Totally reasonable price; when you go and pick it up, you might want to bring them coffee and donuts as well.

 

this --
you will be treated right....alloro knows....

 

The end cost was $580...

To be honest, I'm not real happy with the wheel alignment. But the job's done and I'm on my way to my appointment with a BSB to take me home.

 

alignment specs for our van is all over the place ie. there is quite a few settings like toe, that can be 'personalized' because of the wide range of adjustments that can be made....

You will need to find the alignment guy and tell him how you like it to ride...caster has a lot to do with how the steeringwheel returns to forward -- camber helps with turning and stiaightness down the road...toe is really the feel of the tires...more inner toe, the more resistance to fading left/right down the road

 

I usually rely on a friend in Darwin to get the right settings for me, the principal aim being to keep tyre wear down...

But he's never seen one of these vans, much less done any work on them.

My plan, by the way, is to sell it as quickly as I can once I get it back to Australia, I have to fit new safety belts, change the headlights (that will be a very interesting job), fit an amber globe into the reversing light section of the tail light and make the indicators independent of the brake lights for it to be usable at home.

Another job I will have to do is put a new kit of rubbers in the wheel cylinders, they're leaking badly. I wonder if I should get new cylinders while I'm here?

 

Yeah, just grab new wheel cylinders, they are cheap, and far more reliable than trying to rebuild them.

 

I did get them when I went to Autozone, they cost $US30.90, though I don't think I do too bad a job of rebuilding them normally. But getting a good finish inside can be a bit of a job. The ideal is to get stainless steel liners put in them.

 

Ther's always a snag...

I still don't have the van here in Australia. I put it in for shipping on November 18, by the end of 2024 they'd sorted all the things that were to be shipped and which containers which cars and whatever else would go into. It should have been here by the end of February, early March at the latest.

But for some reason, one of the three containers involved in the shipment was randomly set aside for inspection. And, you guessed it, that was the one with my van inside.

There is precious little information available about shipments until they're on the verge of arriving, this being compounded by the fact that the girl at the shipping depot in Longbeach is on maternity leave. Anyway I was told early in March that it might be '8 or 9 weeks...' before it gets here. Which took it to the middle of May, right?

I'm all booked to fly out again on May 23, and there are things among my personal effects in that van which I'd be wanting to take with me. The vital GPS with North American maps, a 240V inverter and extra wiring at fitments so I can recharge phones and camera batteries on the way without having to pull the GPS.

I've had to set up a fresh lot of these things, bought another GPS (which is waiting for me on Vancouver Island), which will be my first port of call after I pick up the van I've bought for this trip..


My fourth RAM van. A 1990 B250, 318 with 4-speed automatic, purchased online in Seattle in early March.

...and which I think will do a nice job for me for the two months I'll be in the USA. A bit of sightseeing in British Columbia before heading back down into Montana, then a loop around the top of Lake Superior so I can enter Michigan over the Mackinac Bridge. This time I'll be spending more time with my adopted daughters in Oklahoma and Arkansas, having visited my son in Indiana and made another stop in Lincoln NE between these destinations.

I still have to sell the B350 1-ton camper van, which is in Arkansas, I hope to get that done while I'm there, while I will again drive the B250 to Longbeach for shipping.

 

Mackinac bridge is between upper and lower peninsulas of Michigan. If you are coming across to the upper peninsula, that would be the Sault Ste. Marie International Bridge, If you are coming across by Detroit, that would be the Ambassador bridge.

 

Sault Ste Marie followed by the Mackinac...

Are there tolls on these?

Should I visit you on the way through? There's an idea, it might break the journey to stop off for a few minutes.