jleamont
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Posts posted by jleamont
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I tend to travel where my coach shifts into 6th gear at 65. in econ mode depending on speed limits and conditions.
Bill
WILDEBILL308, I have almost the same shifting pattern as you. I shift into 6th at 63MPH which has made me want to run at 64. I would rather prefer to run 60 in 6th since the RPM's are more desirable for fuel economy and the HP on the ISL is plenty strong to hold me there. I have tried to manually up shift but it will not let me.
joe
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ObedB,
Our coach has the Centramatics between the drive tires and nothing on the steer, which I thought was strange, but since I have no shimmy at all I figured I would leave it alone.
I also use STTC for my tires for work and home, they are good people, plus since we have a national Michelin account at work I keep STTC road service number in my phone just in case Coachnet drops the ball I have a back up plan. Michelin comes out once a year and provides training for our Mechanics at each terminal so I try to sit in to get a refresher on tire installation wear patterns etc. Good information there also and nice people. When I had noticed the wrong load rated tires on my steer axle I called STTC and they were willing to buy my old tires back and sell me new Michelins and they weren't the tire company that made the mistake in the first place. That really made me feel good about using them for our tire purchases.
While we are on the topic, how many of you carry a spare tire?
We do not, I have a 20 ton bottle jack and and tools to remove the wheels.
I have thought about it but cannot locate a good place to store it.
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The Separator has a water drain on the bottom but not a vent, I have drained it once for a few water beads and did not need to loosen the filter, it just gargled a bit. There is also a port with a plug for a water sensor if your application requires one, mine does not on the separator.
The check valve in built into the 90 degree elbow where my line in connects, very simple just a butterfly valve with a seal on the flap and a small spring to apply pressure.
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Tom and Rich,
Thank you for the responses. Tom you are most likely correct, there is probably adequate water going into the tank, it just seems like there is not enough and I worry about it. Before we leave on a trip I add water to the tank and place one of those eco pouches into the tank so there is always water in there sloshing around.
This year I started to use the clear 45 degree elbow with swivels ends from Camco, mostly because the hole in the compartment does not align with the outlet and it limited me to certain sewer hoses that I didn't care much for. After using the built in rinse that sprays the inside of the tank once or twice just prior to unhooking and leaving the campsite the water is always clear after that, so I am sure it is all out.
We have had friends clog theirs up on a travel trailer, the process to unclog was exhausting and I cannot imagine trying to rock a Class A DP in a campsite
. It is just one of those fears I have that more water seems to calm down.Rich, I replaced all of the mechanical parts on this just after we bought the coach (less than a year ago) due to a water leak into the bowl and the bowl would not hold water either. Other than the two leaks are gone it operates the same as before.
I guess I will have to overcome my fears. Thank you for the help guys.
Joe
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Does anyone else have this toilet and know of a way to get more water on a flush? It seems to be too conservative on a flush, worse when using the water pump vs. city water hook up. I find myself holding the button to add water to the bowl and reflushing for fear of not enough water in the black tank.
When we are operating on the water pump the toilet stops before the pump is at full pressure/volume so very little water enters during a flush, so I turn on the sink to get the pump to cycle on then flush the toilet.
I have the water adjustment switch set to maximum water output already.
It's just one of those annoying things that if there is a solution great....if not I will just live with it, too much thought goes into something as simple as flushing a toilet.
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Tireman9, How did you make out with the repairs?
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We have ordered several different brackets from them on different occasions. Only one time did we have a problem, the wrong brackets were shipped. I called them, they apologized and sent me the correct ones.
Very nice people I have no complaints.
My orders were from their website which directed me to Pay Pal for payment.
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Clarinetone,
The best way I have found is locate the electrical connector under the seat, disconnect it (it is your seat belt chime). There are 4 studs in the floor with 18mm nuts that are holding the seat base to the cab floor, remove the nuts and remove the seat from the cab. Once you flip it over you will see the bolts that secures the seat to the base. Once you remove those four, remove the base and the seat track is staring at you. Just be sure whatever you do to make sure you have adequate room behind the seat to allow for the additional travel.
The Ford cab has always had this problem. If you ever have the opportunity to see one before the body is installed the seats in their rear most position go beyond the rear wall. The Class C we traded last year had this same issue and my legs would cramp on long trips. Ours was a Coachmen and there was no additional room behind the seats, so I had to live with it.
Hope this helps, good luck.
Joe
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Wayne, here also 1 year or 15,000 miles on my 2001 ISL. I think the interval changed with oil and filter quality improvements over the years. I know my part number for my oil filter just changed again this year with a few internal improvements (Fleetguard filter) aftermarket still the same part number from several revisions ago, not sure if the internals have changed. I only use Fleetguard (OEM Cummins) on this coach.
The part that is tuff for me I only put 5000 miles a year on this unit so I never get my money out of the service.
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Obedb, my coach has a Fleetguard FS1015 separator before the lift pump with a clear bowl on the bottom (and a one way check valve on the housing between the tank and pump) and a Fleetguard FS1022 after the lift pump(before the injection pump)And I hear you on the rear radiator, as much as I like keeping things simple the side mounted fan does help when you are performing maintenance or a repair. It's a toss-up, side mounted you lose storage and more things to go wrong, rear mounted more difficult to work on. I am sure your unit is as bad as mine to get underneath and my Roadmaster chassis jack stand locations are always in your way, every time I crawl under it which is an entire process to prep for I always end up talking to myself with some choice words, on a good note it reminds me why I left the new truck dealership 12 years ago that use to work on these daily
.Racor makes a great filter, I have cut many of each open and the Racor, Donaldson, and Fleetguard (might all be made by Racor, I'm not sure) were all constructed with attention to detail inside and Racor is the OEM filter manufacture for a few automobile manufactures with strict requirements.
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Royclem, thank you for the information, we were thinking about a trip up there soon and this was on my list. I always hesitate when traveling to a place with mixed reviews (as most have).
Joe
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Obedb,
I have two filters on mine, but they are to the left and right of the engine and very easily to get at, easier then adding oil. I also thought about installing a kit.
I saw on a 5.9 Cummins with two fuel filters and a lift pump, since my pump is on the engine and the fuel tank has 38' of suction line going to the back it seemed to make sense. I was going to put it above the fuel tank which would make the serviceability very simple. My Cummins rep talked me out of it and told me to replace my fuel pump since it had several updates that made it much stronger with better suction capabilities. I figured it ran for the last 12 years this way without problems why redesign the fuel system and possibly cause another problem, plus that kit was expensive.
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Woofer01,
I have-- those are a standard on most Ambulances on a Ford E450 or GMC 4500 Savanna chassis. While I have not experienced problems on those vehicles I did have them chafe on my wheel simulators on the Class C I used to own. The Ambulance only runs short distances while an RV runs long distances at highway speeds. My class C was a Ford chassis and it had the small holes in the wheels for those to pass through not like the photo above, which Ford changed to in the mid 2000's (2008 I believe).
I ended up sliding a rubber hose over the part where it came through the wheel and placing a wire tie to hold it in place, while driving the hoses would flex and bang against the simulator which caused two to fail on me. My TPMS system saved me both times.
The coach we have now I have solid extensions that utilize a rubber grommet on the outer wheel for support.
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KURTDEN, are you sure you have an "aftercooler"? I have not seen one of those until recently in a 2011 Ford F550 6.7L Powerstroke before that it was mid 80's. Rule of thumb an aftercooler is not in line with the radiator, an innercooler is (usually sits in front of the radiator to allow air to pass through to cool the air charge to the engine) and will usually only have the duct piping to and from the turbocharger while an aftercooler uses the cooling system to cool the air charge being fed into the engine.
Your coach and mine should be very similar and I do not have an aftercooler.
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Thanks Herman, I met a few folks at Hershey in the FMCA booth. I can't seem to find their information, but they were members to our local chapter, if I wait until September at hershey the season will almost be over.
Thanks, look forward to hearing from you
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suannz
Welcome to the Forum. Have you'all joined a chapter? Chapters are great places to meet new friends. They will all have stories and experiences. Also going to area and National Rallies give you great camping and new friends from all over North America.
Let us know what area you live in and we can direct you to chapters in your area.
Again Welcome.
Herman
Herman, can you guide me to my local chapter? I was going to wait until the Hershey show and ask at the booth.
I live between Philadelphia and Harrisburg PA in the heart of PA dutch country Lancaster County.
Thank you
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Obedb I like your idea of the test jar! I will have to give that a try.
Thanks for a great idea. -
George, do you have an auto start stop feature on the generator? The only reason I ask is I just had this problem with ours, my batteries were full and the generator would shut down before the a/c units had a chance to turn on.
I thought I had a problem but the auto off feature was set to 98% of battery life and it was doing just as it should, I assumed it would know the a/c was on but it didn't. My guess is the roof tops had not turned on yet so there was not enough of a load. Once I disabled the auto feature everything worked fine.
Lessons learned here.
Joe -
Medico, thank you! I figured ours out tonight, after reading your post today I was determined to figure this out and make it right. By the way love your coach, very sharp unit.
We have an HWH series 600.
Step 1. Check air pressure I was at 100 psi engine off, I figured this was enough to complete the task at hand.
Step 2. I manually leveled the coach with the up and down arrows, verified with a level on the kitchen floor I was level. Both slides were out.
Step 3. With the air system on I had two yellow lights on in the front and right side, (this means the system thinks we are not level when we actually were) I located the leveling sensor (that was the hardest part of this simple task) (looks like a UFO with a wiring harness, three screws and springs between the ceiling and the body of the sensor). Ours was located in the ceiling of the same bay as our inverter, under the kitchen.
Step 4. My wife sat in the drivers seat and I adjusted the screws until the yellow lights went out.
Step 5, Verification: I purposely changed the position of the unit, dumped the air bags, and pressed the air switch twice and it leveled. My back up compressor turned on which I never knew it worked since I never have heard this turn on.
I was shocked how simple this was.
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KURTDEN, all of the ones I looked at also listed Cummins OEM spec/perf but when I dug into it they really were not performing as well in a few areas, that threw up a few red flags and i walked away frustrated but happy i looked at them.
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Not sure but it's pretty neat.
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Kurtden, I called Monaco for ours as Brett recommended above, they were very helpful. Double check the specs for the Rotella ELC and compare to the Fleetgard Cummins OEM coolant. I just changed ours this year and I was unsuccessful locating aftermarket coolant that matched or exceeded the Cummins product, mostly PH and Alkalinity were off and did not meet the Cummins requirement, I do not recall if I looked at the Shell product.
I bought the Cummins product pre mixed I felt saving a few bucks was not worth the risk since the wrong coolant could cost an engine down the road and seemed like a good investment.
As far as getting the air out...if you have a friend that is a mechanic see if you can borrow his or her cooling system vacuum fill tool, or maybe rent one at a local auto parts store. It draws the cooling system into a vacuum and will draw coolant from the gallon jugs filling the entire system and when you are done there is no air in the system, also test your radiator cap, or just replace it, more cheap insurance, mine cost me $8.00. I cannot speak for the ISC but double check, it might have a coolant filter, if so be sure to change it also, since the coolant is new you should not one with the "pre charge" pellets in it, but while you are on the phone with Monaco ask.
The cooling system is large and I drained each section I.e. Radiator, heater core, engine and blew 8psi of shop air through the Aquahot and hoses since our cooling system is routed through that also, it was a dirty job but I can sleep better knowing the engine is protected properly.
Good luck, happy travels!
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rfsod48,
I second what Rich said above.
We have experienced this at least four times...and yes the same campground on two different occasions. I have a surge protector that hangs from the tower and will shut the coach off when voltage drops to low or surges to high. Inside the coach I have a device that plugs into an outlet (digital line monitor) that will set off an audible alarm when there is a voltage problem as a back up. Once one sounds off or the power goes out from the device on the tower I shut the tower off, pull the plug, start the generator and call the office.
I almost lost our last coach due to this problem, the voltage dropped....amperage spiked and the breaker panel in the coach started to melt the neutral wiring, thankfully we were in the unit and had just finished eating breakfast when I noticed the electrical burning smell. Today I will not hook up to a tower unless my surge/spike protector gives the all OK (LED light).
Good luck and don't trust the tower.
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Rorytug, I had the Banks Power pack on our last coach (Class C Ford with the V10) while it did accelerate and pull stronger I didn't notice any fuel economy benefits, if anything it might have gotten worse.
The Banks transmission programmer (Transcommand) paired up with a Bullydog deep aluminum pan was a huge improvement on my transmission temperature. Depending on the year of your coach you may only benefit from the deeper transmission pan. Let me clarify; if you have a 5 speed automatic with a tow haul button the programmer I doubt will do much for shift improvements and I am not sure it is even offered for that transmission (5R110 model), Ford had that model dialed in nice already.
We had the older 4 speed (4R100 model) that would hunt for the right gear often and had a sloppy shift into each gear.
If I had to do it all over I would have made the changes to the transmission and saved the rest of the money spent to put in the tank and hit the road.
Diesel Motorhome MPG-- Honest Answers Please
in Type A motorhomes
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Here is an example of what I had discovered as the root cause of a no start condition. This is photo is from a B20 mixture in early March in South Eastern Pennsylvania on a customers vehicle. I seem to have lost the photo of the cartridge filter that was pulled, but it looked like someone buttered it. I avoid bio diesel, if I must use it in a pinch I always put an additive in the tank just as a precaution and only purchase enough to get me to the next fuel location.