RELIABILITY TOUR

AHHH - I beat Marty Roth posting something!!! We're just finishing the Wednesday leg of the event here in Lancaster PA. It's been brutally hot on the road and it's been a real challenge for the cars and participants, but the scenery is amazing, the shops fascinating, the food great, and I never knew there were so many back roads and covered bridges anywhere. Monday we covered (supposedly) over 80 miles, but I know that Susan and I did over 100 in the 14T because we missed a couple of turns and had to "redo" a couple of the toughest hills on the route. We stopped at a historic mill, rode a train, caught a fab antique shop, ate too much and had a great time adjusting transmission bands in the Model T. I'd just rebuilt the trans and installed some new bands. Normally I'd have figured on about a month of driving around with a couple of adjustments, but I did more in half a day than I could have done in a month or more. The roads were a challenge and the directions were coming almost faster than Susan could keep up with them, but we didn't go too far astray, and of course we had good company doing so. Loved all the farms, old stone houses, country stores, the farmers market and took a batch of pics that I'll try and post later. We lost a few cars on the first day but noting that isn't repairable (eventually). Know of a couple of damaged wheels, at least one rod and a rearend that broke. Tuesday the humidity went way up and it must have been near 90 bu the time we turned the directions in our tour book to home. We were drained by the time we got in but had a fine day that included a wonderful lengthy respire in Litiz park under some shade trees. We enjoyed a pub lunch with the Barnets, Leshers and others from the tour, then did some shopping before heading back for home. In the evening it was an ice ceam social and a tour of a silver mine. No give-aways there! The ice cream was home-made using an old hit-n-miss engine. Love it when someone announces that they are having trouble giving it all away before it melts. Having two young kids along helps. Our Grandson Jack (he toured with us last year up in Maryland) and Susan's Cousin's youngest son Cole are enjoying the tour and have their own jobs in helping maintain the car. Cole's first time behind the wheel of any car was learning to drive my Model T! We pulled over to adjust bands before getting into some serious hills and it looked like an Indy 500 pit-stop. Today's run was flat compared to the first two days. The Lesher's did a great job laying everything out. It approached 95 today, so after the lunch stop and a quick visit to Mt. Gretna, most headed on back to the AC at the Doubletree Resort. More great stuff to come, and the promise for weather is a break in humidity and temps only to the 80s, so it should be much more comfortable on cars and occupants. Gotta check the oil, polish some brass and get a "refreshment" to celebrate the half way point. Oldest car on the road is Reggie and Cindy Nash with the 1904 Rambler. Some interesting cars including Marmon, Dorris, Pullman, Stephens Duryea, Coey Flyer, Abbott Detroit, Franklin and the normal compliment of Overland, Packard, Chalmers, Cadillac, Buick, Model T and several others. Stand by for more on the youngest drivers, oldest cars and some pics hopefully of some great stuff on a great tour.Terry

Thanks Terry. I was wondering what was going on up there. I heard at the Historic Fredericksburg meeting last night that there had been some equipment failures up there.

Looking forward to the pictures.

Wayne

Someone should link them here Al?????

We are also enjoying the Reliability Tour and thank Terry Bond for getting his report posted. I've been having delays with on-line activities, but will post a few photos as we travel in our 1914 Buick B-37 Touring. I did have time Tuesday evening to re-do my Brake Adjustment - an important factor on a 2-Wheel-Brake car in these treacherous hills and fantastic backroads.

A big "THANK YOU" to the Lesher Family for the amazing route they laid out for Wednesday.

It seems that my prior conversations with Mr. Spock resulted in having my 1914 Buick become to subject of "MAGNETIC TELEPORTATION". We left the car in a parking space at the Doubletree Headquarters Hotel, and the next morning it was in a parking space, but a notable distance away. Methinks that Multi-generational trickery may have played a role here -- shades of the Ricketts-Barnett Historical Society and Adult Beverage Evaluation Group. Thanks for the good laughs guys (and Gal)!

...................We left the car in a parking space at the Doubletree Headquarters Hotel, and the next morning it was in a parking space, but a notable distance away. Methinks that Multi-generational trickery may have played a role here -- shades of the Ricketts-Barnett Historical Society and Adult Beverage Evaluation Group. Thanks for the good laughs guys (and Gal)!

It's special when our history is not forgotten. Buzzies forEVERRRR!!!!!!!:cool:

It's special when our history is not forgotten. Buzzies forEVERRRR!!!!!!!:cool:

Gosh I wish I was there - super HOT in VA and it's not the same driving around in traffic with my Ford Taurus! Be safe and enjoy the rest of the trip!

ACF

Another great day of driving the spectacular countryside of Eastern Pennsylvania among an array of very interesting cars and their caretakers.

Watching the farmers plant and tend fields manually, and plow with horse power (not automated) is inspiring. Their children were lined up on the porches and roadsides, pumping an arm in the air in hopes of hearing our Klaxon, Explosion Whistle, Exhaust Whistle, or any other noise-maker. Most were very friendly and seemed enchanted by our early conveyances.

We had the pleasure of being awarded AACA's new "CENTURY CLUB" badge by our AACA National President. It will be displayed on the 1914 Buick, having been both shown at Lebanon and driven on the Reliability Tour.

Just got home from PA and put the T away in the garage, dumped suitcases in the den and poured a wee dram in celebrating of having survived the Reliability Tour. I'll post more with pics once we download but Marty had captured some additional highlights. The temps broke and the humidity went way down. We encountered some rain on Thursday but it was nothing serious at all. The car just got a bit dirtier and the brass got a few water spots. The roads were much tamer in comparison and we even squeezed in time for a return trip to Litiz PA to pick up some purchases that wouldn't fit into the T, and also got some antique hunting in at Strausburg. Not surprised to encounter several others on the tour in the shops.

Thursday evening there was a scheduled gas-light tour through a local retirement community. We lied up the cars at about 7:30, Paul Vaughan gave a public presentation on gas lighting for early automobiles, then we departed on a 5 mile journey through a very large retirement village . It consisted on duplex and single family homes, assisted living, long-term care facilities and all the amenities normally found in such an up-scale community. It was adjacent to the host hotel so we didn't need to drive far. The parade of cars, many with costumed occupants, wound through some areas twice. We were greeted by hundreds of people who had set up lawn chairs, even tail-gate parties to see us drive by. It was a very memorable occasion for us to parade past such an appreciative crowd.

One guarantee on any tour - if you have a donut stop at a church or vol fire company you are going to get a treat! The food has been great all around on this tour and the scenery amazing. Yes, there were some mechanical issues during the week - brakes on at least one car didn't do their job on one hill and the result was a fender-bender with a Model T that bent a spindle arm at a 45 degree angle, making the toe-in rather severe and the car undrivable. There was also report of a couple of rear ends going out, a wheel bearing failure, a rod thrown, and a couple of lock-rings that bounced off at Buick, only one of which was recovered from the woods. Friday's route was a bit longer than Thursday so we were under pressure to get back in time for the closing banquet. We visited Fulton's birthplace and then an amazing collection (read hoard) of tractor and gas engine stuffffffffffff!!!! We then followed the rail line of the "Little old and Slow" from which the tour takes it's name. It was an amazing journey through history as we traveled the rail-bed through the countryside. We entered a forested dirt and gravel road and for the next two miles endured ruts, pot holes, mud-filled pools and washed out areas that our cars hadn't seen in a hundred years. Our T literally "bounced" over many of them. A highlight was of course fording the stream three times. We were so deep in the woods we believe we heard banjos in the distance (drive faster!). We were quite surprised to come out of the dirt road at a four way intersection near a bridge over a small stream and met half a dozen tour cars there that all coverged from different directions, and nobody seemed to have a good idea of which way we needed to go to get back on track. We all took off in different directions and tried our individual luck in finding our way back to the route. We repeated a quite steep hill and after stopping to readjust a brake band, we made it back to civilization. It was fun and all a part of the touring experience. A highlight on Friday was a quick visit the the Strausburg railway museum. There's an X on the map for a return visit to this place for sure.

One of the more interesting things for us was the chance to see how the Amish have adapted to tourism. No doubt there is a lot of money to be made from tourists exploring this heavily Amish part of PA. There were authentic Amish buggy rides being given for tourists and when the old cars went buzzing by, they leaned out snapping our picture. Our impression was they must have figured we were just a part of the attraction!

I was pleased with the way the Model T performed. Having just rebuilt the transmission and relined the bands, as well as mounted two new clincher tires on new front wheels, we did great. Susan had helped be install the engine just a week before the tour and it ran like a fine watch.

There is so much more to write about, but I'm tired and ready to enjoy my favorite beverage so will try to post some pics later and add in a few more tid-bits. Meantime, anyone who was along for the ride feel free to post more info.

Terry

Just ran across this HCCA report on the AACA Reliability Tour.

http://boards.hcca.org/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=769

I have nothing else to do waiting for my plane ride back to Virginia from Nebraska? Are trains faster? They might be if you have ever flown through Chicago!

Here is an interesting picture that shows the Bond pit crew. We had our grandson Jack, and Susan's cousin's youngest son Cole along with us. Jack is a tour veteran but this was Cole''s first outing. Out 1914 T was actually the first car he ever drove. Everyone had their assignments, and when we got into some serious hills, I stopped a couple of times to adjust my new transmission bands. The Trans was freshly rebuilt, in fact we started the engine about two weeks before departing for the tour. When we stopped, it was like the Indy 500. Everyone had their job, and in seconds, the right tools were laid out, the floor boards were out, Jack was ready to turn the engine over so I could check things out, and Cole was ready to perform the "

"Thumbs up" (all is ok) signal. I'll share a couple of additional photos later ( I keep saying that). - finally got the T cleaned. It looks pretty good after all that - and yes, it's called a reliability tour for a reason - it originally was a test for man and machine - still is!

Terry