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Foot Switch stories - Printable Version +- Wanderlodge Gurus - The Member Funded Wanderlodge Forum (http://www.wanderlodgegurus.com) +-- Forum: Yahoo Groups Archive (/forumdisplay.php?fid=61) +--- Forum: WanderlodgeForum (/forumdisplay.php?fid=63) +--- Thread: Foot Switch stories (/showthread.php?tid=4494) Pages: 1 2 |
Foot Switch stories - Don Bradner - 03-13-2007 17:14 On 3/13/2007 at 7:34 PM Leroy Eckert wrote: >That foot air horn switch! Me to and it always happens at 7am How many here have foot switch stories? Here's mine... When we picked up Blue Thunder in Phoenix in January we spent awhile cruising around without our toad to get a feel for steering, brakes, turning radius, and so on. Returned to the consigning dealer and hooked up the toad to depart. Got to the first stop sign, where there was quite a bit of cross-traffic so I took that moment to adjust the steering wheel. The air horn started to blare and wouldn't quit. Great! A short in the steering column. Then it stopped. I made a left turn, then into a left turn lane where I stopped behind traffic and the horn started again. People getting rather nervous, and I'm watching my air drop. Then it stopped. We pulled around the block and back into the dealer's. A mechanic came out and we tried very hard to get it to sound, no such luck. He called Blue Bird and came back and said they told him several possible places for panels to look for the relay (to disconnect it) but it sounded like a major job to track down. So he said "There should be a dash switch for the horn." A dash switch for the horn? Sure, he says "There's a dash switch for everything on a Blue Bird." Sure enough, there was the switch, "Electric/Air" (I think that's right, I'm not in the coach at the moment) and we turned it to Electric. Beep Beep. We can live with that. We leave and proceed without incident to the Flying J where we took $400 in fuel (it was half-full and the prices hadn't risen yet), then pulled out into congested traffic on the side street. There goes the horn again, and it's air, not electric! The woman in front of me was almost frantic, and my wife says in a lot of cities I probably would have gotten shot. People I've told this to since then say Phoenix would be a good bet. Air pressure getting dangerously low, and no place at all to pull off the street. Then it stopped, and didn't happen again on the trip to Quartzsite. You can imagine my relief when I was reading the manual that night and got to the part about the foot switch... Don Bradner 90 PT40 "Blue Thunder" Eureka, CA Foot Switch stories - davidkerryedwards - 03-13-2007 17:46 And I thought I was the only one with the errant left foot horn problem. Kerry 82 Fc 35 Denver Foot Switch stories - Don Bradner - 03-13-2007 18:04 See, confession is good for the soul! Chuck: Are you saying your Electric/Air switch also works for the foot switch? Mine definitely works for the steering wheel center, but not for the foot switch, which is always air. On 3/14/2007 at 4:46 AM davidkerryedwards wrote: >And I thought I was the only one with the errant left foot horn problem. Don Bradner 90 PT40 "Blue Thunder" Eureka, CA Foot Switch stories - mbrund - 03-13-2007 18:24 Well the first part of your story is the same as mine. I went to adjust the steering wheel height, unscrewed the horn button, slide up the column while I was stopped at a light and when I tighten it the damn air horn went off. I thought I broke it, thank god the owner was in the coach with me, he starte laughing and said, lift your left foot silly, your stepping on the floor air horn button. I hit is about four or five more times during the test drive because I am use to resting my foot at that location in my current RV and that silly pedal that they have there is not comfortable for me. --- In WanderlodgeForum@yahoogroups.com, "Don Bradner" > > On 3/13/2007 at 7:34 PM Leroy Eckert wrote: > > >That foot air horn switch! Me to and it always happens at 7am > > How many here have foot switch stories? Here's mine... > > When we picked up Blue Thunder in Phoenix in January we spent awhile cruising around without our toad to get a feel for steering, brakes, turning radius, and so on. > > Returned to the consigning dealer and hooked up the toad to depart. Got to the first stop sign, where there was quite a bit of cross-traffic so I took that moment to adjust the steering wheel. The air horn started to blare and wouldn't quit. Great! A short in the steering column. Then it stopped. I made a left turn, then into a left turn lane where I stopped behind traffic and the horn started again. People getting rather nervous, and I'm watching my air drop. Then it stopped. > > We pulled around the block and back into the dealer's. A mechanic came out and we tried very hard to get it to sound, no such luck. He called Blue Bird and came back and said they told him several possible places for panels to look for the relay (to disconnect it) but it sounded like a major job to track down. So he said "There should be a dash switch for the horn." A dash switch for the horn? Sure, he says "There's a dash switch for everything on a Blue Bird." > > Sure enough, there was the switch, "Electric/Air" (I think that's right, I'm not in the coach at the moment) and we turned it to Electric. Beep Beep. We can live with that. > > We leave and proceed without incident to the Flying J where we took $400 in fuel (it was half-full and the prices hadn't risen yet), then pulled out into congested traffic on the side street. There goes the horn again, and it's air, not electric! The woman in front of me was almost frantic, and my wife says in a lot of cities I probably would have gotten shot. People I've told this to since then say Phoenix would be a good bet. Air pressure getting dangerously low, and no place at all to pull off the street. > > Then it stopped, and didn't happen again on the trip to Quartzsite. > > You can imagine my relief when I was reading the manual that night and got to the part about the foot switch... > > > Don Bradner > 90 PT40 "Blue Thunder" > Eureka, CA > Foot Switch stories - Chuck Wheeler - 03-13-2007 18:34 I didn't "discover" the foot switch until our first camping trip. We were having a great time with friends so did not get back to Fort Worth until about 1:15am. I had told Kathy that I was going to back it in the drive just far enough to clear the street because our drive passes within about ten foot of the neighbor's window. The Electric horn did not work so it was set to "air". When I thought I was about where I wanted to be for the night I leaned over to look and the horn started sounding. I pressed the horn button on the wheel a couple of times thinking it might be shorted, then thought I would just flip it to "electric" since it didn't work. Instead I hit the musical horn so now I had the air horn blasting and the bus playing "deep in the heart of Texas"! By this time the most of the nearby neighbors were peering out their window so I just turned off the master switch and told Kathy I would "deal with it in the morning. I now know about the foot switch, and the electric horn circuit has been repaired. Our neighbors still bring this up at block parties! It's good for laughs. - Chuck Wheeler - 82 FC 31 SB Fort Worth, TX _____ From: WanderlodgeForum@yahoogroups.com [mailto:WanderlodgeForum@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Don Bradner Sent: Tuesday, March 13, 2007 10:15 PM To: WanderlodgeForum@yahoogroups.com Subject: [WanderlodgeForum] Foot Switch stories On 3/13/2007 at 7:34 PM Leroy Eckert wrote: >That foot air horn switch! Me to and it always happens at 7am How many here have foot switch stories? Here's mine... When we picked up Blue Thunder in Phoenix in January we spent awhile cruising around without our toad to get a feel for steering, brakes, turning radius, and so on. Returned to the consigning dealer and hooked up the toad to depart. Got to the first stop sign, where there was quite a bit of cross-traffic so I took that moment to adjust the steering wheel. The air horn started to blare and wouldn't quit. Great! A short in the steering column. Then it stopped. I made a left turn, then into a left turn lane where I stopped behind traffic and the horn started again. People getting rather nervous, and I'm watching my air drop. Then it stopped. We pulled around the block and back into the dealer's. A mechanic came out and we tried very hard to get it to sound, no such luck. He called Blue Bird and came back and said they told him several possible places for panels to look for the relay (to disconnect it) but it sounded like a major job to track down. So he said "There should be a dash switch for the horn." A dash switch for the horn? Sure, he says "There's a dash switch for everything on a Blue Bird." Sure enough, there was the switch, "Electric/Air" (I think that's right, I'm not in the coach at the moment) and we turned it to Electric. Beep Beep. We can live with that. We leave and proceed without incident to the Flying J where we took $400 in fuel (it was half-full and the prices hadn't risen yet), then pulled out into congested traffic on the side street. There goes the horn again, and it's air, not electric! The woman in front of me was almost frantic, and my wife says in a lot of cities I probably would have gotten shot. People I've told this to since then say Phoenix would be a good bet. Air pressure getting dangerously low, and no place at all to pull off the street. Then it stopped, and didn't happen again on the trip to Quartzsite. You can imagine my relief when I was reading the manual that night and got to the part about the foot switch... Don Bradner 90 PT40 "Blue Thunder" Eureka, CA [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] Foot Switch stories - Chuck Wheeler - 03-14-2007 03:39 No it doesn't. I had only owned the bird for about ten days and when I turned the main switch off I guess I moved my foot. The musical horn and the air horn stopped so with my understanding at the time I thought it did. - Chuck Wheeler - 82 FC 31 SB Fort Worth, TX _____ From: WanderlodgeForum@yahoogroups.com [mailto:WanderlodgeForum@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Don Bradner Sent: Tuesday, March 13, 2007 11:05 PM To: WanderlodgeForum@yahoogroups.com Subject: Re: [WanderlodgeForum] Re: Foot Switch stories See, confession is good for the soul! Chuck: Are you saying your Electric/Air switch also works for the foot switch? Mine definitely works for the steering wheel center, but not for the foot switch, which is always air. On 3/14/2007 at 4:46 AM davidkerryedwards wrote: >And I thought I was the only one with the errant left foot horn problem. Don Bradner 90 PT40 "Blue Thunder" Eureka, CA [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] Foot Switch stories - Pete Masterson - 03-14-2007 12:04 Yeah, I found out the 'hard way' that the electric/air switch only affects the steering wheel center, not the foot switch. I was fortunate that the dealer pointed out the foot switch. "Don't step on that," he said, "It's the horn." Of course, try as I might, I then couldn't not step on it.... Pete Masterson aeonix1@... '95 Blue Bird Wanderlodge WBDA 42' El Sobrante, CA On Mar 13, 2007, at 10:04 PM, Don Bradner wrote: > See, confession is good for the soul! > > Chuck: Are you saying your Electric/Air switch also works for the > foot switch? Mine definitely works for the steering wheel center, > but not for the foot switch, which is always air. > > On 3/14/2007 at 4:46 AM davidkerryedwards wrote: > >> And I thought I was the only one with the errant left foot horn >> problem. > > Don Bradner > 90 PT40 "Blue Thunder" > Eureka, CA > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] Foot Switch stories - dthollis1961 - 03-14-2007 13:14 I wasted a half-hour the other day trying to figure out why my bright lights didn't work. David Hollis 84FC35 Springfield,IL Foot Switch stories - Don Bradner - 03-14-2007 13:34 (Quotes snipped from the other thread) My solution - credit goes to my wife joy for the idea - is this item: http://www.arcatapet.com/item.cfm?cat=6441 Not extensively field tested yet, but it appears to work. Stuck down with velcro at this point. Disclaimer: I own the business to which that link points. On 3/14/2007 at 6:26 PM Leroy Eckert wrote: >Now that is not a bad idea! Just a little Lone Star engineering that >works. LOL. > >Leroy Eckert >1990 WB-40"Smoke N Mirrors" >Niceville, FL > > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: ronmarabito2002 > To: WanderlodgeForum@yahoogroups.com > Sent: Wednesday, March 14, 2007 9:06 AM > Subject: [WanderlodgeForum] Re: Looking to purchase used 1992 WB40 > > > Do what I did to eliminate hitting the foot switch for horn. Take a > small bowl and turn it over on top and leave it there. You don't need > that foot switch anyway. I have two dogs that love to lay up in the > driver area. They were forever hitting the horn switch. > > R.E. (Ron) Marabito, Dallas, TX 92WB40 Don Bradner 90 PT40 "Blue Thunder" Eureka, CA Foot Switch stories - whistles_n_bells - 03-14-2007 18:10 I am enjoying the stories of the foot switch "surprises." I probably mentioned in earlier posts that I started driving OTR buses in the mid-fifties (Continental Trailways). All the GM and Flxible (yes, there is no 'e' in Flxible) coaches had air horns mounted under the drivers seat area, just behind the bumper. Of course those were the days of manual transmissions - and clutches. The air horn button was located near where your left heel would be resting (no, not on the handbrake lever), so you would use your heel to activate the air. Placed in that location, it was difficult to set it off accidentally. I assume the air switch or button on the various BB models is where the clutch would have normally been. On the buses I presently drive, the air horn is activated by a push-button on the end of the turn signal lever. Enjoying the forum, enjoying the on-going education on BB coaches. Thanks Joe (Pappy) Hagan St. George, UT Wannabe --- In WanderlodgeForum@yahoogroups.com, "Don Bradner" wrote: > > On 3/13/2007 at 7:34 PM Leroy Eckert wrote: > > >That foot air horn switch! Me to and it always happens at 7am > > How many here have foot switch stories? Here's mine... > > When we picked up Blue Thunder in Phoenix in January we spent awhile cruising around without our toad to get a feel for steering, brakes, turning radius, and so on. > > Returned to the consigning dealer and hooked up the toad to depart. Got to the first stop sign, where there was quite a bit of cross-traffic so I took that moment to adjust the steering wheel. The air horn started to blare and wouldn't quit. Great! A short in the steering column. Then it stopped. I made a left turn, then into a left turn lane where I stopped behind traffic and the horn started again. People getting rather nervous, and I'm watching my air drop. Then it stopped. > > We pulled around the block and back into the dealer's. A mechanic came out and we tried very hard to get it to sound, no such luck. He called Blue Bird and came back and said they told him several possible places for panels to look for the relay (to disconnect it) but it sounded like a major job to track down. So he said "There should be a dash switch for the horn." A dash switch for the horn? Sure, he says "There's a dash switch for everything on a Blue Bird." > > Sure enough, there was the switch, "Electric/Air" (I think that's right, I'm not in the coach at the moment) and we turned it to Electric. Beep Beep. We can live with that. > > We leave and proceed without incident to the Flying J where we took $400 in fuel (it was half-full and the prices hadn't risen yet), then pulled out into congested traffic on the side street. There goes the horn again, and it's air, not electric! The woman in front of me was almost frantic, and my wife says in a lot of cities I probably would have gotten shot. People I've told this to since then say Phoenix would be a good bet. Air pressure getting dangerously low, and no place at all to pull off the street. > > Then it stopped, and didn't happen again on the trip to Quartzsite. > > You can imagine my relief when I was reading the manual that night and got to the part about the foot switch... > > > Don Bradner > 90 PT40 "Blue Thunder" > Eureka, CA > |