Stopping power

We spent the last few nights in Darrel Ozmun’s shop east of Nipawin.  That’s where we go for annual maintenance on the frenchy-bus.  Last year I left a pallet of brake parts in storage because we didn’t really need them.  When we got the safety done in BC the goofball who did it claimed that my rear brakes were pretty well worn out across the board. Fortunately I didn’t let him do any further work on the bus.  But based on his claim, before we showed up at Ozmun’s last summer, I ordered enough parts to rebuild both the tag and drive axles completely.  And by completely I mean completely.  If it unbolted or unpinned from the axle I ordered it. 

When we got to Nipawin last summer Darrel’s head mechanic Bob did a DOT inspection on the brakes and his determination was that the tag axles could possibly be worked on although they were still well within spec. Remember that was a full year and several thousand miles after the clown in BC told me they were marginal.  The drive axle on the other hand, according to Bob had minimal wear.  Can you say “lying BC SOB trying to pad his work order?”  So we changed all the parts on the tag axle and left the drive axle parts on the pallet in Darrel’s store room. 

I didn’t want to leave the parts in storage forever so when we got a chance to go back to Nipawin we headed there to hang my last year’s parts.  Of course we arrived in Nipawin in the middle of a record setting heat wave so it was way past unpleasant pulling off tires and lifting brake drums.  Even with the incredible complement of tools in Darrel’s shop it’s still just bloody hard work at times.

Last night we got all wrapped up and rolled out of the shop right around 5:00.  I checked the brakes one last time and then took the bus to an approach so I could tip it each way.  That’s important to do after you have had the hubs off so that some oil can run from the pumpkin into the now dry hubs.  Then we moved out to Grace & Al’s for a night of eating and drinking.  Which was followed by a morning of more drinking (only coffee this time) and more eating. 

Tonight we’re on the street in Muenster, SK which to the extent that it is famous is famous for being the home of St. Peter’s Abbey.  Tomorrow I have a quick meeting with one of Assiniboia’s tenants and then we’ll head back to Buchanan to see if our Ukrainian painter got the hovel painted.  Sometime in the near future we plan to head way south, possibly into Texas for some Growsafe projects – I sure hope it rains and cools off down there before we get that far south.