What did you do to your coach today.

Topic: What did you do to your coach today. (Read 49699 times) previous topic - next topic

Re: What did you do to your coach today.

Reply #175 – December 16, 2011, 11:22:48 am

Changed the flame detector in my Aqua Hot system. Rudy Leggett helped me diagnose my intermittent flame out condition. Then he drove an hour to meet me with the only one he had in stock. When the unit ran poorly with a lot of black smoke, Rudy diagnosed over the phone what I had done wrong during re-assembly.

Thanks, Rudy

Re: What did you do to your coach today.

Reply #176 – December 16, 2011, 11:24:42 am

J D,

On both sides of the coach, the two rear panels and all four wheel well panels are removable by removing the aluminum trim strip screws and easing the trim out of the caulk. Then remove the screws holding the panel and easing the panel out of the caulk.

Clean and re-caulk when re-installing the panel(s) and trim strip(s).

For more detailed info, call James Stallings at Xtreme as he is most familiar with doing this procedure.

Re: What did you do to your coach today.

Reply #177 – December 16, 2011, 11:27:36 am

Brett,

Thanks for the compliment.

Re: What did you do to your coach today.

Reply #178 – December 16, 2011, 01:36:31 pm

Gary,

Thanks for the door bell info, I have a fuse holder on the dinette table that can be installed the next time I am at the parking warehouse. Have everything I need just 4' from where it will get installed. Had not found the door bell till I heard the shorted wires ring it when we pulled the dead switch.

Next is to attack the touch module for the door light and Foretravel grab bar. See the wires are cut now.

Re: What did you do to your coach today.

Reply #179 – December 16, 2011, 07:19:38 pm

Changed differential fluid. Used chevron delo synthetic 80W140 as I did four years ago. Should be good for another four years or 250,000 miles according to the meritor TB-9539. The magnetic drain and fill plugs had only small amount of microscopic sludge.

Re: What did you do to your coach today.

Reply #180 – December 16, 2011, 11:59:53 pm

Installed another solar panel from AM Solar (total - 5 now). Once again I'm impressed with the high quality of the kits they provide. Roof cable is high-flex shipboard cable, glue-filled shrink wrap and butt crimp connectors, hardware that fits perfectly, excellent instructions even for this simple task. Highly recommended!

Re: What did you do to your coach today.

Reply #181 – December 17, 2011, 12:10:07 am

Wow! 5 panels, that is impressive. How about some pics? I would love to see the layout, cable runs etc. How many watts total? Do you have two AGM house batteries, or did you add a 3rd? Okay, shuttin' up now...
Don

Quote from: Dave Katsuki – December 16, 2011, 11:59:53 pm

Installed another solar panel from AM Solar (total - 5 now). Once again I'm impressed with the high quality of the kits they provide. Roof cable is high-flex shipboard cable, glue-filled shrink wrap and butt crimp connectors, hardware that fits perfectly, excellent instructions even for this simple task. Highly recommended!

Re: What did you do to your coach today.

Reply #182 – December 17, 2011, 02:12:39 am

Yeah, I could put more on, but the A/C covers would shadow them for part of the day, so I think I'm stopping at 5. I can still walk around easily on the roof, and that's also an important consideration. I'll take some shots of the roof to post tomorrow (assuming weather permits.)
Total wattage is 500, and I have 2 8D AGMs (need to modify the battery support brackets to get a third one in.)
The four older panels are AM Solar's older 24 volt panels, which have higher output at the start and end of the day, but no longer available from them. New one is an 18V. Panel roof wiring goes to a combiner box next to the fridge vent, and then the main line goes down the vent and to the MPPT controller in the passenger side center bay on the rear wall.
Easy wiring. (Your rig is the same as ours)

Re: What did you do to your coach today.

Reply #183 – December 17, 2011, 05:03:02 pm

After measuring and thinking it over I decided to take out the old flat-screen (but not HD) Audiovox someone installed and put the Sanyo LED HDTV up front instead of in the bedroom. I had to modify the front of the coach using a piece of walnut-stained poplar over the hold with a 1-1/2 inch hole for the cables, then attached a static mount. The HD Sanyo has a bigger picture area but is not as wide as the Audiovox was so now I can open the doors on each side. So I put the BluRay player in the co-pilot's cupboard, connected the cables, and "Viola!" we have a decent little tv up forward.

I have to say that the combination of BluRay and the HDTV (even though it's just 720p) is remarkable. Bought it at WalMart for $138. With a 42-inch LED HDTV in the living room at home I was sure I'd need at least a 26-inch screen in the RV. But I was wrong (that's TWICE now!!!); the TV is jfine.

Next step will be a pure-sine inverter with enough power to run the BluRay, the TV and a decent audio amp without having to be plugged in to shore power or running the gennie.

Craig

Re: What did you do to your coach today.

Reply #184 – December 17, 2011, 05:59:33 pm

Quote from: wa_desert_rat – December 17, 2011, 05:03:02 pm

Next step will be a pure-sine inverter with enough power to run the BluRay, the TV and a decent audio amp without having to be plugged in to shore power or running the gennie.

Craig

I think you will be very surprised at how little power the LED TV's draw, usually less than 75 watts. I presume the Blue Ray will be even less and you can easily run the sound through the indash radio if it has an AUX input.

Re: What did you do to your coach today.

Reply #185 – December 17, 2011, 06:20:24 pm

re-solar on daves coach. As mentioned before I have 4 x150watt panels from AM Solar= 600watts and 3 8D AGM batteries from them. I will be putting 2 more up next year and 1 more battery although am really happy with performance of recharge rate so far. The sun shines most of day here so that helps a lot. Having the extra 1000watt pure sine inverter for tv/stereo and front plugs only helps by not using main one in evenings (less standby power usage). LEDs also make a big difference in lighting power use.
John

Re: What did you do to your coach today.

Reply #186 – December 17, 2011, 06:40:07 pm

Thanks! I am looking forward to your pictures. Solar, additional batteries, pure sine inverter (or two) is definetly on my list of want to do projects. If only my list of must do projects wasn't quite so long... Oh well, back to my bulkhead/subframe project...
Don

Quote from: Dave Katsuki – December 17, 2011, 02:12:39 am

Yeah, I could put more on, but the A/C covers would shadow them for part of the day, so I think I'm stopping at 5. I can still walk around easily on the roof, and that's also an important consideration. I'll take some shots of the roof to post tomorrow (assuming weather permits.)

Re: What did you do to your coach today.

Reply #187 – December 17, 2011, 11:04:36 pm

Here are pics of the roof with old and new panels & combiner box, and the MPPT controller and DC breaker from MPPT controller to batteries (both in the drivers side center compartment.) The feed from the combiner box simply drops down the fridge vent duct and then punches into the center compartment. Very easy install.

The latest panel is the passenger side at the rear. And still enough room between the rear panels to get sleeping bags up there for star gazing!

All panels are held on with 3M VHB tape (Dicor around them), and roof cables are held down with cable tie-downs (via 3M VHB to roof) and Dicor around them. I'll redo the roof cables with lots more tie-downs and very little Dicor when Extreme does the roof next winter (have to put the VHB down before the paint, though.) I may also use metal cable ties, since the black plastic ones seem to have a limited life in direct sun.

Another reason to keep walking space on the roof is to be able to tilt the panels when boondocking for an extended period (we say 3 days or more). We use the AM Solar tilt bars, which are a bit of a pain to put up, but do the job (I've read tilting 45 deg. adds 30% in the winter, and that seems right from our experience. Takes about 10-15 min to put them all up or take down. We always take them down for highway travel.

Re: What did you do to your coach today.

Reply #188 – December 18, 2011, 06:15:52 pm

Thanks for the pics! I am looking forward to these more "elective" projects... So do I understand correctly that these panels, cable ties, tilt mechanisms etc. are all attahced to the roof of the coach by ahdesive with no screw penetrations? That kind of blows my mind!
Don

Quote from: Dave Katsuki – December 17, 2011, 11:04:36 pm

Here are pics of the roof with old and new panels & combiner box, and the MPPT controller and DC breaker from MPPT controller to batteries (both in the drivers side center compartment.)

All panels are held on with 3M VHB tape (Dicor around them), and roof cables are held down with cable tie-downs (via 3M VHB to roof) and Dicor around them. I'll redo the roof cables with lots more tie-downs and very little Dicor when Extreme does the roof next winter (have to put the VHB down before the paint, though.) I may also use metal cable ties, since the black plastic ones seem to have a limited life in direct sun.

Re: What did you do to your coach today.

Reply #189 – December 18, 2011, 07:06:04 pm

Speaking of the power used by a flat screen TV, my Sony 26" flat screen does a nice job, but am very surprised at the amount of heat it puts off, when I reach up to turn it off, the heat is very noticeable, to me that is a sure indicator of a wattage hog, why I try to limit its use while not connected to a AC outlet. The 19" Viao in bedroom runs cool. So if I get more serious about dry camping/boon docking, there will be a change in the front TV. One day I will measure the actual power draw on that TV, just curious, feels about like the old CRT models.

Re: What did you do to your coach today.

Reply #190 – December 18, 2011, 07:41:46 pm

Enjoyed brake work this weekend, replaceing the rear brakes, pads, wheel seals, and one Rotor (Replaceing the rotor is not fun) this weekend. All is good now ready to go toward the Keys next weekend.

Re: What did you do to your coach today.

Reply #191 – December 18, 2011, 08:12:53 pm

Quote from: Dave M – December 18, 2011, 07:06:04 pm

Speaking of the power used by a flat screen TV, my Sony 26" flat screen does a nice job, but am very surprised at the amount of heat it puts off, when I reach up to turn it off, the heat is very noticeable....

The term "flat screen" doesn't necessarily mean "low power". I can think of three different "flat screen" TV sets that are not equal when it comes to drawing current. While they all use considerably less power than the CRT set most of our coaches came equipped with, they can still suck down a lot of current; especially when it's translated to DC amps.

Plasma tv sets consume the most. This is because each pixel on a plasma set is a discrete point of light. As the resolution of an HDTV set increases so, too, does its power consumption. A plasma HDTV will typically draw twice the current of an equivalent LCD set and almost 3 times the current of an LED system.

LCD tv sets use less power than plasma sets but they still dissipate a lot of heat. We owned a 32-inch Samsung LCD television and we could feel the heat coming from it on our arms when we walked in front of it. Fortunately someone broke in and stole it so we had to replace it with an LED system.

That 32-inch HDTV sucked down about 100-watts of power.

At the moment LED tv sets use the least amount of power. My little Sanyo 19" LED HDTV set uses about 30 wats of power for operation and a typical 32-inch set would probably draw about 70 watts.

If you increase the brightness of your set you also consume more power. If your set includes WiFi capability that little radio-frequency transceiver will also consume extra current.

In addition, not all of these sets actually turn everything "off" when you turn them off. Most of them keep some power on. Evidence of this can be found in sets (like my Sanyo) where a red LED changes color to green when you turn it "on". Something is powering that red LED and you pay for it. I have my entire HDTV system (BluRay and television plus any sound system on a power strip that I can turn off. Or even unplug if I need to.

Craig

Re: What did you do to your coach today.

Reply #192 – December 19, 2011, 01:33:38 am

Quote from: acousticart – December 18, 2011, 06:15:52 pm

Thanks for the pics! I am looking forward to these more "elective" projects... So do I understand correctly that these panels, cable ties, tilt mechanisms etc. are all attahced to the roof of the coach by ahdesive with no screw penetrations? That kind of blows my mind!
Don

Yep, All attached by the 3M VHB miracle tape, which is also used to hold various parts of cars together. I questioned using it when I got the first panels from AM Solar 3 years ago, and they said they had been using it for more than 10 years with no reported failures. Pretty good stuff in my experience! No good for attachment to paint since the bond would only be as strong as the paint.

Re: What did you do to your coach today.

Reply #193 – December 21, 2011, 10:37:06 pm

Took advantage of a sunny day (but still cold) to pull the coach out and drive 10 miles west on I-90, then ten miles east on I-90 and back into its spot behind the shop. Everything ticking along nicely. We have had heat on the rig (both furnaces set to the lowest setting) and still have 3/4 of a tank of propane in temps down to 16F.

As soon as the siding is on the shop (and out of the big bay) we'll see if we can't snuggle the 36-footer under cover.

Craig

Re: What did you do to your coach today.

Reply #194 – December 22, 2011, 12:52:06 am

Picked up the coach at FOT after Wayne replaced the steering gear, fixed the front furnace (dauber damage, bad burner fixture), and replaced failed 120VAC controller on water heater.

Hired Precision Auto Clean in NAC to wash the coach and polish the wheels. It was nasty after driving 1600 miles with a very leaky steering box.

Drove from NAC to Bellville. Loaded the coach with "stuff" for a two week outing to cold places where our offspring live. We are spending the night in the coach in our driveway. We'll have breakfast and get dressed in the coach. That helps us figure out what we forgot before we leave home.

Re: What did you do to your coach today.

Reply #195 – December 22, 2011, 05:32:49 pm

We just picked up our newtous 40' 1993 U300 on Monday. Well, today is the first day we've really been able to spend hours going through all the systems - much to our delight everything seems to be functioning. We got the fridge cooling and are sanitizing the fresh water system. The tank sensors are working properly. Still have a few questions about the electrical system - probably gonna need new batteries - I'll save that for the appropriate thread. I started cleaning and getting her ready to load as we intend to start fulltiming right away. We are constantly amazed at the quality of this coach and look forward to many years in her.

Re: What did you do to your coach today.

Reply #196 – December 22, 2011, 07:11:23 pm

Greased the front end,changed oil in front hubs,aired all the tires.

Re: What did you do to your coach today.

Reply #197 – December 22, 2011, 07:52:27 pm

Installed three new optima red tops starting batteries. Old ones were going on seven years old.

Re: What did you do to your coach today.

Reply #198 – December 23, 2011, 01:55:40 pm

Minor repair work done to the donated microwave and then installed it. Thanks to Bill Willett. If anyone needs my 1995 Sharp R-1830 (while in convection mode it will shut off after 4min 15 seconds but just push start again and it resumes cooking and the original cook time sequence) speak up real quick. It is available for pick up in Wauchula, FL until Dec 29.

Re: What did you do to your coach today.

Reply #199 – December 23, 2011, 02:00:10 pm

Quote from: Christis Dream – December 22, 2011, 05:32:49 pm

We just picked up our newtous 40' 1993 U300 on Monday. Well, today is the first day we've really been able to spend hours going through all the systems - much to our delight everything seems to be functioning. We got the fridge cooling and are sanitizing the fresh water system. The tank sensors are working properly. Still have a few questions about the electrical system - probably gonna need new batteries - I'll save that for the appropriate thread. I started cleaning and getting her ready to load as we intend to start fulltiming right away. We are constantly amazed at the quality of this coach and look forward to many years in her.

Christie and Ray,
Welcome to the forum, (not sure if I missed a welcoming post or not) Good luck with your coach. Any relation to good ol' George Stoltz?

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