richard5933

I've got an air throttle, so things might be different. I'll have to explore and see how it's mounted. From first glance it looks like both the throttle and brake pedals share at least part of the mounting system.

They mentioned something about silver solder. Like I said, looks like a middle school shop student did the work though. Showed the picture to my regular service advisor and am waiting for their advice.

I think you're correct. They called it brazing, but I remember something about silver solder as well in the conversation. Somehow I suspect he was learning about copper hydraulic lines while working on mine. Today I spoke to my usual service advisor in the Milwaukee location, and he's going to run it up the totem pole to higher levels for me. Hopefully they'll make it right and install the proper materials and do a better job. I was able to get the stink mostly out of the interior today - used a good deodorizer mixed with upholstery cleaner in my green machine and did all the built-in upholstery. The removable pieces I took outside, sprayed with the odor neutralizer, and set them in the sun for a few hours. Carpet was cleaned, and things are getting back to normal. I think that after running the ozone machine tomorrow things inside should be good to go. All that's left that smells is the HVAC unit itself. Oil was sprayed into every nook and cranny, and without pulling the entire unit there is no good way to get it cleaned thoroughly. In time I'm hoping that either the oil will dry out some or drip away. Oddly, it doesn't smell while running the HVAC unit. It only has a smell when the unit is off and the coach is closed up. The ceiling fan pulls air out the roof, and the air inlet is through the HVAC system. Tomorrow I'm going to explore putting a sheet of activated charcoal filter media across all the air intakes inside the coach, since they are the air inlets when the HVAC unit is not running. Maybe that will help.

Picked up the coach today from the shop. They were able to repair the battery cable and get it wrapped and anchored down for safety. They did replace a piece of the copper tubing used as hydraulic line for the power steering. I'm not really happy with the result though - the original copper was type K, and they used type L to make the repair. In all, they replaced about 3 feet of copper with the type L tube, which has a thinner sidewall and lower operating pressure rating than the type K. They installed the new piece from a flared connection to just past the break in the line, and they brazed the new & old together where they joined. Apparently rather than researching the copper line, they just sent a guy to the box store to buy a stick of residential plumbing copper. The brazed connection seems somewhat sloppy to me as well, and in general I'm not sure that this was their best work. I understand that this type of repair is not their typical repair, but it still should have been done correctly. This brazing job looks like something a middle school shop class student did. Tomorrow I'm planning to stop by the Milwaukee area location for the company, which is much larger and has some of the admin staff and a front office. Hopefully they will take steps to make it right and redo the repair using the proper materials. Odds are they'd rather redo it in their shop now than have it blow while I'm on the highway. Both for the safety factor as well as for the expense of having to deal with things once they've blown apart. I'll let you all know how it goes.

Sounds like new tires are in order. Did you weigh the coach to come up with the 100 psi setting? If not, you may find that you have them overinflated based on the weight of your coach using the load & inflation table. If so, that would contribute to road noise. Could also be partially due to riding on tires that are 8-9 years old and not as flexible as they once were.

Lots of places in a coach which can cause noise. If your tires are not ready for replacement otherwise, I'd first confirm that they are causing the problem. Also, what are you using to set the pressure in the current tires?

I'd have them re-clocked (rotated), if nothing else to make it comply with what seems to be the industry standard. It will be more difficult to get to the inner valve stems for checking/filling air pressure as well.

Lots of great suggestions for the cleaning end of this operation. I've started getting a chemical arsenal in place to tackle all the different surfaces and areas of the coach. One still eludes me. Any suggestions on how to clean the ducts which are built into the walls of the coach and which serve the over-the-road HVAC system? These would be the ducts that feed all the vents along the length of the coach and which exit under all the windows. My suspicion is that there was a fine mist of oil vapors blown at least partially through this system. I'm not thinking much is in there, but just a little of the oil vapors could present a smell problem for some time. No way to run a duct cleaner through them like you'd do in a household system, so I'm looking for something aerosol which can be blown into the intake and which might help neutralize or breakdown things. So far all I've seen is scented products, and all they'd do is add another layer of stink to the situation. I'm hoping that someone is familiar with a product that will be of some use here. My plan is to thoroughly clean the HVAC cabinet and internals first, and then bring the blowers back online once the controls are tested and shown to be working properly. And by controls, I mean a mechanical thermostat and a bank of mechanical relays. No PC boards involved here.

Why are they using solid wires and wire nuts in the first place? Neither of these is truly well-suited for a moving vehicle. The gold standard would seem to be the use of marine-grade stranded wire and crimped connections. At the least stranded wire and not solid, which has a tendency to crack when subjected to movement.

Based on our experience this weekend with a near catastrophic short in our coach, SHUT OFF THE BREAKER AND DON'T USE THE MICROWAVE UNTIL YOU IDENTIFY AND CORRECT THE PROBLEM. Sorry for raising my voice for a second, but these things don't usually end as well as ours did. You were also blessed with the early warning. Take advantage of the heads up and trace that circuit stem to stern.

Thanks. Normally I'd replace them as well, at least back to the last union or existing junction. Problem here is that they are not accessible all way back to with out taking apart quite a lot of other things. Everything taken apart is a new potential problem.

Out of warranty? Can't be! It's hardly broken in. What I meant was that they missed this cable/hydraulic line crossing - every other has reinforcement material wrapped around the cable, but not this one. Would have prevented this.

The smell is something akin to the oil used to protect military gear going into long-term storage. Anyone that's handled surplus military electronics or gear will be familiar. I'm guessing that the oil in the power steering system was 40+ years old. It smelled like it at least after being scorched.

Nuisance would be a kinder phrase than I've been using. Anyone know a good way to get the oily slightly smoky smell out of the upholstery and drspes? It's not horrible, but it will need attention once I get it back home next week. Obviously anything washable is going in the machine. Any removable cushions or drapes will start with a day in the sun. Maybe a few cans of industrial strength odor eliminator. The oil remnants in the HVAC unit are going to be the biggest problem in the end. That old oil has a particular smell that's hard to get rid of. I'm going to try and add a layer of charcoal filter media to the HVAC main filter to see if it helps.

Just sharing a little travel joy we had yesterday... Driving to Davenport for their big downtown street festival and about 10 miles from the exit we suddenly smelled a strong burned oil smell. No smoke, no electrical problems indicated on dash. Got to the end of the exit and realized that the power steering was not there. Strong armed to a wide shoulder, expecting to find oil sprayed all over the engine bay from a blown hose. Nothing. Checked the front axle and steering box - no sign of a leak. Start to add fluid to the reservoir, hoping to get enough in so I can get to a safer place, and smoke starts to fill the bus. Ran around and shut off all the batteries. Called the fire department. Smoke cleared before they came. I restarted the bus while they were there just in case, and things looked ok. Strong armed the bus to Interstate Power Systems in Davenport. Their 2nd shift tech was able to open up the access panel after dropping the main air tank. Ended up being a near catastrophe... The main 2-0 battery cable going to feed the front of the bus crosses under the copper line for the power steering. The insulation had worn through, and when it came into contact with the copper line it became an arc welder, carving a half-moon hole in the copper line. Oil sprayed everywhere in the HVAC unit, some of it instantly vaporized and some turned to soot. The good news is that the problem was found, the mess was contained, and hopefully after a few cases of electronics cleaner is sprayed the relays and a/c controls should be ok. Shop is going to repair the copper line Monday and splice a new battery cable to replace the damaged piece. I consider this a manufacturing defect. That battery cable was not properly fastened and shielded from rubbing. We came close to losing the bus, as that cable carries the full 270 amps from the alternator. If the short had been a bit more solid instead of glancing, the whole bus would be ashes now. My second time in Iowa. Second bus disaster there. Second time leaving in a rental car. Last bus trip in Iowa for us.

Generic fuse blocks are available. One company that makes them is Dorman. Do a search on Amazon for "Dorman fuse block" and you'll see many options, including some with room for relays. Pick one with enough slots that will fit in or near the original mounting space. Pick two if they don't have one with enough slots. Blue Sea is another quality company. Try and stay away from the unbranded and no-name products though, as I've found the quality to be really low. (You might need a new crimping tool to install these - some use the GM/Delphi/Packard style terminals. Amazon sells these. This is the style of terminal which has two tabs sticking up that wrap around the wire and another two that wrap around the insulation.) The hardest part in the repair will be identifying all the wires, especially if they are badly damage and melted together. Hopefully things shut down fast enough to prevent this. My biggest concern wouldn't be replacing/repairing the damage in the immediate area, it would be finding other collateral damage which was done at the same time but which is hidden from view right now. You'll have to run as much of a systems test as you can once you get things put together to try and identify anything else which may be damaged.

I did - most seemed to be suited for use on an automobile pedal and were much narrower and shorter than what I need. My pedal is about 2-3/4" wide x 9" long. I need about 1" of extra height on the pedal. I've got a replacement rubber cover for my pedal on the way along with a dense foam rubber block. I'm going to experiment with those along with a hot glue gun and see what I can come up with. I'm imagining that somehow I'll fabricate this to use Velcro straps to tie it onto the existing pedal so that it can be removed, at least until I'm sure it's a keeper. My pedal setup is similar many Class A chassis setups, so I was kind of hoping that someone had already skinned this cat once before.

Wish I had kept those from the 70s when they were in style. I think the tallest my brother and I had were 3" lifts in our boots, all to keep up with the latest disco boots & bell bottom jeans trends.

Over? As in sideways? No. Just the usual forward/back up/down. No room to move pedestal at all sideways.

I finally determined what's causing my right knee to hurt after a day of driving...the accelerator pedal is just a bit too far to the right and a bit too far from my seat. Being only 5'-2" tall, this is nothing new, and this time I'm a bit short (pun intended) of ideas for solving it. I don't have cruise control and don't want it, so lets leave that out of the conversation. The problem is coming from 'floating' my heel over the pedal while I press the pedal with my toes for the hours that I'm driving. This is causing pain in the top of my knee under the knee cap since it causes constant tension in the muscles. Oddly, the brake treadle is perfect for me, as is the clutch pedal. I think that because the accelerator is slightly offset to the right of the seat it makes it just enough of a stretch to be a problem. Can't move the accelerator without moving the brake pedal since they share the same mounting platform, so that's out as a solution. I did try moving the seat close, but then it's too close to comfortably use the brake and clutch. Hard to see from the photo, but the brake treadle is directly in front of where my foot naturally falls, but the accelerator treadle is enough to the right that it is about 1" too far away. So, I'm trying to come up with a way to build a riser on the accelerator. Right now my idea is to get a pedal cover and a 1" piece of some type of rigid foam behind it and make a riser block for the pedal. Anyone already done this or seen something similar? I'd rather not reinvent the wheel if there is already a solution out there.

I also was surprised by the beep every time the TireMinder turns itself on, now manually shutting it down is part of the parking checklist. The low pressure during cool down issue is not one I've experienced (yet).

Curious what problems you had with Tire Minder. Ours has been working well so far, even with our coach having a metal skin - I thought that the signal would have trouble getting through because of that, but so far so good.

I can speak for my experience, which is with the TireMinder system. We've had it since buying at Gillette rally last summer, and have been pleased with it to date. Pretty simple to use, and even more simple to install. Would suggest getting a sensor for your spare tire, if you have one.

Thanks for the heads up about the app. I've had it for a while but only used it for rewards. Didn't know it also had receipts. I've audio recently gotten a Kwik Trip card & app. They are opening more truck stops in the Midwest and I find having their card and app makes things easier.

Realized that after the fact...