richard5933

You might think so, but you'd be wrong. I thought that as well when first trying to get them worked on, which caused no end to the aggravation. It seems that half the battle is just figuring out what you've got and who is best to do the work. When I looked closer I realized that these units have none of the things normally seen on a Cruisair unit - no nameplate, no 3-switch switch plate, and a totally different condensing unit. These units are running Copeland commercial compressors and the HVAC tech working on them today confirmed that they look identical to systems commonly seen in walk-in beer coolers or other medium-temp coolers. That's a good thing, really, as any parts needed are common commercial refrigeration off-the-shelf items. The system was also put together in a manner which allows it to be serviced, very unlike the modern roof-top units that are often throw-a-way units once they break. There are also no circuit boards and no electronics. Everything is purely mechanical. A bit clunkier, perhaps, but certainly more reliable. After all, they've been working for 44+ years and still make cold air (temp at the blower was 50 degrees today with 85 degree outside temps, after getting the service completed.)

After having the problem of the front unit short cycling again, I searched out an HVAC tech that could help. Today the guy came out to look at the system. Just the kind of HVAC guy I needed too - he works on his own in his own company, and he has experience with both residential and commercial systems. Seems that what Custom Coach did was use a commercial split system, just like you'd find cooling a large walk-in cooler, to cool the bus. Actually, two of them. The condensing units in the bays use heavy-duty 115v compressors, which he says are work horse compressors and should last years more. The front system that was shutting down after a while was somewhat of a mystery. Some of the pressure/temps were spot on, others not so much. The one that worried him was actually the high pressure, and his suspicion was that the compressor was shutting down when the compressor reached it's internal high pressure/temp safety shut off point. The system was supposed to have r12 in it as refrigerant, but the pressures (especially the high pressure) were not correct. He tried to evacuate some of the refrigerant to see if there was too much. Didn't help. Then he evacuated the system, blew it out with nitrogen, evacuated again, changed the dryer/filter, and refilled with an r12 replacement that is supposed to be compatible with the oil in the system. His hunch was that there was a "non-compressible" in the system - either air or some other contaminant introduced by someone working on the system in the past. Presence of something like this would act to essentially downgrade the effectiveness of the condensing coil and raise the high pressure. After the work he did, the system has been running with no problems so far. It's making cold (very cold) air and cycling on/off with the thermostat as it should. While he was here, he checked the rear unit. It had bubbles in the sight glass so he topped off the refrigerant. Looks like we might have a very slight leak there, but not one that could be confirmed today. We're going to run the systems on our trip over the next few weeks and see how things go. Good news is that the repair guy says that all the parts are still around, more than we'd need to totally rebuild the system if necessary. He was actually impressed with the quality of parts Custom Coach used to build the system. I know that not many have systems similar to ours, but if nothing else perhaps it's interesting for others to read what it takes to keep these old rigs on the road. Maybe someone will also get an idea or inspiration from all this. That's all for now.

Any good truck radiator shop should be able to handle the radiator fins. I'd start by looking in your area for a truck dealer that works on the make of chassis you have - you're looking for pretty basic work so if they can't do it in house they will be able to recommend someone in the area where they send radiators for repair. It's quite common for radiators to be damaged, so almost every city has a shop where they can be repaired. The ac cooling fins might be able to be straightened using a plastic fin comb. However, if they are severely damaged or if any of the tubes are damaged it might not be possible to fix it. Does the unit still work and cool? If so, then probably you don't have any permanent damage. Be aware though that if the fins are really bent and someone pulls too hard on them to straighten them it's possible to damage the tubes inside.

Really depends on the purpose of getting the radio when deciding ham radio vs CB. I've got both and usually carry them in the bus when we travel. Yes, the ham radio can be helpful in an emergency - much longer distance communications are possible using a repeater. Ham radio is also a great way to be part of another community. However, for practical vehicle-to-vehicle communications while on the highway the CB is really much better, IMHO. First, not everyone traveling with you is likely to have a ham radio license. Secondly, for communication with (or just listening to) truckers on the road you'll need a CB. When traffic or road conditions fall apart truck drivers reach for the CB and it is really helpful to be able to tap into those warnings.

Here's my guess... If the chassis batteries were dead (or nearly so). The solenoid was clicking until the chassis batteries were replaced, indicating that it didn't get enough juice to fully engage. If the house batteries were/are good, that means that the solenoid was getting it's switching juice from the dead chassis batteries. The fact that some of the house systems were pulling power from the chassis batteries is likely what caused the chassis batteries to die early. They are not deep cycle and not designed to be used that way. If you figure out which circuits belong to the house batteries and put those circuits back where they belong, you'll likely eliminate the problem with the chassis batteries.

I think that the most important thing isn't really which radio to get but rather to make sure to match it to a good antenna and to tune the antenna. The goal is to get the SWR (standing wave ratio) as close to 1:1 as possible. This is done by adjusting the length of the antenna, using an SWR meter to take readings. Some radios have a meter built in. If not, an external SWR meter is cheap and worth the money. We were heading back to the Milwaukee area from upstate Wisconsin on Memorial Day. There is great cell reception and great GPS signal strength. Neither of them were any good at all letting us know when the road ahead was coming to a sudden stop due to traffic or accidents. However, the truckers made sure to announce the problems each time they came up on channel 19 on the CB. We wouldn't travel without one. It's often said that the airwaves on CB are dead. This is often the case. That is, until there is a problem on the road which gives truckers need to communicate. At one point during the backup, I heard over and over a warning about a slow moving 'old bus' in the right lane. It was us. I think that the actual verbiage was slightly more coarse. It was fun to joke with them about peddling as fast as we could. Nice to see that they still take care to warn each other of upcoming situations. The radio we use is a Galaxy 959. Our antenna is mounted to a magnetic base which happily sticks to the roof over the driver's seat. Possibly more radio than we need but I like the bells and whistles. If you do get a hand held, a roof mounted antenna is a necessity. We use the Cobra hand held in the car with a magnetic base antenna. They sell an adapter to allow the hand held to be used with a roof antenna and a 12v outlet.

Do you have a wiring diagram for the coach? It will show how things were connected at the beginning, before a previous owner moved things around. Not sure how things in your particular coach are wired, but shouldn't the negative cables all be common to both sets of batteries? If so, then you can install a buss bar and move all the negative wires to that instead of having them connect to the battery itself. If the solenoid was clicking with weak chassis batteries, then I'd guess that the solenoid was switched on during that time and powered by the chassis batteries. Sounds like they didn't have enough juice to fully engage the solenoid, hence the clicking. Have you confirmed that your house batteries are good? Might be wise to take them to have a load test performed.

Have you checked that solenoid on the back wall to see if it's failed and always connecting you house and chassis batteries?

Maybe so - the guy I bought the coach from ran lots of buses in commercial service, so I'm sure he installed what he had on hand when he put the tires on our coach. The FS400 is a commercial tire and that might be why it holds up so well. They're more pricey than other options, but I'd probably install them again unless someone can present a good reason why another tire is a better option. We're not anywhere as heavy as some Class A rigs being sold, so I'm sure that others can benefit from the commercial tires as well.

Never hear much about Firestone tires for RVs. Is it because they're not making RV tires or for some other reason? We've got Firestone tires on our coach and they are nice. I know that our ride takes a larger tire than most - we're running FS400 315/80R2.5 right now, which even for our coach is too much tire. They give a nice ride and seem to be holding up well.

We have a Verizon Jetpack. When we're in the bus it's almost impossible to get a good signal no matter how close we are to the tower. We also use an external antenna which we place in a window with suction cups. It helps dramatically when we otherwise would have been out of luck. If you are unsure of which window to use, there are apps which will help locate the nearest tower to you on a map. Then you can place the antenna in the window facing that tower. If you can't find the app or it doesn't work, don't be afraid to try windows on different sides of the coach till you get a better signal. I think that we paid about $20 for ours on Amazon - the only thing to watch for is that the plug on the antenna will fit the antenna port on your particular Jetpack.

Wayne & Carol - Can you let us know if the 12 amps being drawn is AC or DC?

Have you used the hot water heater before successfully? If so, has anything changed in your plumbing system since you last had hot water? If it's not worked before, have you confirmed that the bypass valve isn't in the bypass mode? Can you confirm that there is water in the hot water heater? Also, if you have an outdoor shower is it turned off? (These can act as a bypass valve in some rigs if left on at the faucet but off on the shower head)

Sounds like something might be plugged into an outlet being powered by the inverter. Try turning off the inverter and see if the batteries still discharge.

Meandering Way runs north/south. Just a bit north of my brother is Richardson, but they are in Dallas. Oddly, their kids go to Richardson schools (as did back in high school). The line gets a bit blurry between Dallas and Richardson in that part of town.

We're going to visit family in North Dallas (Beltline Rd & Meandering Rd area) over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. So far, I've found nothing even near that where we can dry camp or get a campground reservation. Unfortunately my brother's driveway is way to small (and accessed from an alley) for the bus, and he lives on Meandering Way which is to narrow and busy for us to park on the street for more than a few minutes. No Walmart in the area allows overnight, and I've exhausted my resources looking for some place to park. Any suggestions?

That's the set I use - works well unless the fins are severely bent over. In that case, I used a plastic butter knife to gently get them lifted a little so that the comb could get under them.

Hope to see this and other vintage rigs at Gillette.

I bet it's all in the lighting...

I bought a set of plastic fin combs from Amazon. It came with various sizes for different make/model of coils. Just have to be careful and go slowly so no further damage is done. Poke a hole into the tubes and it's all over.

Very cool! We like old iron.

Do you have a good filter between the tank and the pump? One of the things that can caused the pump seals (check valve) to leak is floating debris. It could be sand particles, it could be scaling from hard water, it could be rust particles, etc. The reason I'm going down this path is that perhaps whatever caused your first pump to fail is still there, and possible made worse by changing the pumps when you were moving the pipes/tubes to install the new one. Our coach had very little use when we got it, but the hard water build-up in some places was quite visible and flaked off easily when I replaced our pump. As a side note, I just purchased an extra-long drinking-water-safe hose that will allow me to fill our water tank from the house faucet, since that faucet is fed by softened water. It won't eliminate all problems, but for most smaller trips we don't have to refill and can avoid using hard water. Hoping to minimize hard water scale as much as possible.

Thanks Brett. With that information, I may need to rethink my method for keeping the generator start battery charged.

We've got a 12v house battery bank being charged by a 70-amp Progressive Dynamics charger. Our generator has a separate start battery from the coach but no alternator, so we are using a Xantrex Echo Charger to keep it topped off and to replenish it between starts. The Echo Charger draws from the house system whenever it is being charged and puts out up to 15 amps, which in theory should be enough to keep up with the generator's load while running (just a fuel pump and fuel solenoid.) Today I turned off the main 70-amp charger to test the current draw on our new fridge, and the battery monitoring system started beeping. The warning was because the generator start battery had dropped below 11.2 volts. Last week I was tweaking the idle and settings on the generator and started it multiple times. Probably enough to drop the voltage some, but I just assumed that the Echo Charger would bring it back up. Thinking that perhaps the voltage had dropped low enough that the Echo Charger won't work, I engage the bridge switch to charge the generator battery off the main 70-amp charger to bring its voltage over 12. After the voltage was over 12, I tested and confirmed that the Echo Charger is sending a charge to the generator start battery. Anyone have any experience with the Echo Charger? Is it possible that the low-voltage situation in the generator start battery caused it to not be able to charge? Any other thoughts on how the generator start battery would be at 11.2v after 4 days on the Echo Charger?

This particular model will run on 12vdc or 24vdc as well as 120vac or 240vac. It was designed to run in most vehicles and on both sides of the pond. Not the largest of its type out there, but they and other companies do make them larger.