I have a handful of questions swirling in my head for the new rig I just bought. The coach is still down in Phoenix getting an exhaust brake added so I'm doing some of this from memory.
- Is 120ish PSI still the correct setting for the governor on these coaches? The PO had it turned down a bit to 100psi
- Is there any reason I can't add a valve that lets me dump the air out of the airbags? This would give me greater leveling ability with the kick-down hydraulic jacks
- The piggy-back hydraulic ram on one of the kickdown levelers is shot. Spraying fluid everywhere. This is the small ram that extends the big one down into place. Before I order a new one, has anyone had one of these rebuilt? The PO's mechanic was unable to find anyone to do it.
- The black and gray tanks on these coaches are completely exposed to the elements. Any concerns with cold weather here? The plumbing is actually inside the coach so I'm not concerned about that freezing
- The fresh water tank is also exposed but has a heat loop that runs next to it and is somewhat exposed to the heat inside the coach (it's in the elevated section of the floor up front). Have any of you added additional insulation or heating elements to this or has it been a non-issue? The worst we've done in our coach is 0 degrees but I'd like to be able to handle -10 or so, just in case.
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Are there any "must-do" mods for these coaches? For example, on the Unicoaches everyone knows to relocate the fresh water overflow.
A million more questions to come, I'm sure. Thanks
120 air is fine.
You could make up something to manual adjust the leveling.
Take the ram into a hydraulic shop and they may be able to rebuild it.
I use urethane foam to insulate my holding tanks and I rapped a heater hose off the engine
so I could get the valve opened as the valve would freeze and not open when freezing.
The fresh water tank should be foamed also.
It might be smart to foam the hole bottom with the foam and 2 inches is sufficient.
Your airbags should exhaust immediately after the jacks kick out then the coach lowers almost to contact with the ground then the leveling starts.
I'll take a picture of my HWH control panel so you can see if we're on the same page.
The fresh water tank is mounted to the body. Not the frame. Mine was drooping a bit .
I cut the supporting floor panel out and ran cross members and 3/4 plywood to the frame rails to support the tank.
If the tank droops very far, it will cut a lot of important looking wires and air lines. And no I have not considered insulating it m cuz I hate the cold , I only add about a half gallon of antifreeze to each of the waste tanks if it gets under 30*. This amount wont keep it from freezing , But the water turns to slushy stuff. Soft freeze .
Here's a photo of my panel, the red switch on the right kicks out your jacks then hit it again and the airbags will exhaust.
Thanks, my panel is the same I think so hopefully this is just a misunderstanding on my part
I built many of these at Foretravel. And froze the tanks solid at -30f. Mod was to put either 12 volt heating pads or 110volt pads on a frame under the tanks. Unihome or unicoach put the tanks inside the shell and the aqua hot coaches had a separate loop off the bath circuit to feed two fan forced radiators at either side of the tank bay.
ORED's were not optimized for winter use as you have noticed. The heater run does heat the toe of the water tank ok.
Gen goes 58 hours on a full tank. You probably have some water in the tank. My regulator froze up at -30f. There is an additive you can put in the propane hose while filling it that will allow the water to mix with the propane I think.
I had to drive the coach out of the mountains to an enclosed shop for a few hours to defrost the tank regulator.
Real winter use requires thinner oil in the cat and generator. Battery heating pads are a must as are absolutely fresh batteries.
Woke up at -32f and zero green lights were on in the coach with new batteries. Volts but zero amps.
Snow flow shed was next to us and they jumped over my dead batteries to get the cat to start.
Ether start was necessary as was a 60 second crank time. Starter is rated for that BTW. Then a 2 minute wait then another 60 second crank is within spec
The heater hose to the dash is Un insulated and exposed in the bundle inside the frame rail.
I would think to install a boost pump on that hose to move more hot water to the dash.
We kept a large hair dryer in front area to help defrost the windshield. Plus turned the overhead dash fans onto the opposite sides of the windshield.
The engines fuel pump has a few adjustments as noted. Smoke should stop after 5 seconds of full throttle. If not the air/fuel adjuster can be moved.
Brakes can be overheated if ridden long enough. Rears only work unless you push hard. Learned to brake hard then coast to use front and rears at the same time. Rear only are working at light brake pedal pressure
Any more questions please ask as I built these new and used them extensively used back then
Matched set of gates belts tightened tight is necessary on the double belt pulleys. Pay the man to do this as the radiator makes access difficult.
The 643 Allison locks up mid third so it feels like it shifts 4 times.
[unnecessary comment removed - Michelle]
Impressive power. What hills? I drove the coach 80+ up 6% grades easily
Better mpg. 10+
HWH will sell the small kickdown cyl. I had to get one for my '81 FTX. They also do exchanges. I never found a repair kit for the small kickdown jack.
Links below to the service manual for HWH 400 Series. Looks like the same control panel as shown in Reply #4.
In the Forum library: https://www.foreforums.com/index.php?action=media;sa=media;in=4881
On HWH website: https://www.hwhcorp.com/ml7879.pdf