The fiberglass fan on my 1991 U300 with 6V92TA engine and less than 80,000 miles on it lost a blade while cruising on interstate 40 at a steady 1500 rpm. The blade hit the front core of the radiator and a small hose that I haven't yet identified. The engine was vibrating badly and I pulled over thinking I had a flat tire. Road service sent out Tennessee Towing and they took me to J&K Truck Repair in Crossville TN who refused to do the repair even if I showed him the cash beforehand. He had at least one garage bay empty all day and as many as three mechanics mopping the floor at once. He wouldn't even allow me to stay in his parking lot where the tow truck left me. He called Reed Truck repair and they sent a mechanic to look at it, but they also refused to fix it. They called everyone in town but didn't find anyone. I walked across the street to the BP truck stop and asked if I could park in their truck parking area but they wouldn't allow it. I then walked over to Cumberland Worship Center and asked if I could park in the church parking lot and they said I could. I found the broken blade and removed all of it, putting all the pieces together to be sure none of it was still in there. I removed the water sensor from the top of the radiator and put it in a bucket of water on the back bumper so the computer would allow the engine to run. I started the generator and let the air compressor pump up the air brakes and suspension. I then started the engine and immediately limped away slowly to the church parking lot without letting the engine warm up. Now I'm in the process of removing the radiator myself in the church parking lot 30 feet away from J&K Truck Repair. I worked on it until it got dark last night and then walked over to a pizza joint cuz I was starving. The lady who owns the place asked me what's wrong so I told her the story. Her son in law owns a trucking company in town and she said she'd call him. I'm telling everyone about J&K Truck Repair, Reed Truck Repair, and the BP truck stop refusing to help me at all. Tennessee Towing was very helpful however, as was the church. Without them I don't know what I'd do. I've never felt so alone before. What a cold hearted little town to be stranded in. I called Foretravel and got some valuable advice. They told me to remove the radiator from the bottom of the coach because there are brackets that won't fit through the rear door. I see the brackets that they're talking about but I really think it will fit through the rear door. Have any of you removed the radiator through the rear door successfully?... Those of you with a fiberglass fan should get rid of it before it explodes. According to Foretravel it has been replaced by Flex-O-Lite part number 8681 and it's now a plastic 28" diameter fan blade which hopefully is stronger? The radiator is unavailable and VERY expensive. I'm told I'll have to get a local radiator shop to order a new core and solder it in which will take a week or more and cost a thousand dollars... (sigh)... thought you guys would wanna know this stuff.
Scott
Sorry to hear about your problems. :'( Town sounds about as friendly as Van Horn Texas. >:D After my experience with my bulkhead failure in Louisiana I know what it feels like to be stranded. I had lots of help from the local truck stop however and that made things a lot easier. Hope you can "get out of town" soon.
Roland
Wow! Sounds like Crossville has developed some RV animosity!.
We have a member or two that live in Crossville. They may know who in the area can help out. There is a significant RV presence in the Crossville area. You may consider Road Service to approve a tow back to Knoxville where the old Foretravel of TN people still are. Or go the other way to Nashville where there's plenty of truck service with all the entertainer coach companies.
Scott,
We had a '92 with a 3208 Cat engine and took the radiator out the rear. We had to take off the louvered door and that gave us almost enough room to get the radiator out. The mounting ears along with the hose neck still wouldn't fit, so we had to remove a small piece of the fiberglass lip that is hidden behind the louvered door to get it out. With you having a 6V92 your radiator will most likely be some bigger than what we had so this may not help.
Hope you can get it out and re-cored and on your way.
Pamela & Mike
From my experience a few notes;
Removal out the bottom, will not go thru the rear small door & is heavy for 1 person.
Be very careful, it is easy to damage the radiator upon installation.
Recore the radiator? See if FOT has a replacement, they did a few years ago for the 1989 U300 w/6V-92, maybe still have or can get a replacement.
Our experience with recoreing, always cheaper to buy new if available, My guess a recore from radiator shop will be closer to $2K.
I would tow to the Foretavel shop near Severeville, just east of Knoxville about 15 miles on I-40.
Unless you have all the tools & equipment for this, I feel your in for a Real learning experience.
Good Luck
Dave M
It will cost another $500 to tow my coach to Knoxville according to Tennessee Towing, and he does long distance towing like that every day.
According to Tennessee Towing there is a lot of RV animosity here and other places around the country. He said rich guys with fancy RVs treat him terrible and try to blame stuff on him. He usually photographs the outside of the entire coach before he hooks up to it and makes note of every little scratch and dent so he won't get blamed for it later... Please be nice to tow truck drivers and truck mechanics so this won't happen to me again. What if this were a repair that I couldn't do myself?... As for the BP truck stop I have no explanation for why they won't let me park there.
I have everything disconnected from the radiator except two easy to reach bolts and I'm ready to lift it out. The radiator appears to be too heavy for one person to lift alone safely. The brackets are bolted to my radiator, not welded, so I disconnected the brackets and it looks like the whole radiator with the shroud still attached will fit through the back door. I don't know about the hose nipples. I have a hack saw here and I can notch the fiberglass if needed. I'm gonna see if Tennessee Towing will help me lift the radiator if he's got a few minutes. Tomorrow I'm going to the church here and I'll ask some of the guys in the church if they can help me lift it, or maybe the radiator shop could send someone over to pick up the radiator and they can help me lift it out? I don't have a car with me so I'll need someone to take it over to the radiator shop.
One thing that bothers me is that I can't find the transmission cooler lines. I was expecting two metal lines like an automobile automatic transmission has. I found one small braided line and disconnected that, but there doesn't appear to be a second line, so I don't know if that was a transmission line or not? I disconnected the big line on the bottom and the two smaller ones on the top, a smaller line that got partially cut by the broken fan blade that may be an overflow hose or something because it goes up to the top of the radiator shroud, and the tiny braided hose... and that's it... so how does the Allison transmission and the hydraulic retarder get its cooling from this radiator?
According to Foretravel the radiator isn't available and even when it was available it was over $4000! (gasp)... I think I've almost got the radiator out. I have it hanging by two easily reachable bolts with all the hoses disconnected and the fan blade removed... Now I gotta find some help to lift it out.
We have a 91 GV 280 with a Cat 3208 T engine. A few years ago, the fiberglass fan exploded and wiped out the radiator. We were in Colorado 15 miles east of Gunnison. The tow truck knew where to take us. The garage removed the radiator, replaced the fan with a plastic one and delivered the radiator to a radiator shop. When the radiator was repaired, the garage installed it. The repairs took five days and cost about $2,400.00. The reason for the five day wait was in ordering parts.
We disconnected our Jeep and drove the 4 wheel drive roads in every direction from Gunnison for the five days the work was going on. The only loss was the cost of repairing the radiator.
I later learned from Brett Wolfe that the fiberglass fans are a problem.
Alan and Bobbie Dodson
1991 Foretravel GV 280
2000 Jeep TJ built for trail driving in Colorado.
I think of blade failures every time I go by one of those big wind generators! Thank goodness they don't have the rpm our engine fan blades have! And fiberglass is not the best material for a fan blade. New composite sound better, but the jury will be out on them for several more decades.
I don't know either, not being familiar with your layout.
But I'll gladly bump it back up to the top so someone else can see it.
Yours a rear radiator model?
Yes, the 1991 U300 has a rear radiator and I'm gonna try to take it out through the rear door as soon as I get some help to lift it. I have it all disconnected and ready to lift out.
Transmission cooler is a separate unit that the coolant goes thru before going to the radiator. Follow the radiator hoses to locate.
RRadio,
Yes, as Tom & Linda stated the transmission cooler is a separate unit - it's cylindrical on the drivers side with two transmission hoses on the bottom and radiator hoses on the end.
I had my radiator replaced by a shop and they did remove it from the rear door. They had to notch the fiberglass and still made stress fractures in the gelcoat. It's a tight fit and with the radiator so heavy it's hard to lift it that high to get it out and be watching the fiberglass as well. I can't imagine trying to do this in a parking lot but I guess you're half way there.
I believe the small hose that was cut is a burp line so when you fill the coach with coolant there is no air pocket in the thermostat housing -it's a nice feature to have. I think it's hydraulic hose - overkill for the application but nice that it's so rugged and has those easy connections.
Scott,
How badly damaged was the radiator? I had a fan go into my MB bus radiator with all the same symptoms you described. I cleared away the fin damage and squashed each one of the damaged tubes with a vice grip. I then filled the damaged ends with epoxy (J.B. Weld), let it set a couple of hours and hit the road. Didn't leak and gave me time to get home and repair it. I think I had about 8 bad tubes so 16 ends to repair.
I don't know how badly yours is damaged and if such a repair is possible but know what a bummer it is to be stuck in a strange town surrounded by unfriendly people.
Pierce
Thanks for the information on the transmission cooler. I had been misinformed before that there was a transmission coil in the radiator. I'll look for the transmission cooler when I'm down there next time. I intend to change all the hoses while the coolant is out of the system.
The radiator has a gash in the front coil that is about three inches long and cut probably three tubes at least, and a smaller gash about an inch long that probably cut two more tubes, and I can't see any more cuts but a lot of tube fins are bent and the small rubber hose was cut... I guess that's the "burp line"?... I still don't know what the tiny braided line is... or is that the one that's the burp line?
My 93, U300 with 6V92 is a side radiator so I can't help much with the removal but I can tell you that my 93, U225 had a rear radiator and after much effort the rear radiator had to come out the bottom. I also found that if I had needed a new radiator, which I didn't, I could get a High Efficiency new core for $600 for the U225. Foretravel wanted $4000 for a new one. The High Efficiency core would have given me 30% more cooling in the same size package so if you need to recore the radiator, a High Efficiency radiator would probably be less than $500 more in cost and well worth the extra expense.
Also you didn't mention if you had Coach Net or Good Sam's Road Service. It is my understanding that both will get your coach to a repair facility that can and will repair your coach at no cost to you. I wouldn't leave home without that security. It saved Jeff and Carol Savournin $1200 in tow fees several years ago when their harmonic balancer and fan let go near Ft. Stockton, TX.
I just happend to have the coach here at the house and looked at the lines. The burp line I was referring to before, is on the drivers side and goes from the thermostat housing (which is also where one of the main top coolant hoses comes from) and connects directly to the radiator top tank. It has an outer fabric braid and is about 5/8" in diameter - maybe that's the tiny you are referring to?
I did see a rubber hose that looks like 1 inch heater hose: goes from the water pump, through a hole in the fan shroud and I'm not sure where it goes from there. Maybe that's the hose that got cut?
You mentioned replacing all the hoses. I would evaluate their condition first. Most of the larger (2"+) hose are of very good quality (silicone) and on my coach are in very good condition with no cracks. The very bottom hose (about 3-4", with a spring inside to prevent suction collapse) is standard rubber but again was in very good condition and I'm pretty sure it was custom fabricated for Foretravel so they would be the only source for a new one. I still have my original.
Kent has an excellent point here. If you have extended AAA coverage, they will also give you 150 free miles. It covers anything you may be driving at the time of the problem.
Pierce
I have Progressive Insurance and they tow to the nearest truck service center, which they did, but the service center refused to help me. I have no complaints with Progressive or Tennessee Towing, they did exactly what they promised. The crew of trained professional diesel mechanics should be ashamed of themselves. A first timer with a little bag of tools can do a job they didn't dare do in the parking lot next to their fully equipped shop... and everyone in this little town is gonna know about it by the time I get outta here. Bad news spreads quickly in a small town like this. I'm sure everyone knows everyone else here.
Scott, how can one tell if the fan is fiberglass? I currently have my fan out, as I am trying to replace the hydraulic fan motor (a big ordeal that I will share when it is all resolved). It is somewhat transluscent, pale yellowish, but I can not see any fibrous strands in it. It is a homogenous texture. Can you take a picture of your fan? I'd hate to re-assemble this whole thing, just to have the blades disintegrate in the near future. Since my coach is a '92, but manufactured in Nov. of '91, I suspect that we might have the same fan, though with entirely different engines, I hope not. Did FOT quote you the price of the replacement fan blade? I'm not sure a 28" fan would even fit in the existing shroud in front of the radiator for my Cummins 8.3.
A Foretravel owner and formerly active member of the old Yahoo Foretravel owner's website is John Lang; his lives in Crossville and is a fine gentleman. Private Mail me for his phone number. He may be able to direct you to some mechanical assistance.
Don,
I had my original fiberglass fan replaced in 2001 and I remember it being black and the glass strands very evident on the surface and especially on edges where the fibers would fray a little and turn a white color. Your fan sounds like it's plastic so I don't think you have to worry. I suppose you could call James Triana and verify.
Thank you SO much for the feedback! I am relieved to learn that my fan blade is probably plastic. No fibrous nature at all.
My fiberglass fan blade is white, and you can easily see the strands of glass fibers in it. The replacement fan is probably made of black ABS plastic according to what Foretravel told me, and it's $243.75 at Foretravel, but probably cheaper if I order it locally through NAPA I predict.
I have a new problem now, it's gonna be 29 degrees here tonight and I don't know what I have to do to keep my motor home from freezing, especially the water tanks. Are they insulated? I don't have any electricity here unless I run the diesel generator all night. Is there electric heat tape in the tanks? I'm practically out of LP gas and the furnaces are full of wasp nests because they've never been used. The coach was in Florida for the past 14 years. Will my tanks freeze tonight? It's supposed to get down to 28 degrees again here on Tuesday night... Should I post this as a new question instead of adding it onto the bottom of this thread?
Tanks wont freeze with that temp over several hours (like 4-6)
What about the pump compartment, will it freeze in there?... I was having a stoopid idea that maybe I could leave the tank fill valve under the bathroom sink cracked open just slightly with the pump on so it would start every once in a while and the water would stay moving just a little... of course that will run down the batteries and I'll have to start the generator more often to charge them, but I've got a full tank of diesel.
If your water tanks have a lot of water in them, I would not expect you to have any freezing problems if low temperatures are above 28F and average temperatures in a 24 period are well above freezing. With the bay doors closed, the water tanks will provide enough heat to keep the temperatures in the bays above freezing.
Check the temperatures of the bays occasionally with a thermometer to ease your mind. An infrared gun type thermometer will give you instant readings. If average temperatures drop too much for comfort before you get to a safer circumstance, put a work light (mechanics' "drop light") in a couple of the bays overnight.
If the furnaces are full of dauber nests, you will probably need to pull them out and apart to clean them. We had a furnace burner replaced at FOT last November because daubers had clogged it so badly that it had warped and would no longer support a flame. We now keep "dauber screens" on the furnaces and water heater vents.
Your furnace (if it's like our '93 U300) has a duct than sends warm air directly into the pump compartment and the pump. 28 degrees won't come close to freezing the tanks. We were in the mid-teens in Yellowstone and did nothing other than operating the furnace.
Your insurance may pay to send a propane truck (and a fuel truck) to your location and fill your tank (or you could just pay the propane company). If you have the policy with you, check to see what is covered for misc. expenses after a breakdown.
Pierce
I have one of those tiny tent sized candle lanterns here that supposedly burns for 9 hours on a candle providing a lot of heat. Should I light that and put it in the pump compartment tonight? I'm told those little candles are available at Wal-Mart but I didn't check when I was there. I don't have any replacement candles but I'll have to get at least one more before Tuesday night... Would leaving the tank fill valve under the bathroom sink cracked open slightly keep the pump compartment from freezing or is that a ridiculous idea?
As Dave said, a couple of hours just below freezing will do no harm to the tanks.
You might check your rear propane heater-- quite likely it has a duct into the wet bay. So if you run that furnace, it will keep you AND the tanks warm.
Brett
Scott
John Lang here in Crossville.
Bummer! Hate to hear of problems like this. Your experience with Crossville hospitality is not typical, but it is a fact that the 3 truck service centers around hear really don't like to do anything on or related to MH's. This really is strange considering there are AT LEAST 250 MH owners in a radias of 20 miles. But that doesn't help you right now.
One shop in town used to do rad work - Chans Collision - phnoe 931-484-3519. I would call and ask them.
Another alternative is Cookeville Radiator in Cookeville; about 30 miles east on Interstate 40. Phone 931.526.2013
For future use: General engine/chassis work: Walker Diesel Service in Cookeville. Phone 931.528.8555. Many of us here in Crossville have our service done there. Very dependable and very reasonable cost. For non-chassis work (most anything on the house): Creston RV Service, Bill Dodson. He is just outside of Crossville. Phone 931.528.8555.
I don't have a number for you, but I will head out now and see if I can find you.
Good luck,
John Lang
Thanks so much for giving me a tour of Crossville and taking me to the radiator shop John. I really appreciate you... ^.^d ...Hopefully I'll get some help lifting the radiator out of the coach soon and take it over to the shop.
John,
It was very nice of you to seek out Scott and help him out. You set a fine example for others to follow. Thanks for helping out a fellow Foretraveler.
I have logged in the noted Crossville shops as "not RV friendly" and the noted Cookeville shops as "RV friendly" just in case I am in the area and need service. I always appreciate that info.
Karma boost to you.
Rick
I too think that was very"foreforumily" of you to go over to help in any way possible. Now to find some lifting help for Scott. wish I was close to help.
John H
Rick, please include Tennessee Towing in Crossville as being motor home friendly. He tows a lot of motor homes and is very familiar with them. He's a really nice guy and he actually lives in a motor home about 30' behind me here... When he was underneath my Foretravel he was admiring the suspension and all the engineering and design and said he'd never seen anything as advanced before. He said it was state of the art... and it's 20+ years old!... He said it must ride way better than other motor homes. The mechanics that looked at the 6V92TA engine were admiring it and said it was state of the art... I got a lot of compliments but not a lot of help.
Also, whenever you're in the Crossville area and you want to visit a nice church that helps stranded motor home owners, not just me but others before me, visit Cumberland Worship Center. They broadcast their church services on the internet worldwide too.
Thanks again to John and Helen for bringing me some blankets just now and offering to let me use their laundry and shower in their house if I need it. They've been so nice to me... (smile)
Today I sold a deer rifle that I don't need and I've now got half the cash I supposedly need for the radiator shop. I have a gold wedding band I no longer need that I'll sell too. I have another paycheck coming in about a week and a half and I'm pretty sure I'll still be here then. The check combined with the cash I have now should be enough to resolve this situation... From now on I'll be traveling with more cash and more tools! (laugh)
Scott,
Yes, I caught the fact that Tennessee Towing was one of the good guys along with the church. I generally copy the complete post so that I can grasp the whole situation and then add my own comments in RED so that I can capture my thoughts at the time.
Hope all goes well from here on out.
good luck,
Rick
I just got a phone call from a gentleman at the church where I'm stranded and he's sending a couple of guys over today to help me lift the radiator out of the the coach, and I think they're bringing a pickup truck to take the radiator to the shop, which John Lang already took me to and they said they'd re-core the radiator for me... so I'm on my way to a repair here... just thought an update might be good.
Outstanding!
Way cool! ^.^d Fortunately you landed among a people who chose to look your plight as an opportunity to help rather than an eyesore.
Thanks for the update.
Well the guys didn't show up to help me lift the radiator today but I predict someone will soon. Now I'm helping the church get their internet streaming broadcast onto my friend's nationwide TV network and onto iTunes as a podcast worldwide... so they want me to stay! (laugh)... The pastor told me to plug into their light pole in the parking lot so I won't have to run my diesel generator to charge the batteries... which brings me to another question... do I have to turn down the amperage on the charger so I can plug into a 20A 120V AC outlet without overloading their circuit breaker?
How do you turn down the charger amperage? Are you referring to "power sharing" setting? If you have this setting, change it to 15 amps, which will keep the charger from overloading the shore power. Fully charged batteries will only use a few amps from the battery charger to keep 12-volt items powered.
The only way to manage your amp draw is to control your appliances and not run too much at one time. Only high wattage heating items like microwave, water heater, floor heater, hair dryer can cause a problem. TV, computer etc only draw very little current so they will not be a problem. And learn where the church circuit breaker is located, in case you trip it.
20 Amps at 120V is approx 190 amps at 12 Volts after subtracting for conversion factors. Should be no problem. Don't run the air conditioner, etc.
Apparently there's no power to the electric outlet on the light pole near where I'm parked, so it's irrelevant, but thanks for the information.
Today a couple of guys from the church where I'm stranded helped me attempt to remove the radiator. We ran out of time but they'll come back on Monday I think. There's no way we were gonna get that big honkin radiator out the back door, so we attempted to slide it out the bottom of the coach. Currently the fan shroud won't go down past the fan clutch shaft. I was attempting to remove the fan clutch when the guys ran out of time and had to leave. What are the two small hoses that pass beneath the radiator and go into the frame of the coach in the very back, down near the trailer hitch? The radiator was hanging by those two hoses so I had to cut them off. I'll replace them later but I don't even know what they are or what's inside the frame back there. Is it a hydraulic fluid reservoir or a coolant reservoir or something like that?
Tennessee Towing came back today after hauling another commercial truck that had a fiberglass fan explosion. He had another one the other day since mine too. He said it blew the whole front of the truck off. Mine was a minor fan failure I guess... You guys, check your fan and if it's fiberglass get rid of it now, before it fails catastrophically. Don't wait because you'll be stranded here in a place where nobody will work on it. It's a very difficult job to replace a radiator yourself, even with helpers and a hydraulic jack. This is the biggest, heaviest radiator I've ever seen in any vehicle... and the most expensive.
I found the fan, a Flex-a-Lite 8681, at Parts River on the internet for half the price Foretravel charges. I called Flex-a-Lite and spoke to their engineering tech support about my fiberglass fan failure and was told they switched to nylon with fiberglass reinforcement about ten years ago and have had no fan failures since then except for collisions with foreign objects... I hope that's true cuz I NEVER wanna take this radiator out again as long as I live! (laugh)... which won't be long if I drop it on myself.
Scott,
Those two hoses are air box drains. This is something unique to 2 cycle Detroits. A very small amount of oil drains out of these and Foretravel uses the frame cross member as a capture reservoir. You'll find a drain valve somewhere in the middle of the cross member that you are supposed to drain at every oil change. When ever I open it it hardly a drop comes out. I suppose with higher HP versions and other applications where it's pushed harder there would be more oil coming out of these drains. At 300 hp these engines are just not having to work very hard. Now the cooling system is another story - on a hot day going up a grade it's pushed to it's limits. Once you get your new radiator you should be all set for sometime as long as you periodically clean it. It will get dirty on the fan side where it hardest to see and reach.
Attached is a commentary on DD 2 strokes that I save from the internet sometime ago that talks about the air box drains and other things. Some of the info refers to mechanical injection where ours is the electronic DDEC II. BTW, the DDEC computer is mounted on the engine between the two cylinder head thermostats. Surprisingly they run the fuel through the housing to keep it cool.
Very good advice about the Detroit Engines.
John,
Enjoyed reading the comments on the Detroit Engines, Having enjoyed many versions of the 2 strokes, I find the article very good info. My last was the 8V-92 with over 600+ hp and never had any issues with it, however I learned earlier to run only the SAE 50 oil, to protect the rear main from spinning, seems only the hard core DD boys get that comment. Always felt that one day I would bring it home on a wrecker due to engine fatigue, but It is still running strong with the new owner who stays amazed at the big power on tap.
I do miss the 2 strokers but must admit the ISM series Cummins are great engines, great power, torque, fuel and long mileage engines, with very little need for wrenches.
Joy to have owned a real power RV bus conversion, much more that my puny ISM500 in the 36' Foretravel, it does real good but not a real biggie engine. Good mileage, but I always felt the diesel fuel was the cheapest part of a RV.
FWIW
Dave M
Yes, excellent article. Besides the injector follower, the use of multi-grade oil causes accelerated wear on the pistons with a couple good photo examples on line.
They do use a lot more air so clog air cleaners faster and need the big 5 inch exhaust pipe they have on our U300s. Since the EGT is lower they have the unique "Greyhound" exhaust smell and also have the advantage of almost never burning valves.
Quite correct as the Detroit 2 cycles were difficult to smog. They could have been modified but the entire cylinder head would have had to have been redesigned to take the common rail injection found in today's smog engines. The Detroits have no external fuel lines with all the fuel in internal passages. That along with the fact that the camshaft driven injection pump/injectors (about 3,000 psi) can't come anywhere close to the 30,000 to 40,000 lbs. pressure needed for the super fine spray particles needed to get emissions down to current standards.
More modern 2-cycle diesels do meet all the latest EPA standards and are found in all of the latest Union Pacific locomotives (the largest railroad engine order ever) as well as the world's largest, most efficient diesel engine found in ships. It is the only diesel engine in the world to exceed 50% fuel efficiency. This means it converts more than half of the 155,000 btu/gallon bunker fuel into power for propulsion.
Pierce
The radiator would not come out through the bottom so we had to take it out through the back door. We took it to Chan's Frame & Body Shop here in Crossville because they have a radiator shop and they do truck radiators. Chan's shipped the radiator to Knoxville and quoted me $1385 plus tax to recore it. Knoxville called back and said they'd never seen a radiator like that so they shipped it to Detroit and now the bill is up to $1800 to recore the radiator. I'm not sure if there will be taxes and extra charges added onto it. That's more money than I can come up with unfortunately, so I'll be stranded here a while longer. I hope to escape this place next month.
I've been here so long that I ran out of LP gas. In keeping with the spirit of this town, none of the LP gas companies here would fill my tank for me. They all gave a different lame excuse for not helping me. I had to call A&C Propane from Cookeville 30 miles away to come way over here and fill my tank. It's winter so it's pretty cold here for Tennessee with temperatures getting down to freezing at night. Other than John Lang, the only help I've gotten in this town is from Cumberland Worship Center. They've sent guys over to help with the radiator, to fill my fresh water tank before it ran out, gave me an LP gas bottle, took me out to eat multiple times, jump started my generator just now because I ran the batteries down too low I guess (?) and they offered a couple of times to let me plug into their electricity, but I'd need about 500' of cable to reach the building. I think there would be quite a voltage drop over that distance. They also took up a collection for me one night. I tried to give the cash back but they really wanted me to keep it. That was so nice of them. They want me to stay here permanently! I've made a lot of nice friends in this church. I've been trying to help them get on my friend's TV network, get some of my Nashville bands to play here, get their internet TV stream on iTunes as a video podcast, and other things... but so far none of the things I've tried to do for them has worked out.
The new fan arrived today and it appears to be much higher quality than the original fiberglass fan. The blades have a steeper pitch to them, so I presume it will push more air. There is no visible fiberglass in the new fan. It looks like it's nylon with aluminum reinforcements. The manufacturer said it was fiberglass reinforced nylon though... I was glad I didn't see any fiberglass in it.
Sorry to be silent for so long. I was gonna wait until I had my facts straight before writing about it.
Call me at Six three oh, 240 nine one three nine in am
Where did they send it in Knoxville? Tennessee RV maybe or somewhere else? Tennessee RV should have known where to get it taken care of considering that they are a Foretravel Service Center, I would have thought.
They didn't say where it went in Knoxville but it's at Detroit Radiator now.
RRadio,
I have been reading about your predicament and am truly sorry for your misfortune. I live in Knoxville...If I could be of help to you in any way please feel free to contact me.
Thanks so much for your kind offer of assistance James, I really appreciate that.
Here's an update on the challenges of sitting in a parking lot for several weeks. The black water and gray water tanks were full and someone from the church sent a septic tank truck over here to pump it out for me, and they even paid for it, which was unbelievably nice of them. I've been walking over to the truck stop to use their restrooms since my black water tank filled up. The pastor told me I could dump the gray water tank on the church lawn but I didn't because the temperature went down to 21 degrees for a couple of nights and I thought full water tanks would be less likely to freeze. The cold weather has created a huge amount of condensation, even inside the walls of the coach. It has shorted out at least one light, which I don't need so I removed it, and is apparently draining the coach batteries every day. I'm trying to figure out how to get rid of the condensation. How do people camp in RVs in cold climates anyway? I think I'm going to pull out all the fuses and see if I can determine which circuit(s) are shorted. I think the cause of the whole problem is the condensation, so if I could get rid of that the short circuit(s) would probably go away... Anybody have experience with cold weather RVing and condensation problems?
We have camped in cold weather for a few days each year for the last three years. We are parked up to five days in temperatures of 0 to 40F. We've had no problems with condensation.
In the coach are two adults and a large dog. We cook very little in the coach. We generally spend a lot of time away from the coach during the day. However, we do shower, shave, brush, etc., inside the coach. I leave the vent over the kitchen open a bit and leave a small window near the passenger seat open about one to two inches. We use the coach's two propane furnaces to keep the inside and the bays warm.
We have had good results by allowing some fresh air to flow through the coach via windows and vents, avoiding using the propane stove, and avoiding using anything that burns fuel inside the coach (candles, catalytic heaters, gas appliances).
JD has said it all. You need to have air passing thru (cold air is good for you) just put extra sweaters on and open windows and do not cook with out that window open. Bathroom vent should allways be open. Maybe you should get a tow truck to drag you next to the church so you can hook up to it for power and pay them a few bucks for the use. Brett will be able to say if just a short tow will do any damage. I do not know but if you turn ign on and select N on trans maybe that will allow the short move to happen. It would be good to know from others whether this last comment of mine is correct or not. 27 deg is not cold but "fresh"
John H
So YOU say. A bit "chilly" for us "southerners".
Roland
A small dehumidifier (we set ours under the kitchen table) will dry out the coach overnight.
No more wet windows or walls. Much more comfortable with less heat.
But you do need to have 120 volt power.
if you lived in Canada you would have to be used to a lot of things like fighting off Bears and Wolves to get to the car, and treck thru 10ft of snow to put the garbage out!! We sleep at night in the same clothes as we wear during the day, but pull lots of sacking around us and the dog too. At least that is what you Americans think of life "up north" correct??
ps we do not have a dog now so we steal next doors pet when it gets real cold.
This is a joke, guys.
John H
Easy on the wolf jokes, John. I know of one that opens oven doors to get at the pizza but not people.
Might think you guys are "loonie".
Pierce
I cleaned the mud dauber nests out of the front furnace so it runs fairly well now. I don't dare use it without the generator running because I think it will be too much for my coach batteries until I get the short circuits figured out. I've been running a propane powered radiant heater all night long with the ceiling cabinets open to dry out the condensation. I noticed an amazing improvement, to the point that I got a nosebleed this morning! (laugh) The windows still have condensation in the morning though. I guess motor homes aren't a good place to conserve energy by leaving the heat off in the winter. I connected the dashboard voltmeter to the coach batteries instead of the cranking battery so I can monitor my voltage at all times without turning on the backup monitor. I will reconnect it back to the cranking battery after I get the radiator reinstalled and start driving it again. I took out all the fuses from the circuits powered by the coach batteries and connected an ammeter inline and found shorts in several of them. I think I found about 1 ampere of short circuits or more all total. I left all those fuses out and replaced the fuses in the circuits with no amperage draw on them. Fortunately the circuits I actually use didn't have shorts in them. I will test this one more night to see if the coach batteries lose voltage with nothing running. I discovered that my boost solenoid doesn't work when I needed to jumpstart myself after the coach batteries discharged too low to crank the generator. For some reason the wires going to the boost solenoid switch had been disconnected upstream of the switch. There appears to be a couple of fusible links or something in those wires and that's where they were disconnected. The drawings I have show diodes but they appear to be fusible links... so I don't know... I cut off the fusible links and put disconnects on them to test it. I got the boost switch to light up and the voltmeter moved slightly but the generator still wouldn't crank. I left the wires to the boost switch disconnected just in case those really were fusible links and they melted apart or something (?) I temporarily connected a 10 gauge wire across the boost solenoid and it was enough to crank the generator and recharge the cranking battery. I removed the wire afterward so all three batteries wouldn't discharge through the short circuits... and that's about all I know for now... no news on the radiator coming back from Detroit at this time.
I burned up the diodes on my boost switch wiring after I installed the wrong boost solenoid. I put in one that was only rated for intermittent duty instead continuous duty. I forgot to check that little detail. After several days of being on, the coil finally overheated and shorted to to ground. It melted the diode and the several inches of wire on either side along with the second diode wiring. I could have started a fire and burned down the coach but I think it stopped there because it melted the solder and created an open circuit. When I rewired it, I installed a fuse going to the solenoid to prevent such a mishap again. The purpose of the diodes, if haven't figured it out, is so that the boost solenoid will get power from either battery bank regardless of which one may be depleted.
I wish you the best of luck in getting your coach back on the road.
I cut both diodes off because they appeared to have melted in two. I installed disconnects on both of them instead. I have both wires disconnected currently. I will probably reconnect one of them after I figure out what's going on. If I ever need to I can swap batteries by connecting the other one... so I'll be my own diode I suppose... I don't think the solenoid is working currently anyway. I will have to test it and see.