategically placed on the roof rack should be sufficient lighting. There is a a minor concern about how the wiring will go from the lights back into the sleeping area. The wire I bought has a significant shield. I sorted out how they should run past the D pillar beauty panel.
I think it will work the way I have it, but if not, I will cut the beauty panel to accommodate the wires. I had a thought to run the wires through the tubing on the roof rack. The thickness of the shielding will likely prevent that. I also didn’t have black zip ties. So I’ll have to source those to complete the wiring.
That’s the gist of it for this week. I do explain my recent absence from posting videos. I have had a few weeks of medical issues that all culminated into a possible muscle tear or pull in my abdomen. I then had family over for Thanksgiving, then I reinjured myself helping Mrs. Okierover’s cousin with a tree that would have fell on his rent house. I then got bronchitis and it has been a battle to beat that. Better living through chemistry.
Congrats to the Midshipmen as they defeated the Cadets of Westpoint in a thrilling football game. My first Army/Navy game was on TV when I was probably 11 years old (1975, Navy won). I had just begun to enjoy college football. I was watching the game on my black and white TV in my room. My dad walked by and I asked, “Who do we route for in the Army Navy game?” Dad said, “Always Navy.” That should have been obvious but I was only eleven and didn’t have a full grasp of the universe at that age. I know, shocking. My dad served in the Navy when, “Ships were wood, and men were iron.” That was 1947-1950. Sailors learned knots and morse code and nautical things subjects no squids today learn. My uncle also served with my dad on the USS Wiltsie. Uncle Bob lied about his age and joined when he was 16 years old. Epic. Dad was 19 years old. They fought the Chinese communists during the Chinese Civil War.
Thanks for all the emails and messages checking on me. I’m getting better every day.
Well…I’ve been away. Maybe you noticed. I’ve had some medical issues this September. I’ve had some issues that first looked like a back injury. I thought I was getting better but then I took an overland trip. Mr. Fisher and Mr. Obermiller and I took in a couple of sections of the Oklahoma Adventure Trail. The goal was to overland toward the Northeast part of the state to attend the Overland Expo in Jay, Oklahoma.
The trip was good. Lots of gravel roads. One section was pretty rough and was more like rock crawling. We slowed down to 5mph to keep from rattling the body panels off. We had a plan to get to Mr. Fisher’s friend’s lake house. It was real nice of him to offer us his house.
The heat was a little extreme for September in Oklahoma. Sleeping in air conditioning was far better than sweating it out in a tent. The temps on Friday hit 100°F (37°C), needless to say it was toasty. We slept well and headed to the expo on Friday. We saw some cool gear, shot some silenced weapons and had a food truck lunch.
It was about lunch time that the pain I was experiencing started ramping up. It migrated into my abdomen and was quite painful. Think 5 or 6 on the pain scale. Very unpleasant.
I tried several things and in the end I decided it was best for me to try and make it home before it got any worse. I spent the weekend and Monday on a heating pad living my best life through chemistry.
My concern was I was not getting any better. So a few doctor visits and we still don’t know exactly what’s going on. As of this post I’m about 90% sure I have a hernia of some kind or other. We’ll know more after the radiologist gets back to me.
May the winds take your troubles away, thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.
This week I continued the “odd jobs” on the Classic. These have been piling up as I moved through the truck cutting out rust and welding new patches, grinding away rust, killing spiders, painting, and planning. Would it have been prudent to have written these tasks down, absolutely. Did I write any of them down, not a one.
I’m sure I’ll be encountering them more and more as I start running wiring for the interior. As I start installing the trim and the other interior bits I’m sure there will be dozens of these jobs.
I got the rear seat belt mounts reinstalled. That took a little clever thought to run a string up through the holes and pulling the bracket into place. This required a few trips back and forth under the truck. That will wear an old man out quickly. I installed the rivets so I’ll be able to use those points for a seat belt AND to lock down racks or gear and the bed/tray mechanism that I’ve been planning.
I also tackled the rust on the front differential. It is really crusty. There is no risk of if rusting through. The bloody thing is 1/2 an inch thick.
I got a sprayer and applied some rust converter liberally. I’ll check it this week after work to see how it did.
I also bought a spray attachment to assist in cleaning the bottom of the truck off. You’ll see a LOT of oil covered surfaces and I’ll have to start chasing down where that is coming from. I have some ideas but it will need to be CLEAN before I start finding the leaks and weeps.
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May the wind take your troubles away and Happy Rovering.
The first thing we did this weekend was drive up and surprise Lucas by taking him to his first pro football game. It was my first too, but we made it all about him. He had a great time.
In this post I worked on the footwell and the rust issues that may come up from melting off the stone chip/bedliner material with my welding. I got underneath and scraped off as much as I could reach with all the exhaust and drive shafts in the way. I also now realize there is a fair amount of leaking oil on this beast.
I found some transmission fluid, obviously engine oil, and I saw some antifreeze too. These are all leaks I can list along with my power steering which is weeping from the lower seal. All very annoying. Some we can fix. Some we will probably not fix. Engine oil could be coming from the valve covers which I think need sorting. Antifreeze is likely coming from one of the heater hoses on top the engine. All of those should probably be replaced based on age alone.
I also used some of the fancy zip ties to lock some stuff down. That was very satisfying. There is actually only one size in the bag and they were too small for some of the holes.
I also found some rust. “NO, how is this possible!!!” you might say. The front differential is really rusty. Flakey rusty. So that will need to be cleaned up and coated in rust converter. Then painted. The other rust I found was on the tube that houses the bonnet release (hood release to my fellow Americans). It looked terrible. I got the wire wheel out and got it knocked down to bare metal. I was pretty proud of myself for not wire wheeling my fingers.
I got it coated in rust converter and will get it painted next weekend. I still have several additional jobs to do. It’s labor day weekend so I plan to spend some quality time out there.
That’s about it for this week. No video last week because I had trouble getting the video to build and by the time it was built it was the middle of the week. So I slotted it for later.
Thanks for reading, like and subscribe, and may the wind take your troubles away.
