jleamont

I added another water pump switch to our lavatory room (toilet and sink). I wired it to the one in the hall vanity. While the switch and indicator light work, it has the same issue that the one in the hall sink has. When you press the button sometimes you have to press it several times for the pump to come on, both switches on this circuit do the same. All the while the other water pump switch in the galley doesn't have this problem. Is there a relay for each switch location or one pump relay typically? Before this I thought I had a switch going bad, after this I can't help but think there is a relay somewhere going bad. Photo of new switch below

I have a Rand McNally, I use it for a wheel chock, literally its that useless as a GPS... I use it for a wheel chock. The long cord makes it very desirable for a wheel chock, you can toss it on the ground, kick it under a tire and then you have a lanyard to remove it without much difficulty, hang it off the mirror, then you wont have to bend over to remove it . I was so frustrated with their tech support, I photo'd it as a wheel chock, emailed those with a letter to the president of their company, tech support and posted how terrible they are as a company all over the web, hope they spend millions cleaning up their tarnished name. After they ripped me off and several failed attempts to repair it they could have made good and refunded me, but they chose not to so..... My $400.00 wheel chock gets quite a bit of attention and some good laughs around a CG. I have actually had others ask me if I need another wheel chock while camping as they had the same experience with this company and its electronic products. Their customer service is like no other, but not in a good way...well maybe CW is as bad, although I have not experienced much like this in my life. This is a company that should stick to paper maps, I think...think they got that figured out but I would still exercise caution. I have a Garmin in my company car, works great, Jeep and Honda have Navigation built in.

Here's the tile, not installed yet.

I swear by these things! This TRC unit has saved us 4 times in 4 years with this coach alone. Too bad I learned the hard way on the first coach, cost me an ATS, fuse box and a new A/C unit . Before the big debate happens on who's EMS is best I also have a Progressive that I use at campgrounds, picked it up from our HR club member that sold his coach.

Rick, for under the slide toppers a broom handle with a rag on the end, just tape it below the end, wet the end with 303 set it in the groove and push it down. Kind of like a big Q Tip.

Out working on the coach I kept getting alarms going off. After investigation the power line to our house was dropping the neutral. Went to the coach EMS system, "open neutral" "high voltage detected" red light flashing..HMM called the electric co explained what was happening, they dispatched two trucks, sure enough the wire from the pole to the house failed. Sitting in the dark at the moment.

HAHA, don't let that fool you, they cant fix the new ones either . A bad design cannot be repaired, just apply a band aid for a few months, do it over.... If anything on yours it will be overthought and missed, the new stuff they are completely lost .

Mark, our last coach had all the original appliances in it, they all worked flawlessly even at year 16 when we traded it.

Yes, this is correct, within that number is some money to help fund the next breakdown, believe me its not nearly enough, I have had a few bigger ones that were at .30 per mile . Gas engines are significantly cheaper to maintain, I had a fleet of them at one point with over 300,000 miles, most had only ever had basic tune-ups. The days of less to go wrong on a diesel and the diesel being more dependable started to decline around 1998 and completely went in the trash around 2007. I am not referring to internal engine stuff, that part is fairly robust, however in an effort to increase fuel economy and meet emissions requirements with all of the stuff hanging off an engine they cheapened some of the internals up to make them lighter, especially in the smaller engines. Said another way the base engine should last if the emissions system doesn't kill it along the way since a few internals are fragile. Those emissions components will not last 1 millions miles, several replacements along the way of some pretty expensive components and wiring harness failures along the way. Gas engine technology hasn't really changed much in 20+ years, some minor additional improvement like variable cam timing but otherwise not much different, with that being said most manufactures have it mastered, on occasion some bean counter will seek out a component for less money, it will fail creating a bad feeling for the consumer, otherwise no real issues. On the diesel side, nothing is mastered, as they meet Govt requirements they move on to meet the next mandate, all the while what they just produced is plagued with problems for the consumer to pay for, or you are at the dealers mercy to hope they will cover it under a warranty, but they too have to be careful how much warranty they send off to the manufacture as they have guidelines that jeopardize the franchise. The DEF tank reading low or empty while full is a VERY common problem across the Daimler line, mostly caused by DEF crystalizing on the sensor and for whatever reason it cant handle its intended purpose. You are lucky you made it home, their big trucks...literally engine light comes on, engine derates, 10 minutes later engine shuts down and you coast off the road. They were nice enough to put a ECM fault bypass switch on the dash, you press it while restarting, if not deemed serious by the computer you can continue at a reduced Horsepower, if serious you might only be able to idle. Mercedes has proprietary software that most aftermarket scan tools will not read. For whatever reason they did this it limits where it can be repaired at, probably their intention, gas engines are different regulations, most any scan toll will read those. Big truck diesels the cost will often double per mile, especially where it operates, cold climates with road salt, the problems will never end. In the RV side, most only run 10-20,000 miles per year, the cost will spread out for the consumer, depending on where its operating they might make a few years of trouble free driving. Richard, above with his Bus, he might have some basic stuff like a radiator or hose fail, mostly from age but I'd take that set up any day over new technology. That old saying "they don't build them like they use to" is so true in today's Diesel.

Mark, took me a bit to locate the zip drive I had with Sprinter maintenance notes but I came up with a number. One thing to keep in mind routine maintenance is about the only thing you can preplan for. Mechanical breakdowns would be difficult to preplan, with that being said on light duty vehicles like your size at work we plan on .08 per mile for Diesel and .4 for Gas. From my business I sold in 2015 my Sprinter menu summary would be budget $1400.00 per year (assuming you run 15-20k per year on mileage) this should have enough fluff to cover brakes and tires as they come along. From my notes Sprinter's in the commercial environment only go 20-25,000 miles on Brakes and rotors ($1000.00 brake job per axle). I experimented with aftermarket pads and rotors to save customer's a few $$ in a fleet application, that didn't go as well as I hoped it would. I do not recommend going that route as the aftermarket brakes were noisy when applied (slight grinding sound could be heard inside). Those rotor designs were more along the line of an American rotor (where it lasts a few over a few brake pad replacement intervals) not a German type where the rotor and pad wear down together. On a positive note you didn't need to replace the rotors at every brake job which drastically cut down on cost but the noise was present, and I didn't think they stopped as well. In an RV I would run the factory brake pads and rotors. One thing I observed around 100,000 miles transmissions needed overhauled (fleet vehicles that were take homes with only ever having one driver). The Sprinter had some plastic thrush washers inside that would crack and fail, every one failed at the 80,000-100,000 mile interval. I actually had metal ones machined and overhauled a few for a customer, they worked well afterwards all the way up to the engine replacement at 200,000 miles, which again, in an RV its not likely you will have it that long. The owner of the business's sprinter made it to 250,000 miles, his was a 2013, which from all that I read back then he did well. The modern Diesel woes, while we as society benefit from cleaner air we open our wallets to an exuberant amount of potential problems that happen all to often. Todays Diesel engine has SIX times the components of a Gas engine in the same year, that increases the potential for problems. I have a few big Mercedes Benz Diesels at work as an example that will average a breakdown with some sort of electrical/emissions component every 10,000 miles that cost the company on average $3500.00 plus a tow, some have exceeded $10,000. Specifically on these engines I can only seem to squeeze 500,000 miles out of one and WOW are they expensive to put back on the road.

Blake, any progress update? Here's my ladder repair

Love to, how's Gettysburg PA in May

backpacker, make sure if you have a manual switch box for selectable inputs you have the correct button pushed. Also with Smart TV, they are not so smart, I have to go into the menu and let the TV do a channel search on Air and or cable (depending on what that Campground set up is). For whatever reason even if that channel number is in the memory from before it still wont see it unless I run through a channel search after a power down.

Toad less worked for us in the beginning when the kids were small. We destination camped mostly Jellystone's or a place with water or amusement parks attached. Disney is another place that we visited. It worked well for that, as they got older and we wanted to explore an area we tried "call enterprise we will pick you up", yeah that did pan out so well. To Bills point I can remember needing something, camp store didn't have it, I broke everything down wife and kids went to the pool I left with the coach to the grocery store. Came back set up I'd bet I blew a few hours for that debacle. Then along came a Toad, now I bring it if we need it or not, mostly because you just don't know when you will need it and our destination is now an area more so than the campground.

Carl, it had copper tubing connections, you might have nailed its age. I wonder if the coach came with it or did someone have it laying around and put it in? ours would leak down the pull out, but only on occasion.

Did the kitchen last year, headed into the lavatory and hall/bedroom vanity area now. I ordered my adhesive, silicone grout today and accent lighting, I figured why not and Bling it up with multi color LED back lighting that is adjustable. Below are before photos;

Carl, its beveled mirrors no frame, Blake no mounting screws, I'm guessing glue blobs like the mirrored back splash was, the wire trick to loosen it might be a shot. I remember Herman mentioned covering it with tape first to keep it intact. I don't want this mirror and its headed to the trash can once its removed, there are two sections to the left of the photo behind the dinette booth. The ones on the galley side have to stay, they are screwed on and hide the shower access and the slide passes them.

Anyone remove mirrors before and have any success in removing adhesive without damaging the walls? Our walls are real Cherry wood. My goal is to remove the mirrors and glue, lightly sand and re-stain the wall. Anyone have any success stories, tips?

Just added a before photo to the mix above.

Blake, looks good cant wait to see the finished project! That should save you quite a bit of $$, those are not cheap! That brewery is 1.5 hours north of us, I have an office in Pottsville PA, travel up there frequently, coal country region of PA, there is also a Polish deli not far with some unbelievable food you can take home. If you ever get out this way let me know, there is a brewery tour you can go on (never done it) and a Coal fired pizza restaurant up the street with great food. We camp north of that once a year to go to an old time amusement park; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knoebels_Amusement_Resort They have an Anthracite museum on site along with the parks history inside. Polish deli; http://www.kielbasy.net/products.html I will post photos of my ladder in a new thread soon, just finished modifying it, Tig welded the cracks and added gussets, wow was that aluminum thin and a bugger to work with.

Carl, those are RV antifreeze stains . Come spring I scrub it all down. Blake, getting under was simple getting the old faucet out was much harder than setting up the new one. The factory one had a very odd design with a large nut that had to be slide down over all the existing tubing, needless to say no matter how I tried to manipulate it I couldn't get it over the connections. I had to cut the tube for the pull out sprayer on the old one and squeeze the other tubing together with a large set of pliers to get it over them. Now onto more tile installation, DW picked out tile for the lavatory and the sink in the hall. Ill create a new thread for that with before and after photos. I am also adding a water pump switch to the lavatory room, there is one in the hall for that sink and one in the galley, but none near the toilet or that sink , you have got to wonder what goes through the minds of some engineers?

Finally decided to swap out our old kitchen faucet with a residential type. I thought matching up adapters was going to be difficult but it really wasn't. Here is the completed job and the adapter parts you will need to install a residential faucet.

Looks great! I snapped a photo of ours today. We were out shopping for some new coach stuff, tile for toilet area and new kitchen faucet. I'll post the faucet on a new thread, but here's the ugly mess I need to conquer

I had an interesting conversation with a Freightliner dealer in Maine the other day. Due to the extreme cold and people not plugging in block heaters prior to starting their engines for a few hours they have been overwhelmed with damaged/destroyed engines. I had a 2010 ISC Cummins destroyed at 20 below zero, cold start no block heater driver turned the cruise control on immediately upon the engine starting, oil was so thick it was apparently lacking in a few critical locations. Truck only had 89,000 miles on it and a $21,000 oops. Cummins rep told me 20 minutes at idle before adding throttle when it's that cold. You would have to slightly bump the cruise control (keep it below 900 rpm) depending on the year so the idle shutdown timer doesn't shut you down.

Carl, those shoes are in the closet, doors closed they go away . Then I'm stuck with mirrored doors with gold trim . Any suggestions on what to cover the hole with? I'm thinking stained to match beveled ends and top piece of wood. I've been scratching my head and that's all I've got.