jleamont

The reason I ask was we have at least 400 DD13's at work, we run Shell Rotella 10w30 full synthetic with Baldwin filters and we see a million miles from them. Great engine! We run the 15w40 on the Series 60's that are still floating around. I guess the filter would be hard to find in an RV application especially since its a canister type and its location, . I would be curious how that engine bay is constructed with a DD13 back there, I hope it at least has a side radiator to give some room. Just curious.....thanks

I disassembled the front hubs, wiped all of the grease out, inspected the bearings and races, replaced the seals (which are the same for grease or oil) reassembled and filled with 80W90 synthetic gear lube. All of my brakes are air drum and were replaced last march. I have seen people wipe the grease from the outer bearing and just replace the hub cap with the oil bath type and fill'em up with gear oil. Then just change it out every few months or not. You will mostly see this on Semi Trailers, then the grease/oil combination turns into a slurry, but holds up. Herman, not much different from a trailer bearing design only larger.

Crossing in May with the toad, this is the reason we will not bring the coach to Canada, I don't want to deal with the chance of them getting a wild hair to search the coach, that will waste my time. So we decided to take the Jeep over, they can search that it couldn't take more than 20 minutes. I have no desire to go to Mexico and Canada is a once and done as far as I am concerned. I told the DW we will only go to the NY side of the falls, I stuck to my gun's! So as I am booking our trip to Canada.......lol ....

Thanks, I found them online places like www.Iowa80.com have plenty to choose from. Typical on line....shipping cost more than the caps . I want to be able to keep an eye on the oil level without pulling the current cover off, (it actually does fit over them), since there is not much room for error with the oil level.

Five, what oil and filter do you run in your Detroit? Which DD is it? 11 or 13?

Herman, does your steer axle have the hub cap with the hole in the center or does it just cover over everything?

RodgerS, Your Welcome. Sounds like you have it figured out. Good luck with your certifications they will pay off after owning any type of RV you settle on. Joe

Thanks Herman.....im laughing so hard I'm crying

Puff, thanks for the advice and link! I also need to change the front hub caps, I just switched my steer axle over to oil this past weekend and I want to purchase the center caps with the center cut out so I can keep my eye on them. Any ideas?

Hmmm, my 50 amp cord must be short. I carry a 15' 50 Amp extension cord. I have never measured what is on the reel but it is resides 4' in front of the rear tire but it will only go maybe 8-12' beyond the rear of the coach. Most of the time its fine but at least once a year I have to pull the extension out. I also carry an 20' Sewer hose extension and two water hoses, one is 15' and one is 25'. We have been a few places where all of the connections were on the passenger side (back in site) at least 10' over in the corner where 4 sites all met. A campground in Delaware comes to mind as I am typing this.

Just when I was thinking it......Herman is on the next line to say it

RodgerS, what are you trying to achieve, softer ride, less sway or less wind pushing you off the road? Here is why I ask and my story. Our previous coach was a Class C 31' on a Ford E-450 Chassis. While it didn't ride too rough down the road every car that would pass me would blow me off onto the shoulder unless I saw them coming and I could steer into it, and you would get this terrible sway like a ship getting tossed around the ocean. We had a friend travel with us once to a campground and she felt nauseated riding in it. It had Firestone Ride Rite bags in the rear when we bought it, everything else was just as it came from Ford. I replaced the sway bars with Roadmaster products (Front and Rear) I installed a rear Track bar from www.supersteerparts.com and replaced all of the shocks with Bilstein RV shocks and added front coil spring air bags (front axle was over loaded from Coachmen with the overhead bunk, it kept bottoming out shearing off the rubber jounce bushings). After it handled like a car, no more getting blown off the road, no more sway, it did ride a little bit rougher (my guess is the shocks played a part in this and the front bags helping support the suspension were the other reason). The scary part was before you knew when you were into a corner too fast, you felt like it was going over, after it didn't lean at all, which could make one think it's safe to take a corner faster when in reality it's not. I hope this helps answer some of your questions.

SARSteve, see if you can identify what vehicle manufacture your coach manufacture used the headlights from when they built your unit, if any. My coach has 1997-2006 Ford Econoline headlamps and turn signal lights in the front and 1992-1994 Ford Econoline tail lamps. Most coach manufactures just purchase other car manufactures lights to save them money on engineering costs. You might get lucky if National Tradewinds did this.

Jim, we have 2 transponders for 4 vehicles. One for the coach (never leaves) the other is the one that bounces around. I added all of the other cars to the list and we just pass it around. We tow a Jeep behind the coach, while the Jeep is in tow I put the EZ s in it's sleeve and place it in the glove box, just in case while we are exploring we have to travel on toll roads. FYI, don't forget to add any trailers you may have to the list just in case you are towing one down a toll road. It took one ticket in the mail for me to realize I needed to add them.

I was going to suggest the same. Locating a coach that is well maintained is difficult, locating one that was Impeccably maintained is nearly impossible. If I was in the market or was planning on being in the market soon I would have jumped on a plane by now and met Ray.

Puff, I will pass your coach to anyone I run into looking. You and your wife sound like us, I walk through often looking at every detail trying to see what could go wrong next that I can address now so I'm not bothered while using the coach. I am also replacing my lug nut caps since they are tarnished and will not polish, lol.

Carl, it is confusing, I believe they do this so there is no black and white with the law so it is open to interpretation, that will get some out of trouble and others with lower price attorneys in deeper trouble. I hope that the "newbie" reports back with his experience, my only concern is depending on the mood and interpretation of the next person at the DMV will yield different results. I have a degree from this state for this stuff and I result back to what I was trained with "just arrest everyone involved for everything that applies and let the judge and lawyers sort It out, your job is done at that point". Lol, that was my favorite line.

Obedb, we have one that I dropped something on the lid and cracked it,send me a pm if you want it, you can stop by and pick it up, or stop buy when we are camping next month in Gettysburg, I will bring it with me. I am sure you can buy parts to fix it, I think it's a magic chef but I will have to check it out if you are interested. We just use trays now in the freezer.

Since I have rebuilt hydraulic cylinders on Utility trucks and construction equipment I would not add anything to the system, I don't think it would help. The seals are often neoprene and Teflon, if it were my coach I would remove the leaking cylinder, or pay someone to do so, cap the line price a replacement or take it to a local hydraulic repair shop and see if they could hone it, polish the piston and repack it. I have done some myself and sent others out, depending on the piston and bore condition. Usually to have this work completed is not that expensive if it is salvageable, to have it fixed is probably 10% of the replacement price for a new one. I will say this it will most likely be a messy job.

I figured it out when we switched the refrigerator from No Cold to Residential. The new unit does not have an ice maker, so I had to locate where the tube originated and cap it. My DW prefers ice cube trays with bottled water. I was suprised it came from the opposite side of the coach and was ran under the floor. I felt much better disconnecting that.My filter under the sink feeds the sink, insta hot faucet and the ice maker. Ice maker disconnected now.

Lol, never looked at it like that but it makes sense. I only pay taxes, not a monthly fee and taxes. On a good note my garden hose is green because that's the one I bought and I can plant what ever flowers I choose. I can't grasp paying someone people to tell me what color my front door and my garden hose must be. I guess it works for some, not for us.

My thoughts exactly. My filter under the sink routes back over to the refrigerator for the ice maker on my HR/Monaco. It seems odd to me especially since my kitchen is on the slide but non the less that is how it is plumbed.

You love Cajun food also? Good to know, I was able to maintain a steady temp after I played with it a few more times, it seems like the quality of the cookware really makes a difference. The SS regular frying pan I have in the coach is a no name brand, I struggled with it, when I tried it again using an All Clad SS regular frying pan from the house on it all was fine. I prefer to cook over the fire as often as possible. I have a Tri Pod from www.toughtripod.com and a few Lodge cast iron dutch ovens that hang from it (plus the standard open grille that came with it). I modified the handles on the dutch ovens with "quick links" welded to the handles so they don't slide over and dump the food onto the fire. I usually only cook breakfast in the coach everything else is either over the fire or by charcoal on my portable weber grill. Rainy days I will use an electric slow cooker for dinner or I get talked into locating a local hot spot for dinner out. I haven't figured out a way yet to bring a smoker with me yet, the one at home is too large, someday I will when I locate the right one that can be closed up and cleaned up easily. And its BBQ time!

My guess is they modify the space size or lube it up and get a running start?