hermanmullins

From the sounds of your letter you and your wife have never been in an Motor Home for a night. If this is true might I suggest that you rent one for a week end. It might cost a little but if you and the wife try it and do not like RVing it is alot less expensive then buying one and finding out that neither of you care for it. Having said that, look at both coaches inside at the ceilings. See any water spots? Spot are a sign of leaking and this can be realy bad. Has it been a smokers coach? Did they have pets? High milage and clean, used to travel. Low milage but worn, used to live in. You are wise to start with a smaller unit. Going up easy. Going back down harder. Now is the time to buy a pre-owned unit. Prices are low because of the economy. When money is tight and there is 2 feet of snow on the ground people wonder why am I making this payment? Good luch to you and your wife. I hope you find what suits you both and have as much enjoyment as may others that have gone before you.

If you can find a Class 3 hitch used that may have been on a Ford Pickup (I beleive that is the widest frame), get it and have shop weld it to 2 peices of 6" X 6" angle or maybe 8" X 8" with holes drilled in it so it can be mounted to your chassi. You will have to figure out how wide you will need the bracket to be spaced on the hitch. A good welder and fabricator should be able to make the receiver for you. Good luck.

peepa I have a 02 Monaco Dynasty and I don't know which cable reel I have. Does yous wind into a tub or on to a reel? Was your cable in a bind when you were trying to rewind it? I am just asking these questions in hope that I can prevent having your same problem. By the way you gave a great presentation on the repair and will help folks that incure this repair. Thanks.

David, Stay below 65 and don't drive with a crosswind. Ha Ha. Has you mirror been moved one way or the other? If you mirror housing was moved somehow and you just readjusted the mirror, you may have created an unusual air path that could cause the noise. Is the mirror protruding past the housing? If so, you might reposition the housing and then adjust the mirror so it doesn't extend past the housing. Hope this helps.

WOW, is anyone else wondering where the first ten years of this century have gone? I don't know when a decade has gone by so quickly. May you all have a wonderful 2010 and on and on and on.

Just to add to what Tom said. As long as you hear the warning sound you do not have enough air pressure to do anything other then wait. In this case waiting is "Good". Good luck.

Glenn is correct, Oakwood RV Park in Frederickburg is an OK park. He and Wanda had a great time there. If you are there go out to the airport and have breakfast at the Airport Cafe. Keerville also has Guadalupe RV Park. Nice park good sights and if you fish it is right on the river. Come Visit Lone Star Chapter of FMCA in February at Coushata RV Park in Bellville, TX, Feb. 18-20 or at Coffee Creek RV Resort in Santo, TX, April 8-10. We love having visitors at our Rallies.

Sandraw, The technician that serviced our Aqua-Hot said that the unit will operate on 110 volt Electrical. However it needs the full access to 50 amp service and is only a 1500 watt element. I don't know if I would relie on it for a lot of heat. In most cases the Aqua-Hot will have vents into the bays with a thermostat that will turn on the system to prevent the tanks and water line from freezing. If you have a Beaver, what year is it? A friend of ours has a 1999 Beaver Patriot Thunder and it has a Hurricane Unit. I don't know much about it but understand that it is similar to the Aqua-Hot. The bases of the Aqua-Hot unit is that it operates like hot water heater. The unit has a fluid that is kept at Approx 184 degrees. Upon demand from the thermostat a pump will circulate warm water through a radiator and a low speed fan will force air across the radiator and into your living area. At the same time it is keeping your hot water hot and ready for use. Great unit and works well if maintained. Down side it does burn diesel. So if you are camping for and extended time be sure your tanks are full before you park. Just like your generator it will stop working if your fuel tank goes below 1/4 th. But also note that I am a novice and may not all of which I speak. Happy Rving and keep warm.

2drifters See if you read the FMCA forum you learn a lot. I didn't know about the Chevy Caprice Motor Home. Can you send pictures? Just joking. That is one of the good thing about the internet and this forum, there is always some where or some one that can help with a problem. As was stated, there is a web site for RV Salvage yards, Colaws in Joplin, MO. comes to mind. Happy RVing.

Try going to a Camping World store or their web site. Check who makes the one for the USA and google them. They may have one but don't show it here. You could google RV Maps. Good luck in your search.

Does your ref. have a LP mode? On the LP mode it will only need the 12 volt source to operate. However here in Texas today we just leave everything out side. Good luck.

pkendzor In your search for a braking system check out this company M & G Engineering. www.MGBrakingSystems.com. They make a very simple great working unit. They have units for coaches with both air and hydraulic brakes. The unit fits between the master cylinder and the power brake booster. I met the inventor of the unit and he had a very good statement, have you ever tried to stop your car when the engine was not running? It can be done but you must was a lot of force. The M & G unit applies the pressure to the master cylinder. Check out this unit in your search.

Just a follow up on my last post. Here is a copy of a Fox News.com report. on tainted water. Disreguard the copy. It will not upload. But here is the article Monday, December 14, 2009 Miami About 300 guest have been relocated from a luxury Miami hotel after one guest died and at least two others became sick from bacteria in the water. Health officals say the guest at the Epic Hotel in downtown Miami were sent to nearby hotels Sunday to prevent futher contact with the Legionella bacteria. It can cause potentially deadly pneumonia. It is spread in contaminated mist or vapor, not from person to person. An investigation last week by county and state officals revealed that the hotel had installed a water filter powerful enough to remove chlorine from it's city-supplied water, a move that encourgaged bacterial growth. Just a side note "How did we ever live out on the farm drinking well water?"

May each and everyone have a wonderful holiday season. Celibrate with joy and happiness with the ones you love. So may from my family to yours MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR.

At our last rally, December 10 to 13, 2009 I went around to our members to check out how many had their water filter at the faucet. More the half did. I told each one of the dangers of this. Some thought it was just a way to sell more inside filters, but most were shocked but undertood the problem. I think we will have someone give a talk on this at our April rally. In the mean time I am going to fill a jar with filtered water and keep it closed up to see if it will grow bad things. I will post the results here. Herman

Well gentlemen, after all of my cudos for the Aqua-Hot, I lost my heating. The unit would not come on. It worked a little on 50 amp. but nothing on the burner. I had the Aqua-Hot service scheduled for today. It confirmed my thought that the system had never been serviced. Here are some of the things I learned. 1) keep an eye on the over flow tank. It should always have some fluid in it. Mine was 2.5 gal. low. 2) change the fuel filter at least every other year. More often if used often. 3) change the injector on the same schedule. 4) make sure your switch is in the right position. Ours was upside down. Off was on and on was off. All were corrected today and we have great heating now. Moral to this story: Watch and learn from an expert. Wayne, now I can fix someone else's unit while I call the expert for mine. Herman

Brett, One of my problems is I don't have a place where I can crawl under the coach. My storage building is rocks and it makes it dificult to lay on your back and move around. OH what I wouldn't give for a concrete floor. Thanks, Herman

Wayne, When I was stationed in N.J., I was a crew member for a AA Gas Dragster. We always worked on Friday Nights getting ready for the weekend. The owner, named Joe, could take a 6 foot cheater bar on a half in. bolt and put all of his weight on it without any problems, where as his Brother-in-law Eric could take a open wrench on a three quarter in bolt, and with the lest amount of pressure snap it off. I know the feeling on working on someone elses coach and not your own. I can always diagnose someones problems and fix it but on mine I can stand for hours without helping one bit. So lets start doing this, you fix mine and I'll fix yours. Herman

racerss said that his lights are dim. If he is only looking at them when he has his toad hooked up, he may have too much draw. In the past I had a problem with the headlight switch on a 1 ton Ford Dualy. I was pulling tandum boat trailers at night with both of them hooked up. It was too much draw and I had to change out the switch several times. I then wired a plug direct from the battery with a 15 amp inline fuse for the tail lights. This solved the problem with dim lights and failing switches. Just a thought. Herman Mullins

Since it is under the dash and on the pressure guage you know it is a compression fitting. If it were in a place that you could get to easly it would be one of those pressure fittings. I love our motor home, however when they assemble a coach they always seem to put the simple items in simple places and the difficult in difficult places. All mechanics need two more elbows on both arms, long fingers and very flexable every where else. On a more serious note, when driving my coach I never seem to have a problem with air pressure when I stop and start my engine. But when I leave it overnight I always have to wait for the pressure to build up. Is this normal? Brett? Wayne? Tom? Seajay?

NWJeeper, There are some places in West Texas where if your Co-Pilot will stand up, she can see to Friday.

NWjeeper, welcome to FMCA and the Forum. Since you and the boss have spent so much time in Washington traveling in the MH come out east to Texas. From where you are used to driving you could drive our Texas hills on cruise control and get up to make lunch. Honk and wave when you pass, who knows it might be someone from the Forum.

Brett is right. Get the weight off the wheels and check for wheel bearings, loose lug nuts, tie rods and the idler arm. It wasn't said but why was the front end rebuilt? Did they replace the ball joints (upper and lower), inner shaft bushings or king pins, wheel bearings, did they get the nut tight enough (or too tight) on the spindle? So many part that could be popping. Check your bill for the work on the front end. Then check every part they replaced. I just had another thought. do your get the noise when your accelerate? If so you might have a bad motor mount. Food for thought hope it helps.

As Brett said shear pins are made to break first. Since you know that it is the shear pin you must know where it is located. If you can see it you might be able to remove a broken part of the pin if there is one. This will tell you dia. and you can measure the length. Is your slide in or out? If it is out and you can't get it back in you can if an emergency use a come along and pull the slide in, leave it in place to hold the slide in and go to a dealer or service shop and have them look at it. As brett said there has to be a reason it sheared. I know they are expensize but a good tech. can save you money in the long run. FYI out boat props for year used brass rod for shear pins until they started to make them to fit a certian criteria. Hope you get it fixed and on the road soon.

You saw that to. I am not over filling my Cummins 400 HP ISL, I'm very bad a typing (McKinney High School Typing Teacher would be upset with me for not proff reading). Sorry I ment 25 Quarts not Gallons. And you are right. Between my work and Rving I put close to 69k miles on my Yukon and Monaco. I always have the same place do each vehicle. If there is ever a oil related problem I know where to turn. Been lucky never had one. Happy RVing.