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Based on what you describe and the age of your rv you may need your steering gear or box adjusted. Many shops take it off of the unit to adjust it. They go by the book using sensitive torque measurements as they adjust it. It needs to centered to be properly adjusted. However when the gear is remounted if the vehicle does not have an adjustable drag link then the effort is wasted. The steering wheel should be turned to one stop/say counter clockwise and then carefully count the turns or fractions to the clockwise stop/ divide the result by two and turn the wheel in this case back clockwise that amount. The gear is now centered, but if there is no adjustable drag link on the unit as I, said time and money is for naught. Your motorhome will still wander going straight down the road because the gear will have to be taken off center to attach the drag link. Positive caster makes a vehicle handle better only if the steering gear is properly adjusted and reinstalled centered. I learned to adjust them knowing a talented no nonsense can do mechanic. I have used the method described with the wheels off of the ground and centered, gear or box still in place, and adjustable drag link unattached. Properly done the steering wheel may need to be removed and recentered. FMCA # F105607 Call if you like.

Re Anti Gel: Howes is a favorite in my area. I have seen how effective it can be by being able to look directly into a truck's saddle tanks. When wax crystals form a diesel will barely run and when the crystals worsen, it shuts down. As long as the engine is still running a healthy dose of treatment and some patience on the accelerator will probably work. When they shut down the work really starts. I bought Power Service winter formula fuel treatment from Walmart for cold weather use, but I will still keep some Howes at the ready. We plan on being in Colorado for a few more weeks. With today's heavily blended bio diesel, if you want to run in cold weather, take precautions.

DW already questioning our decision to buy this coach. We don't boondock with this thing so the block heater will always have the engine ready to go. I will repair the manifold heater when we get home. Doesn't look too challenging and I can use the repair shop that I used for the heavy work on my Star Car to give me a fair price on parts. As far as ether goes/ used a lot of it in my early years of trucking (1965 was my start ). Back then ether and bitter mornings went together. Two people are best. One on the key and the other experienced person spraying ether into the air cleaner. Thanks for your advice!!

I had to trash a large piece of carpet to get to the access panel. I now have a 40" x 24" opening with a generous view of the top of the engine. The carpet was even glued to the doghouse and the cover. What a mess, but that will be a cosmetic project for the future. With block heater use the engine starts very easily and no smoke. The manifold electric heater is clearly not working. Couldn't trouble shoot the relay because the engine is warm enough to keep the ECM from sending a wait to start signal to the dash and (my guess) not closing the relay. I removed the short cable from the heater positive terminal and very carefully wrapped with moisture sealing electrical tape and zip tied the end. Now I can use starting fluid if shore power is not available.

Don't get it? Turned 70 last August. So what?

I guess the manifold heater is not working. Found the plugin for the block heater under the bed. What a great place!! This AM there was no wait to start light and the engine fired within a few seconds. Still runs a little rough at low idle but there are a lot of sensors in the system. Perhaps one is at fault. Will get that checked soon.

Thanks Rich for the help. Turns out the switch was not bad. It has 6 wires by the way. I dug through the wiring harness and the adjacent wires also. Gets kinda bundled up under there. I found a butt connector that didn't belong in undisturbed wiring. Pulled on it and one end fell out. Put a new one on just in case. The wipers work now. Anyone looking for a switch from a Phaeton in the early 2000's? I have $68 plus freight invested. Just kidding. Who is gonna need it? Probably not a high failure item. I am the second owner. Who knows?

Thanks Xplorer.

The parts man told me the vendors name, but I can't remember. There is a large capital R on the switch and the name DENSO on the invoice. The switch has number 1395457 on it. Thanks Rich for the quick offer to help.

I replaced the switch, but the wipers still won't run except when the washer button is pressed. Fuse is good. Perhaps there is a second one? 2003 Phaeton. Could use some trouble shooting ideas. Access is probably not easy for a do it yourselfer.

We have a Dometic NDR 1292 in our 2003 Phaeton. We bought it in May of this year from the original owners and when not in use it was garage kept on a level concrete floor. It performs beautifully. We set the unit on #2 because anything up the scale to #5 freezes many of the contents. Couldn't be happier with the unit. Do we have anything to worry about?

3126 330hp in a Phaeton 40 ft. No primer pump and only 1 fuel filter. Changed just before the start of our trip that now has not quite 1900 miles on it. The symptoms started last Monday morning after three days in a park. If I exercise it daily everything seems normal. You are right about the engine model as usual.

7 days into our planned 2 1/2 month trip Cat 330 starts hard and really smokes for a minute after about three days in a park. The smoke seems almost brown. My series 60 would smoke a very short time on the coldest of mornings, but otherwise never. Cat runs fine after a warmup. Power seems normal.

Let's see! A few years ago the manufacturers were warning not to over do the bio or the warranty might not be honored, and now everything will be ok?? Perhaps some of the newest diesel equipment have had some changes made to the build process, but I wonder. Maybe the reps you talked to at Redmond will soon be jumping into a foxhole and pulling their helmets down. I remember the state of Minnesota getting all pumped up about bio diesel. They went with heavy concentrations of the stuff, and they couldn't keep their equipment running when winter set in. Snow plows were either setting in the yard or along the side of the road.

Walmart offers 720p Samsung LED sets for about $260 and 1080p for just under $300 normally. We have the 1080p newly installed in our coach. They only weigh about 15 lbs and are easier to handle because of their light weight. The wall mounting brackets are available at Best Buy and Home Depot in a variety of styles. Haven't seen any at Walmart, but our local store is one of the smallest in the system.

One more thing about many major routes in the west. The wind this time of the year is normally not an issue. The roads are not snow covered. You can run east with a tail wind and sometimes you can have a head wind. That can be the case in Kansas and Nebraska among others. The winter is a different story. There is an imposing mountain between Rawlins and Laramie that sits all by itself south of I-80 that literally creates it's own weather and that is Elk Mountain. Knowledgeable truckers always ask about that area in the winter. I remember westbound going by Elk with my Peterbilt in the left lane and the trailer part way into the right lane. Nobody minded because the other westbounders were not in a hurry. Enjoy your ride to Denver.

In that case, go for it. Can I assume that you have experience in the mountains?I am all about Colorado. Although I have lived in PA for 38 years, I have felt since 1977 that I belong there. My wife had a secure job with a pension, so I did not ask her to go west. It would have been selfish of me.

You must be looking for scenery and not short travel time. I drove east on US-40 through Steamboat Springs in my first Class A (34 foot gas) not towing a vehicle and then took Colorado 9 south to I 70. Have known truckers that have run US 40 and even though it is marked on the Motor Carrier Road Atlas as a truck route as Far East as Winter Park it could be a real challenge for a gas powered RV towing a dinghy. You did not say that you have a diesel with an exhaust brake. There are several passes to go over the highest being Berthoud Pass at 11,315 feet. If you just want to get to Denver take I-80 east as Brett suggested, but you can save some miles by heading south on US 287 out of Laramie and joining I-25 at Ft. Collins. Laramie to Ft. Collins is good road and you will have plenty of company on that route.

You know you are right! No humidity in FL is why there is so much Spanish Moss hanging from the trees. That stuff likes a desert environment!!!

It was the automatic transfer switch. I would not have known to suspect it without the info available on this website. Didn't have them in 1988. Our gasser was setup for 50 amp service but you only had 2 choices/ shore power or generator. There were no inverter chargers that I remember reading about. When you unplugged from park power you plugged in to an overhead 4 prong plug that was the output of the 6000 watt genset. That way you could run a rooftop ac or a microwave for snacks. Anyway/ thanks FMCA forum for the knowledge and the replacement arrived a day early. I know where I will be tomorrow.

Will look for that tomorrow. Cover comes off of the ATS now that the rain has quit. Will check for 120 in from genset. Nothing there will tell me to work upstream to the junction box you mentioned. If that is not the problem I will have to trouble shoot the genset breaker. If that is good, I am in trouble. I really hope that it is either the transfer switch or the coach's main breaker. I ordered a new transfer switch today to have as a backup on our trip or to install if the current one is bad. What year was your generator? Thanks!!

2003 Onan Quiet 7500 has been running like a top for the three months we have owned the coach, but yesterday it started fine but no power to the coach. I checked the main/ ok but I reset it anyway. Heart inverter has two breakers/ I reset them. The 35 amp on the generator was not tripped, but I reset it also. That one has a light throw. Maybe runs a relay? I am thinking ATS, because everything was fine the day before. I had the cover off recently to check for loose connections or apparent heat related discoloration. Everything looked good, but it is over 11 years old. It was raining yesterday so I did not want to get the multimeter out with a running genset. Headed back over today for some analysis. Suggestions will be appreciated!!! 40ft 2003 Phaeton Lyght 50 ATS.

Answered my question. It is available at Tractor Supply among others. gasoila.com

I almost never fueled anywhere but high volume outlets. With the saddle tanks on most of the trucks I drove I could shine a strong flashlight beam into the tanks and see no gunk. Only the shiny bottom was visible. Sure do wish that I could get a look into the tank on the used coach we recently bought. I remember something called Water Finder Paste used years ago. You lightly coated a clean piece of wood such as a wooden yard stick and touched the bottom of a tank that you were unable to look in. There was a color change if water was present. Might work for a DP. Anybody know if such a compound is still available. Guess I could goole it.

I bought three of the big bottles of Power Service at Walmart yesterday. Treats 250 gallons per bottle, and at that price it adds just over 7 cents per gallon ( before local sales taxes ) to fuel cost. Rich also posted a link to Stanadyne that has a formula to handle the alcohol in biodiesel. Don't know that cost yet. Hmm! Biodiesel is dumping food into our tanks and the alcohol used for drying it is probably dumping more food into the process because it is likely made from corn?