BusTalk

bronxmike · Age: 69 Joined: 09 Sep 2013 Posts: 3

Almost every time an Orion low floor bus of any model or year goes by, one can hear clanging and banging from the front suspension over bumps or road imperfections. Sometimes it even seems to come from the rear as well. It almost sounds like a rock rattling around in a bottle. Does anyone know what this is? And if so, why has it not been fixed?

Mr. Linsky · Posted: Mon Sep 09, 2013 1:42 pm Post subject:

bronxmike,

Welcome to BusTalk - glad to have you aboard and look forward to what contributions you offer us.

I can't tell you what's wrong with the low floor suspensions, but I can relate an amusing story that might offer some explanation.

Back in the forties or fifties a fellow buys a new car of unknown make and finds that every time he goes over a bump or pot hole in the road he hears a clanging somewhere in the body put can't put his finger on just where.

His many trips to the dealer netted nothing until he encountered a problem with an electric window and upon taking apart the door to service the mechanism an empty Pepsi Cola bottle was found at the bottom of the door frame.

The moral of this true story is never to buy a new car that was put together around lunchtime!

Many regards,

Mr. 'L'

bronxmike · Age: 69 Joined: 09 Sep 2013 Posts: 3

I heard that story somewhat modified. Inside the bottle was a note to the effect, "Ha ha you idiot. Now you know the source of the noise!"

Mr. Linsky · Posted: Mon Sep 09, 2013 3:01 pm Post subject:

bronxmike et al,

The Pepsi Cola bottle story above brings another even funnier true story to mind and I'll take a time out to tell it;

It was back in the early sixties when Volkswagen began to make inroads into the U.S. with their famous Beetle model which boasted great gas mileage.

At a weekly poker game among neighbors in New Rochelle, this one player says that he just ordered a new Volkswagen for its phenomenal fuel savings and, at a time when battleship size cars were still vogue, everyone at the table looked at him like he was nuts!

Anyway, the prankish trait (a bit of which we all carry with us) reared its ugly head when his friends decided that when the car was delivered they would sneak over each night and top off his tank (gas was still cheap in those days).

At the first game after the car was delivered everyone asked the guy how he liked it and all he could say was that it wasn't burning any gas at all - he couldn't believe it.

After a couple of weeks of the same routine he decided to take the car back to Volkswagen thinking that maybe the gas gauge was faulty but they scratched their heads upon finding that the tank was still full.

At the next game, he related what had happened and that's when his so called friends decided to pull the plug by syphoning more and more gas each night.

When asked how the car was doing at the following game he said he didn't know and that it was now burning gas like crazy.

I guess the moral of this story is to make sure you have a locking gas cap!

Regards,

Mr. 'L'

bronxmike · Age: 69 Joined: 09 Sep 2013 Posts: 3

PS the short Van Hool's running on the Circulator routes in DC make the same noise, so they must have the same parts that loosen/fail on those buses.

Tiny Tim · Posted: Mon Sep 09, 2013 5:13 pm Post subject:

The 30 ft gilligs we have here make the same noise. The vw story I have heard many times with different makes of cars and even pickup trucks. I wanted to pull it on a friend but never did. He was always into mpg his car got.

GBL Rebel · Posted: Mon Sep 09, 2013 5:18 pm Post subject:

The shocks make that noise going over rough road.

Hart Bus · Age: 75 Joined: 24 Apr 2007 Posts: 1150

traildriver · Joined: 26 Mar 2011 Posts: 2701 Location: South Florida

Jimbo · Posted: Wed Sep 11, 2013 6:28 am Post subject:

Or buy a automobile built during deer hunting season (substitute workers on the assembly line)...