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Does the Spartan Chassis have independent front suspension? If not, most things grease able up front can be replaced without a lot of money involved. Unless you really know what you are doing, you will probably need a front end alinement done by a good shop after the installation of tie rod ends. Common wear point with a solid front axle , but on the typical motorhome that is greased at least annually with low miles per year, they really should still be in good shape. I had everything greased at a 10 to 12 thousand mile interval. When running synthetic oil with a longer change interval I greased ( or had everything greased ) at the 10,000 mile interval. Have known truckers that used a 6000 mile interval for grease. I always use what I learned as a trucker for maintenance interval. After all, most of us are riding on a Freightshaker chassis.

Been through a lot of Blue Beacon truck washes over the years, including the home office of Salina Kansas. Have never been offered an under wash. Must be something new. Retired in 2011. Why would truckers care about the dirty side? Keep it down and the shiny side up. If a rig was exposed to road salt, tell the crew boss to give things underneath a little more pressure. Can"t tip them though. Against corporate rules.

The only pointer that I can give you is to stay out of Blue Beacon Truck washes. Used them for years as a trucker and in spite of thinking that my rig was impregnable from their extremely powerful sprayers, there was always water that found it's way around my best efforts. I will never take our Phaeton into one. Good luck.

Gotta ask, but you don't have to reply, how is it that you are doing a self install without an all important plug on the end of a very important wiring harness? I worked from new out of the box and did it all by myself. First time. It was seamless. The heat was horrendous in August, and I would probably hire an installer, if there was a next time.

Just returned from our Phaeton. Same as Bill's. With the. Clip at the bottom , the colors on ours is the same.

Yuba City is maybe a little closer than Grass Valley, depending on where you live in the Sacramento area. Did Blue Ox give you a phone number?

Our Phaeton is in storage about 8 miles from here. Had not planned on going by there today but if no one responds with the help you need, I can go take a look at ours. It is a SWM 3 system.

Blue Ox has good customer service. Probably be glad to help you.

Have no reason to change. Have been treated well over the years by State Farm. Had the same agent for almost 41 years and he could not have been better. I did take an Internet look a time or two for rates from the other biggies and we were better off with State Farm.

I used to fish when on the road as a trucker. Most often in Colorado because their license with per day stamps was reasonable. Find a safe place for the trailer, pin lock it and bobtail to the fishing hole.😊

Bill/ I used Racor products until 2004. Then I bought my last truck with a series60 and spin on primary and secondary filters. Things worked well so I never installed a Racor.

My previous post is meant to show that things can repaired under warranty if you work with the right customer service reps, never lose your temper, and ultimately get them on your side. I usually wound up working with the same two or three reps. That was a help. They stayed with me and were always pleasant. They knew how to lean on the Cummins dealers for extra consideration, and that benefited me. If your engine is out of warranty and needs some fixing, customer service might be able to help direct you to the right place for you to spend your money. Usually more $ per hour of service , but most of their mechanics really know what they are doing. Caterpillar has some really good dealers too. Cleveland Brothers in the Harrisburg PA area is also really good. The Cat dealer in Salt Lake City really helped me out once. Of course working on an engine in a commercial truck is easier. Just raise the hood and it is all there and usually readily accessible.

Cummins probably has an 800 number for customer service. I know that they did in 1977. Those guys started recognizing my voice because I called them many times. Had injector failure 9 times averaging one a month and lost the camshaft at 90 thousand. All warranty paid for. Big Cam Cummins 400HP. Turns out the wrong Jake Brake had been installed and they repaired everything one more time even with it being out of warranty because it was a recurring problem.

I level our Phaeton while in storage with the onboard jacks and did the same with our 34ft. Georgie Boy bought new in 1988. Find a can of grease at an auto parts store or use a grease gun if you have one, and smear the exposed shaft with grease. Did it for years on the Georgie Boy and the jacks still worked fine on the day it was sold. Have only had the 2003 Phaeton since May of 2014 , but so far so good.

Bill/ Had Racor fuel/water separators on my trucks starting in 1977 on a new Peterbilt 352 large bunk Cabover. Had no problems with them other than in 1977, the filters were not readily available because the unit was quite new. Learned to keep several spares after crawling up Donner often times on the shoulder.🙄 Always had the plastic bowl and had to quickly break (by lifting the lid) the vacuum to get water and crud to drain out. It was my primary filter. Have even changed filters on the side of the road a few times. Easier on a truck though than a motorhome.

Love air brakes in the mountains. Old truckers habit.

I bought a quality 50amp extension cord from RV Upgrades. I usually get close enough to the power pedestal for the extension to reach inside the power bay. The surge protector is inside, out of the weather, and of course out of sight.

Seems to me that a good portable is easier to deal with in the event of a a failure. Go to a UPS store, they will package it properly for little money, ship it UPS to the factory and soon you should have a replacement. No painful removal of a built in unit. If I had the resolve, I would get rid of our hard wired transfer switch. Lost the one that came with the used coach before we took our first trip. Our first coach had a power cord that connected to a generator power female socket for use when underway, and to the power pedestal when in a park. No moving parts.

We have the same unit that Jim has. It is our second unit. The first lost the surge protection feature during an electrical storm. All other features still worked. Turn around on a replacement from the factory was less than a week and the unit was not our original one. It was brand new. That was in 2016 before the buy out though.

Carl 🤓

1/32 inch toe-in for radials on a solid front axle used to be the standard. Probably still is. Metric?

I have been with State Farm for 50 years. Service has been very good. House, cars, motorhome all with them. 2014 a tree fell on our first toad (totaled) and we had not left on the first trip with the Phaeton. Toad was a Subaru Forester 2010 that we had put 94 miles on from purchasing dealer to RV dealer that would install Blue Ox baseplate with diodes . Parts and labor on the base plate installation was over a grand. When I called in the loss, I knew that I was going to lose big. Wrong!!! Actually came out a little ahead of our total cost for everything. All other experiences with State Farm have been good (they are few). Maybe that depends on your agent??? Mexico coverage? Could care less! Napoleanic system of justice. You are guilty until proven innocent. Been to the border many times as a trucker long before 9/11. Could'nt get me into Mexico for any reason. Period! Will be with State Farm until I stop breathing.

They are looking for a cabin or trailer to rent in an RV park. Look back a few posts. Apparently they want to be around RVers.

Good stuff Carl.👍

Carl, In southern PA, air drying consists of charging the tank to at or near full pressure and opening the drain valve at the bottom of the tank before daily business starts. Have a friend that turned wrenches for decades and said "bull____" when I mentioned the discussion about air dryers for shop air and tire work. Of course, we are not in sub tropical coastal Texas.