What did you do to your coach today.

Topic: What did you do to your coach today. (Read 49688 times) previous topic - next topic

Re: What did you do to your coach today.

Reply #125 – November 23, 2011, 01:08:18 pm

Thanks Bill! I will give that a try. I assume that you use stranded #6 wire?
Don

Quote from: Bill Willett – November 22, 2011, 04:09:58 pm

Don, remove all duct grills,what I use is a 10 ft. piece of #6 awg wire,clean rags dampened with a mild solution of bleach water, fasten rag securely to wire, feed wire from one grill opening to the other, pull rag through the duct repeat as needed.

Re: What did you do to your coach today.

Reply #126 – November 23, 2011, 04:05:00 pm

Well its winter again, its in the shop and time do some maintenance/repair.

Got the waste tanks flushed, heater and fresh tanks drained last weekend. Pulled the black and grey level sensors, quickly figuring out why they stopped working-- yuck. Lots of corrosion. Will do the fresh also just to be sure.

Winter plans;
-- New house batteries
-- Clean cable to the starter and check voltage across the relay; (even with the trik-l-start maintainer, had an issue with starting the motor. Once it was started, it was no big deal, but it suprisingly struggled on the first hit.
-- Wire in a coil cooling fan on top of fridge to pull excess heat (need ideas/thoughts on this)
-- Wiper washer pump
-- New drain cap for water heater... it broke (twisted head off) trying to reinstall. Any good replacement besides nylon?
-- General cleaning

Re: What did you do to your coach today.

Reply #127 – November 23, 2011, 04:29:10 pm

Mike,
Since I have to winterize the coach and drain the tanks often, I installed a brass plug with a valve to open/close so I do not have to strip the nylon plugs all the time.

Re: What did you do to your coach today.

Reply #128 – November 23, 2011, 05:38:13 pm

Peter,
Any corrosion issues? Brass was the direction I was headed, but didnt know if there was any long term issues with corrosion (not sure why I was wondering that anyway....). Perhaps cost was the only reason that nylon was used... thanks!

Re: What did you do to your coach today.

Reply #129 – November 23, 2011, 05:49:52 pm

If you look closely at the picture, you can see that the only corrosion is on the valve handles. The brass is fine.

Re: What did you do to your coach today.

Reply #130 – November 23, 2011, 05:58:37 pm

YES, there will be corrosion. Brass is a much more noble metal than aluminum (Atwood tank an aluminum alloy). That is why Atwood only uses/sells nylon drain plugs-- about $1 each.

YES, the aluminum threads will serve as the anode, sacrificing themselves to protect the more noble brass. How fast? LOTS of variables-- hardness/mineral content of water, number of heat cycles the heater is used (more reactive when hot than cold), tank stored dry/wet, etc.

Will it affect the longevity of the water heater? No hard and fast rule, see above paragraph.

I only use the Atwood nylon drain plug. Were I to want to install a permanent drain, I would use a non-conductive adapter to isolate the metals.

Brett

Re: What did you do to your coach today.

Reply #131 – November 23, 2011, 06:04:49 pm

I was wondering about that corrosion issue as well. I used lots of thread tape on the brass fitting and all is well for the past 7 years. Once a year I remove the plug to flush out the tank to try to remove any sedimentation.

Re: What did you do to your coach today.

Reply #132 – November 25, 2011, 07:19:59 pm

well if all goes well ill be startng up the new motor tomorrow
well new too me anyway

Re: What did you do to your coach today.

Reply #133 – November 26, 2011, 09:37:55 am

Replaced all fuel lines inside the Power Tech 10 kw sound housing, for most part, they all were getting dried and hard. Had in my stock the 1/8" fuel return/bypass hose, fabric covered, new 4mm spring clamps. Then did same on the 5/16" supply fuel line, using new premium hose and new spring clamps, including fuel pump and filter lines. Seems the fuel lines closer to the heat are drying out much quicker requiring replacement.
Found the outside fuel lines, still in good condition between generator bulkhead and coach bulkhead including through the Racor filter assembly.
Now, no more stumbling on cold starts. Love these Kubota engines, not sure about the generator end built off shore, only time will tell.
FWIW

Re: What did you do to your coach today.

Reply #134 – November 26, 2011, 11:29:10 pm

We like exploring out-of-the way places but worry about poking the nose of a 36-foot Foretravel down roads and into spots that it might not be easy to get out of. Especially with a towed. So today I set up the Kia Optima (5-speed front-wheel-drive) with a Class I hitch so I can hitch up the tow dolly. The major reason is that we need to drive the car over to Puget Sound to pick up the coach and the dolly needs to either go with us or one of us gets to drive the Kia back.

This way we can tow the dolly over with the towed and then tow the towed on the dolly home.

Say that five times real fast!

Craig

Re: What did you do to your coach today.

Reply #135 – November 27, 2011, 12:08:07 pm

Craig, Why not put a base plate on the KIA and tow it with your coach ? I think I am missing something here and yes I am NOSY.
Gary B

Re: What did you do to your coach today.

Reply #136 – November 27, 2011, 12:28:41 pm

Quote from: Gary Bouland – November 27, 2011, 12:08:07 pm

Craig, Why not put a base plate on the KIA and tow it with your coach ? I think I am missing something here and yes I am NOSY.
Gary B

Gary... we own a car dolly and we would have to find - and install - a base plate and towing system. And we live in a small town almost 200 miles from any place that sells those. It was just easier to install a Class I hitch on the Kia and that way we can tow the car along with a couple of bicycles on our hitch bike rack mounted on the car.

We may change this but for now it was the least difficult route.

Craig

Re: What did you do to your coach today.

Reply #137 – November 27, 2011, 12:58:59 pm

Craig, If you can find a baseplate I have a Blue OX Aladdin that I will let you have cheap as I sold the car that it went with. Only draw back might be shipping cost, or you pick it up when you pass thru GA.
Try Blue OX web site for base plates, or Ebay, Craigs List.
Gary B

Re: What did you do to your coach today.

Reply #138 – November 27, 2011, 06:31:47 pm

Steve replaced a check valve and the "air tank" isolation solenoid valve for the HWH system, then we winterized the coach with the pink stuff and Pri-D, pulled out anything that shouldn't be allowed to freeze, and resigned ourselves to a major cleaning effort in the spring. Santa Fe seemed to fill the coach with lots of fine dust (and Posse slobber).

Michelle

Re: What did you do to your coach today.

Reply #139 – November 27, 2011, 06:47:01 pm

Plugged in space heater and fan for a cold night, and wished to go somewhere.

oldMattB

Re: What did you do to your coach today.

Reply #140 – November 27, 2011, 10:32:24 pm

Drove it 400 miles from Norman, OK, to home. Checked a couple of tires with a gauge before rolling this morning. "Thumped" the tires at each stop. Checked the hydraulic fluid level at each stop. Added three quarts of oil to the hydraulic system to replace the losses from the steering box. Thought about the plans to fix the failed cooling unit on the Dometic reefer, fix the failed Atwood furnace, and getting to Nac to get the steering box fixed. We need to get all fixed before going to Missouri for Christmas visits and Montana for New Years visits. Brrr!

Everything needs to work well for the trip in December! Failures on the recent trip were annoying. Failures on a trip in subfreezing weather could be dangerous.

Re: What did you do to your coach today.

Reply #141 – November 29, 2011, 12:52:25 am

Atwood furnace not putting out as much heat as it used to. Assumed bad propane regulator. Made a manometer and measured the old one - 6" H2O pressure! 11" H2O specified. Old one had lots of oil in it from propane crud over the years, I assume. Put in a new one but could not get it to adjust over 9" H2O.

. May need a different spring on the final diaphragm. Thoughts?

Re: What did you do to your coach today.

Reply #142 – December 02, 2011, 07:59:44 pm

Took the coach to a local welding shop. For $15 the welder fabricated a fine new support for the air tube that runs over the engine from the charge air cooler to the intake manifold. He built a cradle for the tube rather than just a tab with a rubber bushing like the OEM support. The tab broke off the OEM support. We'll see if it holds up under the vibration of that big diesel engine.

Washed some oil and dirt off the engine.

Washed some oil from the driver side of the coach. We dumped about seven quarts from the bad seal on the steering box during about 1300 miles of travel. I have an appointment for Wayne at FOT to fix the steering box on December 12.

Started fabricating from a few small pieces of wood a mount for the Turbo Boost and Turbo Pyrometer gauges. I think I can put them in a visible spot on the little deck just above transmission selection panel.

Re: What did you do to your coach today.

Reply #143 – December 02, 2011, 09:24:06 pm

Shrink wrapped the single pane windows in the coach in prep for the 2 cold fronts coming our way. Put a small electric heater in the battery/fresh/gray/black bay. Down to 3° by Monday.

see ya
ken

Re: What did you do to your coach today.

Reply #144 – December 02, 2011, 09:36:36 pm

Decided today was the day to dig out the HVAC info for the 01 320 with my build #, nothing in the supplied manuals, so went to James T and received .pdf drawings. in my unit, the HVAC has many vaccum operated units, many, scr bridges and many relays, and is controlled with a computer. Not the old simple system I was informed it was. So now it is much snooping/playing to rewire this in a simple mode with selector switch for a/c clutch coil.
The HVAC system is built by an Ohio Company and installed early on.
James T told me when the selector is set for hi/low discharge, the defroster works with the a/c on, it does not use the a/c in straight defrost mode.
Never ending learning curve on these Foretravels, with all the gidgets and gadgets, etc & etc.

Re: What did you do to your coach today.

Reply #145 – December 02, 2011, 09:40:30 pm

Quote from: kenhat – December 02, 2011, 09:24:06 pm

... Down to 3° by Monday. ...

Brrr! Prediction at our home is low of 25F on Tuesday. That's pretty chilly for here.

Re: What did you do to your coach today.

Reply #146 – December 02, 2011, 09:47:50 pm

Quote from: Dave M – December 02, 2011, 09:36:36 pm

... in my unit, the HVAC has many vaccum operated units, many, scr bridges and many relays, and is controlled with a computer. ...

No sweat, Dave. I bet Steve, the wizard forum master

, may have already written code that he can use to flash the computer and fix everything immediately.

Re: What did you do to your coach today.

Reply #147 – December 03, 2011, 12:25:27 am

Spent the afternoon rebuilding the bracket to the air strut on my biggest (~6')bay (D-2) door. The rivets had pulled out of the fiberglass, so I took a 3"X5" plate, attached that to the fiberglass with flanged rivets (something like a toggle bolt), and connected the bracket to the plate. I had previously (couple years ago) fixed the left bracket in a similar fashion, so with any luck I shouldn't have any more issues with that bay door for awhile. Famous last words.

Re: What did you do to your coach today.

Reply #148 – December 03, 2011, 05:01:10 am

Don, Fully understand the "Famos last words" comment, just a note, Rance has a magic fix to such issues, my D-1 seemed someone "meathead" tried to open it when it was locked, so the rivets were pulled out of the latch, so "Magic Rance" fixed it where there is no sign of anything ever happening to it. It showed up when had the Aqua Hot serviced and needed to get to the filter. Now the smoothest door on the coach.
Dave M

Re: What did you do to your coach today.

Reply #149 – December 03, 2011, 01:15:17 pm

Installed a new air cylinder under the step. I wish all repairs were that easy.

Regards, Mark

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