Foretravel Owners' Forum

Foretravel Motorhome Forums => Foretravel Tech Talk => Topic started by: twobus on May 13, 2016, 01:25:45 am

Title: reinstalling the radiator
Post by: twobus on May 13, 2016, 01:25:45 am
I started a thread awhile back going over how not fun it is to remove a rearmount radiator from an '89 U280. Turns out, it isn't all that fun to pay 2400 bucks to have it recored. And it is even less fun to put it back in. Here are some protips. 1, back your coach over a service pit. Barring that, park the rear overhang over lower ground that the wheels are on. Otherwise, you get to raise rear air, lower front, and dig a ditch in your gravel driveway to get the vertical clearance required. 2, use a 2x6 across the framerails and a cargo strap to raise the rad into position. 2 cargo straps, as you won't get enough lift out of one before you have to unload the spool. 3, give up on trying to find the magic combination of angles to get that goldern thing in there without busting the filler neck off. Just saw it off at the halfway point and use a hose section and a couple clamps to reattach it. This also lets you put a temporary longer section on to clear the filler from the coachwork when it's time to fill up with coolant. 4, plan on taking a couple days to do this job. It's all done, no leaks, hopefully another 30 years go by before playing this game again...
Title: Re: reinstalling the radiator
Post by: Don & Tys on May 13, 2016, 02:07:41 am
You the man! ^.^d  A shop wanted to charge me $300 to recore the heater core, so $2400 sounds believable... but it makes me wonder what a new one would cost.
Don
Title: Re: reinstalling the radiator
Post by: twobus on May 20, 2016, 01:17:03 pm
^ I , um, didn't even ask what a new one would have cost.
Title: Re: reinstalling the radiator
Post by: prfleming on May 20, 2016, 02:14:20 pm
I'm looking at getting mine recored next year. Local shop said would be in the $2000 range, if I bring it in. New estimate was $4000, if a replacement can be found. I'm fine with a recore.