jleamont

I was thinking the same, one on every corner around these parts

Wow, great trip! From Gettysburg to Niagara, what route did you take? We want to do this next year and I was also curious about border crossing in an RV, was it a hassle? The Grand Canyon, did you take the train ride from their campground?

No issues here either, I just replaced the top this year, not from towing....it was 12 years old and the zippers were breaking.

Good luck! There are some nice used units out there, depending on where you live and how far you are willing to travel for them.

rhart, Going back to some old...memories, we bought our 1st coach in Feb 2008 and a tow dolly but often the specific campground was our destination so no need for the car, plus the dolly when we did bring it was tough to find a place to park it and a bigger pain to tie the car down. One day late in 2009 I was under the coach installing roller wheels under the hitch since I had bottomed it out so often (11' of body after the rear axle) I was trying to save the coach underside, I looked up and saw a sticker on the front side of the hitch where no normal person could read it that stated something like "caution 3000lbs maximum towing capacity" "Coachmen part# xxxx00000". I started to feel sick to my stomach as I was calculating the weights in my head the dolly was a few hundred pounds and the car was 3000 + this decal was facing the rear axle under the back side of the hitch. Just under the bumper where you connect to the hitch was a decal from the hitch manufacture rated at 5000 lbs., I saw that and thought I could pull 5000 lbs. when we bought it a year ago great! Shouldn't have listened to the DW I wanted a Safari DP at the time and I just should have bought it then...different story. So I sold the tow dolly and we were not going to take any chances and tow our car any longer, at the time the kids were 6 and 8 so destination campgrounds for them became a routine and the lack of transportation was not a big deal. There were a few occasions I did unhook and go to a store, I ground my teeth all the way to and from the store. We started to only go to destination campgrounds that had a good size campstore, yea,everyone reading this is laughing right about now. Then we bought a golf cart and trailer, never brought the car again. Funny how towing the golf cart in an enclosed trailer was more of a drag on the unit from the wind resistance on the trailer than towing the car was, but I was under 3000lbs so that’s how we rolled for a few years. Now I very rarely go anywhere without the Toad and we pull with a tow bar (no more dolly). I finally bought the DP 5/2014 close to what I have always wanted so the jeep we had purchased in 2012 and only drove on occasion graduated to the "Toad" status. Before you make your decision, think about the future, how long you will most likely have the coach and don't do what I did, looking back that was a lot of money. Since you are looking toward the Class C be sure it is rated to tow what you have or are considering on purchasing soon since IMO you will be lost without your car.

Next step....why the open fuse? High resistance in the fan motor? Chafed harness? Perhaps try and shake the wiring around while the fan is running (keep your fingers, hands and loose clothing away from any moving parts), look for chafe points where the wires pass through.

Thanks Brett. Hopefully next year one will be closer to home.

Tom, good points mentioned above. I have washed our several times and I just had it waxed for the first time to protect the fiberglass from UV. I just have to remember to walk carefully now as it may have become slippery with the wax.

Does anyone know if any are planned for PA,NJ,MD, VA in the future? I would love to go and experience it, working full time with a family makes it tough.

Good to hear, with the different floor plans sometimes it can be tough. Nice looking coach also. Safe travels!

I did it on our last coach by 400 lbs. Much different coach than what you have. We had a Class C With a V10 Ford, it pulled......OK, no over temp transmission issues, really no concerns ever noticed other than a serious lack of power and it killed what little gas mileage I had. Our jeep has a floor positioned brake box so stopping was not really a concern, although you knew it was behind you until the box kicked in, I increased my following distance just in case. I had done this a few dozen times before I realized I was over, once I did I stopped and we upgraded the coach. Knowing it is over I would not take the risk. Just curious, what is the hitch rated at on the coach? The reason i ask is my hitch was rated at 5000lbs, Coachmen had a sticker "do not tow over 3000lbs", on the opposing side of the hitch facing forward, I noticed it long after I towed with it.

Good to hear. How hard was it to access on your coach?

rhart, Our last coach had rubber, when I bought it the original roof was on it and it was dried out and cracked, so I had the dealer replace it. The dealer told me every six months climb up and inspect all of the lap sealant around the roof vents, antenna's etc. If you see cracks, remove it carefully with a putty knife and replace the lap sealant. There is a bunch of videos on YouTube that shows how to do it. While it was a pain and involved a little labor I didn’t mind so much. The original roof was 9 years old when it failed, it looked like no one had ever took care of it, by that I mean keeping it clean, and once/twice a year spraying the rubber roof conditioner on it to keep the rubber soft. We have a fiberglass roof now, I would have preferred aluminum, I still have to do the inspections, now I use the rubber roof tape in lieu of the lap sealant and I still have to wax the roof, from what I can see the maintenance on fiberglass is easier and cheaper but the initial expense is more. One thing I noticed the fiberglass roof is quieter in the rain, much less interior noise. Personally I would not do anything less than fiberglass if I had to do it again. One thing to caution, what is on top of the slides?? I have seen some new Jayco products with raw luan wood under the topper with a painted product on it, which looked like to me a huge miss by an engineer. When I asked the dealer their response was "well it has a slide topper no water will get up there, what else do you need"? Anyone who has ever camped in the rain will tell you water will find it's way under the slide topper and on top of the slide. Some have the rubber membrane and some have an aluminum or Stainless steel caps, try to save yourself headaches down the road, see if they can be aluminum or stainless steel capped with a topper above it.

jbrooks357, I just went through this for a friend with a Ford battery cable. I searched the web and found a co in Texas (oddly it was a family owned oil co, I cannot locate the name) but they buy obsolete parts from the Ford and resell them and there are several companies around the US that does the same. I started by searching for the part number on the web.

Tireman9, well said and I agree. I am sure Born Free is holding their vendors feet to the fire, most likely they are recouping some labor back as well. They obviously care about their customer's enough to staff accordingly to handle such a task.

Considering you are basicially removing, other than what kaypsmith said you should be good. I did the opposite, I removed the 2 chairs and the buffet/hutch and installed a booth. The only two concerns I had was the Hydro heat exchangers and fans, and when I mounted the booth what was underneath the floor that I could possibility drill into. I made a box for both heat exchangers from the left over wood from the hutch I had removed, remounted those, removed the basement ceiling and pulled all of the wires, air lines, fuel lines aside drilled, bolted and put all of that back, reinstalled the ceiling. good luck with your project

Paulrl, I agree with Herman. While you are in VT and if you like ice cream, add the Ben and Jerry's factory tour to your list. We have always wanted to go and check the place out, from what we saw on the travel channel it looks like a neat stop. safe travels!

rwitt, What model A/C units do you have? Do they have heat pumps in them also?

WildBill95, If it were my coach I would have changed the oil shortly after the repair was made, run the unit for maybe another 3000 miles, pull an oil sample and see what the results are. Oil sampling is going to be your best friend. We have the Volvo D11 and D13 in the fleet at work that seem to experience oil cooler failures, which results in coolant in the crankcase like your coach. Until the oil samples come back the unit will accumulate 12-15000 miles before we even knew there was a problem to ground the tractor. We correct the situation, and perform another oil change usually within 3-5000 miles, run the unit for another 10000-15000 miles and pull another sample and look over the results. I cannot ever recall any engine failures, maybe one or two that only went to 900000 miles and not to a million. In this application the rest of the coach would be long worn out by then. If you are like me I would sweat that out the entire life of the unit and every time I pulled the dipstick I would stand there dabbing it onto a white cloth trying to see if I saw anything that looked suspicious. I did have a customer a few years back with an International Maxxforce that took out the liners at 80,000 miles, just out of warranty, it was loaded with coolant to the point it was leaching out of the oil cap from the crankcase pressure, We put liners and pistons in the engine, no bearing damage that we could find, it's still running today and the last time I bumped into the him it had almost 200,000 miles on it.

This is our second coach, 1st no slides this one two slides. We searched for a DP with no slides...no such luck. Now I have two and one leaked the other day. The seals do not unflold all the way when the slide goes out so I think that caused the leak, I now have to carry a ladder so I can manually unfold the seals once they are open. We do not spend much time inside or parked so we do not need them, just more hassles.

Just returned from a week trip to Myrtle Beach, with all of the updates it could not locate Myrtle Beach SC, good thing I mapped my path directly to the campground from home prior to leaving. Very sad, pathetic to put it nicely! It will be retired at this point and something else will be sought out.

I can add to this from experience. The chassis manufactures always insist on an alignment after the "body" has been installed, which makes sense, with the weight distribution changing how could the chassis manufacture possibly know that ahead of time, think about it, floor plan would play a part on each individual vehicle. This information is supplied to the body company in the "body builder’s guide" which is supplied to each authorized body company by each chassis manufacture. The sad part is most are not aware of such manual which also provides them with important information like where certain electrical tap ins are located for things like tail lights etc., wire color codes etc. I have bumped heads with different body companies over the years about this and sadly the body co.’s engineering team and the chassis engineering team are very disconnected most have never seen the guide nor do they follow it. I agree...the coach manufacture should be responsible for seeing this through, as well as not over loading the chassis, since they are the final assembler. Nothing frustrated me more than crawling under a vehicle, with the chassis manufactures tail and body lamp harness sitting there unused with a weather tight connector pigtail hanging on the frame and the body co running their own right past it with wire taps into the harness toward the front of the chassis, the poor mechanic usually finds it in 2-3 years when none of the lights work or the frame cracked because it was welded onto when it was not supposed to be. Seems like everyone is so busy maximizing their profits and assembly speed they forgot about the reason they are in business...the consumer.

BWJoyner, I have attached a photo of what you are looking for on your engine, it should resemble the photo (yours is probably painted the color of the engine assuming it has never been replaced) These are a common failure on the 3126E and C7 CAT with the HEUI fuel system. Usually they will seep oil into the electrical connector through the sensor and cause a malfunction. If I recall they cost around $150.00 and are located on the passenger side of the engine on top to the left of the valve cover (opposite side of the turbocharger) about 1/4 way down the engine behind the belts, directly across from the oil fill in the valve cover, it is screwed into the cylinder head. Depending on you engine access it should be fairly simple to inspect/change, depending on what tools and skill level you have. You may have to clean or even replace the connector depending how oil soaked it is. CAT did make a connector pigtail kit for the problem. Good luck

My wife and I just discussed this last night, very hard to calculate MPG when you have other items pulling diesel fuel also. We ran the coach for 564 miles, boon docked at a truck stop generator was on the entire time with both roof A/C units running, once we arrived the Aqua Hot was set to "ON" for 7 days. Shut off the Aqua hot, started the generator and drove another 575 miles home, boon docked again on the way home with the generator on and both roof tops also on still. We used 134 gallons of fuel round trip, 41 hours on the generator. I ran with the cruise set at 60mph and for quite some time I had a strong head wind (fighting the steering wheel). I do not know what the Aqua hot used but looks like somewhere around 8.5 MPG plus what the aqua hot consumed for 7 days if I had to take a guess. I did not feel like we spent too much on fuel. seemed good with us considering how large the coach is, towing 3400lbs, full tank of water and always over 1/2 tank of fuel. After all...... it was still cheaper than a hotel, and a lot more comfortable.