AIR ON THE ROAD   
Okay, get out your atlas and look at I-81 south of Roanoke,   Va.  See the little town of Galax?  Well, just after that town is a   7 1/2 mile, 7% grade.  You're gonna need brakes here, because no one   wants to use the truck runaway ramps. Now to the air story.  
We've had a recurring problem with our coach holding   air.  When it was prepped, all new bags were put on, lots of new valves,   all as part of the PDI.  But it still didn't hold up quite the right   way.   
  
So, as we began to approach the descent from the mountains to   sea level (a really BIG hill), I noticed the bus wasn't riding well.  No   kidding, we only had 90 lb of air in the system and it was going down.    Remember the air system article on this site, you know, the part where it says   that when you hit 60 lbs the brakes lock up, we made the split-second decision   to roll into a truck stop and figure out something-fast.  
   
A trip to the counter revealed that a couple of mechanics (of   course this was a Sunday afternoon) were available.  The first name was,   "Bert's Garage."  I kind of liked the name "Bert's Garage" so talked with   Scotty (since Bert has passed on).  Within 10 minutes "Jim showed   up.  Had the back doors of the coach open and Jim said, "Wow."  Now   normally, this is bad, since we don't like to have people work on our coaches   who say things like that or, "Gosh, never saw one of these up close before."    
  
But Jim was on the top of his game.  I explained the   problem and his first question was, "Where I can I put some air into your   system?"  Showed him the brake chamber filler and next thing you know, up   went the air, the dryer blew off and Jim was under the coach.  
  
Huh? 
  
Now Jim isn't a big talker, but a good listener.  Within   seven minutes of his arrival, he determined that the right actuating valve on   the tag axle was leaking badly.  In the next five minutes, we was fixing   the problem.  He disconnected the direct feed to the actuator and   'dead-headed' the air supply with a fitting from his truck.  Jim said,   "On big trucks if you blow a bag, dead-head it and the other bags will   compensate until you get'er fixed.  Same thing here."  (This was the   end of Jim talking).  
  
So we cranked up the coach, and there it was, 123 lbs of   pressure, the dryer blew off and the bus stood straighter and taller than ever   before.  Sweet.  
  
For his efforts, Jim, being the agent of Bert's Garage,   charged us the outrageous sum of $75, including the service call, parts and   tax.  (Mindful that the PDI people had spent probably about $10,000 of   their own money trying to fix the same problem before it got worse).  Jim   wouldn't take a tip, but I did follow him into the truck stop and bought him a   rib sandwich and got a nod out of him.  
  
Over the course of the last two days of the trip, the bus has   run like a race horse, straight and tall, great brakes and we'll of course,   get the actuator fixed.  No truck runaway ramps, for this driver.  
  
What this exercise showed us was that many times the simpler   solutions are often the best, there is good expertise and experience in the   least likely places and that there are good people that we haven't met yet   around every corner.  
  
If you are traveling along I-81 in southern Virginia, stop by   Bert's Garage.  Nice people, good work, and restore a little faith in   people (and not a bad choice at all if you have a chassis problem).     
  
You can do worse.