Given you've been experiencing lots of lightning damage to your internal electronics you need to protect your electronics from power surges and lightening is buy and install battery backup UPS units with a small led screen that will tell you the cinwave of ac coming in and post filtered, load level of everything you have hooked up to it. Never exceed 80 percent max load. A good one will also "soft" shut down a computer when it reaches a set battery level or a set amount of time it's sitting unused. There's always two sets of outlets on them. Isolated and unisolated. All are fused. If lightning hits it they will sacrificially protect electronics plugged into them. COSTCO has a 1200 rated unit that's a little over a hundred that's usually all you need for a tv and perifial electronics usually cabled to them. Always incude any internet cables or antenna cables plugged into it as well. I'm a 40 years experienced arcade and pinball games, jukeboxes and other electronic equipment including tv's and computers and electronic device I own is plugged into one. When I was the route service manager for the largest amusement vending equipment company in the upper Florida Keys I put all our top end games including our bar top touchscreen games on them and it drastically reduced the number of computerized games and jukeboxes being toasted by lightning and bad wiring in bars. I even have my electronics test equipment plugged into them. My scope alone cost me 3 thousand so a hundred dollars on a 1200 hundred rated UPS was just plain common sense. Strip outlets are actually there to protect your buildings wiring when a toaster, microwave, mixer, vacume cleaner shorts out and from it causing a fire If anyone tells you otherwise they're seriously clueless. We live in the lightning capital of America and I tell all of my home games customers to buy them. Including the young man who I just got done repairing his 60 in 1 multicade arcade game. He's a professional sound tech and was having seriously electronics damage issues till I told him to buy several UPS's. He hasn't had any since he did.
There is a story that willy nelsons bus. That after playing in a blue texas town. No alcohol sales on sunday. They drove the tour bus across into mexico. Coming back across the border the drug sniffing dog went crazy sniffing and scratching at everything including the bands instruments. One of the band members said these are expensive. Your dog is going to damage them. The customs guy had no idea who willie nelson was and apologized the dog has never acted this way before and sent them thru.
Entertainer buses are in fact commercial buses running winter on salted roads, plus most are leases with multiple drivers and tendencies. Plus not usually stored inside. Not serviced to levels of some private coaches. Consider equivalent to buying a used rental car.
And you know that how? I drove for Florida Coach and my bus was far better maintained than any line bus. All of ours were. There's 20,000 ticket holders spending loads per ticket. We got there every single night, without fail. The financial consequences of breaking down were far more than refunding 40 bus ride tickets.
So many times on this channel we see vehicles that have suffered years of neglect. This is exactly why nearly every country has mandatory vehicle safety inspections.
This is exactly why I'm glad we moved away from Budd wheels to Hub Piloted. The Budd's were an improvement over the former split rim Dayton wheels for several reasons but the Budd system became a problem too with improper installation, over-torquing, and lack of maintenance. Road side repairs became very expensive and dangerous due to failures of the outer studs seizing or breaking off as was demonstrated in this video. There was a reason why factories installed steel inner wheels with these types of studs which was negated when people switched to aluminum wheels without changing out the shorter studs with longer ones. Thankfully after 34 years of working on trucks in my 37 years driving, those days are now over. I got a new job two months ago driving a tri-axle dump truck out of Thompson Station and I'm very happy. I started my career in the 1980's driving tri-axle dumps for Littleton and Tri-Ax Inc up in Indy and have now returned to the same line of work down here in TN to finish out my career. I'm glad you made the decision to move here because if you hadn't, chances are I wouldn't have either. You and your family seem much happier down here and I can tell you I am certainly much happier down here. Thank you Scott for being my inspiration because jumping off a cliff at an older age is not an easy feat yet both of us did it and landed on our feet running.
It may not be that particular bus, but in 2006, a highway patrol officer in St. Martin Parish, Louisiana saw a tour bus travelling in the opposite direction with smoke pouring from the back of passenger compartment. Fearing the bus was on fire and the driver was unaware, the officer made a U-turn, chased down the bus and pulled it over. As he got out of his cruiser he realized what the source of the smoke was. It was Willie's bus and upon being asked, they fessed up to having 1.5 pounds of weed on board. At that same time, there was a major food borne e-coli outbreak involving spinach that killed three people, hospitalized 199 and caused kidney failure in 31 patients. When cornered by the media and asked about the pound-and-a half of weed on his bus, Willie replied "If it was spinach, I'd be dead." :-D))
I saw Willie at Farm Aid. Sorry to hear of the lighting damage, that's terrible. Did insurance cover any of it? You guys always make these death traps right again, it is scary to think how many busses are on the road in this condition pretty on top & frightening underneath!
It might not be a bad idea to lookup Motorola R56 and look through the chapters about grounding and lightning protection. The standard is intended for communication sites but its all good info. Just ignore the parts about the tower and pay attention to common grounding all the equipment inside and the building etc. Its common for communication sites to use steel shipping containers so very applicable to your building.
I believe he said, in the comments on another video, they had a lightning protection company put together a package for them a while back, but it was quite expensive. $100k? Maybe $200k, I don’t remember.
Been doing telecommunications work for over 25 years and never had seen a Conex box (shipping container) used by a telecommunications company for anything other than storage. As a rule telecommunications companies use Fiberbond or similar shelters. These shelters (buildings) have been tested and certified for telecommunications equipment use. They have provisions for building grounding, waterproof fiber and or cable penetrations, the walls, floors and ceilings have multiple moisture barriers which along with the HVAC system(s) that are mounted on the ends prevent the building from sweating as well being able to keep the building cooled or heated (rarely does a building containing telecommunications equipment need heating) regardless of the time of year or outside temperature. Additionally the buildings are storm/hurricane rated. To give you an idea of how well they are sealed if you were to disconnect the door closer and try and slam the door shut it would bounce back open from the internal air pressure
@@gullreefclub idk Ive been doing it for 5 years and seen probably a dozen connex box used as the site building. Torch a hole in the side for the entry panel, maybe another for HVAC and there it is all done.
Looks like a Florida Coach from the Calhoun Brothers. The murals are definitely in the typical style that was on all of their coaches. December of 1980 I met one of their drivers in Nashville who had just finished with Willie Nelson.
My old band opened up for Willie somewhere in a field in Nebraska in about 2000-2001 and he had these busses then. Seems like he had two, one for himself & one for the band/crew but dont quote me 💯 on this one. Was a long time ago. I'm sure they have mega miles on them.
I have watched your channel for a few years now, and have been away for awhile, but when I saw this bus and headline, I knew I had to watch as it was a bus I recognized. I used to run a regular OTR run from the Joplin, MO area up to Kansas City, and one night I ran across this bus around midnite to 2 AM, running north to KC, so I jumped on the CB radio and hollared at the driver (somewhat jokingly) . "who we got famous on that bus?" ... and low and behold it was Willie Nelson (asleep in the back) heading to KC for a performance the next day. I ran with that bus for a couple hours chatting back and forth with the driver until I turned off to head west to Lenexa, KS. What a funny coincidence to find it here on your channel. Thanks for great videos and entertainment. I'll try and start watching a little more regularly now that I'm retired from "drivin' my life away".
Wow, with all that rust damage to the wheel lug system and the air bags, I was surprised to see at least the few views you showed of the chassis of that coach, that it didn't look badly rusted at all. Does the owner use that coach as an office/lounge? Or is he going to add sleeping provisions and convert it back to use as a regular RV Coach? Love your channel, have followed since before the Covid fiasco here. You've taught all of us so much about buses, coaches and heavy RVs, no other way we would have been able to find this knowledge. Thanks, Scott and crew! You and we have definitely come a long way.
Your hourly rate should be 1 1/2 time's the rate of most other shops. Your knowledge, patience, honesty. Setyou way above the rest. Don't sell yourself short.
Hello gentlemen thank you for sharing your video appreciate that as an X truck driver owner operator for two trucks I've learned on my second truck I would check and remove my wheels and lugs every year you know what it saves somebody's life and mine and a peace of mind I know it costs a bet to do that type of work but as worth it and what I've just witnessed on your video I don't want that to ever ever happen to somebody losing their wheel and thank you for sharing your video again by the way happy 4th of July coming up
I have one of Willie’s old crew/band buses. 1980 Eagle. Heard all the rumors and didn’t really believe it until I found a full May ‘84 itinerary under the front sofa when I tore out the smelly old built-in sofa. There’s a video on our channel. Love your videos!
Tough Break on the Lightning Strike, The YT Sailing Community has had quite a year of it as well. Good Grounds, and being able to Isolate Everything, during a storm seem to help with the issue. Good luck on the Rebuild...
Yeah I was gonna say, then you said it Scott, need to put up several lightning rods around different locations, and preferably at least one on top of your main building there, may not hurt to have at least a couple on top of that building. And then several more around your property there, different spots. Hope y'all get lined out there. 👍👍🤘✌️
Thank you Ben Franklin for the lightning rods! I know it was age and deterioration but the galvanizing between the steel and aluminum didn't help! Nice work ya'll and keep it up!
Hello Scott! Yes that bus needed a lot of work! Yes you are good to make the decision to have lightning rods installed and proper grounding rods in the ground.!! I also agree with clynesnowtail that the Motorola book R56 . Motorola done a large and comprehensive study on lightning protection many years ago. Wishing you good luck!!
Scott, love your presentations and so sorry to hear of the lightening damage you sustained. Hopefully all will be resolved in the very near future! And, I LOV E your silversides! This Eagle looks the world like a Jack Calhoun bus; particularly the body-color paint; front door and window frames. Also, the murals look exactly like, in style, placement, etc., those that were on all his busses. Jack and his twin brother began converting motorhomes in the '60s for entertainers like themselves; they were a country/western duo. Each developed their own business, Jack in Kissimmee, Florida and his brother near Leesburg, Florida. In the '70s, both moved to Eagle conversions that were made for or leased to entertainers. Each ended up with about 25 to 30 busses, used by all kinds of touring entertainers. I know for sure that Kenny Rogers bought one; others I'm not sure of, but Willie Nelson used Jack's busses in the early 80's. I knew one of the drivers. One giveaway to a Calhoun bus is the entry door. Eagle used bi-fold doors and Jack developed a solid door. But, by '83 this one may have come from the factory as Jack let the folks at the Eagle factory in Texas use his method. (I'm sure that 'let' is spelled $$$) Might be a completely different scenario, but as I said, it surely looks like a Calhoun bus...my first thought when I saw the thumbnail!
So offense but your claimed history of Jack & Jerry is wrong. They were in construction before they started Florida Coach together. They later split into 2 companies.
@@jtjones4081 Should have considered that.,..didn't look close enough, for sure. You in the area? I lived about a mile from Florida Coach shop that was on Air[port Road.
I remember seeing 3 of these same buses at ND Stae Fair in Fargo in 1983. Willie was the headliner. The buses all had different names of his songs. I know this is one of them as I stalked them for an hour or two hoping to say hi to Willie. One of the guys told me to get on the bus and introduce myself. I was too shy - lol
I am so impressed by your growth and knowledge gained as well as the specialized tool collection. We are planning to move to the area and hopefully would love to meet you and just shake the hand of a master bus man! I have a 1993 Newell coach that I do all the work on myself with a pit at my house. Keep up the good work!
There is a Provost that has been sitting since early 1980 or late 70's. on Hwy 126 West in Oregon. Has a tarp over her some. I am Sure no one lives in it .. anymore. She has pinkish/ maude strips and beautiful all moldy as she is .. But still tires inflated.
I have been watching your channel for a long time and you are obviously a complete master at what you do. Really amazing. But I can't help but wonder if you ever get to perform normal maintenance with just minor wear and tear vs complete buses that are a complete train wreck mechanically? Some of the issues you get into are just amazing to me that the owners ignored for so long. Now I know you are dealing with 30-40 year old buses a lot of the time, but...... Keep up the great work. I will definitely keep watching and "liking". Ed
No shortage of neglected buses. We never had budd wheels in Australia. Heavy trucks and buses were originally all steel spoke hubs with steel rims and a spacer between the duals. Everything is now European- ISO 10 stud hubs with Alloy wheels or occasionally steel. Our roads are still very bad in some regions, and some operators have had alloy rims warp. Nowhere in Australia uses salt roads so at least there is that.
There's a GMC bus near me that you should come rescue. They're only asking $50. It's complete and I believe it to Detroit diesel. I think the bus is a 1983. It's definitely deserving of being back on the road.
Yup . Aluminum wheels with the old style bud wheel can be a night mare. I ran them in the past before hub pilot wheels. I used never seize on the threads and on the wheel studs . I was looking at an older MCI conversion but it had steel buds on it . I figured parts would be too hard to find on that old of a bus and they couldn't tell me if it had wedge brakes or S cam brakes. Definitely did want wedge brakes Love your channel.
Scott, If you know any electrical engineers, check with them about adding another ground rod to your system. Where I live we have lightning strikes regularly in the spring and summer and I had to add another ground rod to my system. No more strikes to our home and sheds.
You are correct. In my very younger years I use to put in High Voltage sub stations with ground rods fields to protect the substation from any lightning strikes. I drove many a copper ground rods into mother earth. 1 field we had over 100 ground rods driven & spent days trying to get that substation resistance down properly. I seen 1 substation get hit by lightning I don't want to see any more.
Scott it sounds like you need to have a lighting suppression system installed like the military uses at ammunition rail yards. Depending on the size they have 4 or more post with lighting rods on each post and wires stretch in different directions to form a net over top of the area you want to protect
This looks like one of the buses from the late 80's into 90's of Willys band....Willy had the bus Honeysuckle Rose which was an Eagle. I remembered it from 86 when I was on the set of Once Apon a Texas Train. Also when I used to go a lot back stage on the Highwaymen tour. Cool to see this bus again.😊👍🏻
So sorry you guys had to struggle with those rusty lugs and wheels. That was simple destroy and return work. Your talent is so far beyond the "caveman" mentality of disassembly by any means. Cudos for your professionalism. I was thinking dynamite.
Mate I lived in the out back of Australia in wa. Working on a drill rig. The only thing 60 m in the sky. And 200m in the ground. Lighting comes we leave site. As specially when lighting go across the sky. That's the worst. I'm surprised you not setup a tower to collect the storm. Make it high above everything you have on the property. Pray you had insurance. Ps do you have surg protection in house. ? You say three times. ...... you really need get a electrician. To check everything I mean everything in house and work shop. Melted wiring is a future fire ( God bless you guys. And allways love your videos. God bless mick Australia
It is too bad you don't do a tour of Australia. So many busses converted to motorhomes in need of some TLC by people such as yourself, who really know and care about their work, have high standards and deliver real quality workmanship.
I love some of the stories here. Wow. In my freezer. Yep, right along with the frozen hamburger and chicken, I have a selection of custom made ice cubes. Different sizes My favorite is two inches square by four inches long. Frozen water. That's it. Those manifolds on a 20 year old truck. The Bolts there fused into the manifolds. You grind away the pipe, use some of that welding cloth (from Harbor Freight) Wrap it around the "hot spot" for any wires and whatnot to protect,. Then go RED HOT like what your doing here. Then take your ICE CUBE for the stud. Wow. Talk about breaking it loose. !!! Works every time. !!! I'm tellin ya. ICE is the trick with that torch. Whoo Weee!
AMAZING HOW ARE YOU PUT SO MUCH EFFORT IN TO THESE PIECES OF JUNK MOST VEHICLES THAT YOU WORK ON ALL THE REST OF THEIR KIND HAVE BEEN LONG AGO TURNED INTO SCRAP METAL
Sucks to hear about the batteries, almost assuredly the BMS got cooked in them. The rhino should be repairable, as many of them just use a JBD BMS. As long as you know what you're doing, and can program a BMS. Easy enough to pop it open and check that all cells are live. If not, well, no loss checking. Hope you're okay with that line of storms coming through today, I just got hit, grid power out here east of memphis.
With all the weather systems up the shute these days it getting harder to know what is best. Glad you are all ok. Looks like that bus was an accident waiting to happen bro. Safe travels. Ken Allen.
Seen Willie Nelson in Las Vagas I think early early 80's when the show finished my wife and I somehow took a wrong exit and ended up back stage somewhere. There was this bus with a raised back half and there was a mural of a stage coach and horses on the side (if only mobile phones where around then! To this day I believe that was Willie's bus! We were politely shown the correct way out!
Around 1985/86 a customer of ours who was also an FBI agent asked my father if he could store a bus inside of our fenced storage area for a couple of weeks. We lived and I still do in Deep South Texas about 25 miles from Brownsville Texas which in that time was home to the Eagle Bus Co and they manufactured Silver/Golden Eagle buses. The agent said the bus was ordered built for Willie Nelson who was a personal friend of his and he (our customer) planned to drive it to Florida where the interior would be completed. He said he planned to meet Nelson there and play some golf. My father agreed and the customer parked the bus in our lot. It was brand new and the interior was completely bare. Absolutely nothing but a drivers seat and a wooden floor. The bus stayed with us for a couple of weeks and then the customer departed with the silver eagle as he said he would. I was about 20 at the time, not sure if his story was legit but I guess I’ll never know.
Still working on those neglected old girls ! I use to drive a Prevost Marathon xl working girl ( with seats ). Before i went to NC we had her checked out and i still blow a rear just out side NY city on 17 ! All most $ 10,000.00 in the early 90's. And it went again less then a year later !!! I do not know how people car keep these newer ones on the road. I live near Atlanta that has a big coach lease place for entertainer coaches. The newer x-3's are sooo pretty to look at !!! The coast must be so high to keep them running.
That bus looks familiar. Ran with it on the Indiana Toll Road, the driver would neither confirm nor deny it belonged to someone famous. Everyone else on the CB thought it was Willie Nelson. As he paid his toll by Chicago, he said it was Willie's, but said Willie wasn't on it, he was on a bus a couple miles behind him.
Channellock makes a pair of pliers that I believe are called 'pipe locs' which would be perfect for removing those nuts. They have a curved jaw that bites into the nut!
You can see it has been exposed to the gulf coastal salt in the air , that metal has got that salt waste pitting to it . Which would also lend to its authenticity, Willie spent a lot time in Houston in the early 80's.
The 1980s are definitely calling with this bus. Lightning protection is a bit of an art as well as science - you might want to pay someone to advise you on solutions.
Steel wheels forever,,,its the taper that always gets super stuck with alloy. Turning with a chisel works better using a hand hammer to help shock them. Your helper is doing good,,,Izzy,,,,
The red headed stranger ! That's really cool . I bet there was some good weed smoked on that bus . I'd be looking for hidden compartments ! Lol. I wonder how many songs was written on that bus ?
Beautiful coach ! Was gonna say if it really smells like weed it probably was Willie’s bus ! 😂 Someone else probably put the no smoking sign up. Also a lot of coaches are just leased by these singers and bands from a company and they personally don’t own them and that would also explain the no smoking 🚭 type signs. Have a Blessed Day
love your vids , have watched for years , have not seen Tyler in a while , is he still around ?, and wow 3 hits thats big problem , good luck with new rods
Sorry to hear about the lightening. Put up a big tower. A few even, Look at Cape Canaveral you’ll see big towers all over. Some sort of math about how tall a tower to how much land it protects
Makes me wonder. I put up a 40' antenna tower back around 1998. Each of the three legs of it were grounded with copper. I subsequently lost multiple pieces of equipment (phones, tv) to lightning damage and heard multiple lightning strikes in storms. After removing the tower in about 2012, I have not lost any equipment... it's almost as if the tower made things worse.
@@donmoore7785soil type can play a part in how well a grounding system works. Grounding the tower, but no dedicated lightning rod & down conductors can leave room for problems. There can also be a difference in potential between grounds( the house ground vs tower grounds) if they aren’t all tied together, that can cause problems. Even with the best lightning protection system, lightning can still find a way around it sometimes.
It was my first yr driving truck. I was in a thunder storm A guy hollered on the cb to call his boss. Why? Lighting hit his truck thru the Qualcomm satellite dome. Frying the whole satellite communication system. He had to use his fire extinguisher to put out the fire.
Yes from what I was told by the owner he lived in laytonsville MD he took a crew of us to a sawmill show years ago he past away a short time after that ride.
That bus is not the "Honeysuckel Rose". I was aboard Willies bus several times with him and his family as we tried to create a cable TV channel called "The COWBOY CHANNEL" in 1991. That bus had facing couches up front for setting of 8 folks, followed with a 4 seat dinette on drivers side and full gallery on passenger side. Sleeping quarters were in the rear. In about 1991, Willie was on tour in Canada, when a crazy guy drove at high speed directly into the front of the "Honeysuckel Rose" ending up killing himself and badly damaging the bus. Willie was unhurt but shaken up. The bus driver did have injuries. That bus was badly damaged, probably totaled. My association with Willie and Mack Long ended with the failure of TCC to launch. Too bad would have been great!
can those hubs be converted to hub pilot? I know it took me over two years of looking, calling eaton, and bearing companies, and never had any luck finding them for my 860 GMC tractor. finally we just cut everything out from under it and put modern axles from a wreck on it. I would think by now, you could get a conversion for busses because of safety. Thanks, Bill
Wow, that sucks that you lost all of your solar system in a lightning strike. That's the worst part of a metal building (even worse than the temperature fluctuations) they effectively become the easiest path to ground for lightning, it would probably be best to bond the grounds from the lightning rods to the whole structure and have multiple ground spikes around the building. Another thing to be mindful of is to not let the soil around the ground spikes to dry out too much, dry soil is a much worse conductor than moist soil (part of the reason why the main ground wire is usually bonded to metal water pipes for an outdoor tap).
i worked for Celebrity coach,out of Tupelo,ms....before that,out of Nashville,tn with Pyramid coach. I did drive an old Eagle,like willys,one time. I will check out this show.....
3 times a lightning strike on your building , definitive your metal garage with your solar panels is attracting the strikes , the only way to help is to divert that static charge towards the ground directly making your garage less attractive and conductive , because presently your garage is set up like a lightning rod by itself
somewhere around 20 years ago this bus brought Willy to Tower records store in San Francisco for a free concert even the golden retriever I had at the time got to go to the show
@@jtjones4081 well, it may have been a duel, the way I got into was thru I driver with Calhouns group. Or the driver was, maybe it had just come off lease, late 80s, early 90s maybe??
We went on that bus working with the Transportation Dept. at New Orleans Jazz Fest. trying to fix thermostat on climate control. Ten or twelve years ago.
My own protocol for stuck lugs is to use a cutting disk to cut straight into the end of the lug and split the nut as deep as i dare w/o hitting the wheel...then chizel the two nut halves off the lug.
Lightning. Only thing to do is isolate and disconnect stuff. Surge Suppressors work right up until they don't. And super ground that steel faraday hut. Sorry about the damage.
Well, you would think in salt states they would have a truck bus wash, etc. that Realty rinses off the bottom of the vehicle to get all that salt off of there. Nobody has come up with that idea yet.
www.motoexotica.com/vehicles/40/1982-prevost-le-mirage-le-mirage-1982-prevost-le-mirage-tour-bus
That's not one of Willies buses. Willie leased all of his buses from Florida Coach and in the early 80s they were all Eagles.
Given you've been experiencing lots of lightning damage to your internal electronics you need to protect your electronics from power surges and lightening is buy and install battery backup UPS units with a small led screen that will tell you the cinwave of ac coming in and post filtered, load level of everything you have hooked up to it.
Never exceed 80 percent max load.
A good one will also "soft" shut down a computer when it reaches a set battery level or a set amount of time it's sitting unused.
There's always two sets of outlets on them.
Isolated and unisolated.
All are fused.
If lightning hits it they will sacrificially protect electronics plugged into them.
COSTCO has a 1200 rated unit that's a little over a hundred that's usually all you need for a tv and perifial electronics usually cabled to them.
Always incude any internet cables or antenna cables plugged into it as well.
I'm a 40 years experienced arcade and pinball games, jukeboxes and other electronic equipment including tv's and computers and electronic device I own is plugged into one.
When I was the route service manager for the largest amusement vending equipment company in the upper Florida Keys I put all our top end games including our bar top touchscreen games on them and it drastically reduced the number of computerized games and jukeboxes being toasted by lightning and bad wiring in bars.
I even have my electronics test equipment plugged into them.
My scope alone cost me 3 thousand so a hundred dollars on a 1200 hundred rated UPS was just plain common sense.
Strip outlets are actually there to protect your buildings wiring when a toaster, microwave, mixer, vacume cleaner shorts out and from it causing a fire
If anyone tells you otherwise they're seriously clueless.
We live in the lightning capital of America and I tell all of my home games customers to buy them.
Including the young man who I just got done repairing his 60 in 1 multicade arcade game.
He's a professional sound tech and was having seriously electronics damage issues till I told him to buy several UPS's.
He hasn't had any since he did.
There is a story that willy nelsons bus. That after playing in a blue texas town. No alcohol sales on sunday. They drove the tour bus across into mexico. Coming back across the border the drug sniffing dog went crazy sniffing and scratching at everything including the bands instruments. One of the band members said these are expensive. Your dog is going to damage them. The customs guy had no idea who willie nelson was and apologized the dog has never acted this way before and sent them thru.
I remember Willie sharing that story when I toured with him and Waylon in the 70s
A previous use of "blue", from blue laws I assume.
Considering your grammar of the story I'll call BS. Maybe if a bribe was involved I'd believe it more.
When Katie Couric was interviewing Willie and asked him if he still smoked pot, he said, "Why? Have you got any
?"
Entertainer buses are in fact commercial buses running winter on salted roads, plus most are leases with multiple drivers and tendencies. Plus not usually stored inside. Not serviced to levels of some private coaches. Consider equivalent to buying a used rental car.
And you know that how? I drove for Florida Coach and my bus was far better maintained than any line bus. All of ours were. There's 20,000 ticket holders spending loads per ticket. We got there every single night, without fail. The financial consequences of breaking down were far more than refunding 40 bus ride tickets.
I've noticed every one of these busses that come in have lugnut problems kind of scary.
Love the channel.
It's what happens when you drive through the rust belt and don't wash it off asap.
I will never own a bus, but I love your videos!! I am amazed at how well you restore these massive vehicle's!
So many times on this channel we see vehicles that have suffered years of neglect. This is exactly why nearly every country has mandatory vehicle safety inspections.
This is exactly why I'm glad we moved away from Budd wheels to Hub Piloted. The Budd's were an improvement over the former split rim Dayton wheels for several reasons but the Budd system became a problem too with improper installation, over-torquing, and lack of maintenance. Road side repairs became very expensive and dangerous due to failures of the outer studs seizing or breaking off as was demonstrated in this video. There was a reason why factories installed steel inner wheels with these types of studs which was negated when people switched to aluminum wheels without changing out the shorter studs with longer ones. Thankfully after 34 years of working on trucks in my 37 years driving, those days are now over. I got a new job two months ago driving a tri-axle dump truck out of Thompson Station and I'm very happy. I started my career in the 1980's driving tri-axle dumps for Littleton and Tri-Ax Inc up in Indy and have now returned to the same line of work down here in TN to finish out my career. I'm glad you made the decision to move here because if you hadn't, chances are I wouldn't have either. You and your family seem much happier down here and I can tell you I am certainly much happier down here. Thank you Scott for being my inspiration because jumping off a cliff at an older age is not an easy feat yet both of us did it and landed on our feet running.
Cool that you can say "I have a tool for that!" now. Its amazing what we collect. The problem becomes remembering what you have!
Another great Video and far as that bus it looks like years of neglected maintenance !
Got to get our politicians to watch these videos. Need to pass legislation to inspect these privately owned vehicles for safety regulation.
It may not be that particular bus, but in 2006, a highway patrol officer in St. Martin Parish, Louisiana saw a tour bus travelling in the opposite direction with smoke pouring from the back of passenger compartment. Fearing the bus was on fire and the driver was unaware, the officer made a U-turn, chased down the bus and pulled it over. As he got out of his cruiser he realized what the source of the smoke was. It was Willie's bus and upon being asked, they fessed up to having 1.5 pounds of weed on board.
At that same time, there was a major food borne e-coli outbreak involving spinach that killed three people, hospitalized 199 and caused kidney failure in 31 patients.
When cornered by the media and asked about the pound-and-a half of weed on his bus, Willie replied "If it was spinach, I'd be dead." :-D))
I saw Willie at Farm Aid. Sorry to hear of the lighting damage, that's terrible. Did insurance cover any of it? You guys always make these death traps right again, it is scary to think how many busses are on the road in this condition pretty on top & frightening underneath!
I was just making the same observation. Beautiful 'till you look under their skirt, then wow!
@@schizyLike a hooker. Nice from far, but far from nice!!
It might not be a bad idea to lookup Motorola R56 and look through the chapters about grounding and lightning protection. The standard is intended for communication sites but its all good info. Just ignore the parts about the tower and pay attention to common grounding all the equipment inside and the building etc. Its common for communication sites to use steel shipping containers so very applicable to your building.
I believe he said, in the comments on another video, they had a lightning protection company put together a package for them a while back, but it was quite expensive. $100k? Maybe $200k, I don’t remember.
Been doing telecommunications work for over 25 years and never had seen a Conex box (shipping container) used by a telecommunications company for anything other than storage. As a rule telecommunications companies use Fiberbond or similar shelters. These shelters (buildings) have been tested and certified for telecommunications equipment use. They have provisions for building grounding, waterproof fiber and or cable penetrations, the walls, floors and ceilings have multiple moisture barriers which along with the HVAC system(s) that are mounted on the ends prevent the building from sweating as well being able to keep the building cooled or heated (rarely does a building containing telecommunications equipment need heating) regardless of the time of year or outside temperature. Additionally the buildings are storm/hurricane rated. To give you an idea of how well they are sealed if you were to disconnect the door closer and try and slam the door shut it would bounce back open from the internal air pressure
@@gullreefclub idk Ive been doing it for 5 years and seen probably a dozen connex box used as the site building. Torch a hole in the side for the entry panel, maybe another for HVAC and there it is all done.
A little antiseeze is a beautiful thing. We have many of the same issues on our semi trucks.
Looks like a Florida Coach from the Calhoun Brothers.
The murals are definitely in the typical style that was on all of their coaches.
December of 1980 I met one of their drivers in Nashville who had just finished with Willie Nelson.
Someone did a knockoff paint job of a Florida Coach. That's not a former Florida Coach. Was never a Willie bus.
My old band opened up for Willie somewhere in a field in Nebraska in about 2000-2001 and he had these busses then. Seems like he had two, one for himself & one for the band/crew but dont quote me 💯 on this one. Was a long time ago. I'm sure they have mega miles on them.
I have watched your channel for a few years now, and have been away for awhile, but when I saw this bus and headline, I knew I had to watch as it was a bus I recognized. I used to run a regular OTR run from the Joplin, MO area up to Kansas City, and one night I ran across this bus around midnite to 2 AM, running north to KC, so I jumped on the CB radio and hollared at the driver (somewhat jokingly) . "who we got famous on that bus?" ... and low and behold it was Willie Nelson (asleep in the back) heading to KC for a performance the next day. I ran with that bus for a couple hours chatting back and forth with the driver until I turned off to head west to Lenexa, KS. What a funny coincidence to find it here on your channel. Thanks for great videos and entertainment. I'll try and start watching a little more regularly now that I'm retired from "drivin' my life away".
Scott, I sure you know about them, there are 'Irwin' sockets that can undo most problem threaded bits.
Greetings from the UK.
Wow, with all that rust damage to the wheel lug system and the air bags, I was surprised to see at least the few views you showed of the chassis of that coach, that it didn't look badly rusted at all. Does the owner use that coach as an office/lounge? Or is he going to add sleeping provisions and convert it back to use as a regular RV Coach? Love your channel, have followed since before the Covid fiasco here. You've taught all of us so much about buses, coaches and heavy RVs, no other way we would have been able to find this knowledge. Thanks, Scott and crew! You and we have definitely come a long way.
Mo tags interesting
Your hourly rate should be 1 1/2 time's the rate of most other shops. Your knowledge, patience, honesty. Setyou way above the rest. Don't sell yourself short.
Interesting video. I have a 1993 Newell originally built for the Steve Miller Band.
Hello gentlemen thank you for sharing your video appreciate that as an X truck driver owner operator for two trucks I've learned on my second truck I would check and remove my wheels and lugs every year you know what it saves somebody's life and mine and a peace of mind I know it costs a bet to do that type of work but as worth it and what I've just witnessed on your video I don't want that to ever ever happen to somebody losing their wheel and thank you for sharing your video again by the way happy 4th of July coming up
I have one of Willie’s old crew/band buses. 1980 Eagle. Heard all the rumors and didn’t really believe it until I found a full May ‘84 itinerary under the front sofa when I tore out the smelly old built-in sofa. There’s a video on our channel. Love your videos!
With 25 years of working on city buses , over the road coach's , and tractor trailers , ANTI -SEEZE IS YOUR BEST FRIEND !!!
Tough Break on the Lightning Strike, The YT Sailing Community has had quite a year of it as well.
Good Grounds, and being able to Isolate Everything, during a storm seem to help with the issue.
Good luck on the Rebuild...
Yeah I was gonna say, then you said it Scott, need to put up several lightning rods around different locations, and preferably at least one on top of your main building there, may not hurt to have at least a couple on top of that building. And then several more around your property there, different spots. Hope y'all get lined out there. 👍👍🤘✌️
Thank you Ben Franklin for the lightning rods! I know it was age and deterioration but the galvanizing between the steel and aluminum didn't help! Nice work ya'll and keep it up!
It’s amazing what you can get done for $10,000 or so, Scott.
That's a beautiful bus, love watching you guys work,
Sorry to hear about your lightning strike, ouch, sounds expensive,
Good luck with it 🙏
Hello Scott! Yes that bus needed a lot of work! Yes you are good to make the decision to have lightning rods installed and proper grounding rods in the ground.!! I also agree with clynesnowtail that the Motorola book R56 . Motorola done a large and comprehensive study on lightning protection many years ago. Wishing you good luck!!
Excellent video. I know about those bad storms. BTDT. Nice work on the old bus.
Scott, love your presentations and so sorry to hear of the lightening damage you sustained. Hopefully all will be resolved in the very near future! And, I LOV E your silversides!
This Eagle looks the world like a Jack Calhoun bus; particularly the body-color paint; front door and window frames. Also, the murals look exactly like, in style, placement, etc., those that were on all his busses. Jack and his twin brother began converting motorhomes in the '60s for entertainers like themselves; they were a country/western duo. Each developed their own business, Jack in Kissimmee, Florida and his brother near Leesburg, Florida.
In the '70s, both moved to Eagle conversions that were made for or leased to entertainers. Each ended up with about 25 to 30 busses, used by all kinds of touring entertainers. I know for sure that Kenny Rogers bought one; others I'm not sure of, but Willie Nelson used Jack's busses in the early 80's. I knew one of the drivers.
One giveaway to a Calhoun bus is the entry door. Eagle used bi-fold doors and Jack developed a solid door. But, by '83 this one may have come from the factory as Jack let the folks at the Eagle factory in Texas use his method. (I'm sure that 'let' is spelled $$$)
Might be a completely different scenario, but as I said, it surely looks like a Calhoun bus...my first thought when I saw the thumbnail!
Jack wasn't using Prevosts in 1982. I drove for Jack.
It's actually an insult to say Florida Coach would ever build an interior that Crappy.
So offense but your claimed history of Jack & Jerry is wrong. They were in construction before they started Florida Coach together. They later split into 2 companies.
@@jtjones4081 BIG mistake realized later...NOT an Eagle, is it? lol...thanks!
@@jtjones4081 Should have considered that.,..didn't look close enough, for sure. You in the area? I lived about a mile from Florida Coach shop that was on Air[port Road.
I remember seeing 3 of these same buses at ND Stae Fair in Fargo in 1983. Willie was the headliner. The buses all had different names of his songs. I know this is one of them as I stalked them for an hour or two hoping to say hi to Willie. One of the guys told me to get on the bus and introduce myself. I was too shy - lol
Now that you put the lighting rods up. You will never get hit by lightning again.
Excellent episode Scott 👍🏾
I am so impressed by your growth and knowledge gained as well as the specialized tool collection. We are planning to move to the area and hopefully would love to meet you and just shake the hand of a master bus man! I have a 1993 Newell coach that I do all the work on myself with a pit at my house. Keep up the good work!
There is a Provost that has been sitting since early 1980 or late 70's. on Hwy 126 West in Oregon. Has a tarp over her some. I am Sure no one lives in it .. anymore. She has pinkish/ maude strips and beautiful all moldy as she is .. But still tires inflated.
I have been watching your channel for a long time and you are obviously a complete master at what you do. Really amazing. But I can't help but wonder if you ever get to perform normal maintenance with just minor wear and tear vs complete buses that are a complete train wreck mechanically? Some of the issues you get into are just amazing to me that the owners ignored for so long. Now I know you are dealing with 30-40 year old buses a lot of the time, but......
Keep up the great work. I will definitely keep watching and "liking".
Ed
No shortage of neglected buses. We never had budd wheels in Australia. Heavy trucks and buses were originally all steel spoke hubs with steel rims and a spacer between the duals. Everything is now European- ISO 10 stud hubs with Alloy wheels or occasionally steel. Our roads are still very bad in some regions, and some operators have had alloy rims warp. Nowhere in Australia uses salt roads so at least there is that.
just happy every body is ok from u r storm, keep the clips coming
Nice to see you well established in your new shop . Sure beats working outside 😊
When I node my head, You Hit IT. (NYUK NYUK NYUK). Keep up the good work.
There's a GMC bus near me that you should come rescue. They're only asking $50. It's complete and I believe it to Detroit diesel. I think the bus is a 1983. It's definitely deserving of being back on the road.
Willie Nelson's bus is the modern Washington slept here equivalent.
Yup . Aluminum wheels with the old style bud wheel can be a night mare.
I ran them in the past before hub pilot wheels. I used never seize on the threads and on the wheel studs .
I was looking at an older MCI conversion but it had steel buds on it .
I figured parts would be too hard to find on that old of a bus and they couldn't tell me if it had wedge brakes or S cam brakes.
Definitely did want wedge brakes
Love your channel.
should be easy to look at the s cams
Scott, If you know any electrical engineers, check with them about adding another ground rod to your system. Where I live we have lightning strikes
regularly in the spring and summer and I had to add another ground rod to my system. No more strikes to our home and sheds.
You are correct. In my very younger years I use to put in High Voltage sub stations with ground rods fields to protect the substation from any lightning strikes. I drove many a copper ground rods into mother earth. 1 field we had over 100 ground rods driven & spent days trying to get that substation resistance down properly. I seen 1 substation get hit by lightning I don't want to see any more.
Scott it sounds like you need to have a lighting suppression system installed like the military uses at ammunition rail yards. Depending on the size they have 4 or more post with lighting rods on each post and wires stretch in different directions to form a net over top of the area you want to protect
This looks like one of the buses from the late 80's into 90's of Willys band....Willy had the bus Honeysuckle Rose which was an Eagle. I remembered it from 86 when I was on the set of Once Apon a Texas Train. Also when I used to go a lot back stage on the Highwaymen tour. Cool to see this bus again.😊👍🏻
in the 80s and early 90s when he was not on tour we would see that bus parked at his home from the highway
So sorry you guys had to struggle with those rusty lugs and wheels. That was simple destroy and return work. Your talent is so far beyond the "caveman" mentality of disassembly by any means. Cudos for your professionalism. I was thinking dynamite.
Mate I lived in the out back of Australia in wa. Working on a drill rig. The only thing 60 m in the sky. And 200m in the ground.
Lighting comes we leave site. As specially when lighting go across the sky. That's the worst.
I'm surprised you not setup a tower to collect the storm. Make it high above everything you have on the property. Pray you had insurance. Ps do you have surg protection in house. ? You say three times. ...... you really need get a electrician. To check everything
I mean everything in house and work shop. Melted wiring is a future fire (
God bless you guys. And allways love your videos. God bless mick Australia
It is too bad you don't do a tour of Australia. So many busses converted to motorhomes in need of some TLC by people such as yourself, who really know and care about their work, have high standards and deliver real quality workmanship.
Holy cow! I wondered why you hadn’t posted any new videos in a while - lightning rods were very prevalent in old buildings & now we know why!
A lot of hard work 🏆
I love some of the stories here. Wow. In my freezer. Yep, right along with the frozen hamburger and chicken, I have a selection of custom made ice cubes. Different sizes My favorite is two inches square by four inches long. Frozen water. That's it. Those manifolds on a 20 year old truck. The Bolts there fused into the manifolds. You grind away the pipe, use some of that welding cloth (from Harbor Freight) Wrap it around the "hot spot" for any wires and whatnot to protect,. Then go RED HOT like what your doing here. Then take your ICE CUBE for the stud. Wow. Talk about breaking it loose. !!! Works every time. !!! I'm tellin ya. ICE is the trick with that torch. Whoo Weee!
AMAZING HOW ARE YOU PUT SO MUCH EFFORT IN TO THESE PIECES OF JUNK MOST VEHICLES THAT YOU WORK ON ALL THE REST OF THEIR KIND HAVE BEEN LONG AGO TURNED INTO SCRAP METAL
Sucks to hear about the batteries, almost assuredly the BMS got cooked in them. The rhino should be repairable, as many of them just use a JBD BMS. As long as you know what you're doing, and can program a BMS. Easy enough to pop it open and check that all cells are live. If not, well, no loss checking.
Hope you're okay with that line of storms coming through today, I just got hit, grid power out here east of memphis.
Great video 👍 Have a look at arc gouging rod's very controllable better than plasma cutting as used by cee engineering.
With all the weather systems up the shute these days it getting harder to know what is best. Glad you are all ok. Looks like that bus was an accident waiting to happen bro. Safe travels. Ken Allen.
Seen Willie Nelson in Las Vagas I think early early 80's when the show finished my wife and I somehow took a wrong exit and ended up back stage somewhere. There was this bus with a raised back half and there was a mural of a stage coach and horses on the side (if only mobile phones where around then! To this day I believe that was Willie's bus! We were politely shown the correct way out!
Around 1985/86 a customer of ours who was also an FBI agent asked my father if he could store a bus inside of our fenced storage area for a couple of weeks. We lived and I still do in Deep South Texas about 25 miles from Brownsville Texas which in that time was home to the Eagle Bus Co and they manufactured Silver/Golden Eagle buses. The agent said the bus was ordered built for Willie Nelson who was a personal friend of his and he (our customer) planned to drive it to Florida where the interior would be completed. He said he planned to meet Nelson there and play some golf. My father agreed and the customer parked the bus in our lot. It was brand new and the interior was completely bare. Absolutely nothing but a drivers seat and a wooden floor. The bus stayed with us for a couple of weeks and then the customer departed with the silver eagle as he said he would. I was about 20 at the time, not sure if his story was legit but I guess I’ll never know.
It don't smell like weed in here,,,😆,
Scotty is the bus man....👍👍😎💪💯
Still working on those neglected old girls ! I use to drive a Prevost Marathon xl working girl ( with seats ). Before i went to NC we had her checked out and i still blow a rear just out side NY city on 17 ! All most $ 10,000.00 in the early 90's. And it went again less then a year later !!! I do not know how people car keep these newer ones on the road. I live near Atlanta that has a big coach lease place for entertainer coaches. The newer x-3's are sooo pretty to look at !!! The coast must be so high to keep them running.
That bus looks familiar. Ran with it on the Indiana Toll Road, the driver would neither confirm nor deny it belonged to someone famous. Everyone else on the CB thought it was Willie Nelson. As he paid his toll by Chicago, he said it was Willie's, but said Willie wasn't on it, he was on a bus a couple miles behind him.
I have EG4 batteries, very good and less expensive. Hope the lightning protection works.
Channellock makes a pair of pliers that I believe are called 'pipe locs' which would be perfect for removing those nuts. They have a curved jaw that bites into the nut!
You can see it has been exposed to the gulf coastal salt in the air , that metal has got that salt waste pitting to it .
Which would also lend to its authenticity, Willie spent a lot time in Houston in the early 80's.
Yep,.which goes to show that being exposed to salty air and water all the time is just as bad as being exposed to rust belt winters
The 1980s are definitely calling with this bus. Lightning protection is a bit of an art as well as science - you might want to pay someone to advise you on solutions.
I wonder if a Generac generator would take of your electricity problems? Good video scott!👍🏿
Steel wheels forever,,,its the taper that always gets super stuck with alloy. Turning with a chisel works better using a hand hammer to help shock them. Your helper is doing good,,,Izzy,,,,
Your microphone makes the air chisel sound very interesting!
I’m sure if it was Willie’s bus the smell inside would still be apparent.
"it does not smell of weed in here".....ralmfao!...best line ever!
The red headed stranger ! That's really cool .
I bet there was some good weed smoked on that bus . I'd be looking for hidden compartments ! Lol.
I wonder how many songs was written on that bus ?
Beautiful coach ! Was gonna say if it really smells like weed it probably was Willie’s bus ! 😂 Someone else probably put the no smoking sign up. Also a lot of coaches are just leased by these singers and bands from a company and they personally don’t own them and that would also explain the no smoking 🚭 type signs. Have a Blessed Day
love your vids , have watched for years , have not seen Tyler in a while , is he still around ?, and wow 3 hits thats big problem , good luck with new rods
Sorry to hear about the lightening. Put up a big tower. A few even, Look at Cape Canaveral you’ll see big towers all over. Some sort of math about how tall a tower to how much land it protects
Makes me wonder. I put up a 40' antenna tower back around 1998. Each of the three legs of it were grounded with copper. I subsequently lost multiple pieces of equipment (phones, tv) to lightning damage and heard multiple lightning strikes in storms. After removing the tower in about 2012, I have not lost any equipment... it's almost as if the tower made things worse.
@@donmoore7785soil type can play a part in how well a grounding system works. Grounding the tower, but no dedicated lightning rod & down conductors can leave room for problems. There can also be a difference in potential between grounds( the house ground vs tower grounds) if they aren’t all tied together, that can cause problems. Even with the best lightning protection system, lightning can still find a way around it sometimes.
It was my first yr driving truck. I was in a thunder storm
A guy hollered on the cb to call his boss. Why? Lighting hit his truck thru the Qualcomm satellite dome.
Frying the whole satellite communication system. He had to use his fire extinguisher to put out the fire.
big metal can on top of a hill is a juice target for any lighting bolt.
Those new parts will make the bus ride like it drives over silk I am sure. Beautiful bus. But no beds?
Beautiful!!!!!
I like the Coaches from the 80s that bands used that had all the leather stuck to the front and sides
Yes from what I was told by the owner he lived in laytonsville MD he took a crew of us to a sawmill show years ago he past away a short time after that ride.
“It does not smell like weed in here.” Are we sure it was Willie’s bus??? 😂😂😂😂😂😂
That bus is not the "Honeysuckel Rose". I was aboard Willies bus several times with him and his family as we tried to create a cable TV channel called "The COWBOY CHANNEL" in 1991. That bus had facing couches up front for setting of 8 folks, followed with a 4 seat dinette on drivers side and full gallery on passenger side. Sleeping quarters were in the rear. In about 1991, Willie was on tour in Canada, when a crazy guy drove at high speed directly into the front of the "Honeysuckel Rose" ending up killing himself and badly damaging the bus. Willie was unhurt but shaken up. The bus driver did have injuries. That bus was badly damaged, probably totaled. My association with Willie and Mack Long ended with the failure of TCC to launch. Too bad would have been great!
can those hubs be converted to hub pilot? I know it took me over two years of looking, calling eaton, and bearing companies, and never had any luck finding them for my 860 GMC tractor. finally we just cut everything out from under it and put modern axles from a wreck on it. I would think by now, you could get a conversion for busses because of safety. Thanks, Bill
Wow, that sucks that you lost all of your solar system in a lightning strike. That's the worst part of a metal building (even worse than the temperature fluctuations) they effectively become the easiest path to ground for lightning, it would probably be best to bond the grounds from the lightning rods to the whole structure and have multiple ground spikes around the building. Another thing to be mindful of is to not let the soil around the ground spikes to dry out too much, dry soil is a much worse conductor than moist soil (part of the reason why the main ground wire is usually bonded to metal water pipes for an outdoor tap).
Now we need to find Hoyt Axtons bus!
i worked for Celebrity coach,out of Tupelo,ms....before that,out of Nashville,tn with Pyramid coach. I did drive an old Eagle,like willys,one time. I will check out this show.....
3 times a lightning strike on your building , definitive your metal garage with your solar panels is attracting the strikes , the only way to help is to divert that static charge towards the ground directly making your garage less attractive and conductive , because presently your garage is set up like a lightning rod by itself
So much corrosion. You almost need some sacrificial anodes as you have on boats.
thats the exact reason i put copper grease on my studs & lug nuts to prevent them rotting & nice pile of scrap ali to take to scrap yard there (:
somewhere around 20 years ago this bus brought Willy to Tower records store in San Francisco for a free concert
even the golden retriever I had at the time got to go to the show
Not this bus, guaranteed. Some salesman is trying to add a false history to add value I guess.
Shocking how many if these busses are not road worthy!
Yes, you would think these videos were coming from a third world country.
I was fortunate enough to get to use the other bus with the red interior, bus company out of Leesburg Fl managed them for Willy. Awesome old Eagles!!
What year was that? Willie leased his buses from Florida Coach in Kissimmee, not Florida Custom Coach in Leesburg.
@@jtjones4081 well, it may have been a duel, the way I got into was thru I driver with Calhouns group. Or the driver was, maybe it had just come off lease, late 80s, early 90s maybe??
@@wayneroyal3137I drove for Jack Calhoun.
@@jtjones4081 that’s awesome!!!! I was friends with Judd, met Jerry when he traded a bus for a motor yacht.
We went on that bus working with the Transportation Dept. at New Orleans Jazz Fest. trying to fix thermostat on climate control. Ten or twelve years ago.
My own protocol for stuck lugs is to use a cutting disk to cut straight into the end of the lug and split the nut as deep as i dare w/o hitting the wheel...then chizel the two nut halves off the lug.
Lightning. Only thing to do is isolate and disconnect stuff. Surge Suppressors work right up until they don't. And super ground that steel faraday hut. Sorry about the damage.
Nice, I like to watch your videos.
Well, you would think in salt states they would have a truck bus wash, etc. that Realty rinses off the bottom of the vehicle to get all that salt off of there. Nobody has come up with that idea yet.
Keep the downlead from the rods in a nice "flow" to the ground rods. Lighting doesn't like kinks.