jleamont

I did the bondo fiberglass mat and put washers in the glass, just drilled them out after it dried. This unit I bought new covers, $92.00 each

Brett, thanks for the link from the other post. I took your advice and bought two bottles of the Extreme Simple Green and cleaned mine out tonight. My coach has an aluminum fin assembled in front of the side mounted radiator stack. I removed the 6 self tapping screws and pulled the fin assembled off, next I removed the dash A/C condenser and supported it with a bungee cord so it didn't hang and swung it aside. My bed slide is just above so I put it out 3" to attach the bungee cord from the track. I poured both bottles into a garden pump sprayer and hosed it down on both sides and due to the long nozzle on the pump sprayer I was able to get between the CAC and Radiator and soak them both down. Here's where it got dirty, Mike Rowe could have made a show about this. I crawled under the coach in a position where the radiator was across my chest and lap area, and began to spray the garden hose from the fan side toward the outer wall, then on the outside toward the fan, then up between until I saw water bubbling out of the CAC (front side). What ran out resembled a light chocolate milk, I continued until I only saw water no matter where I sprayed. I tried the light trick but I couldn't get my head behind the fan to look toward the outside so I figured I would clean it anyway for a good maintenance practice. Needless to say wear swimming goggles and old clothes, you will be showering just after, I was completely soaked as if I jumped into a pool with my clothes on, with dirt all over. The cleaning product had no effect on my skin. I bought the bottles at Pep Boys for $9.99 each. I am not sure what to expect since I never reach 205 degrees on a 7% grade fully loaded towing, but if it's less I will take it, normally I run at 185 degrees.

Good to know, headed to South Carolina Friday, I have 120 gallons on board now (full tank) I will be certain to fill up there, from what I read it was cheaper. I usually look for the signs when I am driving and stop where it is the most cost effective with the lowest bio reading or NO BIO

Royclem, I put them on our old coach, E450 (same wheels). I bought mine from the Ford dealer, Funny thing I just saw one still in the package in my tool box the other day. Ford part number, 2C3Z-1700-AA. They became standard in later years and they used the same wheels up to 2008 on the E350 and E450, in 2008 they switched to a 4 hand hole design from the 10 small holes around the wheel. Sorry I do not remember what they cost. Joe

Roy, I replaced the LED in each of my handles (one inside and one outside) they were only equipped with one at the top, they light up the entire handle

I am still laughing at this comment.

Ray, I agree with the CB, our coach has a Cobra, the one with all of the controls built into the Mic. I have only turned it on once just for kicks, it got annoying really fast and I shut it off. FYI the wife loves that dash cam, good info you provided on that, thanks again. Almost took out a Honda Civic a few weeks back and the camera would have been my witness. I was quite impressed how well the coach came to a screeching stop with Fire Apparatus brakes on it.

I saw one on a Kenworth chassis last year in PA and it was really nice looking. I guess the higher end units would be built better maybe better engineered, I do not know but I would spend a day crawling under one before I would ever consider another.

Alan, generally the only access is to lower the fuel tank down. Anytime I had to access on a gas powered Class A coach that was how I had to do it. Depending on how much fuel is inside the tank can make it a real challange as most fuel caddies cannot handle that much fuel. I have changed several fuel pump/sending units over the years on customers RV's and I have always resorted to pulling the tank down with the exception of the Class C Ford Chassis we owned, you could actually remove a plate in the driver side rear fender well push it aside and reach in to the top of the tank, the coach body was mounted high enough off of the frame to allow the pump/sending unit to be removed.

That is about 45 minutes from my house, every time we head south on I95 I pass that....yep even in the coach, I never stop I am usually into the throttle to get over the "White Knuckle" bridge just south of that. There is a fear among truckers with that weight station, they chew everything to pieces there and most will travel RT1 to avoid it. Maybe next time through I will stop and see if they will weigh all four corners and do me a favor.

Nice coach! looks great for the age.

Anyone install the Girard Awning retrofit LED light kit into their Girard awning? I just ordered it and while i was looking through the instructions on line they seem to be straight forward but speaking to someone who has actually completed the installation would be better.

A few years ago I worked for a small construction co as their shop manager, we rarely wore out a tire, most were destroyed on a job site, with that being said I always bought the cheapest tire I could find, at the time they were Westlakes from China. I never had a problem with them and we ran those on the entire fleet including the tractors moving equipment. Now, ride quality was not a concern nor was it ever compared to any other tire manufacture and as we know one manufacture to another can provide better handling and ride comfort, usually is based on the tread design.

royclem, to answer you question YES. The toughest part in my eyes would be locating an illuminated handle assembley that fits over your existing mounting holes so they do not have to be filled in. All of the handles I have seen are 12volt DC and most are LED so the next task would be to locate a 12v source close to the area where the handle is mounted. nwrv supply has them listed on their web site, I have called them before for measurements on items prior to purchasing and i am sure there are other RV supply places you can look into also. Joe

From what I saw they were simple, just remove the bulbs and ballast, the LED's connect to the 12v wire going into the fixture with wire nuts and they usually are just double sided taped to the inside of the light fixture. Most of mine are 18" so the cost made me shiver a bit. they are on my list of things to do.

Funny you mentioned that. The RV front wall is Fiberglass reinforced Plywood; tractors with sleepers and ambulances are aluminum or metal of some sort. The FRP construction is cheap and you know what the saying is "you get what you pay for". I believe that it would work if they took on the technology the truck body companies use when the build a cut a way chassis truck. They actually order the chassis with the same mounts down the frame as the cab is mounted with additional mount insulators. Basically the cab and box is attached and sitting on the frame with the same mounts going from the front to the back, same with Ambulances, they just have an all aluminum box. One main difference is the overall length, the longer the frame the more of a twisting action you get, plus all of the Class C RV's I have seen are mounted to the chassis frame with no body cushion mounts just bolted or welded directly to the frame, so while the cab is on rubber and the chassis is moving under it the RV body is fighting to hold the cab in place, also while the chassis is trying to flex the RV body is holding it in place and sending all of that energy through the coach body which is this is where the failure starts. When we were having our problems I started to do research to see if I could correct the poor design. After years at a dealer swapping new ambulance chassis to the old body and working on Cut A Way chassis in general it was obvious to me where the ball had dropped. I actually called two truck body manufactures and went up to look over a few, good to know people that explained to me the Ford and GM supplied this as an option to them that they always order. In previous years (25+ ago) they did not and were experiencing the same problems we were having. I guess it is the old "buyer beware", we had the front wall fixed again and I traded it in, just had enough. You probably remember the sleepers that had the accordion gasket between the cab and sleeper, that’s why, even back then truck manufactures and truck body companies had it figured out.

I did our last coach, compartment lights, interior lights and exterior lights, it was great after. This coach has 24 fluorescent tubes inside plus the vanity lights, Rope lighting around the windows and under the counters (which looks like they are led) and theatre pods in the celling, under the cabinets which are all halogen with dimmers (22 of those) since we almost never dry camp and I only turn those on once in a while It’s not likely these pods will be swapped out. Little by little I will swap them out, probably as the tubes fail unless I get a good deal on a package and I have about 6 tubes out now. Last year at the Hershey RV show there was a company which I think may have been cabinbright with a display and some steep discounts if you were purchasing a lot of lights for a conversion, since we only had the coach for a short time and I could not remember what length tubes or how many were in the coach, I passed and just changed the Sconces and Dinette fixture on the inside, outside I have changed the clearance lights and the storage compartments. I am going to see this year at Hershey if i can strike a deal to change the light tubes and vanities. I like the LED's for the brightness and cooler operating temps; the voltage usage is a bonus. I did opt and ordered the exterior lights in LED. I would like to put LED's under the Girard Awning that would be great for some light when you don’t need it to be too bright.

I just wanted to share with everyone a new supplier that you may or may not be aware of for light fixtures made by Thin Lite: World Wide Light, they are located in Indiana. Phone number 1-800-247-6324 One of my Porch lights has a broken on off switch outside on the housing (Thin Lite Model 162A), I called Monaco they could only sell me a new light, they explained to me that no individual parts are available for this model except the bulbs and lenses and a new fixture would cost $130.00 when I asked if it would be LED now I was told no it is only available in Fluorescent. So I called Thin Lite, they referred me to the distributor listed above, when I spoke to World Wide Light (great service and support also) I was told the switch and rubber boot were $3.49, they also advised me that there is an LED conversion kit for my lights for an additional $57.00 per light fixture. I just wanted to put this out there in case anyone needed any light fixture parts, I am not sure if they carry other product lines but it would be well worth a phone call.

Brett, great advice. FYI Simple Green Extreme can be found at Home Depot, Amazon, Pep Boys and Sears (i just did a quick web search). Oh yea, Brett good luck with you new career

Suzzanne, we also have a Monaco product, we have two different electrical outlets behind the fridge, One has 120VAC when connected to shore power, generator is on or the Inverter is on. The other....well I am not sure, the one time I checked it it had no power, since I only needed one for the new fridge I plugged into the other outlet. Originally I believe the fans above the old fridge were connected to the outlet with "no power". On ours you can see these by removing the outside wall vent cover and looking up and to the left. It would be best to check them with a volt meter if you are comfortable doing so.

Sooooo if I am reading this correctly..... there are no access panels in the floor of your coach? I would also recomend thay clean out the radiator and CAC that is good maintenance. All of the rear radiator units we had looked at either had a large door under the bed or a few access panels in the floor some were hidden.

Suzzanne, we also have a residential fridge with our coach running off of the inverter, no solar (I did consider it) we use ours going down the road all the time, the chassis engine keeps the house batteries charged. When we park the generator is set to auto start at 65% and auto shut down at 96% if we are not plugged into shore power. Please report back on how the solar system keeps the batteries I am curious. Now back to the no power issue, check your circuit breakers and GFI outlets within the coach sounds like one is tripped. especially since one side has no power.

Good info Rich. So what did you do? Here's my story around hot water heaters in RV's Our last coach had a 6 gallon Atwood gas only hot water heater. I removed it and tossed into the trash, honestly the DW told me if she ever takes a cold shower (and she likes to shower long) the coach will GO AWAY. So after testing it a few times and only having hot water for a few minutes I decided to pull the unit and replace it with a tankless, best idea I ever had (i got to keep that coach for 6 years. The unit required no regular maintenance and was very efficient on propane. Now with latest coach it has the Hydronic system we still have the ability to take long showers, but she picked this coach so if it could not not keep up with her showers I would hang my hat on that....I am still sure I would loose.

Caution with regards around safety. Your chassis was crash tested to work in conjunction with the seats, frames and occupant ride height etc in the cab all engineered and installed by GM and passed testing mandated by the feds. I would hate to hear of a passenger becoming injured due to the space requirements or structure set by GM if they were compromised by an unauthorized modification. Maybe someone makes a seat base for your cab that is authorized by GM to be installed into it? At least they have paperwork authorizing their product to be installed into your cab to work in conjunction with the dash height etc. I would pass on the idea of fabricating something that would fit. I had a request a few years ago and the OEM would not allow us to replace the seats in a cab with seats that they offered as an option, it became a big deal over what I thought was a simple request. Just my two cents.

RocKen, nice jeep!