jleamont

Well, I called the dealer, they apparently did not install the tires they took the coach to a local truck tire facility and they made the mistake. I asked for the reciept from the dealer, next I am going to reach out to them to see what they will do to make this right. I will let you know once I speak to them. I am not sure how hard I should push this concern, this could have been a big problem had one blown out on the highway and I am sure their Insurance carrier would not be happy with a miss like this.

Bennie, I am going through the same concern as you, I called Cummins for My 2002 ISL I was told to use Fleetgard ES Compleat. Funny story...the aftermarket cross over does not meet the pH or alkalinity standards set by Cummins, in fact I could not find one that met the Cummins requirements in all areas... so I just bought the stuff at our local Cummins engine dealer, I plan on changing it out in two weeks. For a couple of dollars savings it just is not worth the risk of damaging such an expensive engine. Good luck

Thanks Brett, scary the dealer would have missed this and created this problem. I am glad I caught it now rather than one of the steer tires failing due to overloading. I am comparing the FMCA pricing vs our national Michelin account to see which has the best price...waiting on a phone call back, then I am going to order them in and swap them out once I pull the cover off in two weeks. I am not one to knowingly operate any vehicle that way, "to much riding on the tires"!! Thanks

last time we stayed at Pine Mountain RV park, very well groomed, the bathrooms looked like a four seasons NY hotel, very nice and clean. The down side was the Pool, it is a shallow Kiddie pool, you have to use the hotel pool across the street and while it was nice the hotel guests were out of control with no staff supervision. Our friends recently stayed at Anchor Down RV resort, they loved it.

While doing some research yesterday on brakes and drums to install on our coach we purchased last year at a dealer I discovered that the dealer installed tires that are too light of a weight rating on our coach prior to us purchasing it and the wrong size. The coach calls for a 295/80R22.5 in all positions with a H rating on the steer axle, (14600lbs steer axle, 23000 drive axle) The dealer installed 295/75R22.5 with a G rating (Firestone FS591 rated at 6175lbs each), when you do the math I am 2250lbs short on the steer axle (by rating, actually overloaded by 1200lbs). So I did the next thing....I had it weighed. fully loaded steer axle is 13550 Drive is 20800 lbs while I can run the G rated on the drive axle I need to do something about the steer tires.This all started when I became suspicious that the wrong brakes were installed by the previous owner since the coach does a poor attempt at stopping then the brakes are applied. After speaking to Monaco, Bendix and Webb companies I am going to install Transit bus brakes with vented louvered drums, and replace the steer tires with the Michelin XZA2. Do you think I should install the correct tire size on the steer or match the drives the current tires are 1" lower and .4" narrower that what is the correct size for the coach. Michelin does not feel it will be noticeable while driving. Once it is time to change the drive tires out I will put the correct size back on. Anyone have any experience with the Louvered severe duty brake drums?

Good luck with the new coach. We have a 02 HR Imperial, love the quality of the construction....much better designes and workmanship from our Coachman we traded last year for this on. Joe

I would consider looking for an aftermarket company that makes a delete system to remove all of it for good. They are out there for light duty diesel and I had a customer tell me he just had it all bypassed on a Cummins in a Peterbilt, not sure of the quality but he reported a spike in fuel economy and power. The Def tank and DPF all appear to be in tact but the tank is empty and the DPF has a pipe welded through the center. As much as I feel doing the right thing is the best way to handle problems like this will beat you down. good luck I hope they get to the root cause and this problem goes away.

wigginsjsr, Source came from Navistar corporate and our rep with his tail between his legs. In 2012 I HAD to purchase 1100 power units for our fleet, they average 15,000 miles between breakdowns and NONE have made it to 200,000 miles before something catastrophic happened. We purchased an additional 900 power units in 2013 the results were worse. Unfortunately with a large national fleet we have to "spread out the wealth" so I am told.....fortunately with the amount of purchasing power we get good support from them but we are all frustrated with the constant breakdowns and unreliability of their product. Good luck with that engine, if you ever experience any problems feel free to lean this way, I would be happy to make a phone call for you and see if someone would be willing to help share the cost at their corporate level for you to get you back on the road.

This is and always be a sore subject...most law enforcement do not know their own laws and will issue citations based off of their own interpretations. I strongly recommend seeking the information from the states official web site like Brett stated above. I recomend print it out and keep it with you...that doesnt mean argue with the law enforcement official asking for your license, sometimes you can have a discussion with them and maybe it will help. One thing to keep in mind you can accidentally turn any RV into a "commercial vehicle" by federal terms by accident and not be aware of it just by simply using it for profit gain. rlbarkleyii nailed it with his friend who found this out the hard way with the trailer used for a craft show..."profit gain" will get you every time. you would have to prove it is not a business to a judge. I had a friend have this happen to him with a horse trailer, they were headed back from a show after winning an award and some cash.... got stopped, cited, went to court and lost, license wasn't commercial, no medical card, no fuel tax sticker, no DOT numbers on the side of the coach and his regulator license was suspended for "operating a commercial vehicle with out proper licensing". The judge told him any profit gain or intent for profit gain landed him in all of this trouble, what a wake up call that was! I have seen this get people into trouble pulling a travel trailer behind a company vehicle, even though the guy ownes his own plumbing business and left the door magnets on the truck, the truck GVW at 9900lbs and the trailer at 7000GVW totaled 16900 lbs (greated than 10000 = "Commercial Vehicle" NON CDL). Now comes the fines, no medical card, and no DOT numbers on the truck...oh yea federal law now...no alcohol is allowed to be transported in a CVM cab, OOPS the case of beer you just bought for camping just added another fine to the pile, I really stacks up quick. Not knowing the law doesn't usually give you a break when you are standing in front of a judge, sometimes they will be forgiving but why risk it, if you are really not sure ask a lawyer to look into it, after all we just want to travel with as little or no headaches as possible. Good luck and be safe.

rlbarkleyii Do you have a picture of this? Just curious, I may want to keep a spare. Thanks, Joe

CarlAda, heres my two cents, they all have their pros and cons, some have more cons than pros, heres a few to look out for; Maxxforce powered (all) and CAT powered (2007-2008 engines, the last ones before throwing in the towel). You can check the internet to see all of the class action law suits on the last batch of CAT on highway products and the Maxxforce line up. International Navistar reciently put Cummins back into their trucks as an option to save them selves from a horrible end. In my career I deal with these problem children each and every day. Not to say that a Cummins or Detroit product will not give you a headache but some are known to be worse than others. Good luck with your shopping, we just moved into our 1st DP in May from a Gas Class C, just wish we did it sooner. Joe

here is a photo of the filter in question;

Brett and Tom well put. I always enjoy reading your responses. Tom, what MPG are you averaging? My coach is similar just two years older non EGR engine) I assume yours has EGR?

joyceroy, it does have what is called a clock spring under the steering wheel, thay are known to go bad, the hardest part is getting the steering wheel off. It looks like this (photo) usually are under $200.00

Thank you for the advice.

Thanks Bill for the heads up, I looked under ours prior to install and my condensor is in the rear next to the compressor, in fact it has its own fan, that and its size were the purchasing decision. I guess before you make a purchase like this one should look over the unit to make sure you have all angles covered prior to committing to the purchase. I attached a photo of the finished product.

I understand, I have one of those bosses also .

I screened in the side wall access cover on the inside with door screen and GE clear silicone to keep it in place so no bugs would get in. I left the roof vent functional (already screened) I figured air could enter thru the side wall access and any heat could escape out of the roof vent. The compressor sits about 5" in from the wall access and there is a fan on the motor to circulate air. The under side of the fridge didnt seal to the floor, celing or sides like the RV unit did so I spray foamed the openings to seal off any air flow from outside, I did the same with a 3" deep spray foam wall just beyond the wall opening to the interior and trimmed the gap off with wood trim that I stained to match the interior wood. I figured the spray foam would hold tight and its fairly easy to remove in the event the unit has to come out (just messy). I wanted to keep the coach ready in the event an RV refridgerator would be installed another time. Mounting the unit was easy since the rear access is wide open when my exterior cover is removed, all of the mechanical components are right in you face with the cover off (just like the RV unit was). When the foam dried I turned on all of the roof fans and closed the windows and ran a paper towel around the unit just to make sure it was sealed. I made a door lock that I copied from Fleetwood, this is the photo I took at rhe RV show. the upper and lower doors slide over and under the knob and you simply turn it to hold the doors closed in the event something hits them on the inside it will act as an additional lock over the magnetic gasket. Before you leave you just have to remember to turn the knob in the vertical position.

This brings up a good topic; the Imperial we bought this year has 6V wet cell batteries and I was wondering for winter storage what is the preferred method? Keep in mind the Coach will sit from November to April under cover. 1, remove the batteries, bring them in to the garage and keep them on a trickle charge. 2, keep the coach plugged in so the charger keeps them on a "floating charge". Our old class C had one 12v AGM coach battery I would bring it in and trickle charge it since the charger in the coach was not very technically advanced. Any recommendations to help make these last?

Update; I replaced ours with a GE 15.5 Cu.ft. I only had to trim 1/4 of an inch off of the top of the opening (mostly for the upper door hindge clearance). Its a no frills unit no electronics refrigerator. I figured keep it simple and it should last longer, more space than the Norcold 1210. The hardest part was getting the old unit out of the coach, I removed one of the side windows, with three friends we passed the old unit out and the new one back it (doors off of course). I have 2.5" on each side of open space so I insulated along side and trimmed off the interior and removed the exterior cover and screened it on the inside to keep bugs out.

Ray, UPS from our house to Seattle is $30.00.

I am pulling my Norcold 1200 out this weekend with a few friends, if anyone needs cabinet parts please feel free to e-mail me at leamontmobileservice@verizon.net. Everything on the box looks good, and the burner was replaced when the last recall was done this year. I bought a residential fridge for our Holiday Rambler the fridge cost me $700.00 it is slightly narrower but will fit in the hole. I measured the passenger side windows over the couch and both refrigerators will fit thru it. I tested the replacement unit by running an extension cord from the coach to the unit sitting in the garage and after two days my generator auto started and ran for about 2 hours, I had a concern it would not run off of the invertor, it worked great. Funny thing is the interior space is a huge difference from the Norcold unit; we have a lot more space. As far as the doors opening while driving, I bought a latch from Fleetwood that they install from the factory on the 2014 Excursion, they too switched to residential refrigerators from the factory, I bought a GE unit that looks just like the one Fleetwood utilizes. We very rarely dry camp at the most two days and I usually run the genset for an hour a day anyway for cooking (convection oven) As far as my Norcold 1200 it had all of the recalls completed and it still almost burnt the coach down, not sure what good the recall will do if it shuts off the gas and power after the fire has started. Here is how our almost disaster was avoided; I had my cooler next to the coach, I was going for a beer when noticed the unit was running on gas but it was set to "auto" I am thinking to myself why is that running on gas, I am connected to shore power, with that I open the side vent look around inside the access panel (it had a hot smell and I could feel excessive heat, anyone that ever worked on trucks or cars can relate to this), I walk around to the tower to make sure the power didn’t go out, it was still on, so I go inside and shut the unit off, (now I have had enough with this, as it was the inside of the fridge was already 52 degrees) in about 5 minutes we got an odor of ammonia thru the coach, I walk outside, and reach for the gas valve behind the fridge and gas burner attempting to relight itself (keep in mind the unit is off) I shut off the gas now the cooling unit is leaking bad and the burner is still attempting to light, in fear it will succeed and ignite the ammonia I grabbed a hand full of wires and pulled, tore it all out of the back while I am attempting to hold my breath from the ammonia gas. We were convinced this was by design to destroy all evidence of what actually caused the fire. I am just glad I was there to stop the disaster from occurring. To each his own with your preference, I did consider switching to a Dometic but the $2995.00 price tag made me rethink that idea. I did also consider switching the cooling unit out with the Amish made design but my wife told me she will not be able to sleep anymore if that Norcold is still in the coach after what had just happened. I hope if yours fails the way mine did you have the ability to catch it before life or property loss happens.

UGGG, I worked for the local Utility co up until 2012 let me tell you how this broke down in the fleet of CAT, Maxxforce, Cummins, Detroit power and Ford Powerstroke diesel power (1998-2012 engine years). They bought a B20 to be more "GREEN" in the eye of the public, TV commercials the whole mess. Here was the results of the study we conducted after a storm and we had over 100 power units broken down and too many customers without electricity for much too long and it hit the fan! Below 45 degrees fuel filters would only last up to 80 engine hours average (2640 miles) if it was below freezing in some cases we were changing them every two days. Fuel economy was reduced by 8%. The Cummins and Maxxforce and Detroit engines only suffered slight power loss, the CAT powered units would ping and smoke, had to be driven at full throttle, Keep in mind a Utility aerial lift truck is a 33000 GVW and was every bit of 32000 lbs. The Cummins would fail at the injection pumps, The CAT had the HEUI injection and would wipe out fuel injectors as well as the Ford Powerstrokes. The Maxxforce, well lets just say they had so many problems we could not tell what caused it, mostly the exhaust could not get hot enough to regenerate, and frequent fuel injector failure, besides the frequent head gasket and EGR cooler failure, unrelated to BIO Diesel. I have photos in my work computer of the fuel separators looking like they were filled with butter. After we had the tanks cleaned, and they only use B5 now, too risky and costly. This fuel never got old either, we had fuel delivered weekly to refill the tanks, so it never sat long.

I am parting out our Norcold 1210LIRM 4 door refrigerator it was built in 2001. It has an cooling system leak, otherwise its all there and was working, I caught the leak just before it burst into flames so there is no fire damage. The burner only has 20 hours on it, (just replaced in July). We will be at the Hershey RV show in Sept, let me know how to contact you if you are interested in any parts, I guess we could ship to you also. I am posting this since the parts for these are very expensive to help someone save a few $$$. Thanks, Joe

Dodged the bullet this trip, Norcold 1200 started to warm up, I thought to run to Walmart buy a small fridge and transfer stuff, so I did, in plugged it shut off the gas. On the way to Williamsburg Va it blows the ammonia line. If I had left it on we would have lost the coach we've only had since May, thanks Norcold keep up the good work! FYI the recall parts did not work until after we set up did the red light come on to alert us of a problem. Good thing I was paying attention!