benny@waskomtexas.com

We drive a Roadtrek and had thought about towing the jeep to Colorado, but decided that the Roadtrek was not heavy enough to make a safe trip.

I traded a sports car for a Jeep Cherokee. The Jeep had been towed behind a motorhome using a Blue Ox tow bar, which I got with the Jeep. There is a sticker on the tow bar that says, "BX7335 Aventa II Tow Bar, class IV 7500, 2" receiver." We have a Class B motorhome, but I have no need for the tow bar. It is just taking up space. Does anyone know how much it is worth? Benny Alford rolacoy@me.com

How do I find out when our membership renewal is due ? I know it is our fault, but we got so very little out of our membership that we probably will not join again. We joined to get into the forum and meet other owners of type "B" motor homes. For various reasons we have not attended any rallies, so we have met no one. Also, the "B" forum is almost totally inactive. http://community.fmca.com/index.php?showforum=4

I have not been on this website for a while and have lost the links that I had. I am trying to find out where there might be a Roadtrek rally within, say 300 miles, in the next couple of months. I live in East Texas between Shreveport, La., and Marshall, Texas.

I sold the two hubcaps that I had.

I got the trim installed on the inside on both sides and the top. Home Depot has some outside corner trim that is used to finish an outside corner on walls inside the house. They have several choices of corner trim. I chose the plastic type with a stick on wood grain that matches the cabinets. An 8' was under $10.00. By turning it with the corner toward the A/C unit it fits against the cabinet wall. Cut them to fit but cut top to fit inside the trim across the top. The trim across the top has the corner up. Before you put the side trim in put 3 small "dabs" of silicone on the cabinet sides about where you want the trim to rest. As you slide the vertical trim in it will slide across the silicone. When the silicone cures the trim will be secure. I did not put any silicone on the top trim, it is locked in by the side trim. These fit nearly perfect and finish the inside. Now to finish the outside. All that remains is to replace the grill in the back. First pay attention to how it was originally installed ! I did not think about that. If you look at the end of the rubber molding you will see that it has a grove in the top and the bottom, they are not the same. One grove is a narrow 5/16" deep by less than 1/16". The other is nearly the same depth, but is wedge shaped. I looked at the lower grill rubber trim and decided that the narrow grove should go to the outside over the fiberglass top of the MH. The wedge shaped grove should hold the grill. I might have been wrong. I am not sure that I put mine back right, but I got it back in place. It was probably the most difficult part of the whole job. No doubt the person that puts these in at the factory would have had a good laugh watching. Clean the rubber molding, the edge of the fiberglass top and the grill. Then use a good amount of silicone spray, this will help it go back together. Now, this is how I did the job, there has got to be an easer way, don't tell me now, I don't want to know, kidding. I put the end at the bottom about in the center to start. Figure out how you want it to go on before you start, you DO NOT want to do this twice. It did not go on easy, the edge of the fiberglass is rough, it didn't want to start and the corners were tough. Once the rubber molding is in place install the grill, HeHeHeHe, sorry. I started with the top at the right side, the top went in pretty easy. At this point the grill is about 1/4" left of where it belongs. I also got part of the grill into the bottom grove. Push the grill to the right and work it into the grove on the right. the corners are a problem, but it was not too hard. Use a table knife to help work it into the grove. I didn't chose a table knife to keep from cutting the rubber molding, my hand in case it slipped. Once the right end is in place just start working the bottom of the grill into the rubber molding. Take much care and don't put much pressure inward on the grill or the rubber molding. You don't want to push the grill out of the rubber molding and inside the top of the MH. If you do that, you get to start over, not fun. With the table knife I was able to twist the knife and get about a 1/4" in at a time. The top corner and the left end of the grill went pretty easy. The bottom left was not easy. Now you have to "zip" the lock on the rubber molding together. This went pretty easy, I used the table knife and sometimes just my fingernail. You will get a lot of black off the rubber and silicone on the back of the MH. I used some rubbing alcohol to clean up. Now get down and thank God that the job is done. The job is complete using a 10,000 btu A/C. The original A/C was 7.5 btu. I ran it on the generator a couple of days ago setting in the sun. It was 95 degrees inside the MH when I started the A/C. It was about 90 outside. After running for an hour the inside temperature was 75 degrees. That was cooling the whole inside of the MH with the curtians open. If I had used the bathroom door to close off the bedroom area only it would have done much better. If you start this project and want to e-mail me to clear up any of the steps that I have listed, please do so, send your phone number and I will call you back.

I don't know what to think about the frig. I have it set on "Max", it is "0" in the freezer and 40 in the lower frig, this is on Electric. The outside temp was about 90 today and the MH set in the sun this afternoon, we had clouds this morning. I put some strips of foam on the door seal, that did not help. I did not see any yellow powder. I still don't know what the "Have you moved your thermistor all the way up on the outside refrigerator fin?" is. I am not sure how they vent the frig on a Roadtrek. I don't see a "condensate drain", but will look for it.

I know, I will repeat the process before we leave. I want to try using it while we are home, rather get sick here. We have done a lot of work on our MH in the last month so we will probably take a short trip for a night or two once we get it all back together and cleaned up before going to Oklahoma the end of September.

I know you are right. It's just we are slow, we had our MH for two years till we ever used the shower. In a Roadtrek the shower is a curtain in the hall. I had the idea that it would cling to us, I don't like a shower curtain that touches me. But once we used it, it worked just fine. We had never lit the hot water tank till we used the shower. It was 2 1/2 years before we used the stove. Ok, our next trip I will use the water to drink. I have sanitized it several times as you indicate.

We have never used our water for drinking. We carry drinking water. I would like to drink the tank water, but I'm uncomfortable doing it. I read your comments with interest.

I can add some photos if anyone is interested. But I don't know how to add them.

I called GE about the silicone and a tech person told me that, the old silicone is never going to cure. I asked how to remove it and he said to wipe it out and clean with "Wood Alcohol". Not too bad of a job. The biggest problem was not getting it on any part of the MH. I disassembled the pipe brace that I put in front of the A/C. I removed the wood strip that runs across, at the bottom of the A/C and put a piece of Duct Tape on the upholstery material that is below the wood strip. The un-cured silicone is a mess. Get lots of paper towels and a trash can. OK, it is cleaned out, next I tested the new tube that I bought to be sure that it would cure. I put the three spots of silicone in the back on each side. I re-placed the folded metal strip that goes on the metal lip on the condensation pan. I was glad that I did not put silicone inside the folded metal strip. It would have been very hard to remove. Inside I re-sealed the front of the condensation pan. I waited till the silicone cured, about 24 hours and reassembled the front of the A/C. I still have to put trim on the sides of the A/C and re-install the grill in the back.

(Have you moved your thermistor all the way up on the outside refrigerator fin?) Wolfe, I don't know what this is. In the morning I am going to work on the MH. At that time I will go step by step in trying to find out what the problem is. I still have the thermostat set at 6 and the temperatures are "0" and 40 degrees. I am going to change it to "Max" this morning. Yesterday I looked at the Cooling Flange Part #4. There is a copper tube that comes into the frig compartment and attaches to the bottom of the cooling fins. This must be the thermostat, part #7. Also yesterday I looked for any yellow stains or power and found none. I have the unit back on Electric operation. form what I read that is the "standard". However, the temperatures do not change between LP Gas and Electric. This indicates to me that the LP Gas flame is good and the problem is "on up the line".

One thing that I am convinced is that the problem is not related to the LP gas Flame, because I am getting the same temperatures with electric operation. Also this link is on the Yahoo forum concerning RV frigs: http://www.rvmobile.com/tech/Trouble/Index.htm One link shows how they work, good illustration. http://www.rvmobile.com/tech/Trouble/cooldoc.htm A number of years ago I did quite a bit of art work for an ad agency who had the Arkla Gas account, they sold Servel A/C units. They were an A/C system for homes and Business that worked the same way as the RV units. I knew that our units separated water and ammonia with heat. I just didn't know how the separation unit was made. I have been told that if you operate the unit in un-level that some part of the heating unit gets too hot and small particles of metal or something form and clog up the system to the point that it will not work. I was also told that if the whole unit was taken out of the MH and turned upside down then it would work again. I don't know if these are true, a lot of crazy information can get out on the web. I think that if we go thru the steps that Wolfe suggests we will find out what the problem is. Please stay in touch Matt and let's see if we can solve this problem.

Matt, Wolfe is coming up with some good suggestions. I have not taken the time to check some of the things that he suggests. I am moving slow, because I have a project going in the garage where I have built a sheet plastic room that I am air conditioning with the A/C out of the motor home. The temperature in the room is 68 degrees. The morning temperature in the motor home garage is about 74 mornings and 95 in the afternoon. We will not be using the MH until the end of September, guess where I am spending my time. I am taking care of the MH some mornings if it is cool. I have a pretty long list of things to fix on the MH before the end of September, replace the A/C (done), clean and fix the two burner stove, replace the micro wave (done), Popping Noise Underneath (in shop nest week, Repaint Side Pouch, redo Interior Cabinet Finish, Remove Left Driver Arm Rest (done), Touchup paiint Back Window, install a Shelf Above Commode, add Windshield Fluid. And of course the refrigerator. Matt, I am about at the same position as you, I do not want to have to remove the frig and it is very hard to work on it installed. I was just able to remove the cover that is over the burner, tight spot.

I am still stuck, the silicone still has not cured. It is curing but very slow. It would be a real job to try to remove the silicone, but I amy have to do just that. However, we have no plans to use the MH till the end of September, surly it will cure in the next couple of weeks.

I tried the $1.00 bill, it had a firm pull, I use a credit card on our house frig, so the seal is good. Did not find a condensate drain in the frig compartment. I checked the temps this morning at 6:00AM. It is 73 outside, 3 in the freezer, 45 in the frig and inside the outside inspection door is of course warm, because of the components, but the temp is about 80. There is ice on the cooling flange. The frig is empty that might make a difference. I am going to switch to gas operation today to see if I get the same readings.

It's hot outside so I am not going to spend much time out there today. In the morning while it is cool I will do some of the check that you suggest. Also I just looked inside the refrigerator and there was a thin layer of ice on the very back of the cooling flange, part #4. At this point I think that as you suggest I have a air leak that is causing the problem, but I will check all of the other things that you have suggested.

I find nothing listed as a "Burner Tube" I have to assume that you are referring to part of the burner assembly #32 that has the vertical slits where the gas and air exit to burn. This morning the frig part was 55 degrees and the freezer was 3 degrees. I did not have time to check, but surly there is some restriction between the two. I am guessing that the freezer air has to migrate down to the frig part and that is not happening. Or the other reason is that the seal is leaking at the bottom.

I posted something similar to this before, but I need some specific information if anyone has it. I don't need to know how they work, I know that. The manual is too general, I have read it. Someone out there surly has worked on these units. Many people read these posts I need some help on this from someone that has actually got their hands dirty doing the job. We have a 1997 Dodge Roadtrek 190 with a Dometic RM2310 Refrigerator. This was running on gas. It has worked just fine until the lat two trips, to Flagstaff in May and to Colorado in July. On the July trip it was worse so I feel that something is going wrong. We filled the LP gas tank before we left for Colorado. We were gone for a month. When we returned home the tank was just about to touch the "Red" line. We took some temp readings while we were on the trip, but I have forgot. The freezer was still freezing food but the bottom was in the 45 degree range. We had it set on max. This is Sunday afternoon about 5:30, I turned it to Electric, set it on 6 and put a thermometer on the bottom shelf. I will see what will do on elec. Tomorrow I will get some good readings running on elec, then I can compare them with gas operation. Concerning the gas operation, I figured that it was full of carbon. However. I removed the cover, part #46, from the burner housing, part #33. Yes it is hard to remove, and it would help, as someone said, if I was 2" tall. I could just barely see the burner, but after I got a mirror and a flashlight I could see it very well. There is NO carbon build up on the burner, assembly #32 at all. It looks brand new. The thermocouple, part #3, was clean also. If there was any carbon on it I could not see it. This surprised me also, because we have had a few times when it did not light on the first of second try. The flame was blue and about 1/2" tall so I see no reason to remove the burner jet, part #38. If it was clogged restricting the gas flow the LP gas to air ratio would not allow the blue flame that I have. I could not see part #68, heater, because it is inside of the flue. I see that the flap, part #102, can be removed. So if I remove the flap can I see the heater and see if it has any carbon build-up ? Also it seems to be removed by binding the lip or unsnapping it. Tell me about this, have you personally opened it up ?

Calking: I used GE Silicone II, a Aluminum & Metal Silicone. I do not know if it is old or what the problem is with it but it has been nearly 24 hours and it is still sticky, so use some other kind of silicone. So I am waiting to finish the job. I did re-install the cabinet doors and use the original wire holders to secure the wiring, you should do this because things will get caught on the wires if not done. You should remove the seat/bed cushions and cover the floor, there are a lot of wood chips, I didn't do this. Now it will be a worse cleanup job. I cut some foam rubber about 1 1/2" square with an electric knife long enough to fill in around the A/C. I put a piece on each side and one across the top. I pushed them back about 4". With the A/C mounted there is about 3/4" on each side and 1" across the top. I will put a piece of foam across the bottom. there is about 1 1/2" between the front of the A/C and the back side of the folded metal. As stated before, I think that this foam, besides stopping air from leaking in and out, it keeps water from rushing forward and coming up over the folded metal in a quick stop. I went to Home Depot and bought a piece of outside corner trim. This trim is some kind of extruded hard foam with fake wood grain stuck on the outside. It will match the MH interior very well.

I took the cover off the burner and it is very clean, no carbon at all. The flame is blue. I have not tried to remove the flue (I think that is is name) I don't have the manual here at the computer. Could the problem be the Gas pressure being low because the LP gas tank is low?

Inside the Coach: I replaced the wood trim strip at the bottom in front of the A/C, it fits real tight, you have to tap it into place. Then it is held by two screws, one on each side from in the cabinets. Here is how I did the pipe. I bought a 24" piece of 1/2" galvanized pipe, it was pre-threaded, and two plastic 1/2" plastic caps. I cut a piece of 1/8" flat plastic, 2" wide and 6" long. I locked the two pieces of plastic in a vise and drilled a 15/16" hole, with a spade bit, 1 1/2" from one end. Then I drilled 3 - 3/16" holes along the center of the plastic. I also drilled a 15/16" hole in the cabinet on each side. These holes are about 1/2" above the wood trim strip and just forward of the trim strip. I put the pipe thru the holes in the cabinet and slipped the flat plastic over the end of the pipe. I used three 3/4" sheet metal screws to attach the flat plastic inside the cabinet. Screw the plastic pipe caps on each end of the galvanized pipe and that part is done. I used the flat plastic to re-enforce the wood of the cabinets. I was afraid that the wood that is only about 1" from the hole that I drilled to the front edge could break away taking the pipe with it.

Inside the Coach: The LG A/C has two pieces of metal under the front about 3" from the front. These catch on the window sill when it is installed in a house. I was concerned that they had too little of a foot print the set in the condensation pan and might wear a hole in the pan. If you remember I removed two pieces of rubber from along the sides of the A/C. I cut one of them in 4 pieces, the 4 pieces are about 2 1/2" long. The pan has grooves about 1 1/2" wide running from the front to the rear for the water to run in. *** it happened the the two pieces of metal on the bottom of the A/C set down in the grooves. I put two of the pieces of rubber under each of the two pieces of metal, adhesive down. This should cushion the A/C and keep it from rattling and protect the pan. Which was the main reason that I took the original A/C out. In the Back: I used the other one under the back of the new A/C to cushion between it and the pan, adhesive down. I believe that there is plenty of room for water to run around the rubber strips. I put a "glob" about 1 1/2' around of silicone at the top, center and bottom between the baffles and the A/C in the back. Inside the Coach: I replaced the folded metal strip over the pan lip. Then I used a generous amount of silicone to seal the back side of the folded metal to the old silicone. I did not put any silicone between the folded metal strip and the pan lip. I may want to remove the A/C sometime in the future and that would make it much harder. The only thing that is going to hold the A/C in the forward to back position is the 6 "globs" of silicone. In a wreck I do not want the A/C hitting me or my wife in the back of the head. Someone on another forum put a piece of pipe in front of the A/C. It is anchored in the cabinets on both sides. This seems like a good idea.

One of the things that I forgot to mention is, This is mid August and retailers usually put all of their A/C units on sale in the Fall to get ready for new models next year. I was waiting until they went on sale and hoping that I would not miss the sale. But Home Depot told me that if I bought one before they went on sale that I could bring in my sales receipt when they did go on sale and they would adjust the price. So we went ahead and bought the A/C. We also were going to replace the micro wave. Home Depot also told us that if we signed up for a credit card and spent $299.00 we would get a $20.00 gift certificate and a gift off one of the tables. A/C $249, Micro Wave $39, 4 cans of paint, some light bulbs, etc and we spent $346. We got the $20, the gift worth about $10 and I will be watching for them to mark down the A/C's.