John USA

During my life, I've encountered many vets who seemed to have had a horrible time in the military. Between active duty and reserves, I couldn't have had a more fulfilling time. I served on submarines, went to dive school, belly crawled through the mud, made some temporary, but good, friendships with some crazy Force Recon marines, assigned to deep submergence unit, plank owner MIUW unit, learned how to build runways with Seabees, operated heavy equipment, Navy recruiter...ran out of stuff to do with the Navy, decided to give the Army a go...biomedical technician, combat medic, learned how to low crawl through the mud with Rangers (thank you Navy for the pre-training).

Last one.."Tail Of The Flaming Toilet Paper"....(it's all in the title, and there are no misspellings)....

I got another...tales from a diesel submarine... On an island just off the coast of SoCal...anchored off shore about a hundred yards. Crew went ashore for some libations. We were shuttled back and forth on a launch, center steering, big brass wheel. Sometime in the evening, one of the crew slipped away, went down to the pier, removed the brass steering wheel, and swam out to the boat with it. When the bar closed up, we all went down to the pier, only to find the launch without a steering wheel. Looking out into the darkness, we could make out the figure of our shipmate, holding the steering wheel above his head..."Come and get it" he yelled to us...

Two part story... Part one...somewhere just outside of the Straights of Juan de Fuca, mid-'70's....dependents cruise on diesel submarine. Highlight of the trip was an EMBT blow from periscope depth. Can you say ooops? On the way to the surface, the boat slowly turned partially on it's side. I was with my girl in the engine room, and I instructed her to face starboard, and "walk" up the outboard engine. The mess was in the aft battery, just forward of the engine room, and all you could hear was the scream of children and loud clatter of ice cream bowls hitting the deck. Part two...somewhere off coast of SoCal, again in mid-'70's....sea trials, COMSUBPAC aboard....prep for EMBT blow...I was messenger of the watch, standing my watch, facing port side. Immediately to my left was the admiral, facing starboard into the conn. The order was given for EMBT blow. Can you say ooops? On the way to the surface, the boat slowly rotated partially on its starboard side. In the space of several seconds, I was in a semi-reclining position, and the admiral was just about in the push up position. I looked over at him, he looked at me, I just winked. Not my first rodeo.

DBF...if I gotta explain it, well....SS/DV/DSV

I wanted to thank everyone for the helpful advice. Unfortunately, I did not see it until now. I departed for our 2400 mile trip on July 4, and I intended to unplug from the internet, and focus on vacation. Regarding the 45 psi tag tire recommendation, it would have been interesting to "feel" the effect, relative to the rest of the suspension, ie, softer in the back, maybe? Would like to hear from others who have experience with tag. The rear seemed a little rough, and I'm wondering if a lower pressure in the tag tires might have softened it out...it sounds like I was running too high psi unnecessarily. Based on my interpretation of the manufacturer tire tables, I set all tires at 75psi, and set off down the road. Got there and back in one piece, no blowouts, and 7.5 mpg. Oh, one more note, I did read (and I wish I could remember where, and cite the source) that both the tag and rear axle tires should be the same psi. This was the first I had heard of lowering the pressure in the tag tires, but it makes sense.

LT 235/85/16 are the specified tire. Referenced in both Ford Chassis Service Guide that came with the RV, and on the vehicle placard. The specific tire I'm using is rated at: 3042#, 80psi single. 2778#, 80psi dual load rating.

Thanks for the feedback, Tireman, I truly appreciate it. Trying to be as safe as I can. I'm loading up half a dozen family members for a road trip. Estimate an additional 1600 lbs of load. Estimate 900 lbs of human cargo, over and above pilot and co-pilot. (Pilot/copilot already factored in the original weighing.) The 900 lbs breaks down to (estimate) 200 lbs of kids to be hanging out in rear bedroom watching videos, with remaining 700 lbs (four adults) mid cabin. Estimating 300 lbs of luggage. I'll put that in rear most basement compartments. Estimating 200 lbs of miscellaneous: kitchen/bathroom supplies, tools, oils/coolant, compressor. I'll put that just forward of the rear axle. So, now, the question is tire pressures. Working with 8480 at the rear axle. Loading 700 lbs pretty much around the rear axle (kids, luggage, miscellaneous). That brings the rear up to 9180. Assume another 350 (half of the additional adult load), and rear axle weight is now up to 9450. The max load of my tires is 2778@80psi. (dually) Do I divide the 9450 by 4? That would make each dually tire load 2362.5. Add 10% for safety, that is 2598.75. From the inflation tables, it looks like 65psi for LT 235/85/R16E. Does that sound right?

Hi all. I have a 34' Rexhall, with tag axle. I weighed it yesterday, would appreciate some feedback if I'm on the right track. I filled the fresh water tank full, and filled the fuel tank prior to going to the scales. Me and the wife up front. Unfortunately, no supplies loaded in, yet. I downloaded a worksheet (I think it was Bridgestone) with blanks to fill in scale weight, and weight from owner manual. Below are the results. The GAWR, GVWR,, etc, came from the door plate. The tag axle has an adjustable air suspension. I did a total of six different weighings in order to ascertain the load shift at different air pressures. GAWR Front: 6000 Scale Weight Front: 5060 (tag suspension at 45 psi) Scale Weight Front: 5060 (tag suspension at 40 psi) Scale Weight Front: 5040 (tag suspension at 35 psi) The results from this test seems to show that reducing tag axle air bag suspension has a negligible effect on front axle loading. This series of weighings had only the front tires on the scales. GVWR-17,000, + 3,000 tag Scale-16840. (Does this mean I can carry an additional 3,160 lbs before I'm overloaded?) This weighing was the entire vehicle. GAWR Rear-11000 Scale Weight-11,500 (this is weighing both rear axles, front axle off of scale) GAWR Tag-3000 Scale Weight-3300 This series of weighings was tag axle only on the scale, front and drive axle off the scale. At this point, I took 3 readings again, tag axle only, and adjusted the tag suspension the same as I did when I measured the front axle. At 3300 lbs scale weight, I had 45psi in the air bags. Reducing the air bags to 40 psi brought the tag weight down to 3160. Reducing the air bags to 35 psi brought the tag weight down to 3020. I know from the front axle series of measurements, the rear to front weight transfer by adjusting the tag suspension is statistically insignificant. So, I'm assuming that by reducing the tag axle weight, I was re-distributing the load it was carrying to the drive axle. It seems to me that I should have no more than 35 psi in the tag air suspension. If both rear axles scale weight was 11,500, do I deduct 3020 tag weight, and have a net drive axle weight of 8,480? Does this mean I can carry 940 lbs more up front, and 2250 lbs more in the back? Have I got it right? Thanks.

Hey Rich, Thanks for the welcome, and insight on the aux cooler. John

I know this is reviving an old thread... I just got my motorhome yesterday, and am stepping through the systems. I crawled under, and traced the tranny coolant lines. When I got the factory aux cooler up front, I got a little confused. The flow goes in the top of the radiator, and then comes out the bottom of the radiator. Then, it goes into the bottom of the aux cooler, out the top, and back to the return port on the transmission. Does anybody know why it would go into the bottom of the aux cooler, and be forced up through it, rather than be piped to the top of it and flow down? I've checked three times before I posted this to make sure I was tracing the lines correctly...