Well, the original place I'd emailed still hadn't responded and I rang them about getting tyres. They could only get 295/75R22.5 though I'd probably have been a shade better with 295/55R22.5 although the speedo would still have been out but this time, over by a hair. Now instead of being 5mph under my real speed I will likely be 2 or 3mph under. This is a relief and an improvement. It seems tyres are getting harder to find at the moment. Since my first enquiry in June the price went up a few times. The place didn't have staff to do the tyres and couldn't come out to do them. They wanted me to call them back in a couple of days. I've heard that one before! It usually ends up with me wasting my time, waiting for something that'll never happen.
So, yesterday I rang a different tyre place. This time they quoted me a price and kept to it. The workmen cleaned up their mess and did the job quickly and efficiently. It was interesting to see they used Harbor Freight air jacks. The had a bit of trouble as the ground is too soft to lift more than one wheel at a time. The total cost for 4 Ironman Hercules drive tyres and two Ironman steer tyres was $3,740 which was not at all bad. They're Vietnamese made tyres, made for Ironman from Ohio. I'm happy with the price and what was done - so far. They didn't balance any of the wheels and were taken by surprise when they found I had Dayton hubs despite my telling the shop over the phone and assuring the owner when he asked that I do not have split rims.
The only thing I have to do with the wheels now is to dispose of the old tyres. The company wanted $15 per tyre to dispose of them. That's another $90. I'm not going to pay that when I can take them to the local dump and dispose of all 6 (plus some smaller tyres) for $1.50 each. They are heavy at 60lbs but it won't be too hard to get them into the pickup! I can probably do it all in one trip.
The new tyres look pretty good. I was, quite honestly, nervous about getting under the bus to do stuff with the old tyres since thwy were 11 or 12 years old. I certainly didn't want to drive on them. Not even a short disance to the shop.
The next thing done was to replace the crossview mirrors. This is the fourth set! The originals were so etched by dirt and dust that they were unusable. The next pair were not fisheye enough. The next pair were great but the mirroring fell off on the inside leaving large white patches. Cue the current set which arrived yesterday and were put on today. These are Mirror-Lite. I can't recall the brand on the previous pair.
Concurrent with all that I had a need for my old batteries. If you recall, a long time ago, I used a battery box made of an old ammunition can that held a 5am and a 10ah battery. That was before I upgraded to lead-acid lawnmower sized batteries before I upgraded again to lithiun. They'd been lying idle as had a couple of PWM charge controllers. Today I put both batteries on charge. I'd had one on charge yesterday and had achieved nothing. They both could be landfill by now. I'll try to charge them and see what happens. If they can't be revived then I'll pitch them and use the box to house lithum batteries, a lithiun charge controller and various outputs. That should be useful and since I already have everything, easy.
Today also I completed painting the bedroom ceiling and had just a little paint left over to do a bit more to one wall. I'd only bought the paint to cover the patch I put in to cover the window that I covered also from the outside. There was enough though to do a better job on the poorly painted ceiling.
Before the fellows came to change my tyres I had to straighten the front wheels so I started the engine. In so doing I found I'd already put the wires in the battery compartment to connect to the wires under the bus which connect to the charge conroller at the front. The next task completed will likely be to connect the wires. After that I'll likely work on the brake lines. The brake lines and the wiper pivot are the only two major jobs to complete that I know of. The brake pistons might need work too but glancing at the brake assembley there were no clear screws anywhere on the thing.
There are minor jobs such as the wiring I just mentioned and changing out a couple of things in the USB box above the microwave but largely the bus is completed. I'd like to put a second fuse box in the console too. Bars over the remaining windows are something I'd like to do also.
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