Looking at 1993 GV

Topic: Looking at 1993 GV (Read 1818 times) previous topic - next topic

Re: Looking at 1993 GV

Reply #50 – February 13, 2017, 01:10:50 pm

The aircraft use was heavily promoted by my old buddy Matt Perlot of Safari coaches for many years.

Aircraft use vegetable based Skydrol hydraulic fluid and many times the pressure and only make one stop before cooling.

I have faded out countless brand new hydraulic disk brake coaches from Foretravel, Safari and Alpine.

In the Rockies I had to mentally alter my driving style to compensate for the limitations.

Scary at times if you are a higher speed driver.

Slow down before the start of a down grade, lower the speeds in the mountains a lot.

If you are a cautious slower driver the differences are not as noticeable but still there.

I warned every 22c chassis owner I sold about the coaches ability to do two panic stops but not three.

Alpine finally offered a air brake $10k option on their nominally hydraulic braked coaches.

I think the wedge brakes on the u225/u240 had 15x4 and 15x7 shoes front and rear and worked ok. same as the OREDS had.

I have faded those out in the OREDS in extreme tests where smoke would come out of the rear wheels in a puff.

OREDS had the front brakes non oped until you applied 60 psi air pressure with a lq4 valve under the dash.

Otherwise the wedge brakes would shudder badly in reverse.

Foretravel used wedge brakes because of the full backing plate in the design. That way rocks thrown up by the front tires on dirt roads did not get into the rear shoes. Foretravel wanted the off road ability.

All the other manufacturers used std S cam brakes with open backing plates for better cooling.

Logging truckers used to crystallize the rear drums from hard hot use in the mountains and then ran the drums into ice cold streams with the open shoes.

All the brakes were compromises until the Rockwell air disks were fit.

Seen trucks with glowing disk rotors long ago down the grade into Denver before the unihomes were made and told CM about it and was laughed at as trucks did not use disks. Turns out they were being tested...

Adding the retarder added an additional braking safety item.

Re: Looking at 1993 GV

Reply #51 – February 13, 2017, 01:29:55 pm

Quote from: Caflashbob – February 13, 2017, 01:10:50 pm

Adding the retarder added an additional braking safety item.

Yup, all true. Even with our previous disk brake ASs, there were a couple of times on downgrades where the DW said, "what's that smell?" I would not have one of our "heavyweights" without the six speed and retarder, or, at least, a retro jake/pac brake!

Re: Looking at 1993 GV

Reply #52 – February 13, 2017, 04:33:24 pm

Your wife's concern on a MH over the Casita will go away in a few miles. The

first she wants to get a drink for both of you or she needs to go to the potty.

or it is time to fix lunch and she does not have to wait for you to find a place

to pull over and park, she will know how to appreciate a MH. The ability to

just get up, walk around, go take a nap or any of the many things you can do

in a MH that you can't in a TT sure makes the old way of travel look lame.

Carter-

Re: Looking at 1993 GV

Reply #53 – February 13, 2017, 05:04:58 pm

Quote from: Texas Guy – February 13, 2017, 04:33:24 pm

Your wife's concern on a MH: many things you can do in a MH that you can't in a TT sure makes the old way of travel look lame.

I had it happen the other way around: we had two trailers (AS), liked them, but backing into sites, unloading, leveling, etc. was a big pain. I accepted it, but one day, the DW said, "why don't we just buy a motor home." It was like the heavenly gates opened: three coaches later, I love my DW for many things, but that suggestion changed our lives!

Re: Looking at 1993 GV

Reply #54 – February 13, 2017, 07:34:32 pm

Thank you all for your insights. We have cancelled out trip to FL and will continue to search.

Re: Looking at 1993 GV

Reply #55 – February 13, 2017, 07:35:21 pm

Quote from: Caflashbob – February 13, 2017, 01:10:50 pm

Scary at times if you are a higher speed driver.

If you are a cautious slower driver the differences are not as noticeable but still there.

I warned every 22c chassis owner I sold about the coaches ability to do two panic stops but not three.

Bob,

If you are a very aggressive, verrrry fast RV driver, you are probably correct.

But, in over a quarter of a million DP miles, I have had a total of ONE panic stop (came over an Interstate overpass and traffic was dead stopped-- big wreck).

Two panic stops in a row-- three in a row means I have done something VERY, VERY, VERY WRONG.

For the rest of us, we use our retarder, exhaust brake, or engine compression brake to keep thing under control.

And, yes I have driven some really OUTRAGEOUS mountain roads in Mexico, and on this trip out west, did the 5 mile, 8% downgrade on the Trans-mountain bypass around El Paso (not my choice, but I-10 closed due to wreck). Service brakes applied less than 25 SECONDS total.

Yes, our driving styles are different.

Re: Looking at 1993 GV

Reply #56 – February 13, 2017, 08:01:45 pm

Quote from: wolfe10 – February 13, 2017, 07:35:21 pm

Bob,

If you are a very aggressive, verrrry fast RV driver, you are probably correct.

But, in over a quarter of a million DP miles, I have had a total of ONE panic stop (came over an Interstate overpass and traffic was dead stopped-- big wreck).

Two panic stops in a row-- three in a row means I have done something VERY, VERY, VERY WRONG.

For the rest of us, we use our retarder, exhaust brake, or engine compression brake to keep thing under control.

And, yes I have driven some really OUTRAGEOUS mountain roads in Mexico, and on this trip out west, did the 5 mile, 8% downgrade on the Trans-mountain bypass around El Paso (not my choice, but I-10 closed due to wreck). Service brakes applied less than 25 SECONDS total.

Yes, our driving styles are different.

Have to agree with you Brett, have always had Porches and Bmws as daily drivers, so like driving fast. But in a 15 or 20 ton motorhome, I realize it's, and my limitations, and in 40 years driving motorhomes, have never locked up the brakes. Have slowed down real fast a couple of times, but if you look 100 yards ahead and anticipate situations, you can usually avoid Iockups. You cannot blame your brakes for being a bad driver. Retarders, exhaust brakes and compression brakes help, but drivers in the old days drove the mountains without them.

Re: Looking at 1993 GV

Reply #57 – February 13, 2017, 08:38:13 pm

22c had no exhaust brake, retarder, or engine compression brake and with the 545 Allison had no lockup.

Sold a lot of Ford 460 pusher gasses. No lockup.

We were surrounded by mountains to get in or out of Irvine.

Not possible to drive down cajon pass in a 22c at normal, not fast speeds, without some brake fade.

My store sold 59 new Foretravels in 1988. Lots were disk brake coaches. Lots of demo rides up and down grapevine and Baker grade.

I have had two panic stops in 25k miles. One in New Mexico where a FedEx can panic stopped in front of me to make a sudden left at an almost missed turn and one in la traffic where a distracted Mercedes driver jumped out in front of me to change lanes in bumper to bumper traffic.

Had a roadmaster front engine 8.2 Detroit that was so poorly braked that I got with roadmaster in cherry valley, Illinois and got a set of 23,000 pound gvw bigger front brake calipers and fit them to the customers coach. Fixed it.

Told many customers that this was basically a rockie mountain problem. Midwest or east coast, no issue.

Full load and a small toad a six percent grade was exciting.

The two panic stops was simply to demonstrate the braking systems heat absorbing capacity. Same as a long downgrade without the excellent ways to hold the coaches back.

The alpine I drove for two weeks as a cell tower citing vehicle crossing five thousand miles of so cal was really the scariest.

Heavier coach, six speed 3060, 300 Cummins. Brakes smelled a lot. They could tell I was very cautious on grades..

Was not aware of any big rig type truck ever fit with hydraulic brakes.

The small parking drum brake on the back of the trans had limited stopping ability if the brakes heated up. Two small shoes

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Re: Looking at 1993 GV

Reply #50 – February 13, 2017, 01:10:50 pm

Re: Looking at 1993 GV

Reply #51 – February 13, 2017, 01:29:55 pm

Re: Looking at 1993 GV

Reply #52 – February 13, 2017, 04:33:24 pm

Re: Looking at 1993 GV

Reply #53 – February 13, 2017, 05:04:58 pm

Re: Looking at 1993 GV

Reply #54 – February 13, 2017, 07:34:32 pm

Re: Looking at 1993 GV

Reply #55 – February 13, 2017, 07:35:21 pm

Re: Looking at 1993 GV

Reply #56 – February 13, 2017, 08:01:45 pm

Re: Looking at 1993 GV

Reply #57 – February 13, 2017, 08:38:13 pm

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