jleamont

The only thing that I could see as a perceived problem is changing the fuel filters and priming them. We have a machine that connects to the housing after the filters are changed that primes the system. If you pay a dealer to do the work it shouldn’t be an issue, on the side of the road or at home could present a problem and I am not sure if there is another way around it without accidently introducing any dirt into the system.

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

Allegiance40x. We have around 300 DD13's in our fleet here at work. It is actually a Daimler product (more on the Mercedes Benz line, than the Detroit line) not at all like the good old Series 60. We have very minor problems with the DD13, (usually just sensors and DEF component problems never major internal failure) good engine, much better on fuel than the series 60 (we also run those as well). I have always liked the Series 60 it was a powerful dependable engine, good for a million miles if cared for properly. Most of the true Detroit designs dropped off when Detroit was sold to Daimler, but still a great product.

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.

bigben6969, Any update? Check and see if it has an auto start/auto stop feature. If so double check your settings. I accidentally turned on my auto shut down and it will not run if the batteries are close to a full charge, even if the A/C units are turned on, it will still shut down. Yea, it doesn't make sense but it was designed that way.

Roy, From experience inspect the hitch closely, our class C had two stickers on it, the hitch manufacture had it rated at 5000lbs with 500lbs of tongue weight. Coachmen had their decal with a warning "Maximum towing capacity 3000lbs and 150lbs of tongue weight". My guess was the frame extensions Coachmen installed onto the chassis were now the weak link so Coachmen backed it off. I followed the lessor and kept it under 3000lbs A.K.A I only pulled a small car or a golf cart. I found the Coachmen decal while installing roller wheels under the hitch, (that's a whole different story ) it was facing the front of the coach, while the hitch manufacture decal was facing the receiver portion of the hitch. Until that day I thought I could pull 5000lbs.

Let us know what he finds. I know I am curious.

ObedB, If I had a Dometic I probably would still have it. Our last coach it worked perfect and it was 16 years old. I just kept up on the maintenance and it kept our food cold or frozen.

wheelsandpaws, Here are a few locations to begin to look. Under the dinette seating (if booth equipped) Under the refrigerator or oven. Mounted to the ceiling in the storage area. I recall seeing them close to the circuit breaker box on older units especially if it doesn’t have slides. You can also try and follow where the shore power cable come into the unit 9 times out of 10 it is between where the cable comes in and the breaker panel. Usually the transfer switch, circuit breaker panel and convertor are in the same area. It will most likely involve removing a few access panels and looking around. Good luck.

I kept our old Pressure Pro system, the antenna that goes under the unit toward the back and all of the sensors, the batteries are all dead but I have them. I was considering sending them in for swap out but it bugs me is that I cannot replace them. I bought the InnoTech at the Hershey camping show since the batteries are replaceable and the entire system cost less than renewing my old sensors. looking back....not one of my better ideas. I do like the look of the EEZ TPMS.

Not on this application, but I did have them on my Jeep, no issues. I ran the Firestone Transforce HT and later the Bridgestone R250 in this size on our old coach. Both performed very well.

I just added it to my Phone. I will give it a try. Thanks

I now have an InnoTech in our coach. I bought it at Hershey last year; while it does work it also gives false readings. Which seems to happen on occasion when we pull off of the highway and park, as the tires begin to cool the alarm starts to go off reporting all six tires are leaking, never a problem for the toad. We had a Pressure pro in the last coach, and to be honest I wish I bought another Pressure Pro. While the installation was a bit more involved and the sensors do not have interchangeable batteries, it just worked flawlessly. Saved me on two occasions, once I had a tire tread separate which didn’t blow out just leaked, and the second time a braided ss valve stem extension started to leak.

Good point Rich, I might even go as far as replacing the breakers for the A/C units, the quality of those over the years has diminished, as with most products. If I remember correctly they cost me less than $85.00 for all of them. I had a problem with hot breakers in our last coach, no one could find anything wrong, I replaced them and the problem went away, now granted my last coach was 10 years older than rwitt's unit. If you are not comfortable working around have a service tech perform the task.

To late, I avoid the Ice Cream. We keep it for the kids, I am happy the beer is ice cold in the refrigerator, almost slush is the way I like it.

bm02tj, good example of a quality engineering team. I have never looked closely at a Renegade but it's good to know a manufacture was looking out for their customers when the design was on the drawing board. If we ever decided to go into a Super C I now know where to begin looking for a high quality unit.

Royclem, the Ford valve stems will get you a solid metal stem with a curve to direct away from the wheel. I used an extension kit I found on the web that had solid extensions with rubber inserts for support, simillar to the Alcoa oe design. Once these were installed I never had a leaking valve stem problem, the braided stainless steel ones seemed to become a problem after 2 years.

kwl0525, did the repair shop provide you with the location of the corrosion?

Thanks Tom. Your post was the main inspiration for us to move forward with our change over to a residential refrigerator (along with some of the new units being standard now). The industry seems to be going away from those absorption units. We to are also running the four 6v batteries (wet for now, when they get tired I will look at our battery options) with the inverter that came with the coach. We enjoy having the ability to have frozen ice cream on board and plenty of room inside for storage. I also now plug the coach in at home and leave the refrigerator on during the camping season and keep items inside so it’s less to pack when we do head out. Not that it matters much in a DP but the friends that helped carry the old unit out and place the new unit in our coach were commenting the other day about how much weight we removed from the unit when we pulled that Norcold out, we lightened up the coach by 125 lbs. I guess every bit helps. I agree, the refrigerator is low on my worry list now also.

Good point Bill! I would be more concerned with axle weight distribution from a single vs. Dual, the expense of changing wheel bearings or possibly hubs to accommodate the new offset. Most people fail to realize your axle housing, Hubs and bearings are all different when Super Singles are spec’d. If you are trying to lighten up for fuel economy change the inner wheel to aluminum. Also keep in mind traction can be a concern in bad weather including rain with the singles. I do not believe in this application the positives would outweigh the negatives. Traction is always the complaint I hear at work and we only run them if we are trying to hit a specific axle weight rating for permits and that is our last option.

Thanks Brett! I think this will become an annual PM and I might even give it another dose of cleaner this year just to make sure.