Colinism

I have been interested in RV's for a long time. Over the years I have noticed they tend to built incredibly cheaply with a few notable exceptions (air streams, certain fiberglass campers, bus conversions). The most common build is basically stick built with sheathing hung on wood framing. you also then have some with aluminum framing. You have also had a number made with fiberglass, much  like how a boat is constructed with a top and bottom section molded and then bolted/sealed together. One of my personal favorite types of RV is the truck camper. Having a removable living section and a truck to tow some other toy like a boat or ATV seems ideal. One issue these campers have is that weight is a major issue. Pickups have limited payload and truck campers often push the limits of these payloads. These would make them ideal candidates for lightweight composite construction with cored composites. While there are fiberglass camper builders out there making outstanding products they...

If your into cars (well trucks I guess) you likely know that GM offered 2500 versions of the Suburban and Yukon XL. Most of these heavy duty people haulers were bought by government fleets for everything from security to Fire and Police command cars. Whats a little less known is that the open backed Suburban better known as the Avalanche also had a 3/4 ton 2500 version during it’s first generation. Oddly, enough the first (and possibly only) one of these I have seen in person was actually the first Chevy Avalanche I ever saw in person. Back at the time of its release I was working at a marina, and we were having some grounds work done and the owner of the landscaping company showed up in a brand new Avalanche 2500, towing a Bobcat skid steer of all things. I remember  walking up to it thinking that’s an odd load for a new fangled truckUV to be towing. Then I saw the 8 lug wheels and made a mental note to crack open AOL and look it up at home that night. Even thou it’...

Came across this little guy in Marblehead MA last year. Looks like a conventional little fiberglass dinghy. A simple rope and pulley arrangement controls the rudder to a little wheel. The neat part is there appears to be a Optima AGM battery ahead of the thwart and cabling leading down to what I guess would be a trolling motor or similar electric pod drive. Would love to be able to find out more about it.

Lets try a new feature for today. Book review of Dave Gerr’s book, Nature of Boats. Well just to be clear before we get into it I love this book, I can grab it flip thru it and always find something worth re-reading. The book is really more a collection of past articles that N.A. Dave Gerr has written over the years for various publications (many seem to be from his excellent column from Offshore Magazine. Which sadly no longer exists. ) The book covers topics such as boat construction, design , stability and performance. It also features a number of drawings from Gerr’s own designs.  The book’s short articles allow for easy reading while providing a wealth of information, This helps avoid the book feeling over technical (boring) that some of the other books touching on basics of boat design can be. I personally love to read Gerr’s view of performance power and sail craft as well as his well though out al...

I drive by here once in a while and look at what’s left of a small working boat yard along the CT river in Cromwell CT. Based on the old sign it appears it was once called the Adams Henry boat yard. When I first came down here about 10 years ago the track for the marine railway extended across the road into the water. ( the track still appears to be there but the road was paved over a few years back. It appears the boats were winched up the track on a car with custom built cradles. The cradles were then shifted sideways onto the concrete walls in the yard.  Looks like you could fit a couple dozen 25-35’ boats in there. A neat place for sure. There is a house on the front of the property but I never see any one in the boatyard. I’ve asked around but so far no one seems to know any history on the place. So for now here’s a few pics showing the yard and the rails where the enter the water on the opposite side of the road.

While cruising the web for info on an older Hatteras yacht info I found out Hatteras built a 65′ sail boat (almost a motor sailor less pilothouse.) Reviewing a bit further on the web it looks like they don’t sail all that well, which looking at the underbody makes sense but man that thing has a ton of room down below. Check out the link Here .

1993 VW Golf the first car to truly test my AAA member ship. That’s not to say I never used the membership before (broke key off in a plymouth voyager had my girlfriends car towed due to a mysterious wiring problem) but the VW actually required AAA on 3 separate occasions for a tow. But first lets get into why I put up with this mess. I bought the car when it was about 15 years old and drove it for about 3 years. Once I got rid of an intermittent skip due due to a bad ground I was in love with the car. It flew around corners and it had that very special VW feel that only VW people seem to understand. Jeremy Clarkson would say it was German and did what a German car should. The 2.0 (2.slow) is an odd little 4 cylinder, it the other 4 cylinders I had driven before this car revving was the answer to your power problems, but in the 2.0 this has little effect running past 4,500 rpm seems to do little to increase your velocity. But this engine does have something that is usually lacking...