jleamont

I saw this earlier today, just glad they walked away, hard to believe when you see the video.

Kaypsmith, nice work. My wife and I considered a bus conversion up until last year when we settled for the Class A we have now. Do you have photos of before and after? Joe

Loved it! everyone of those was so true I can remember saying those on our last trip. Thank you for the good laugh.

ddbecker, ITC 86430-LED If you copy and paste this on their web site it will give you color options. I figured I would share this, since I know I am not the only one having this problem, most are thinking they need new handles. Good luck. Joe

Ok, I answered my own question. Very simple, remove handle, clip wires, (note your colors) remove upper mount (just a press fit) replace light pod, reassemble, my o-rings were bad so I used A/C o-rings I had in the garage, reconnect wires (I used butt connectors, so did Monaco) Reinstall and caulk the outside handle. To my surprise I removed LED lights from the handles. Start to finish took less than 1/2 hour for both handles. I bought the lights on Amazon for $9.95 each and they looked just like the original lights I removed.

Anyone ever successfully replaced their grab handle lighting with an LED upgrade? The interior and exterior handles do not light anymore and they both have power and ground. New old stock replacements are too expensive. My current handles appear to have light tubes molded into the handle. Just wondering if anyone had an experience to share with retrofitting these into their existing lights.

I ran 15W40 in our's when we had the gasser. It was a Microlite 4000 Onan. Seemed like the best fit for all seasons, I had called Onan at that time and they recommended it. Just my two cents . Joe

Honestly I would look at a Magellan and Garmin. I have a Garmin in my co car, it also had some serious problems. I called them and together we went through a reset process and updated it, still not working properly, I sent it back and they swapped it out, the replacement works great. After their customer service experience at Rand McNally I'm not sure I would by a paper map if they printed it. Joe

Herman, I like your quote "I'm making a list and checking it twice to see which is wrong or nice". Thats how we roll from now on!

Dan.duwe, thanks for the advice. Good Sam was taking me I-390 to NY436 through Portageville NY then RT39 to RT19 to RT78. Are you familiar with this route? I actually mapped this route out and I was thinking it might be a good way to go since from the map the roads looked larger.

dkreuzen, What shocks were on your coach from the factory? Was there a brand name on them?

Campcop, Wow, thats a bad way to start your trip. Funny you mentioned the towing. While I was on the side of the road in OK you could hear off in the distance an engine wound out getting closer...... and here comes an old Chevy 1500 pick up pulling a fifth wheel TT with a car trailer hitched on the back of the TT with a truck on it. I looked at the police officer and said "and you stopped me?" His response was, "whats wrong with that"? I just shook my head and responded "UHH, the truck is extremely overloaded and how well do you think that stops, or handles the winds out here on these flat lands"? he shrugged his shoulders. And I am worried about towing a 3400lb jeep wrangler behind a 40' bus in a 60' combination, just depends where you are traveling. I will say we have seen some really funny things on the highway traveling.

Anyone camped here before? I am looking for some help with driving directions to the campground. We will be coming from the south east up I-390 (from PA) and across NY436. Or should we take I-86 and up NY16 to NY98 and enter from the southwest? I cannot tell if this is in the mountains or not, and we have never traveled into NY with the motorhome, before. Thanks, Joe

Thanks Shelia. We are also using two now and my wife has a map collection and it seems to be working to see which route is the one to take.

Thanks for the information. After reading this yesterday I measured our combo last night. We check in at 60'.2" I struggle with the thought of a jeep wrangler 2 door being too long to tow behind a 40' motorhome (actually 41'6") but none the less it seems odd. I only seem to get stopped in Oklahoma, twice that is on the same trip on I-44 at the toll booths. Both times they claimed I did not use my right signal when the officer was sitting on the driver’s side of the unit at about the 11:00 position, not sure about you but I cannot see through any vehicle let alone a motorhome. I explained to the officer that when you are turning right only the right blinker will flash, when you are sitting where you were you view is blocked. The first one got mad the second trooper laughed and that’s when he admitted they stop most of the RV's that pass through. They make it a point to stop RV's looking for illegal aliens or drug runners. Both times they asked me what I was doing, where I was headed and where I came from they asked my wife the same question while we were separated. Neither time was a citation issued, which was good since I had my turn signal on.

Brett, do you have an updated "Motorhome regulation Chart"? The link above no longer works and I wanted to see what states have changed their laws since. Thank you, Joe

Tom, Just as ObedB stated, once you cross the Tappanzie bridge DO NOT get on rt15 (Merritt Parkway). The parkway is a beautiful ride in a car but the bridges are low (9-10'). It's well posted but a GPS will most likely try and send you that way. Safe travels. Joe

Wildebill, I know all about your winds down there. We took our last coach (Coachmen 311SB) accross the country in the summer of 08. While driving accross the Panhandle the wind and rain were so strong I had the steering wheel at 5:00 to go straight, by the time we got to Arizona all of the caulk on the bunk was gone and we started to de-laminate. Good times, best vacation we ever had other than the beating the coach took.

I would really like to switch my shift pad to the newer type that displays the actual gear you are in, when I am trying to relax and take in the scenery I find myself counting shifts in my head. Not sure if this can be accomplished by just changing the shifter? Brett, I will have to try your recommendation and rethink if I should have that changed or not. I do always run in economy mode, another thing is when I need to power it doesn't seem to down shift enough to give it, once I recall manually pulling it down, I have tried this with the Economy button on and off, doesn't seem to matter on down shifts but does make a difference on upshifts. Bill, the last time I checked mileage was running up I-81 from TN to PA I was holding it at 65 mph and I got 10.05 mpg, it just felt great to have a coach that could handle 65 so I did it. We just went to Ocean City MD last weekend and I ran at 60 down and back with my eyes on the tach and my mind counting gears, I havent topped off the tank yet to see what MPG I got but it looked great from the little the gauge moved (less than 1/4 used in 280 miles round trip), more to follow on this. Your shift points do the same as mine it upshifts at 63 into 6th and down to 5th at 59, at 62 I am at 1600 rpms in 5th (which is way too high for me) so I find myself paying too much attention to this when I should be relaxing. I purposely run up to 64 and back down to 60 and set the cruise which I think I recall the tach being at 1400. Mother nature is always fighting us....we only seem to travel when its windy so it never fails a gust hits the front of the coach and I'm back into 5th grinding my teeth doing it all over again. Overall I am really pleased with the ISL's performance and fuel MPG given the size and weight of the unit, if I could master the shift points I might be able to keep more money in my pocket.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.