In yesterday’s post I said I was giving up – throwing in the towel – in my attempt to remove the lower left front shock bolt. I made several phone calls looking for a mobile mechanic that could come to the coach with a large impact driver and air compressor. No luck. One guy returned my call and said he would do it if he was in the area, but he’s away on vacation until the end of the month. Another guy told me it would cost nearly $200 by the time I paid their standard minimum fees.

My daughter Alana said her neighbor does automotive work on the side and she was sure he had air-operated tools. The problem with that was getting the coach to his house to access his air compressor. Then I had an idea. I’ve had a large air compressor all along – the coach has an onboard air compressor driven by the Cummins ISL diesel engine. This compressor supplies air to reservoirs for the air suspension. It has a quick release connector for auxiliary air in the service bay at the right rear of the coach. All I needed was a hose long enough to reach from there to the left front and an air-operated impact driver.

Alana called her neighbor who invited us to come over to see what they might lend us. He wasn’t home but his wife showed us the tools. He had an Ingersoll-Rand 1/2″ impact gun and a 50-foot length of hose on his compressor. She told me I could take the hose and impact gun to see if it would work. The Ingersoll-Rand tool delivers more than 400 foot-pounds of force versus the cordless electric impact driver’s 330 foot-pounds.

The coupler on his hose didn’t match the quick connect on the coach, but I had a coupler and it was easy to change it. Fifty feet of hose was plenty to reach the front shock. I fired up the engine and ran it at high idle – 1,000 rpm. The compressor quickly built air pressure and I went to work. With the socket over the 28mm nut, I hit the trigger on the impact gun. BRRRRP. No movement. I hit it again. BRRRRP. No movement and it seemed like the impact gun was slowing down. Maybe the coach compressor didn’t flow enough air for full power. I waited for the pressure to build to the maximum and tried again. BRRR-ZING! The nut was free. Success at last!

The recalcitrant bolt

Ten minutes later I had the new shock mounted. Then I put the original coupler back on his hose and returned the tools. Job done.

I think Ozark the cat will be happy once she realizes I won’t be banging away with an impact driver under the coach anymore. It gets loud!

No more noise, Ozark

Later, the sun broke through the cloud cover. Alana prepared a vegan meal for our dinner. I’m a carnivore and I favor man-food like meat and bacon. But I was willing to give it a go. She made black bean burgers that were spicy and quite good. We also had french fried potatoes and sweet potatoes that I grilled and steamed green beans and artichokes.

Lainey, Alana, Gabi and Donna

With the daily rain showers and constant threat of rain, the Spyder has been relegated to the garage. The weather forecast calls for improvement over the rest of the week, but it’s still overcast this morning. Maybe we can get out on the Spyder to see some sights later this week.

Spyder stored in Alana’s garage

Alana is working today in the ER at Providence Hospital in Everett. She left us her car so we can visit our friend, Sini Schmitt, this afternoon. Other than that, I have no plans for the day and no unfinished chores.