mikev

Mike, it was the first year with my coach and i did not know what to expect as far as the ride was concerned. The original owner did not say there was any issue. Probably did not know any better. I knew I wanted to improve the ride though. As for collapsing the Bilsteins-I'm a little "chunky" so it seemed to help.....I installed the Source Engineering ride improvement kit which included all new Bilsteins, airbags and front "ping" tank, plus replaced the rear trailing arms as mine were affected by the poor quality units originally installed by Monaco/Holiday Rambler. Everything helped the ride and now I'm thinking of installing a Steer Safe or equivalent steering enhancer. Not much more I can do after that but the ride is pretty good now. I also need new tires this year so hopefully that will help a touch. I am happy with the Bilsteins! Happy trails...

Hi, I replaced my shocks last spring at 48000 miles on my coach. Went to Bilsteins from Monroes. The Monroes were completely gone. I could easily compress them by hand and they stayed compressed, they pulled out to full extension easily too. The new Bilsteins took most of my weight (unfortunately considerable) to compress and I had to stay on them or they extended quite nicely by themselves. The ride and handling was night and day. We have the RR4R suspension so I realize only so much can be done, however anyone with the Monroes should replace them now. You will appreciate the improvement.

Hi Tom, sorry about the delay, I found the wheel pad scale at a company called Interweigh Systems in Toronto, Ont, Canada. One wheel pad was approx $75 for a day's rental. It might be less if you could go to their location plus they could use 4 at once.... It was a little pricey but I have been unable to find any sites to get my rig done and I was anxious to get my corner weights. Interweigh provides many different weighing types of products and do scale certifications as well so I was confident in what I was getting. They did provide me with documentation saying the scale was calibrated. Doing the corner weights with one pad was awkward but renting the scale allowed me the time to unload and then load the coach to do some comparisons. Here's a question, does the FMCA have a set of wheel pad scales? It might be a service for a fee they could provide to members travelling through Cincinnati? Anyway hope this helps.

Hi, we tow a 2003 Ford Explorer "four down" approx. 4600 lbs, we get on the average .5 mpg less when towing but that is an average, as Brett posted earlier if we are in mountainous regions it affects us more. However over a couple of trips last year after we started towing we averaged .5 less. We get approximately 9 mpg when towing. You will note by our info below we have a diesel pusher. Cheers

Yes I agree with Brett, Tireman9 has stated he is planning to use the values to try to demonstrate the variances existing in the coaches today. If this will help some people to become educated and get the real time values on their coach then I applaud his efforts. There can never be too much information available when safety is an issue. Which is why I added my coach information. I was very concerned with my tire pressure shortly after purchasing the coach in 2009 and realized there was no definitive info on my particular coach. The manufacturers can be way out on real time weights and after I learned-through this forum- that my tire pressure was dependent on real time weights at each corner. I did a re-look at my factory spec sheet. It turns out they are approx 2080 lbs low on the UVW. Of course they add the proviso, (.1) The UVW and CCC have been determined by weighing an exemplar motorhome with some but not all optional equipment available for each model year, make and model of motorhome. The result of the weighing of the exemplar motorhome is then used in calculating the UVW and CCC of other motorhomes of same model year, make and model. Your actual UVW and CCC may vary based upon options ordered. Please contact the manufacturer for the actual weight of each option. After all the reading I have done concerning coach weights etc, I feel strongly the RV industry must take the lead and weigh every coach that comes off their lines. The cost is negligible, four wheel pads and ten minutes would do the trick. With the numbers of options available to buyers the weights they are listing are not only confusing but to some degree misleading to the uninformed. I would be very surprised if the options added to my coach turned out to be 2080 lbs.... At least the new owners would have a true starting weight at each corner of their coach. They could then at least do some basic computations to arrive at a reasonable tire pressure until they could fully load the coach and have the corners weighed again. Even if they could only get the axles weighed they would have some idea of the changes at each axle, if they are reasonably diligent they could weigh all the "stuff" they load on board and have a side to side idea of any changes until their next corner weighing. As someone in aviation I am something of an expert in weight and balances, correct loading, cenrer of gravity-longitudinally and laterally so I have some understanding of the subject. However I am not an expert on the issue of RV weights etc, I don't know if any coach manufacturers do "coming off the line" corner weights, I hope there are some. I have not found any RV dealers that offer the service either. I hope there are some... One thing I do know- I will never buy another new or used coach unless the seller (private or dealer) agrees to provide a corner weighting while I am in attendance-full fuel, water etc. I'll even pay for the service if everything is correct. With all the concern over tire pressure etc I also want to know the coach is not overloading the axles. If you look at my numbers from my previous post you will see that I was 220 lbs over on my rear axle capacity when I was fully loaded. I have become much more careful about loading now to ensure my coach is as safe as I can make it, hopefully it will also save me time and money too if I don't over stress my tires, axles and chassis. My gratitude to all of you for these forums, I was saved much time by simply reading what you all post here. Great work Tireman9. Cheers

Hello Tireman9, don't see your name anywhere so I guess Tireman9 has to do. Here are my corner weights for my coach, I took them myself, picked the most level spot I could find front to back and side to side, rented a digital wheel pad and did two separate weights, one loaded and one unloaded. Each time I took a corner weight I backed off and moved on again to get the weight twice-able to confirm and average the values. However the biggest difference was only 20 to 30 pounds. I did round up or down the individual corner totals as well. When I was unloaded I did have full fuel, propane and all other required fluids at their running capacities. Otherwise the coach was stripped of anything that was not bolted down. No water in the fresh,waste or hot water tanks. When the coach was loaded, I had it set as if we would be travelling for weeks at a time. Really not much else to add, filled the fresh and hot water tanks. Also had my wife in the copilot seat and my adult son in the drivers seat. I was very glad to get these numbers, although it showed an imbalance of approx. 300lbs on my rear axle the percentage is negligible. Doing them also showed I could reduce my rear psi from 100 (which I was running with) to 95 and my front from 100 to 90, even with a 5 psi cushion. Lastly I was over my rear axle max load rating by 220lbs when fully loaded so I have shifted my loading pattern to match. I'm still hoping to get to a rally to do a four corner weighing, just to check against what I found. Hope these numbers help. Class A 2003 HR Ambassador, front and rear slides both on the left side. Tire brand and size Goodyear 255/70R22.5 Load range "H" Unloaded coach, RF- 3990# .514% LF- 3780# .486% Total front axle weight- 7770# RR- 7770# .479% LR- 8420# .52% Total rear axle weight- 16190# Total coach unloaded weight- 23960# Loaded coach, RF- 4321# .503% LF- 4275# .497% Total front axle weight- 8596# RR- 8470# .491% LR- 8750# .508 Total rear axle weight- 17220# Total coach loaded weight- 25816# Cheers

Hello again, just found my documentation, the kit you were quoted was P/N 1L2J7H332-AA, the one they installed on my unit was P/N 1L2Z-7H332-AB, looks like newer version. It was $29.81 and I believe it was a straight plug into an awaiting receptacle. You may want to ask if that # is still good at the Ford dealer. Will inquire further here about the availability of the kit. They were quite able to program my computer with the instructions that came with the kit. Will get back to you with more later. Cheers

Hi SergeantMajor, I had the kit installed at a Ford dealer last summer here in Canada, specifically Sudbury Ontario. I have a 2003 Ford Explorer 4 door 4X4 XLT with the V6. I have the exact same buttons for the 4X4 functions on my dash. You are right the part costs around $30 and one hour to install. The original part number for the kit has changed, I will reply later when I find my documentation. The kit is only a plug/wire/led light which is screwed to the under side of my dash around my right knee. I'll try to get the data to you later tonight. Maybe the part number I have is still available from Ford, I know the service manager had to get in touch with the engineering department to access what he needed. The onboard computer does need to be flashed with a different code. Will get back to you as soon as possible. Cheers

Thanks, we will be booking a stretch for next summer. Will have a look at the other parks for the future. Cheers

Hello All, just wondering if Letchworth State Park in New York is a Class A friendly park? A friend recommended it but he was there with a tent trailer. Are the sites a good size, also is the roadway in OK. I have been to some state and provincial parks (Canadian) that have a lot of low trees-branches that are not too Class A friendly. The park and area look great based on what I can find on the web. Thanks for any help.

Great work, novel idea about the computer. I'm also thinking of a similar replacement. Do you have any pictures of the mount you designed and built? I want to mount an LCD/LED tv with the ability to hinge or move it out of the way to access the space behind while being very secure. I intend to build something myself and will detail it's construction as well. Cheers

Thanks for the info Tireman9. I like your premise and am glad that I have white tire covers. I have to admit I bought them because my MH is predominantly white, however I did think that white would be cooler. The reality is that heat and sunlight damages most things quicker than cool and dark. I already utilize plywood under my tires for any long periods of inactivity, as well as taking some of the weight off them using my jacks. Following the advice of this forum last winter I also increased the pressure to their rated maximum covered them and put the MH in a dry dark hanger. I'm not looking to increase the lifespan too far, mainly trying to keep them in as good condition possible for their lifetime. I like to walk a more middle ground than some and feel that every little bit helps. That and I don't want to spend $2-3k too often.... All this info is great, I hope to attend one of your seminars some day. Cheers

Another consideration is weight. Is the compartment beefy enough to take the weight?Will adding additional weight to that side aggravate your coach's balance or will it cause an issue with the nearest axle? If you have not done it yet, fully load your coach as you would when traveling-full fuel, water, food, toys etc and weight each corner. The resulting values will tell the tale whether you can or should add more batteries from a weight perspective. The weights will also help with knowing the tire pressure you should be running at. Cheers

Brett, sorry about that, earlier this spring I replaced the trailing arms on my coach and installed the ride enhancement kit as well, both kits from Source Engineering. At that time and once since then I checked and adjusted the ride heights. It slipped my mind in the discussion. By the way the replacement parts were excellent as well as the improvement in the coach's ride and handling. I think the most important lesson in all this discussion of weights, ride height, balance etc is that buying a motorhome is easy, but to really own one requires a fair effort to learn all the systems, practices and responsibilities to keep such a complex piece of machinery safely on the road. We in the helicopter maintenance business say helicopters are nothing more that a collection of parts flying in formation. I've come to realize over the last year that motorhomes are the wheeled equivalent of that saying...Coach manufacturers assemble a bunch of parts in a collection and then it seems we the owners have to find a way to keep them all together. Cheers

Hi everyone, this a timely topic to me, I have been running with tire pressures too high -105psi approximately 10psi over the required amount of 90+5 reserve now that I have accurate weights to deal with. We purchased the coach last year and I decided to run at higher pressure given the GVWR of my coach and using the Goodyear chart. Until yesterday I was unable to find a location to weigh my coach at all four corners individually-just total axle weights and as I read here in a forum the difference side to side on an axle can be substantial. Unfortunately the coach rally's nearest to us were just out of our time or distance requirements this last year. I finally found and rented a wheel pad scale and decided to do it myself. I stripped my coach to match the original UVW provided by Monaco and found my coach was almost 1500 pounds above the listed "exemplar" weight. The proviso by Monaco is "note #1" "The UVW and CCC have been determined by weighing an exemplar motorhome with some but not all optional equipment , please contact the manufacturer for the actual weight of each option".... Frankly the data sheets they provided are very impressive looking but in practice almost useless to the specific customer unless they would have given corner weights of his/her coach. I ensured the ground was as level as possible laterally and fore/aft and took all weights values twice. Next I added full fresh water and weighed it again. This gave me a good baseline to see how the 800lbs would affect the front and rear axles. Lastly I fully loaded the coach and hooked up the toad-we are going away this weekend anyway- stuck my adult son in the driver's seat and my wife in her seat, adjusted for his weight difference and mine, no I'm not going to say how much it was, just that it was needed...After this I got our regular traveling weight at each corner. There was approx 200 lbs difference across the front axle and 350 across the back. Enough to bump up the tire pressures by 5psi. Now I can drop the tire pressure to where it should be and feel good about running down the road. I also now know that I must be careful to load more toward the front of my coach when my wife goes on a shopping spree or I find that must have new tool. My rear axle is only a few hundred lbs short of the maximum but I have plenty up front. In looking for a scale I called three of the arguably biggest RV centres in my region and found they do not have scales and they sounded like they thought I was nuts for asking. Their response to how do they advise their customers on tire pressure was not worth repeating.. Between this lack in the RV sales centres(at least in my area) and a major manufacturer like Monaco's not giving actual corner weights when they sell you a $100,000+ motorhome, no wonder there are so many articles on this and other forums about tires etc. Just a thought...should not all manufacturers be obliged to provide actual wheel position weights of the UVW of every coach that rolls off the assembly line? We are not talking about a big time or expense issue here. Then the customer could make real informed decisions about the pressure of their tires and the loading of their coaches. I am limited in my knowledge of all the manufacturer's practices, so my apologies if Monaco and other manufacturers are already providing the corner weights of every coach. Out of all this I know that I will not buy another coach without it being weighed properly so I can evaluate whether it will be satisfactory to my needs. Not only total CCC but whether I can actually load up that big cargo area without going over on an individual axle's limit. It's not much use having lots of CCC and all this space to carry stuff if the balance is out to lunch. Also I want to know whether the manufacturer has selected tires that give plenty of reserve capacity. It's truly great that the FMCA have these forums and valuable folks like Brett or there would be a lot more of us in the dark. My thanks to Brett and Ross for this exchange, we all learn more this way. p.s. Has Winnebago gotten back to you Brett? I look forward to hearing what came of these numbers that Ross brought to all our attention. I don't have a tag axle so the adjustment issue has my curiosity going.. Cheers

Thanks anyway Brett, the tire clearances based on my observation would be fine, plenty of room. I'm more interested in whether the larger-higher load rated tires would be a softer ride at 85 psi than my spec tires at 100 psi carrying the same load... I might ask Michelin if the J rated tire would be naturally harder even at the lower psi. Interesting subject. If I find something I'll let you know. Cheers

Brett, I am going to be in the market for new tires shortly as well. I was looking at going from 255 70R22.5 to 275 70R22.5. Looking at the specs on the tires they are basically similar except the 275's are 1.3" larger in diameter and .7" larger in width. They are a load rating up H to J and can carry 1400lbs more in a single location. I'm not looking at carrying more weight and will stay within the axle weight rating. However I could carry my existing weight at a lower psi example 4900 lbs would reduce the psi requirement by as much as 15 psi. The other issue would be my speedometer calibration which I would have to look into. I recently put the Ride Enhancement Kit on my coach from Source Engineering and it helped. I was thinking going this route would help smooth out the ride even more. Any thoughts?

Long time ago I realized that lights on are a good thing. Whether you turn on the lights every time or leave on your running lights and turn on the headlights in poor visibility conditions- both are ways are a good idea. My wife and I put on our seatbelts and turn on the headlights every time, taught my boys to drive the same way. It is part of our ritual when we drive anything. It's not for everyone, some think it is wasteful, others of no value. I do know that there will never be a time when I transition into poor weather-low light conditions where I will have forgotten to turn on my lights. Personally I believe that lights in any condition helps others see you. Just my personal preference.

Hello, I ended up buying and installing the Roadmaster Evenbrake 9400. Pretty straight forward to install, it has three sensitivity and three force settings. I started with the lowest settings and ended on the lowest force and the medium sensitivity. The remote indicator is excellent as it shows when the brakes on our toad (2003 Ford Explorer) are actually activated. There was no issue getting everything working, I fix helicopters for a living and have most but not all knowledge of most auto mechanics would have, so things were pretty simple however Roadmaster did a good job of explanation in their guides and they were very helpful when I called with a few questions. I'm a pretty tame driver and the brake system really doesn't come on too much, mostly coming off the Interstates or a stop sign etc...pretty much when it should. I'm happy with the ease of setting up and taking down each time, all in all I like the product. The one thing I cannot do with Evenbrake is activate the unit from the seat of my RV but if I need to hit the brakes it has worked every time. It is activated by an acceleration monitor only so if you touch your brakes or turn on your pac brake it may or may not come on, depending on the sensitivity which you can adjust as needed. Hope this helps

Hi, I have been checking mine regularly and those numbers are very similar to what I have found. I think they are pretty normal for the ambient temp you indicated of 80 degrees. However the difference front to back is something our more experienced members might comment on...

Hello Wayne. Sorry to hear about the blowout, but glad to see everyone was okay. Like Jack, I was curious if you knew the age of the tires. Was this the one that ran flat on you before or the one next to it? Lastly, do you have a tire monitoring system, and if so was there any warning? Thanks.

Hi, ensure the connector is actually on the filter. Last year I had the water in fuel light come on whenever it rained and we were travelling. I got under our coach and found whomever had changed the filters last time had put on two filters of the same part number and neither had a sensor on them . They just tucked up the connector over some other wires. Every time it rained the connector would short out and I would get a light... I replaced the filters withe proper type and connected the wiring-fixed the problem. The previous owner had them changed at a truck facility in Florida. Live and learn

Hello from Canada, sorry to hear you had issues crossing the border, it's hit and miss both ways. If you choose to cross over there is a RV site (Wildwood Golf and RV Resort) between Windsor and Leamington (30 minutes from the border) we stayed there twice last year. It is a full service location, open sites, not many trees but beautifully kept i.e. cement patios etc. They have a golf course wrapped around the park, very well groomed with reasonable prices $20-$23 for 18 holes. Here is the website and the Woodalls site. http://www.wildwoodgolfandrvresort.com/intro.html http://www.woodalls.com/campground/campgro...btype=RVCamping I also agree with Tom, Point Pelee is an interesting place to visit, they have a boardwalk through the wetlands, approx. 3/4 mile long as well as being the most southerly point in Canada-it lines up with northern California! Hope this helps

Hello Tim, how do you deal with water from a shore connection, does it go through the Watts system too. I spoke to a Watts technician and he said that the rejected water is generally cleaner since it has been cleaned by the multiple filters, it just has a higher value of "pollutants" after the RO membrane as it is sent back to the main tank. However the cycling of water, replacement/replenishment from the fresh water tank on an ongoing basis will naturally deal with the issue. Also as the water is brought back through the RO system it is fully cleaned once again. I was thinking of plumbing in the system and having two sets of valves, one to pump water from our fresh water tank with the discharge water returning to the tank, and the other having the externally connected water go through the RO system and then the discharge go to the holding tanks. How did you deal with the external water connection?

Hello, I am looking to put a water filtration system on my coach. I just saw a system at Costco. It was a Watts Premier 4 stage "RO" (Reverse Osmosis) system. Has anyone had any experience with RO systems in a MH? I have been cleaning and treating my freshwater tank regularly but am somewhat shy about using the water for drinking without a good filtration system, our city water is fine but you are never quite sure of a RV resorts water.... I plan to plumb in something that would filter both incoming city-resort water and my fresh water tank water.