Thinking about a Bus/RV

[Ted]

If the manufacturer did their homework properly, and this is an RV so I can't be sure, they did a bunch of ray tracing simulation to design the reflector.

The first thing to know about RVs is that they don't do any homework or engineering. It's a poorly designed box slapped together by whatever meth heads they could find nearby to use a welder. Yes, there are better and worse ones, but none of them are really very good.

In the era mine was made, headlights and taillights were essentially always adapted OEM DOT approved lenses from another vehicle that they thought would be appropriate for the styling. Mine used late 90s Ford Explorer headlights. Also used in others of that era were the early 2000s Ford Super Duty. My taillights came off of an early 80s Silverado/Suburban (I may upgrade those to LEDs if I can find appropriate ones that would look "right").

So, as far as the homework of the lens design itself, that was done by Ford. And Those late 90s Explorers in my experience had horrendously awful headlights. My 2000 Excursion did as well. So one of the first things I did on the bus last year (before we took it on a trip other than driving it home) was to replace the headlights with aftermarket replacements. These separate the low and high beam bulbs, with the low beams being projector, and highs are the standard 55W low beam (made by the lowest bidder, "AllCar" or something like that was written on the bulb).

I have actually had pretty good luck with these sorts of aftermarket headlight lenses so I wasn't afraid to give them a shot. The low beams are projectors and, with the HID bulbs in them, really do a good job of illumination, just that I had them aimed too low. The high beams seem to be ok as far as lens etc. goes, but just insufficient brightness.

Innovited seems to have done their homework as far as the position of the light coming from their HID kits, so other than a slight warm-up lag time, these should be fine. I have it wired now so the low beams and the driving lights will stay/turn on with the high beams, so I'll have "all" the light. The driving lights I have are Rough Country LEDs that fit in the existing holes. Those I find are quite lackluster but they do help some.

Because of how the headlights are mounted to the RV (with cheap L-brackets and drywall screws going into the fiberglass front fascia) I could, if I wanted, get some different lights to put in. But that would require fiberglass body work and I don't think is worth it. I should have it figured out pretty well after these come in.

 

[Ted]

Spent most of the day working on the RV today while the kids were at an all-day playdate. The biggest task I wanted to do was the valve lash. I had a feeling it was way off, and boy was I right. I probably should've done this as one of the first things when I got the bus rather than putting it off. Cat prescribes checking the last at 30k and then at 100k. Of course, who knows if it was actually done at 30k. My guess is not. All of the intake valves were way tight - 0.005" or tighter, spec is 0.015". Exhausts were a lot better, only one of them was significantly out of spec at 0.030" (hopefully that doesn't mean I have a cam lobe or lifter starting to go) but there were several that were at 0.022", which is the bottom end of the spec (0.025" +/- 0.003"). I don't like being on the edge of spec, so I got everything to within +/- 0.001" on intake and exhaust. I bet the engine will sound better at idle, but I'll be curious if I notice any running difference. That tight on the intakes makes me wonder if they were sealing fully all the time, so we'll see how the engine runs.

I also got one of the hubcaps on:

But ran out of washers to do the other side, so I'll finish that tomorrow.

Also got the HID high beams in. I think those will be sufficient, much brighter. But I may try driving the thing at night before the next trip to make sure everything's adjusted right.

 

[Albany Tom]

The first thing to know about RVs is that they don't do any homework or engineering. It's a poorly designed box slapped together by whatever meth heads they could find nearby to use a welder. Yes, there are better and worse ones, but none of them are really very good.
...
Because of how the headlights are mounted to the RV (with cheap L-brackets and drywall screws going into the fiberglass front fascia) I could, if I wanted, get some different lights to put in. But that would require fiberglass body work and I don't think is worth it. I should have it figured out pretty well after these come in.

Funniest post I've read today. We rented an RV when I was a kid, to take around the country, and I was elected the "repair person". Was a weird mix of household, automotive, boat, and bailing wire engineering. The worst thing was the polybutylene plumbing. I kept getting blamed for the problems, no one believed the teenager who said it was just crap to begin with.

 

[Bill]

I checked valves on well Saturday, not quite as involved though:

 

[Ted]

Funniest post I've read today. We rented an RV when I was a kid, to take around the country, and I was elected the "repair person". Was a weird mix of household, automotive, boat, and bailing wire engineering. The worst thing was the polybutylene plumbing. I kept getting blamed for the problems, no one believed the teenager who said it was just crap to begin with.

Your description is correct - weird mix of automotive, household, boat, and bailing wire. To be fair with it, they're trying to build a house to a minimum weight using stuff that's inherently heavy and is exposed to a magnitude 4.5 (roughly) earthquake going down the road. It is a tough problem to solve, but they focus first on the "lowest cost and weight" aspects. The fact that the square tube steel they use is only welded on two sides for one is a ridiculous shortcut. It would add time but no weight to weld them properly on all 4 sides.

 

[Ted]

This evening I managed to get the sway bar mounts cut and welded on to the bus, at least mostly so:

I need to finish up some of the welds on the inside of the boxes (welding both inside and outside for a stronger hold) and then of course drill the holes for the sway bar mounts and throw a coat of paint on it all to keep the rust off.

After that comes mounting of the end links, and that's something that I'll need to do some more measuring on. I think the stock end links will probably be about the best option. They are pretty long, though, and when I first looked at this without the bus jacked up (and the rear suspension drooped), it looked like they might get closer than I want to the leveling jacks. You can see those below:

The good part is it looks like it would be pretty straightforward to move the jacks back a bit, basically just move those front mount holes to the rear mount holes, and drill new holes in the frame for the rear mount holes. That would move them far enough out of the way that it wouldn't be a concern for sure. But ideally, I would like to not move them at all. After I finish up welding things tomorrow then I'll drop the bus down (that'll get it to the minimum potential height) and see how everything lines up, then to normal ride height after starting the engine and letting the system air up, and then I'll figure out what needs to be done to make it all work.

 

[Ted]

Made some more progress on the sway bar installation. Got the brackets fully welded in, holes drilled for the sway bar mounts, painted, and then got the bar loosely attached and started messing with the end links. The good part is that I won't need to relocate the jacks. Although close, there is enough clearance for them not to hit the jacks while still having the bar ends horizontal and pointing rearward, which is what you want.

I had a feeling the stock end links wouldn't work, though, as they don't have any kind of ball joint/heim joint/johnny joint/some flexible end on the bar side, and when the axle is at full downward travel, it was at a very sharp angle. Granted that's not where you ever end up running under normal driving, but it does happen if nothing else during maintenance. But I figured these old end links were garbage anyway and I was going to need the same holes in the frame no matter what. So I got the frame holes drilled, put the end links on, and did some checking. At normal ride height, no issues, looked great. Doing the air dump and getting to minimum ride height, also no issues. Then with the axle at full downward travel, well, didn't work so good.

Not out anything, but confirmed I need something that maintains some ability to flex on at least the sway bar side, if nothing else for that max downward travel that occurs during maintenance.

These end links are really quite long and length is pretty important on them. There are some adjustable options out there but nothing that off-the-shelf has the setup that I'm looking for. So, I think I may do like I've done on the rest of this project and make my own. I need to sleep on it and see what is available in the stores tomorrow.

At normal ride height (which this roughly is in the picture below, albeit with the jacks down), you can see everything looks pretty good. I think it will work well.

 

[Ted]

I spent a lot of time looking at different end link options to see if there were some off the shelf OEM ones I could go with, or something aftermarket that Amazon would deliver quickly. Nope, nothing that I liked and nothing that would do what I wanted. The more I thought about it, the more I thought I wanted heim joints anyway.

So I went by Tractor Supply and got some top links for a 3-point hitch. The exposed ball ends may get dirty but they’re designed for tractor use and I figure if I need to make changes, this isn’t too bad of a place to need to do it. But what I really like is they’re easily adjustable.

As you can see in the picture, they’re too long. That length of the stock tie rods is 11.25” between the frame and the top of the bar end. I can’t have the links hang down much further than they are, but what I’m thinking I can do is make some L-brackets to hang off of the frame and bar ends, and then mount the end links basically offset. Some OEM bars work similar to this, and I think it will make the geometry work the best at all rear axle heights.

 

[Ted]

Adapter brackets are cut and holes drilled, they all fit. I’ll need to do some trimming, weld in some gussets, throw on some paint, and ought to be good to go.

 

[Albany Tom]

This is the setup for the sway bars, correct? Because the OEM version looks a little bit sketchy to me. If I'm picturing it right in my head, your mods are going to be a lot stronger, assuming you have something sturdy to attach the other ends to.

 

[Ted]

This is the setup for the sway bars, correct? Because the OEM version looks a little bit sketchy to me. If I'm picturing it right in my head, your mods are going to be a lot stronger, assuming you have something sturdy to attach the other ends to.

Yes, this is for the sway bars. End links really don't have to be all that strong, their design is more dictated by the suspension travel and how that articulates the bar relate to the frame. In the case of the front suspension, there is not much pivoting/rotation, it's definitely significantly more of an up/down. With the rear axle there's much more of a pivot. I agree that the stock end links are surprisingly puny, and it didn't surprise me that they didn't work (rather, it surprised me when it looked like they might).

What I'm putting in is definite overkill. They're attaching to the frame on the top (plenty strong), and directly to the bar on the bottom. For some reason my phone uploaded the picture in my last post upsidedown. When I add a few gussets to the brackets for good measure, it'll be even more overkill on strength. Hopefully that translates into a strong connection and better rolling resistance.

 

[Albany Tom]

Overkill isn't a bad thing when working on a truck suspension. Had little sway bars on a couple of light trucks I've had, and they absolutely helped. With all the weight and higher CG of your rig, this looks like a great mod to me.

 

[Ted]

Overkill isn't a bad thing when working on a truck suspension. Had little sway bars on a couple of light trucks I've had, and they absolutely helped. With all the weight and higher CG of your rig, this looks like a great mod to me.

Sway bars are one of my favorite handling upgrades. No harsher of a ride (at least almost no harsher, barely noticeable) and the handling and quality of the drive improves tremendously. I had a '92 Lincoln Town Car that I upgraded with Addco front and rear bars - 1.25" front and 1" rear. Between those and putting on 17" take-offs from a later Town Car (still pretty high profile), the car maintained all of its comfort going down the road and yet wouldn't roll all over the place. The first time friends would see me dive into turns with it they would start off with a panicked look, followed by shock and awe to see a Town Car actually navigate corners competently.

I'm sure I'll notice the difference. Of course this is a 20k+ lb bus with a 1.75" front bar and 1.5" rear bar when all is said and done - I'm never expecting it to handle well, just reducing that sway would be nice.

 

[Ted]

I did a quick test drive of the bus today. I'm pleased to report that everything seems to be working exactly (or at least almost exactly) as I had expected it to.

For the first and most obvious one, the sway bar I installed absolutely works. The bus is significantly more stable going down the road, it recovers from an induced oscillation (i.e. pothole or rough road) much quicker, and it sways less just in general. No doubt, this is a huge improvement.

The turbo and exhaust wrap I did also seemed to make the exhaust more noticeably quieter. While I wasn't trying to make it quieter per se, it seems to have helped with reducing/eliminating a drone that it would have at certain RPM. I'll need to drive it more to see, but that seems to be an improvement.

I had insulated the thermostatic switch to try to keep it from getting cooled by ambient air and thus getting the fans to turn on at a cooler temp. They had been turning on at 200-205F, and they came on at 186F (which is about where I want them to come on). Much better, and keeps the transmission more where I want it to be. What's also good is that gives me some belief that I should be able to insulate the heater core hose going to the front of the bus and hopefully make my front heater work better in colder weather (likely one of my projects after we get back from 6Y9).

The rest of the changes I did were perhaps more convoluted/intermingled, and so it's perhaps harder to tell exactly which contributed the most, but I have my theories. These were the valve lash adjustment, hubcaps, and then also the turbo/exhaust wrap. The hoped for effect were reduced EGTs. They definitely do seem to be lower, although the ambient temps when I did my test drive were cooler than I had on the last trip. But, max normal EGT seemed to be more around 1100 vs. the 1200 I had been seeing locally coming home from the last trip, and 1300+ that I had been trying to get down from before. I'll be able to tell more when we head towards 6Y9 and I get some more miles under the thing.

But really, I'm very encouraged by how well everything is working.

 

[Albany Tom]

Very cool, congrats! Re valve lash - solid lifters? I didn't think there was such a thing anymore, or is this diesel and they still do that?

 

[Ted]

Very cool, congrats! Re valve lash - solid lifters? I didn't think there was such a thing anymore, or is this diesel and they still do that?

Yes, this is a Caterpillar 3126B diesel that has solid lifters and a valve lash adjustment. Many (not all) diesels still have some valve lash adjustment, although it’s often long intervals for checking.

 

[Ted]

I'm already thinking about the next round of projects when I get home from this trip. Among them, I plan on replacing the heater core hoses going to the front of the bus and also the radiator and intercooler.

Stock radiators and intercoolers are expensive, and they still have plastic end tanks. I have never been a fan of this, although I do understand the reasons why OEMs do this (cost, and they hold up well enough). But at 21 years old and as clogged as they are/as many bad fins as I see just on a cursory inspection, they strike me as one of the highest potential things to leave us stranded.

I need to do some better measurements when I get home, but some cursory measurements and Googling are getting me thinking about options. Obviously, stock will bolt right in, but I do want all-aluminum (including end tanks), and preferably some sort of upgrade. This would especially be good with the electric fans, as that will help to get more natural cooling without the forced air.

It appears that the 2010-2012 6.7 Cummins-powered Rams have an intercooler that is a similar size to the stock one on the bus, and aftermarket aluminum intercoolers are available for roughly the same price as a new intercooler from Freightliner. So long as the size is equal or larger (and still fits), this seems like this could be a good option for an upgrade there.

Radiator wise, that one is a bit more challenging. This is a large radiator and there's nothing I've found that holds up size wise. But, it looks as though the '94-'02 Cummins-powered Rams had radiators that are approximately half the height of my radiator in the bus, which makes me think that maybe running two in parallel would be an option, one on top of the other. I'll do some measuring, but I think it might be better to see if I can't just find a place that would make a custom radiator that is the correct size for the bus (and a bit bigger than stock).

 

[Albany Tom]

Just tossing a random idea for radiator - over the road truck, or some sort of small construction vehicle? Running 2 small ones in parallel, I would wonder if the flow would split evenly. If it were electrical, and the resistance and voltage were the same, the current would divide evenly. No idea how that translates to real world fluid flow.

 

[Ted]

We got back from 6Y9 yesterday which was a good 1600 mile run to determine the improvements. Basically, everything worked as expected.

The sway bar is an amazing improvement. My wife noticed its improvement immediately, both in normal driving going down the highway and especially when she was getting up to do things in back. If anything she had more issues with the sway than I did since she was the one who was always up and about going down the road. I need to look at it more to make sure that nothing is showing problems after this trip, but I suspect it's fine. I do want to add in some left hand thread jam nuts so that the tie rods have jam nuts on both sides, but I don't think there are any issues there.

The transmission cooling fans are now kicking on and off at consistent and perfect temperatures. 186-188F on, 170-175F off. Perfect, and consistent. I'm happy with that.

Because we had a Land Rover issue north of Des Moines that made us have to dump it (and then tow it home with a trailer), I didn't end up getting a full comparison back to back on mileage and performance. However one thing I seemed to notice is that the lack of Rover helped the acceleration, but it didn't seem to impact the power required for going down the highway at 75, which makes sense since the bus is a giant house and the rolling resistance of the Land Rover is probably not all that much in comparison to the rest of the bus. That said, I did seem to make some observations.

The fuel economy does seem to be improved. I'm getting more miles per tank overall. The best I saw was actually double digits, which I haven't seen before. However that was on a slower run where I was mostly going 65 or less. But initial indications would tell me that I did get that 1 MPG improvement that some people say they get after doing a valve adjustment on their 3126s. Given how far out mine were, I think that makes sense to see. The other thing I noticed is that my average boost at 75 MPH seemed to be more averaging around 20 psi, whereas before 75 MPH seemed to be more like 25. This seemed to be independent of flat towing the Rover or not.

EGTs also seemed lower. I observed the same nominal peak of around 1100-1150F that I did on the test drive, which is an improvement over the 1200ish peak that I had after putting in the air scoop to feed the turbo.

There are multiple aspects that could be improving the mileage. No doubt, the bulk of it was the valve lash adjustment that got the engine running the way it's supposed to. The turbo and exhaust wrap may have kept some more of the heat out of the compressor side of the turbo, and also the intercooler, making the induction air charge cooler (it did seem a good bit cooler on the whole) and thus lowering the required boost to have the same airflow and thus horsepower. There's also the hubcaps I added, which theoretically should have smoothed out the airflow going into the turbo and may also reduce some of the drag. I'm not sure if I buy them doing a whole lot.

My headlight improvements also have worked. The headlights are now perfect, I can see everything at night, nobody flashes me coming the other way. Properly adjusted.

No matter how you look at it, the thing is far improved from before. That's what matters.

So now come the next improvement before the next trip, whenever that is (which I need to figure out).

Looking at convenience (and safety) a simple thing I want to add is a TPMS. @tmyers recommended the TST system that he has on his RV. I need to figure out which system to get, but something that will let me monitor the RV and the Rover tire pressures and temperatures is important. That's a simple one to do.

With colder temperatures coming up, the other priorities are replacing the heater core hoses and insulating the hot side hoses so the heaters work better is important. And then my cooling system improvements - both converting to electric fans and also replacing/upgrading the intercooler and radiator. I'll get working on those, but I may decide to just do the heater core hoses and replacing the rear heater (which is dead) first since the intercooler/radiator/electric fan project will be bigger.

And somewhere in there is also building the rack for the griddle, which I may get started on.

 

[SoonerAviator]

What happened to the Land Rover (other than it being a typical Land Rover)?

 

[Ted]

What happened to the Land Rover (other than it being a typical Land Rover)?

The left rear wheel departed the vehicle and was red tagged upon recovery. I got the spare on but could only get it on with 2 lug nuts and there was some rubbing. We had to trailer it home.

 

[SoonerAviator]

Wow. Better inspect the other wheels, too. That's a heck of a split.

 

[Ted]

Wow. Better inspect the other wheels, too. That's a heck of a split.

The question is which came first - the split or the thing departing the vehicle. I’m leaning towards the latter and that it departed because it came loose. I’ve gotten a couple of ooh ions that I should just replace the wheels. I actually like the factory wheels so I’m not very inclined to do that.

 

[Robert Gee]

Too late by a parsec for the OP but I think of this every time I see the thread pop up

 

[Bill]

He don’t know Ted…

 

[TCABM]

The question is which came first - the split or the thing departing the vehicle. I’m leaning towards the latter and that it departed because it came loose. I’ve gotten a couple of ooh ions that I should just replace the wheels. I actually like the factory wheels so I’m not very inclined to do that.

That sucks. I had a wheel bearing seize on the boat trailer halfway between OKC and Lake Tenkiller sometime in the early 2000s. I was glad I had the a hub swap kit with me because I wasn’t leaving the boat on the side of the road for the methbillys to do what they wanted with it.

 

[SCCutler]

What is an “ooh ion”?

 

[SoonerAviator]

The question is which came first - the split or the thing departing the vehicle. I’m leaning towards the latter and that it departed because it came loose. I’ve gotten a couple of ooh ions that I should just replace the wheels. I actually like the factory wheels so I’m not very inclined to do that.

I'm just trying to think of what it hit so hard that it split right through the middle. I thought maybe it hit a pothole or something and busted the wheel/subsequently sheered some lugs off.

 

[Ted]

Too late by a parsec for the OP but I think of this every time I see the thread pop up

I've seen those pop up in my YouTube suggested feed, but haven't watched them as I hate clickbait titles and it's not something all that interesting to me. I'm guessing the tl;dr version is "They're built like crap, overpriced, are complicated, wear out and break quickly." All of which are true. The RV itself is built poorly and to a cost, although the chassis, engine, and transmission are the same medium duty units you find in a number of other applications and those are built/hold up well on the whole.

But you don't buy an RV because of what it is, you buy it because of what it enables you to do.

That sucks. I had a wheel bearing seize on the boat trailer halfway between OKC and Lake Tenkiller sometime in the early 2000s. I was glad I had the a hub swap kit with me because I wasn’t leaving the boat on the side of the road for the methbillys to do what they wanted with it.

Methbillys - I need to use that term in the future.

I'm just trying to think of what it hit so hard that it split right through the middle. I thought maybe it hit a pothole or something and busted the wheel/subsequently sheered some lugs off.

No pothole - at least none that bad. I would've felt those in the bus.

 

[CJones]

What is up with you and the vehicle you're driving coming from together? First the Kenworth axle made a run for it and now this. Were you a car crusher in a previous life?

That is indeed a weird break. I guess if the lugs were wobbling loose, then it could have put some obscure side load on the wheel and broke it? I would think the LR OEM wheels would be strong enough to take that though, unless there was already some sort of hairline fracture going on. I think I've only ever seen one wheel break like that and it was on an anhydrous tank trailer and that is what happened - lugs wobbled loose, it was hooked to the toolbar behind a tractor, so the farmer didn't notice it and pulled it like that for about 40 acres - never noticed it until we came to pick it up in the field to refill it the next day.

 

[Ted]

I have to keep looking at it further, but I'm thinking that the failure mode was probably that the lug nuts came loose, the wheel wobbled its way off, and then it broke when it violently departed the vehicle and came to rest at a hard landing in the median. At least, that's my current working theory.

Hopefully I won't find too many issues when I tear into it.

 

[Ted]

I decided to go ahead and order the TST TPMS system. After looking at the different options, it seemed that the TST was the only setup that didn't have heavily mixed reviews. So I'll get that put on.

I also ordered new heater hose so I can do that project. I ended up just going with the standard Gates safety strip hose rather than one of the higher end green stripe or blue stripe models. The way I looked at it, the bus had standard (if not lower end than standard) heater hose, and it's lasted 21 years. We're not going to own this another 21 years (at least I don't think so), so spending 2x+ the cost for the green stripe when I need 100' or more of it didn't make a lot of sense to me. So I'll just do this.

 

[Zeldman]

I decided to go ahead and order the TST TPMS system. After looking at the different options, it seemed that the TST was the only setup that didn't have heavily mixed reviews. So I'll get that put on.

Good decision. Real peace of mind while traveling. (says the person that had 2 flats on one trip and only 1 spare)

I am assuming you have checked to make sure something is not a little out of align while being towed putting a side load on the wheel.

 

[Ted]

I am assuming you have checked to make sure something is not a little out of align while being towed putting a side load on the wheel.

You mean on the Land Rover wheels? I've not observed any issues until the wheel fell off, and it was one of the rear wheels. I'm thinking the most probable issue was that the lug nuts came loose and the wheel wobbled off. That may have caused the crack which eventually led to the catastrophic failure, or the crack may have happened when it fell off the car and landed (hard) in the median. I'm leaning towards option 2 on that one.

Either way, I'll get it fixed. Just not today.

 

[FormerHangie]

Too late by a parsec for the OP but I think of this every time I see the thread pop up

The real reason not to buy an RV is that it can be very time consuming, preventing you from finishing your Cobra, and missing out on many fun track days.

 

[Ted]

The real reason not to buy an RV is that it can be very time consuming, preventing you from finishing your Cobra, and missing out on many fun track days.

A fair point by those. @Half Fast would also point out the RV gets in the way of the RX-7 (which also starts with an R, and is therefore basically the same thing). But that said, the experiences with my family over the past year have absolutely convinced me that the RV was the right decision.

 

[FormerHangie]

A fair point by those. @Half Fast would also point out the RV gets in the way of the RX-7 (which also starts with an R, and is therefore basically the same thing). But that said, the experiences with my family over the past year have absolutely convinced me that the RV was the right decision.

I understand about that family time thing, especially since daughter #1 is in her senior year of college, and in eight months will most likely have a new permanent address that is different from ours. Once those days are gone, they're gone forever.

About that RX-7, if you can find a sanctioning body that has a class for similarly performing cars, you'll be in good stead, assuming you're starting off by going racing. If you're going to start with track days, the Cobra would be a better choice. A 12A engined RX-7 is going to run a quarter mile in the high 16s - low 17s depending on what condition it's in. There's been a bit of an automotive arms race, power wise, over the last 40 years. Typical cars you'd find at a track day would be a Civic SI. a VW GTI, or a Subaru WRX. All of those cars can do the quarter in the 14s, which means when you get to a straight you're going to spend a lot of time waving them by, simply because they have more motor than an RX-7 does. Obviously, the Cobra won't have that issue, so if you're planning on doing track days long term, the Cobra will be a better choice. If you're just doing track days to get your feet wet, then the RX-7 will be fine.

If you are going to take the RX-7 to a Track Night in America event, you'll have to get a waiver to do so, normally Track Night events are for street legal cars. The SCCA does give waivers, and an IT prepped car should be welcomed, especially with a new track driver behind the wheel. What the SCCA is doing here is trying to prevent racers from using Track Nights as test days, and the SCCA is promoting Track NIghts as a first step into motorsports, so they are very welcoming of new drivers.

 

[Ted]

I understand about that family time thing, especially since daughter #1 is in her senior year of college, and in eight months will most likely have a new permanent address that is different from ours. Once those days are gone, they're gone forever.

About that RX-7, if you can find a sanctioning body that has a class for similarly performing cars, you'll be in good stead, assuming you're starting off by going racing. If you're going to start with track days, the Cobra would be a better choice. A 12A engined RX-7 is going to run a quarter mile in the high 16s - low 17s depending on what condition it's in. There's been a bit of an automotive arms race, power wise, over the last 40 years. Typical cars you'd find at a track day would be a Civic SI. a VW GTI, or a Subaru WRX. All of those cars can do the quarter in the 14s, which means when you get to a straight you're going to spend a lot of time waving them by, simply because they have more motor than an RX-7 does. Obviously, the Cobra won't have that issue, so if you're planning on doing track days long term, the Cobra will be a better choice. If you're just doing track days to get your feet wet, then the RX-7 will be fine.

If you are going to take the RX-7 to a Track Night in America event, you'll have to get a waiver to do so, normally Track Night events are for street legal cars. The SCCA does give waivers, and an IT prepped car should be welcomed, especially with a new track driver behind the wheel. What the SCCA is doing here is trying to prevent racers from using Track Nights as test days, and the SCCA is promoting Track NIghts as a first step into motorsports, so they are very welcoming of new drivers.

Those are all good points. For me, the Cobra is a street car I can take to the racetrack. The RX-7 is supposed to be a racecar that is not driven on the street. But really, the first goal with the RX-7 is just getting it running and driving. Then from there, we figure out what to do.

The Cobra is running and theoretically "driving" (I drove it into the shop), but I haven't done the first drive on the road. The reality is I just need to spend some time on it, but the Cobra has been a lower priority than keeping the RV reliable for trips. While that's still a high priority, I do need to spend some time on the Cobra. And the RX-7 won't take a lot to get running, once it's in the shop.

 

[MauleSkinner]

The sway bar is an amazing improvement.

So out of curiosity, if you were starting over, would you still do the Air Tabs, or would the sway bar additions/adjustments be adequate?

 

[Ted]

So out of curiosity, if you were starting over, would you still do the Air Tabs, or would the sway bar additions/adjustments be adequate?

That's a good question, and the answer comes in a couple of parts. From a technical perspective, the sway bar is definitely more impactful and I would recommend that as a higher priority upgrade. That said, I think they both help things working together as they perform different tasks. The Air Tabs help to improve the aerodynamic items that influence sway and stability. The sway bar more helps the physical/vehicular dynamic items that influence sway and stability. I don't know what my bus would drive like with the sway bar only and no Air Tabs, and I'm not going to remove them to find out.

The other thing to keep in mind is that, for the most part, my projects on the bus have been driven but what needs to be done and what I have time to do, I'm not suffering from a lack of ideas of things to do on it. The Air Tabs take very little time to install, even with painting. On my bus, the sway bar was a much more involved project.

For those who have RVs (or cars) with reasonably priced aftermarket bars, I would absolutely do those as a high priority, and higher than Air Tabs. But I would still say that the Air Tabs are probably useful and worthwhile.