"Hello, Uncle Gus. What do you
know about auto camping?" called Gus Wilson's nephew, Henry, to the older
man as he stepped inside and slammed the door of the Model Garage with a
resounding crash.
"What do you want to know for?"
growled the veteran auto mechanic. "Go easy on that door the next
time! What's the big idea about auto camping? Are you and Grace
fixing to take a fall out of that game?"
"You guessed right the first time!"
replied Henry. "That's just what we are going to do, and I want you to
tell me how to get the car ready for the trip."
"Humph!" grunted Gus. "It all
depends on where you are going, how long you expect to be on the road, and
so forth. If it's just a matter of running about fifty miles or so to
the nearest camp and staying there for your whole vacation. I don't
see why you should need to make any special preparations except to see that
the bus is filled up with gas, oil, and water."
"That's not auto camping at all,"
Henry scoffed. "I mean the real thing every night in a different place
and lots of miles covered every day."
"Gosh!" exclaimed Gus. "You are
a brute for punishment! All right, if that's the kind of a trip you
want to make, there's a whole lot of things you ought to do to the car.
Let's see - you've had it a bit more than a month now. How many miles
have you driven?"
"Speedometer shows just over a
thousand," replied Henry.
"Well," said Gus, "they say that the
first hundred years are the hardest but as far as autos are concerned, the
first thousand miles usually get a bus broken in fairly well, and if
anything is likely to work loose that's when it shows up. So I guess
you're all right.
"Before you do anything else, I'd
suggest that you climb into a pair of overalls and go over the car with a
fine tooth comb. Try a wrench on every blessed bolt and nut you can
find and see that all of them are good and tight.
"And while you are going over the car,
keep your eyes peeled for anything that seems queer or not just right.
Note whether the gasoline pipe is fastened tight so that it can't chafe
against the frame or some other part. When you get to the engine,
watch particularly for loose hose connections and wiring that seems to be
loosening up."
"How about putting some braces in to
reinforce the frame?" suggested Henry.
"Why do that?" Gus countered.
"Your car was designed to carry five
people, and if only you and Grace are going on this expedition, you
certainly won't need to carry over three or four hundred pounds of baggage,
and that is no more weight than three more passengers. Forget about
frame bracing - just take it a bit easy when you strike extra rough going.
"You ought to arrange a couple of
extra tanks under the hood. One for gasoline and the other for
lubricating oil. The extra gas tank is only for emergency if you
happen to run out, but the oil tank ought to be big enough to hold a good
supply so that you won't have to depend on getting fresh oil at some
crossroads store where they sell you almost anything in the way of bootleg
lubricating oil.
"By the way," Gus continued, "what
kind of tools did they give you with the car?"
"Pretty rotten layout," Henry replied.
"The screw driver might be all right
only the handle turns on the blade. The wrench must be made out of
cast iron one of the jaws cracked right off the first time I used it, and
the rest of the stuff is no better. Even the oilcan leaks something
awful."
"Then," advised Gus," you had better
go into the office and let Joe help you pick out a god kit of tools.
We've got quite a stock. There's
no use going auto camping without a tool kit that is meant for business, and
while you are at it get a set of chains. You may run into a spell of
muddy going where they will be might useful. And don't forget to
include two or three spools of brass wire and a couple of large-sized rolls
of the tape. You may not need them on the car, but they'll come in
handy for holding the camp equipment together when it gets smashed.
"Huh!" snorted Henry. "Nothing
is going to get busted in my camp outfit. You forget how careful I
am."
"Maybe so, son," said Gus smiling.
"But auto camping stuff like folding
tents and folding stoves and what not has to be made light, and if you don't
find good use for that wire and tape I'll miss my guess.
"I don't need to tell you to drain the
crankcase and fill it up with fresh oil just before you start or to remind
you to grease the car thoroughly. You know enough to do that, of
course. It wouldn't do any harm to clean out the old lubricant in the
transmission and rear end and put in a fresh supply."
"Don't you think it would be a good
idea to take the storage battery out and give it a good charge before we
start?" Henry asked.
"Nothing doing!" replied Gus
emphatically. "Your car is new and the battery will get a lot more
charging than it needs on the trip anyway, unless you run your camp light
from the storage battery. That's assuming of course, that you are on
the road almost every day. Make sure that there is plenty of water in
it before you start, and it would be a good idea to take off the terminals
and scrub them with a bit of sandpaper. The least bit of corrosion at
that point will interfere with the operation of the self-starter."
"What kind of a camp light is that you
are talking about?" Henry inquired.
"Nothing but a socket fastened into
the hole in an ordinary green tin electric light shade and connected to a
long drop-light cord and a plug so that you can put it in place of the dash
light," replied Gus.
"With a headlight bulb in the socket,
you will have plenty of light to read by.
"By the way," Gus went on, "is there
any way of getting gasoline out of your tank for the gasoline stove?"
"There's a petcock on the bottom of
the carburetor for that." Henry replied.
"And if you use it, you will drain
your vacuum tank dry and then wonder why the engine won't start next
morning. You ought to know better than that, Henry," said Gus
reprovingly. "You can fit a petcock in the gasoline pipe between the
main tank and the vacuum tank, but after all the best bet is to take along a
three-foot length of rubber tubing and siphon the gasoline from the main
tank. You can start the siphon by pushing the tubing all the way into
the tank and then hold your finger over the end while you pull it out and
tuck it in the filler opening in the gasoline stove."
"Have you bought your camp equipment
yet?" broke in Joe Clark.
"Not yet, "replied Henry, "That's one
of the things I want to ask you about. What would you suggest?"
"Well, let's see," Joe paused
thoughtfully. "Of course you'll need a tent, unless you want to fix
the front seat of the car so that it will fold back to form a bed.
You'll have to decide whether you want a tent that hitches on to the side of
the auto or one that is entirely a unit by itself. And I'd certainly
recommend a gasoline stove. Saves a lot of time rustling firewood, and
it's easier to cook on than a wood fire that is never the same heat twice
running. A portable ice box is a big help unless you are going to
travel where you can buy food fresh every day.
You can get a folding kit that
includes pots and pans and dishes, or you can lay in a stock of paper plates
and cups so you won't have to spend so much time washing dishes. Don't
forget a simple first aid kit."
"Sounds like good dope," said Henry as
he rapidly jotted Joe's suggestions in his notebook. "Grace wanted me
to ask you and Uncle Gus around for Sunday dinner, and you can look over our
outfit afterward," he finished.
"What's this, a dress rehearsal?" said
Gus, as he and Joe stepped into the dining room the following Sunday to find
both Grace and Henry in camping togs.
"It certainly is, Uncle Gus, "laughed
Grace. "Even the dinner is being cooked on that cute little gasoline
stove!"
"Well, I'd say there is certainly
nothing the matter with that stove," exclaimed Joe as Grace brought in a
steak that was cooked to a turn.
And the rest of the dinner added
further evidence that the stove was good.
"Now we'll show you a real tent," said
Henry when dinner was over.
And he led the way to the car parked
back of the house. "Just watch and see how quick we can get the tent
up."
"Gosh!" exclaimed Joe admiringly.
"You two are the original lightning
change campers - couldn't have taken you ten minutes."
"Humph!" grunted Gus, as they climbed
into Gus's car after wishing the young couple all kinds of luck on their
trip. "You're a fine one to be giving out information on auto camping!
Why, you never spent a night under canvas!"
"Never you mind," said Joe with a
broad grin, "I'd spend most of my time auto camping if I wasn't tied down so
tight helping run the Model Garage!"
END
