jleamont

HA, I missed that, I thought I read it was an 8V71, missed the 8.2L.

BennieH, I feel your pain! The belt on the genset looks worse than it is. I removed the water pump pulley (4, 10mm bolts) removed the pulley from the pump with the belt, installed the new belt on the crank, then water pump pulley started the bolts by hand (had to use a punch to locate the bolt holes) and walked the pulley down evenly cross staggering the bolts as it tightened with a ratchet just to make sure I was pulling it down evenly). Rather than they way in the video of forcing the belt up over the pulleys. If you need any other help just ask on here. I just did a full generator service on my 7500 series Onan a few weeks ago. Still fresh in my mind.

Really, that's what it was invented for? interesting! I use WD40 or Power Lube now for the tow bar pivots, slides and hitch receivers, I refer to it all as "lube". I also will use CRC Power Lube, as I am running low I have been replacing it with WD40 since its readily available and I like the new can with the built in straw.

krankyoptimist, one thing to remember, keep you eye on the oil level. Those old Detroit's are known to be leakers, you can try to fix, perhaps yours is not due to the low mileage but we mechanics always told the drivers "if its not leaking you need to add oil". I am not sure if technology has improved on seals and gaskets for those or not, not even sure If I would worry about it, or try to correct if it was leaking, unless its easy to get to. There is nothing like the sound they produce, between the sound and the looks you will turn heads with her! I was watching a video the other night of a 12V71 in a Brockway running through the gears...I want one! Time to sell the Dune Buggy, lol

The one I put in is at 15.5 cu ft, not real big but larger that the 4 door Norcold. Our last coach only had 6.0cuft. we made it work, but it was a little tight. Might sound crazy but I like to grocery shop locally where we are staying, stuff you cant purchase at home is always attractive to us to give it a try. While passing through Texas in 2013 we stopped at a WalMart and bought these Tapatio Doritos, we loved them, cant get them up here. Since we love Cajun food and TexMex, when we head south we are always looking for stuff to take home, one benefit of traveling with a refrigerator/freezer.

HAHA, don't tell her that, it will be my home when I get in trouble. Our dog is spoiled, he stays inside, all 9 lbs of pure terror.

Grayed out because he uses them too often, lol

F442485, the belly pan has me confused, our two coaches cant be that different. My guess is you are referring to the Semi Monocoque chassis design, with the web of box tubes going all different directions when you look underneath and the covering just above those. They do not remove so I am certain you wire is running above that. It looks like you have almost the same chassis as I but a rear radiator rather than a side radiator. My battery bay is directly behind the passenger side rear wheel, open the door, release the locks and they pull out, top tray two chassis batteries, bottom 4 House batteries. The cables go straight out the back and disappear. Cannot speak to yours (or my current coach) but my old coach the ground went to the chassis frame and was bolted. I had a bad connection once at the ground, it just needed to be cleaned and re installed. I cant imagine your tank bay (if like mine) being in the way. My tank bay is on the opposite side of the same wheel (in front of it), I can only see all of the air lines and loom running above to the front. If Monaco is no help, try and follow those cables, you most likely will have to crawl under the coach to see them come out of the backside of the compartment. Just do it safely, make sure you support the coach with safety stands even if you do not have to lift it to get underneath. you could accidently grab an air line to pull yourself under and deflate the air bags. Or pull the floor in the rear and look over that direction and see if any large cables are bolted to the frame, you just might be able to see that area from the top.

I do not have a BlueOx bar, but that is almost the same procedure I follow. I also lube the pivot points at the main and where it slides into the coach to prevent rust build up in the coach hitch.

Mine comes out to ask me all the time if I need help, when I say sure I get the same question. I just smile and tell her "I got this, go pull the chairs out".

Yup, didn't do a thing....well the red light was flashing on the module, not sure what that meant normally it didn't.

Thanks Carl! I am slowly chipping away at the items in this unit that didn't suite our needs. My interior is complete. Once I loose the propane tank and think of what to use that large space for I will be done.

scole456, try the fuel filter as Herman suggested first (couldn't hurt) make sure its full of oil also (just in case the low oil safety is activated) follow the fuel line back to the tank and perform a good inspection on it. I had to replace the fuel line on my last coach, it cracked near the tank and was pulling air into the fuel line. That coach chassis was a 1997, it was cracked pretty bad, I suspect from age and ethanol mixed into the gasoline these days.

Beautiful coach! Take care of that it will last you a lifetime. I would be honored to camp near you with such a fine example of RV history sitting next to me. WOW

ObedB, after that mess I read up on them also. I always thought Dometic was not a concern, but that was wrong, they all have their problems also, so do residential units. At the end of the day any appliance can catch fire if plugged in to 120VAC, even an light or a hair dryer not in use. The absorption design has more ignition and fuel sources and as we all know "to the lowest bidder" isn't always the best route to take when sourcing components. We looked at a 2013 Fleetwood Excursion in April of 2014 (new leftover), it had a residential refrigerator in it from the factory, which was the first I had heard of it. I was taken by it at first, but then thought about it and it started to make sense, it was equipped with a GE, from memory it looked just like the one we installed, not sure if it actually was or not. After we did our conversion I had child safety locks on the doors just in case (they didn't pop open once) We went to Hershey RV show that September and I photo'd the different door lock designs that were in the new coaches with residential units, I fabricated my own and use it on ours. Our inverter is a Trace/Xantrex RV2012 modified sine wave according to the build sheet I have, and if it was replaced it still has a Trace unit in it (saw it the other day) According to them this model has more steps and a smoothing to be almost sine wave. I would love to scope it and see what it actually produces. So I called Xantrex I got the full story, they explained to me that running a refrigerator without all of the electronics was a good choice on my part, while it is not a sine wave its not as rough as a regulator modified sine wave. Obedb, you might want to call your inverter co and ask what they think.

Wayne, I shut off the water when we leave. I also do not run down the road with the water pump on and I never leave gray or black valves open when I am not empting the tanks, they get shut immediately after. If someone needs to use the restroom in travel they turn it on the way in and off when they exit. I also lock the bay doors after draining the tanks, we have heard of kids pulling valves open then closed when the cap is on so when owner pops the cap off he gets soaked, its a game we have heard about, in a motorhome this is usually not a concern since your valves are inside a compartment. We were camping a few years ago and the CG backed up into a trailer's gray tank, it was running out the door. Another time a snake was in the CG sewer line and crawled up a sewer hose into a tank. No thanks! I can do enough dumb things on my own, I don't need an outside source contributing to my madness. When we all catch up we will have to exchange stories sometime. I.e the time I took the toilet out (week before waiting for parts) and decided to flush the antifreeze out of the water system. I realized it when I could hear water running in the hose and it didn't stop like usual, I shut the water off and walked inside Last coach, not this one. Our friends last year showed us how they flush their black tank on their TT last Easter in Gettysburg, (no black tank flush connection) after telling us Motorhome people how there is no need for a black tank flush connection they put a boot on the pedal and fill it up then pull the lever to release the water.....YUP you guessed it, put the boot on the pedal and walked outside and forgot about it, they opened the door a few minutes later and the tidal wave came out the door . We still laugh about that

Wow, he really did have it torn down! Yep, small world! That is fairly common on a C from what I have read over the years, I repaired our bunk also, I didn't tear it down that far, WOW. We had water pushing through the front lights that eventually took the wood out on the front and I had water push through the side trim at the front bunk wall that bulged the side out at the front wall. Ours was also a Coachmen but without the front window, I have heard those windows will also leak causing wood damage. I guess it makes sense at highway speed in the rain you can force a bunch of water through any weak seal. I have photos of it after many years of waxing, scrubbing and replacing decals on the "gallery tab" on FMCA and the coach that replaced it in 2014. Dicor will be your best friend soon, the stuff works great. It does require frequent inspections and touch ups that would make some think Silicone was a better option when its really not. I also used Eternabond tape which worked great on the bunk seam and the rear wall to roof seam rather than smearing Dicor all over the joint. Enjoy, if he was older you could have some real bonding time with him keeping up with an RV and its maintenance. Coachmen must love the green and red stripes, ours was the same when I bought it in 2008, just a bright white not a cream base color ours was a 1998 Santara. We camp with a friend that has a 6 yr old son also.

Sigmaz, Welcome to the Forum! Looking good, nice nostalgic look. We started out in 2008 with our two kids (8 and 6) at the time with a 10 year old class C we bought used, it didn't look that good. Glad you looked into RV'ing to keep him off of the computers and building family memories. It worked well for us. We are in Southeastern PA, just east of Lancaster PA, kids are now teens. Good luck, if you need any help with questions there is a bunch of knowledge and some humor on here to keep you on the road and entertained. Joe

Cinnabun, LOL, good one Tom! I could use a cover like that with a hard shell under it. Our dog has placed his paws on the air horn switch already while I was outside setting up. FYI, you will not make any friends that way either. What ever works as a reminder is a must! I only ever use the TV antenna on occasion, I will hang something from the handle as a reminder. I also have a habit of walking around the unit before driving off and we have a light on the dash "Antenna up". on occasion I will walk back and look over the unit from a distance just incase any tree branches are on the roof, I don't want the poor soul behind me on the road to find them.

My concern; if this is installed without getting creative you will loose the TPMS system unless your sensors are part of the valve stem rather than a screw on cap type. So if you have a leak you most likely not notice it until you stop or the tire comes apart if this cant keep up. You will have to do your due diligence and manually check your tires hooked up to this before you start off again. As often as I add air (which isn't often) no need in my application, but a neat concept none the less. Also Brett brought up a good point, we set our pressures based off of weight at each wheel end. I am not sure if this is that adjustable to maintain those specific pressures or do they make them that produce specific pressure and only that pressure? My guess on the steer axle is the mounting and the balance, the drive axle has two hoses so it would balance out, the steer axle only has one, so it would need to be counter balanced or it could cause a vibration in your steering wheel. I have never seen a road tractor with an independent steer axle, nor air bags on the steer axle either, although it is an option for air ride on the front (never saw one).

Ron, that's what I would do in this situation. I might consider calling them to see if they will send you a replacement fitting. When any of my hoses leak I get frustrated, I do not like spilling anything on to the ground, to me its just not good etiquette. I cant stand when I see fresh water spraying around a connection or a sewer hose leaking. I certainly wouldn't want to be the next guy to pull into a site where the previous persons hose leaked onto the ground. I saw a guy in a Newell with the entry level brown Camco hose with duct tape wrapped all over it leaking at a dump station one time. That memory still baffles me.

Carl, are you referring to the system you have with a computer under your drivers seat in the Jeep? If so the M&G system has no computer or electronics, that was my concern in a Jeep. I have had to pull the plugs in the floor a few times, nothing computerized would take to that to kindly. It just has an aluminum air block that mounts between the master cylinder and the power brake booster under the hood, one air line from that to the front bumper of the Jeep. I opted for the emergency breakaway kit which gets a little more involved, but not much (its a law up here). Very simple but genius design. Just to be clear, I have no cables, computers switches nothing inside the vehicle what so ever.

ObedB and Carl, thank you for the kind words. I considered replacing the cooling unit on our Norcold with the "Amish made" design. Our first coach had a Dometic Americana that was 16 years old and worked great. I was sold on the absorption design until August 11th 2014. Here is the events of that day and what stopped me. Ours ruptured I was plugged into electric sitting on my chair under the awning in Colonial Williamsburg VA at a CG reading about Robyn Williams, very sad. I caught a whiff of what smelled like ammonia and the fridge gas igniter started to click like it was switching to gas, I though this was odd so I got up to investigate (I thought my DW tripped a breaker inside) I heard a pop a flame hue came out of the side wall vent, I pulled the side wall cover off and at this point I really smelled the ammonia, very hot inside also it was still clicking like it was trying to ignite, I grabbed a hand full of wires and pulled while I was yelling for everyone to get out of the motorhome (DW and kids were inside). It happened so fast my heart was racing, I was sweating. It scorched the inside wall area and the back of the fridge but for some lucky reason it didn't go up in flames, or I was fortunate enough to catch it in time. I pulled the 12v fuse, shut off the breakers to it and turned off the gas main on the tank. I had to open all of the windows and roof vents on the coach, the interior stunk like burnt plastic and ammonia. I discharged a CO2 fire extinguisher up the back side of the unit just to make sure there were no hot spots that I couldn't see. After a few hours I calmed down, threw out all of our food. The following morning I jumped in the Jeep and went to Wal Mart, bought a small apartment size refrigerator, that was funny it didn't fit in the Jeep, I had to put the top down and seat belt it in the passenger seat. I placed it where the new sofa is now and plugged it in. It worked great, so good we were sold on the residential change over, plus the DW told me under no circumstances will she or our kids sleep in this coach with a gas refrigerator ever again (she told me "you better figure this out or this coach is out of here"). She nor I slept that night, every noise or smell we both jumped up. After reading Tom's post with the fantastic photos I was sold. I went on a quest to Home Depot when we returned to home to locate the most energy efficient model that would fit in the existing hole without serious modification of the hole in the wall. I also wanted a simple unit with as little to no electronics, as I was concerned about those bouncing down the road. The model we decided on is old school, just a knob you twist to set your temperature, no ice maker. I still run the 4 house batteries with the same 2000 watt Trace inverter that came with the coach, I just have the auto start generator set now just in case. That was a day I will never forget.

Photos are up in the gallery section.

F442485, call Monaco @ 1-877-466-6226 follow the prompts until you get to tech support. So far they have been good to me for questions like this. good luck, let us know what you find.