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Oh well! If I do have a fan bolted directly to the shaft, I will be wasting fuel, but I won't have to worry about a switch. When I start up a grade on a hot day, I will keep my rpm up to move more water through the radiator and hope for the best. Rather than being on hold for a long time, I have an easy way to tell if the fan is bolted that saves trying to crawl underneath on a gravel covered storage yard. Just assumed it would have a clutch in order to save fuel. Re: 16,000 miles and a failure. Fan clutches last hundreds of thousand of miles on an 18 wheeler. Kinda thought some of that durability would be built into a DP.

On the Tiffin RV independent site, I read just yesterday about programmable cooling fans on the 43 footers (the Bus I guess) and some really high temps on the cooling systems of respondents while climbing hills. Bolting a fan directly to the shaft is really old school. That stopped in the 70's on commercial truck-tractors. The first effort was the viscous clutch, then the air operated clutch that only worked with 12volts applied, and finally the fail safe air operated fan clutch that was always on if there was a broken wire or blown fuse. I am not new to motor homing . We owned a 34' gasser for 17 years. New to DPs, but certainly,not new to large vehicles powered by diesel engines. I started driving them in 1965. If you folks are right, what a fuel waster. Commercial trucking went to fan clutches to save fuel. Cooling fans draw a lot of horsepower. Kenworth even programmed their fans to come on when the engine brake activated. I had that stopped on mine. It was annoying. On a long downgrade, if I felt that I needed some more braking I turned the fan on with the switch near my left knee. Dumbfounded I am.

We recently purchased a 2003 Phaeton 40' with a 330 Cat powered Freightliner chassis. Other than shuttling it around for service and new tires, it hasn't been used. My guess is that the engine fan has an air operated fan clutch. I don't see how a viscous clutch would work with a rear facing radiator. I would like to install a toggle switch on the left side of the driver's seat to turn the fan on when starting a hard pull especially on a hot day. I had manual fan switches on all of the tractor trailers that I have driven for over the last twenty years of my trucking career, and I know there value on a hot day. With a rear facing radiator they seem even more necessary. I have seen a number of DPs on the shoulder of a long grade probably cooling down (my guess). Eliminating power to an electric over air fan clutch usually causes a constant run. Would a fused switch that eliminates the fuse dedicated to the fan work?

This looks like just what I need. The tv will output optical to this unit and then give me good old fashioned right and left analog in to the Tiffin installed Panasonic DVD player with 135 Watt output to power the factory installed speakers. Simple and cheap. Thanks loads.

My inlaws used tv to tranquilize my DW while they played bridge. I was one of the first to subscribe to Direct TV to please she who must be obeyed . I have little choice in the matter after 44 years of wedded bliss.

Factory installed Panasonic DVD player has no optical input. There are five small speakers mounted around the main living area that I would like to use because the Samsung LED 32" doesn't have much volume. All that I am finding are large beasts in the way of amplification.

I have run US89 in a tractor trailer two or three times, over the years. Had no problems. All the way from Flagstaff to I-70. I then exited I-70 onto US50 and ran that over to I-15. I was usually headed to the North West.

My current roof top, though beat up by the former owner, gets excellent reception. I may be some in some kind of "honey hole" for reception, but at 40 miles from Harrisburg, PA & 40 miles from Baltimore, MD I am able to receive flawless digital signals from every station in both towns. Can that be improved on? Probably not by much. I will check your idea out though.

I want to replace a 2003 Winegard crank up antenna with the newer Sensar. Anyone know if the new will fit the existing hardware installed through the roof?

I damaged the antenna input on a 2013 Samsung 1080P 32" LED TV because I had it bolted on an expandable wall mount and made the mistake of using a short coax. My bad!! I have some experience in things electronic, courtesy of the draft board in 1968, and have always tried to repair my messes. I took the back off of the tv quite easily, and low and behold, everything there is a collection of modular wiring harnesses and circuit boards. The original coax input was easily soldered into place ( the old stuff was probably epoxy). My point in writing all of this is to point out that circuit boards in such an application are indestructible ( minus a sledge hammer ), and that there are very few manufacturers of LED displays in the world. Perhaps three or so. Whatever is in a so called made for RV TV is without a doubt the same display that is in every other TV.

I am a retired trucker. When I was in the business, I met a driver that worked for a small Caterpillar test fleet out of central Illinois, who showed me fuel mileage records that were astounding. He was running a 550 horse Cat, 10 speed tranny, and usually above 70,000 lbs gross weight. He never got in a hurry, never used his cruise control, and kept his top speed at 55 mph unless on a downgrade. His statement to me was that "you wouldn't want run with me." We will be leaving for a trip from PA into numerous favorite places in Colorado in August . It will be a lengthy trip and my first time behind the wheel of a diesel motorhome. I traveled the same routes in our 460 Ford powered 34 footer and the fuel mileage was terrible. I was not retired and therefore always in a hurry. I do know that good advice is to keep your speed down, keep your cruise control off, keep your RPMs down, stay off the accelerator on a slight rise in terrain. Let your speed drop on those slight grades. The amount of time that you lose at the end of the day will really not amount to much, and probably save a lot.