jleamont

RodgerS, too bad you live in Northern CA. I have a friend that just purchased a used DP that needs a bunch of work. If you were in South East PA he could keep you real busy. But instead he and I will be real busy. I just started my spring prep on ours. I have a few items to finish; service the AquaHot, chassis, replace both inner rear wheels (picked up two free aluminum that match the others, mine are steel now) remove the 3M nose protector, clean both A/C units, wash and wax it and look deeper into my air bag condition. I have looked over the IRV2 posts for questions I may have had but I will not go on there and post anything. I have seen many people get verbally torn up. I graduated High School many years ago, no need to go back. As far as helping on here, I am by no means an expert in RV repair or maintenance. I am a CAT, Isuzu, Ford and International Certified Diesel technician (Senior Master with Ford, Master with IHC) ASE Master car, school bus and heavy/Medium truck with L1 and L2 and EVT (Emergency Vehicle Technician) Since RV's tend to need a bunch of maintenance I will tackle them myself, if I get into a situation I am unsure about I ask on here, usually someone has done it them selves and can shed some light on it and I get through it. All of what know on RV's I have learned. We purchased our first motorhome in 08, I bought a fixer upper and through reading I managed to fix the Furnace, HW heater, A/C on the roof, ATS switch, Converter and miscellaneous plumbing and structural issues. So if I can help someone I will, just seem like the right thing to do. Plus there is a lot of good people on here I like to call friends.

Gary, it was a good question and I agree; when I quit learning I will be dead. The two times we traveled through CA with our old coach I had no Catalytic convertor (and it was supposed to have one). When you cross into CA there is an agricultural check point, they have a mirror on a stick that they looked under our coach with, I thought something would have been said, NOTHING, they asked a few questions and we were on our way.

Vanha Pieru, Welcome to the FMCA Forums! I have never done any compartment work like that. Take photos of the before and after and post them on the gallery. Sounds like that will keep you busy for a weekend.

Carl, maintenance is my reason. It is much easier to drain some oil out each year and top it off then pull the hub off, clean and repack the bearings, replace the seal and reassemble each front wheel end. Another reason I read was less rolling resistance which equals better fuel economy. I felt that was splitting hairs but non the less someone took the time to calculate that along with LED chassis lighting and how it reduces alternator load which equals better fuel economy. I can respect their test results but fuel economy was not my reason. lets just say getting old and lazy was the reason. Fuel economy was not the reason my coach is 98%LED I made that switch so I could be seen better in the dark.....less chance if getting hit.

Carl, not sure other than there is and probably will always be a Horsepower war between manufactures, they don't want to be left behind.

Herman, I saw them online from Firestone for $135.00 each. What chassis did your friend have?

FIVE, I work full time for a fairly large North East Trucking Co with 1200 tractors and 3000 trailers as a Fleet Manager.

Carl, two teenage girls, one DW and one Chihuahua = large washing machine required. Well the dog isn't bad its the kids that create large piles of laundry. My wife and I wear one outfit a day, the kids......well anyone that raised teenage girls knows how that goes.

Does anyone know or have literature on how to replace the air bags on a 2001 Roadmaster RR8S chassis? I was looking at them yesterday and there is some spots where the rubber is pitted at the bottom of a few bags, it looks like divots in the rubber from road debris getting caught up as the bags roll over itself. It has me slightly worried about the failure possibility. Since they are right at the wheel opening they look fairly simple to replace, I was hoping for instructions on how to access the mounting,air lines and most importantly how/where to stabilize the chassis for bag service. I had some ideas but didn't want to block it someplace that would cause stress on the suspension cage or frame above. I also have to replace the protectors (straw like material) that are suppose to block road debris, they are deteriorated. Anyone ever tackled this before or any thoughts?

I added more drawers in that spot rather than leave the empty space, I turned off the water supply at the manifold and unhooked the hot and cold tubes just in case someone opened the water valves in that bay and sent water that direction. The drain was easy to thread a pipe cap into it. You will be surprised how heavy that thing is when you pull it. If it weren’t for air ride I swear the coach would lean.

I removed our Splendid 2000 series, it needed a part that had been discontinued. If I had room I would have went stackable, anything less is just to small. When needed we just use the laundry at the CG. We tend to pick higher end campgrounds and even the last minute stops have not been bad so along with the other amenities the laundry is usually nicer also.

ObedB, yes it was and it had the same concerns listed in this post. There were not many of them since the heavy truck OEM's began to heavily produce and push their own engines to increase their profit margins, in those years the Cummins was an option that was expensive and still is an option that has become more reasonable in pricing. Now they push their engines claiming fuel savings when all of the driveline is working with each other not against each other. I know I am sold on one OEM, when I have a problem I have one phone call to make, not put all of them in a room and watch them argue over who's fault it is. In the Medium Duty market Cummins dominated the competition as the dependable engine, fuel efficient option. Even when a chassis manufacture offered their own most still went the Cummins route if it was an option and for some only Cummins was the option, which dictated their sales numbers. One OEM didn't offer it and that almost bankrupted them due to their product reliability when it tanked with the new emission engine lineup. The ISX was not an option in those medium duty chassis, they were ISB, ISC and depending on GVWR, ISL. I am sure you remember the days when the tractor didn't matter much it was the engine under the hood that did. As the years passed that has changed, now most only want everything from one OEM, especially now that manual transmissions are becoming a thing of the past, everyone wants automated manual transmissions to control repair, safety and fuel costs. We wont purchase any manual transmissions unless its for a special application and that's the only transmission option. From experience it makes it much easier for me when we have a problem all of the finger pointing has gone away from who's component caused the failure to "how are you going to fix this for us"?

Bill and Carl, thank you for the recommendations. I can have no problem respecting their laws. We are excited and have Passports in hand waiting. Bill, I find it offensive how you were labeled because of the state on your license plate. I am glad you kept your cool, not sure I would have, depending on how I felt I might have laughed it off or told them how I really felt. I am hoping to do some duty free shopping while there and bring it back over. We will see. If it goes well we will probably go back to sight see at a later date.