Kamloops to Castlegar

[MIPS]

Other than the Eagle my other hobby is old computers. I guess that works well with the CeC. Too bad though I don't always play with *small* computers.

Castlegar BC is six hours east in the mountains. Nice little town but in the Winter it's a nightmare to reach. The computer to pick up was an IBM System/32 which people dubbed "The Bionic Desk" because it's the same size of a desk, the computer is built *into* the desk and it weighs about 640lbs, so this meant it was time for another trailer pull.

First big pull since I bought the wagon. Wagon had a non-factory but dealership installed hitch kit which bolted to the bumper and the unibody itself, which I guess was better than nothing. It also included a massive transmission cooler that's nearly as big as the radiator. First upgrade it needed was a switch from a 1 7/8" ball to a 2" ball.
As soon as the weather improved and the roads cleared I set my Friday alarm clock and hit the road at 4AM with an empty trailer. Car did fine but the misbehaving high-beams were absolutely a problem. Arrived six hours later, spent another four hours loading the car with a computer even older than the Eagle (early 1976!) and then it was back over the three separate passes to get back again, which we did by 11:30pm that night. The hitch, engine and even the transmission held up great and after all that made it back consuming 146.2L and averaging 14.3mpg across three tanks of gas.

[vangremlin]

Quite the road trip!  Kudos to the Eagle for handling it with no problems!

[Fred C Dobbs]

Love your YouTube channel, CelGen guy. You guys put a lot of work into it and it shows.

[Taylor]

Awesome find. Let us know how it does once you power it up. I have a few old computers sitting around but nothing close to the age of that IBM. Have you had a chance to work on a AS400?

[AMC of Houston]

Look up the video for the rock group Nestor's song "1989".  Old tech stuff plays a big part in the vid.   Darn good song & vid, too!

[MIPS]

Thanks and thanks. I try to balance some handy AMC videos on the Youtube channel whenever I get the chance.

Funny enough I had two AS/400 machines until early last year when I sold them to make space. Too new. Parts for early-2000's enterprise computers are still very expensive because many of the machines are still in use where millions of dollars are still on the line. This machine has not been powered on in 35 years but was supposedly turned off and stuffed into a corner, so it will probably work after it's cleaned, inspected and reassembled.