Howdy gentlemen, Well, my annual November and December's fanatic finale and its subsequent week of float handling is done. We managed to win another Lathrop K. Leishman award this year and finished most of the parade, having to go to tow about a quarter mile from the end due to a lost slushpump. For you civilians, Rose Parade awards are mostly sponsored awards, they are not ranked (formally) as each has its own qualifying conditions. Of course there is a general consensus as to their importance and the Leishman is generally considered as second place, with Tournament's own sweepstakes award being first. The Leishman was contested by (I believe) 36 of the 46 floats this year. That means we had to out shine 31 pro-builts and the other five independants for it. not too shabby for the lowest budget float builders in the parade. Pictures are here ......... http://www.sierramadrerosefloat.com/2009Jan1st/index.html This year's saga played thus; We pulled out of our barn at 1600 the day before for our normal four hour, nine mile trip to staging as usual. All went well through Sierra Madre and a little of Pasadena 'til we tried to run over our own tow truck whilst traversing the part of our route that runs backwards through the post parade viewing area. Seems this year's design necessitated having our driver operating blind and being directed by an observer on the front of our float. Not an ideal arrangement in good cir***stances and even less safe under a two-ball tow condition. At one point the bar had gotten well past 45* to the right and the handler asked for a stop. The tow driver stopped but our driver didn't hear the command and thus didn't brake. When it all came to rest the 14' vertical pivoting & castered front extension of the float was at 45* and atop the tow truck's (an '07 Peterbuilt road model) rear wheels. At first glance it looked as if the entire front of the float was devestated. In fact, the extension had pivoted on its hinge pins as designed and backing the float off, allowing it to drop back to the asphalt, revealed no more than a bent up lip on the front edge of the float. That was eventually redecorated "as is" at pre-staging on Orange Grove and went unnoticed for the parade by anyone but float builders. In the photos and videos you can just see it on the left front lip of the main float, looks like a slight sneer. We'd bent the towbar in the process and decided (after making sure for about half a mile that it was still viable) to drive the float the rest of the way in parade handling mode. I took the on-deck handlers spot and with David still at the wheel we finished the trip in good form. Our "polers" raised all the bootleg cable connection wires (and one set of service wires that were too low as well ) accross the west end of Orange Grove and we didn't tear any of'em down at all this year. We were held at the Bowl access at Rosemont as always for one of the pro builders convoys even though we were half an hour ahead of'em, so an hour and a half later we tagged onto the end just in time to come to an abrupt halt for one of their floats with insufficient ground clearance. It low centered on a street crossing dip and handed all of us another hour's delay. All in all we finally pulled into our staging spot around 2230, with less than a quarter of the drive tank left for the parade and the mandate for no refueling on Orange Grove in our minds. We informed the powers of our plight (and it's cause ) and recieved an off-the-record head turning while we g***ed up. We then ran some tests on our equipment just to be sure and discovered that the pumps for the rear four of our six waterfalls were relieving themselves on the street rather than in the ponds and the front two ponds (on the extension) were leaking slightly. Parade rules are strong about watering the horsepies along the route so we had to downcheck the waterworks completely as we had no facilities to burrow in and fix'em there. Fortunately the float was sufficient to look decent without'em. We ran the Parade the next day with few incidents until just after the five mile point where the drive engine started to heat up a bit and the pedal response started to soften. We didn't get time to do more than richen it's mixture in response before we had a burst of oil and smoke (but no fire) from the back of it. We shut down immediately and I signalled for a tow. In the couple minutes waiting for the tow I sighted under to find the commotion originating from the bellhousing. By the smell of the oil my first guess was a rear mainseal. We went to tow, dropped the lifts for the imminent underp*** and finished the last half mile to post-parade under tow. During the rest of the day and the next two at post-parade we ran a few tests after the gates were closed and the people were gone. Second estimate was a burnt C-6, not a rear mainseal. The last set of tests confirmed that and noted that we could still pull for two minutes before restarting the smoke and that we were no longer dumping atf (funny how much the F type smells like 30 wt, the Dexron has it's own smell, more like hydro fluid) during those two minutes. When it came time to head back to town we backed'er out of the lot in under two minutes and went to tow for the return run. Not however, before having to wait two hours for the lot to clear thanks to the very same pro float low centering once again on the lot's driveway apron. The tow back to town went well and we set up in Kersting Court for another day of show & tell at home as we always do. Wiggled the toys and made some noise for the folks (even managed to get both front and two of the rear waterfalls up for a bit, Sierra Madre's less stringent about watering down the street) and enjoyed the smiles all over again. Pulled'er back to the barn that night and had enough gearbox left to run'er in on her own. so I'm ba-ack. For you outsiders, Sierra Madre's about as close as you can get to a small midwest town and still be in SoCal. All volunteer fire department, the folks know the cops by name and they know us, the town's meetings are both public and attended. It's a regular bicycle route for the pedal types on the weekends and the parks are always full for weddings, festivals, performances and such. They still shut down the main street for all the parades and some of the festivals, and they have little lights in the trees in Kersting Court in the center of town year 'round. Hell, they don't even have a traffic signal and the folks are really, really into the town's various activities. Our float is quite a source of local pride. I'm lucky and grateful to live close enough to be involved here and we have members from as far away as Orange County who are fully involved. Yeah, it's that cool.
Good show as was expected from your previous floats. Glad we got to see it function yesterday. Thank's for letting me play with the Elephant. Now fix that top end **** and get that Hambster into the 13s.
The float was AWESOME and was in the Fresno Bee. I'll bring the article to the races and have you autogragh it As Tom said you better get those carbs figured out 'cause were catching you
Thank you. Sure thing, I'll be happy to forge anyone's autograph on it you want. Yeah, I know you are. I also know how well 97s can work when you get'em tickled right, still working on the SUs though. Don't worry, I'll get'em right one of these days and show you what they can do. Can't believe I actually enjoyed the loss last time, it was a rush seeing and hearing your car work the top end so well. Great run, Lee. Hey Rocky, would you scare up a copy of that Bee for our vice pres, Don? He's our chronicler and would really like one for our records.
Next year you need to put a HA/GR sign on it somewhere. I told my wife that one of the guys on the forum helped build that float so we're not a bunch of beer swilling gearheads all the time. Roy
Haven't had a drink of booze of any kind in about 35 yrs. When we won the VRA championship in 2001, we p***ed around a beer. I took one swallow, that was it..But I don't think a drink once in a while hurts anyone...Beer gave me a headache. so I don't do it anymore. And too old to start over.....
I've never drunk liquor, it's against my beliefs ............ (where's a halo smiley when you need one?) ps. I sell bridges on the side. Nah, just never liked the taste of alky and don't like being out of control of myself (that last reason kept me mostly off drugs as well). Perhaps from watching too many alkies in my family as a kid, they certainly looked stupid. Regular light use however, has been proven medically beneficial for some time now. I occasionally wish it didn't taste like **** to me ............ but only occasionally.
Haven't had a drink in a couple of months, (my current medications say "no alcohol" and I would rather survive than drink), but I don't mind a nip now and then. Meanwhile, back at the ranch.......parts are happening.
So did she buy it? I doubt Tournament or our ***ociation'd let me put a HAMBster sign on the float. Besides, at somewhere between 15 & 25 tons typically, it just wouldn't be compe***ive for the cl*** (not to mention a bit hard on the strip) and I doubt Randy or Butch'd even let me stage it. But if I COULD get it into the box (and maybe put down some left-over atf) the burn-out'd look incredible.
Wow, even 'fruit of the vine' doesn't work for your pallete? Bummer. A gl*** with a meal works good for me. Not a regular 'consumer' myself, but I've got nothing agaisnt it (and do indulge on occasion ).
Old Six, She is beginning to believe that some of the people that run these cars are not as one track minded as her husband. I eat and sleep racing these things. I am impatient when I want to make changes and lack funds to do so. I am at peace when I am out in the shop working and I rarely over indulge in the suds. I love showing her what is being done all over the world with these cars but she has a hard time showing enthusiasm. When I was going with her she didn't tell me she lived next door to Jim Brissette, the record holder in B fuel dragster. I had to find it out myself when he pulled up in front of his place with dragster on the trailer after running at San Gabriel. Of course I can see why, because when he showed up I was out the door and over there in an instant. Roy
Roy.. What part of the state were you from.???? And why are you in MO....????? Inquizitive minds would like to know,,,hahaha....
I graduated from Covina high in 1957 and when I retired from the fire dept it was at half pay which is not conducive to living on the west coast and I wanted to try my hand at farming. So I moved back here and built a dariy. I soon found out why farmers don't make money so I farmed and worked as a warehouse manager. I finally quit milking and suddenly found out where all my money was going. There, a short story of my life, I have a sister who still lives in Redlands but every time I come for a visit I remember why I left, to ,many people. Roy
Hell, next time you visit your sister let me know, perhaps you can come on into town for a visit. I'm near the Rose Bowl in North Highland Park. You shoot pool?
Our old house had a pool table but this is a much smaller house so I don't indulge as much but I have been known to slide stick once in a while. Roy
HELL, A few phone calls and the whole HAMBster Herd would be there to ****....Wouldn't that be cool..... ****..
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