richard5933

This is replacing our current antenna, which for some inexplicable reason was mounted under the rear cap (which is steel on our coach). Nearly zero reception, which is why I am putting the new one on the roof. I plan to call them, but hoped someone here had real world experience with this.

I'm going to be installing a new TV antenna on the coach, a Winegard Roadstar. It's a pretty basic over-the-air antenna, and it should be good enough to catch the morning news. You can see details here if you are not familiar: http://www.winegard.com/roadstar The instructions give two options for routing the cable from the antenna through the roof. The first option is to route it through the center of the mounting base and directly through a hole in the roof. We can't do that since it would put the cable in the ceiling of our bedroom. The second option is to route the cable through a slot in the side of the base and through the roof at a location away from the antenna. We're going to do this since we want to have the cable entry point about 5 feet away from the antenna itself. Here's the question... The instructions for the second installation option call for making a 5" loop in the coax cable about 4" from the base of the antenna and then to secure the loop to the roof. So, instead of a nice neat and tidy straight run of coax down the center of the roof, they are calling for me to make a loop in the cable and make the install look sloppy (there will be no way to make the cable loop look like it belongs up there, while a straight run of cable could be run along a roof seam and blend in.) You can see this in the instructions on page 5 if you follow the link above. I can't for the life of me figure out why the loop is called for in the instructions, other than possibly to accommodate and expansion/contraction in the cable and/or the roof as the vehicle and air temps rise and fall. I know a drip loop is often used when cable is installed on a house, but that can't be the reason for the loop in this case since it will be clamped tight to the roof. Anyone have any clue what this loop is for and if it's necessary? I'd love to install without the loop, but don't want to sacrifice function for looks and will do it if absolutely necessary.

You'll need to look behind and underneath. Your converter could be behind a false panel in a cabinet, in the space under a cabinet, or in some other space that you cannot see by opening cabinet doors and looking. Hopefully you can follow the wiring from where the charging wires enter your house batteries, although they may be connected through the back of your 12v fuse panel. Behind your 12v fuse panel is another place to look. I don't know your coach in particular, but some were manufactured with the charger/converter mounted to the back side of the fuse panel, or even as a 'built-in' component of the power center. \ I think it's time to start opening a few things up to take a look. If you have a bore scope (the thing electricians and plumbers use to look inside walls) it will make this easier. Might be time for a new tool. You can add a new converter/charger, but if your old one is left in place and is going bad it can still cause collateral damage down the road. Probably best to yank it out.

First, I'm not a lawyer. Don't even play one on TV. But I've had a bit of experience with similar things on our property. Around here, when they change the zoning to make it more restrictive, those already using the less restrictive rules are generally automatically grandfathered until they either stop using the property in that way or the property is sold and the new owner stops the use. For example, we had 4 horses on our property. The zoning was changed to only allow 2 horses on a property our size. We were allowed to keep all 4 horses since we had them prior to the change. After not having them for 18 months our property reverts to the newer restriction. You purchased the property with the intention of using it to store your MH. After the fact, if they now make that not possible, then they are denying you use of your property as it was when purchased. In Wisconsin there is case law against this. It's called a 'regulatory taking' and basically says that if rules are changed to restrict you from a previously allowable use of your property it's considered a taking just like eminent domain, which would require due process AND compensation. Placing restrictions on the use of your property in such a way takes away a portion of its value, and the owner is entitled to remedies. I'd do a thorough search through all the related case law in NY to see what you're working with. After a few major Supreme Court cases, many states added even further protections against government taking property. You may find some rule or case law that you can present to the powers that be to let them know that you will expect both due process and compensation for the reduced value of your property. Another good example of this is when an area that used to allow two-family housing changes the rules to permit only single-family housing changes the zoning to allow only single-family. If they were to try and suddenly make all the two-family property owners kick out their tenants there'd be a problem. When talking about real property certain rights go with the deed, and many of those are in the permitted uses of the property at the time of purchase.

There are components of automotive coolant which will damage some diesel engines. Silicates. No amount of additives will fix this. If the wrong coolant has been put in by the shop, take it back and have them do it properly.

We got ours here: https://www.mattressinsider.com/rv-mattress.html Easy to select the size you need. Not the cheapest on the block, but to us the custom sizing was important as was the ability to order sheets to match the size. I'd prefer a slightly thicker mattress, but that's my own fault for being too cheap to order it. The mattresses arrived rolled up in a box. Be sure to have adequate space for them to expand once you open the box, because they will. Reminded me of that scene on MASH when Klinger pulled the cord on a self-inflating raft in the CO's office. Generally speaking, the quality was great and we sleep well on them.

Here's a link to an article that explains some of the issues involved with coolant on a diesel engine: http://www.motorhome.com/tech/diy/what-you-need-to-know-about-diesel-antifreeze-and-coolants/

Does it do this on every 30-amp outlet or just this one? If it's just this one, I'd suspect it's not letting power through because it found some fault with the outlet. That's exactly what you're hoping it will do.

If you have a diesel, then it's even more important to maintain the proper chemistry levels. There are some 'universal' coolants for diesel engines, but I never trust anything that says it's universal to work well in all situations. There are test strips you can get to check your coolant yourself. The SCA stands for 'supplemental coolant additive'. In many diesel engines (especially in commercial service) they don't actually change the coolant as much as they filter it, check the SCA levels, and then put it back in. That's why your manual states a minimum SCA level - they expect it to be checked and adjusted as needed. If you are adding coolant specifically designated for diesel engines, especially if it meets the minimum requirements for your engine manufacturer, it should come from the jug with enough SCA already in it. If not, you can buy the SCA to adjust yourself. Hopefully if you have a diesel they didn't use coolant designated for a gasoline engine. The chemistry in the two types of coolant are not the same, and the ingredients in gasoline engine coolant can really cause some damage to diesel engines. The shop is required to keep data safety sheets for every chemical, coolant, etc. used in the shop. If the tech doing the work didn't know which coolant it was, I'd keep pushing up and up until I found someone that could tell me. If they can't tell you which coolant was used, I'd insist they do the job over again after they get some coolant certified to be compatible with your engine.

As far as I know, which entity owns a vehicle is not the only factor used in determining whether or not it's a commercial vehicle. If I buy a class-8 semi as an individual and use it for commercial purposes to haul loads for pay, it's a commercial vehicle. If GE buys a motor home as a perk for its CEOs personal use then it's a motor home and will carry motor home plates. If a band buys a motor home and hires a driver and then uses the vehicle as a way to get to gigs, it's likely that it would be deemed a commercial vehicle. What I'm trying to say is that these things are not as simple as whose name is on the title. One other difference that may be found though is the insurance rates. My step van is insured through my wood shop's LLC. I'm told that the premium would be about 1/3 lower if I transferred ownership to my name as an individual. All that said, here in Wisconsin I pay about $118/year for plates on our coach. There is no personal property tax here, but we do have state income tax. Even then, based on the sticker price of some of the newer Class A rigs, I bet that the state income tax would be less than the personal property tax in some states. Insurance isn't bad here either unless you garage the vehicle in a few of the higher risk zip codes. Not sure what's involved in establishing residence here, but Wisconsin has some great areas for spending time over the summer (especially up north) so it may be worth a look.

Not exactly what to recommend at this point. If it were my coach, I'd get out a spare 12v battery and use jumpers to test out each appliance, light, etc. one by one until I found the one that was not working properly. You have something that is causing either a current limit or a too-large load. What's strange is that your batteries seem to test good, but the power going to the furnaces sure sounds like it's not at full voltage and/or current. Are you sure that all the appropriate switches, disconnects, etc are in the proper position? Your batteries are good - have you checked and double checked all the cables/clamps/ground connections? This includes the ground straps between the engine and the frame, the batteries and the frame, etc. Even though the voltage shows ok on your meter, that doesn't mean that the connections are allowing full current flow at load. For example, if you have a water pipe with a restriction due to rust build-up, it will still make full water pressure (voltage) but it will never allow enough water to flow (current) to fill a bucket quickly. This is what it sounds like with your electrical system - you've got the voltage but are current limited. Not sure where to suggest next.

Your 'trickle charger' will supply power to keep the batteries topped off. It will also be drawn on when you are running any 12v loads. If you are running a trickle charger and checking voltage while it's running, you're not getting a true picture of the battery's state of charge. Trickle chargers only put out a very little bit of current, probably not enough to run all the loads you're trying to run. If your batteries have failed and you've been trying to do this on the trickle charger, then it's not surprising that things are getting dimmed. However, if your batteries are in good condition and/or you've tried to run the loads with a proper 12v converter running, then you've definitely got a component failing. Trouble is going to be finding out which one. Do you have 12v fuses or breakers? If breakers, could be that this one is failing on you. Otherwise, you've got a connection, conductor, or component which is restricting current flow. This would be considered in my book as a potential fire and something that needs to be addressed before continuing to run the furnace (or anything else on the circuit.

Good news is that you might have eliminated the furnace itself as the problem. Are you able to trace the wiring to the LED lights? First step seems like it would be to check for a poor/loose connection somewhere. Since it could be something as simple as a crimp-on connector that was not installed properly it might be hard to find though. Of course, did you pull out LED #7 to see if the light fixture has failed? If it is failing it could be the cause of the problem.

Jefferson Truck, Trailer & Bus was the place to go in OKC. I believe they were closing down last fall, but you can give them a call in case the shop is still open or maybe someone ended up taking over operations. (405) 272-0213 For tires you should be able to use any of the commercial tires dealers. A quick search on their sites show that both Goodyear and Firestone have dealers in OKC. I've got Firestones on my 4108 and am quite happy with them. For other repairs like the air bags and suspension components, your best bet would be to call around to the local companies that service the local charter companies and maybe even service the school buses. If you've got a local charter company, don't be shy about calling and asking for recommendation on service facilities. I see that Detroit Diesel has at least 8 dealers/service facilities in the OKC area, a couple of them look to be larger facilities. Most of these places can handle things like air bags. You might have to help them locate parts though, as many of their supply chains will have no way to research part numbers on a 4107. Luke will be helpful for that. Bottom line, there are lots of places to get the 4107 worked on in the OKC area. Just stay away from RV places, as they won't have a clue what you have or how to work on it. I have never taken our coaches to an RV repair shop, and I don't think I will until something specifically RV-related (like the basement a/c) needs attention. I take our 4108 to Interstate here in the Milwaukee area. We took our 4106 to them before that. They are top notch, but it doesn't look like they have a location near OKC. Before taking the bus in though, I went to them and talked about what was needed and to start a working relationship. We started small with a safety inspection and fluid change. I wanted them to get their hands into things before dropping some of the more extensive work on them. Once they saw the bus and got hooked it was easier to get them to take on more and more work that other shops wouldn't touch. It would be really great if you find a repair center that has some old-school 2-stroke veterans on their team. There are still guys being trained in 2-stroke repair since the military is still running them in lots of equipment.

I thought of that too, but was still left with the issue of the fan motors slowing down so much the OP's CO alarm went off.

I just looked at the manual for this furnace and it appears to run on 12v. Is this correct for your furnace or do you have both 12v and 120v feeds to the furnace? Do you have a 120v breaker for the furnace? Are your LED lights running from your 12v system or your 120v system? If your LED lights are running from your 12v system & your furnace is running from your 12v system, then I'm starting to wonder if you've got both of these running somehow on the same circuit, possibly in a way that doesn't provide enough current flow when you run everything at once. What I'm talking about here is either a too-small wire gauge or a connected which is poorly crimped or in some way compromised as to restrict current flow. Since the problem seems to have started suddenly after having worked properly for a while, I wonder if a wire or connector somewhere got knocked partially loose or was damaged in some other way. I've seen something as simple as a staple used to mount something cause a problem when it pierced the insulation in a wire and caused an intermittent short. At this point if this were mine I would be looking for a way to run the furnaces from a totally separate power source (like a spare battery) and start doing some binary testing to isolate the problem area.

It would really help if you could tell us what make/model of coach this furnace is in, as well as what make/model of furnace you have. Right now we're all trying to troubleshoot with you but it's tough when we don't have enough informaiton.

I just re-read the original post, and the OP mentioned that this happens on 50-amp or 120v service. That would seem to indicate to me that the problem may not lie in the 12v battery bank at all. Do the furnace units work on 12v? If so, have you tried to unplug from the shore power to see what happens? One thought that I have is that if the furnace operates on both 120v and 12v, then somewhere inside the unit there is a power transformer. My Suburban is actually a 12v furnace, and when it's being operated on 120v the internal converter simply makes 12v from the 120v. If this transformer is shorting or starting to burn out, then every time it kicks in it's going to cause problems. Have you checked the wiring all the way from the 120v breaker panel to the furnaces? Look for a loose connection, any signs of heat or damage, or anything else that would indicate a problem or arcing. Have you opened the covers on the furnaces to see if there are any signs of over heating? Any areas on the wiring that look discolored? Have an acrid odor (from plastic melting internally)? What seems strange is that both units seem to do the same thing. Odd that both would go on the fritz at the same time. Unless, of course, if there was some type of external problem which affected them both, like having the 12v connected with reverse polarity or a short or loose connection in the 120v circuit which feeds them.

We have a 'declared value' on our policy for our coach. As we found out after our collision last year, that number (whether they set it or we do) is simply a ceiling. It means that they will pay up to the preset value. It doesn't guarantee that you'll get the full amount in the event of a total loss. What we found is that after the total loss, they will pay an amount which they consider to be the fair market value (or whatever verbiage your company uses for this) up to the preset limit. However, their idea of fair market value and our was not quite the same, and it was a heavy lift to convince them to bring their number up to our. We came pretty close but it was not easy. On our new coach we are working with an appraisal company, as as soon as the final upgrades are completed in a few weeks we will be having them write an official appraisal to keep on file. This is being done so that we will be able to demonstrate the fair market value of the coach prior to any incident or collision. Our (independent) insurance agent suggested we do this to make any future claims less difficult. I imagine that it will be necessary to update the appraisal every couple of years, at least.

Rich, I will be able to get into the bus tomorrow and can post the details then. Hopefully I'll just be able to get a clean photo of the information plate mounted to it so you can see the spec number as well. Thanks for the posting in reply to my thread.

Kohler (as can be imagined) isn't keen to offer assistance on a 40-plus year old generator. All I am looking for is someone who has been in this place before that can possibly offer advice on how to change the bearing with as little collateral damage as possible. I hope to do the work myself, and I have learned that it's always better to have as much information as possible before tearing into things.

Jon Walker - I very much appreciate that you personally responded. That says a lot. However, I am not sure if you really got my point. I don't really care if what was done was 'by the rules' or not. As my mother used to say, "just because it's legal doesn't always make it right." That's not the point here. What I see is an organization that used to have a very specific focus. There was a recent decision to greatly expand the focus. It was my understanding that FMCA was going to try and bring current members along into the new organization and focus, that it was going to try and keep us and our concerns in the mix. Unfortunately, I really feel like your response was somewhat tone deaf. You've got a bunch of current members begging you to be involved in the process of becoming more inclusive. We want to help you welcome new members while still providing space for current members to feel welcome and valuable. We want to make sure that FMCA stays a vital and important part of the RV world. Rather than reach out and try and find a way to accept our cries to be involved, you responded with what looks like something a lawyer wrote. You even went so far as to offer a "lawful process" if we're unhappy. Would it really be that difficult to see that we're just asking to be involved in the process of changing OUR organization as things move forward?

At this point, it doesn't really matter if it's supposed to be 250 hours or 2500 hours. It's been in place for over 40 years and likely has any, if any, useful lubricant left in the sealed bearing. Time to change it. Question is, what's the game plan to change it so that I'm not learning by destroying an otherwise good genset?

We've got a 12.5kw Kohler generator on our 1974 GMC bus conversion. It is the original genset that was installed by Custom Coach in 1974, and it has only about 900 hrs on the meter. It's powered by a Perkins diesel. Both the Kohler generator and Perkins engine are working fine at the moment, and I'm determined to do what I can to keep it that way. The same shop that works on the bus engine has gone through the Perkins and done with was necessary to get it ready. There were a few minor issues which came from not being used enough over the years, but it seems to be doing fine right now. They've replaced a few gaskets that were leaking oil, replaced a weeping water pump, and right now are replacing the four mounting pads which have become too hard to be of use. Otherwise the Perkins seems to do exactly what it should. I've recently been in touch with someone who used to work at Custom Coach when these coaches were converted, and he advised me that one of the routine maintenance items they recommended was to change the main bearing at the rear of the Kohler generator head at regular intervals of about 250 hours. That's a pretty frequent replacement cycle, but it seemed like he had a reason for the recommendation. Since I have no idea how long ago the bearing that's in place was installed, I'll assume that it's the original. That makes it time to replace it. So now the question. Does anyone have experience changing the bearing that can give me an idea of how big a project this is going to be? It's my understanding that many Wanderlodge coaches used the same genset, as did some earlier Prevost conversions, so I'm hoping that I'm not the first one in FMCA that's attempted this task. Any advice would be appreciated. A copy of the service manual for the Kohler 12.5kw generator head would also be great - the only ones I've found online either don't have the necessary information or have such degraded quality that they're unusable. Thanks!

Ken - Like I said I have absolutely nothing against having towable owners join FMCA. I'm glad to have you and others join the group. I hope you didn't take my comments as a slight against you, as they were directed not at you and other towable owners but rather at the way the decisions are being made. Herman - If you were talking about my comments, I have nothing against change itself. Nothing stays the same - I get that. My problem in this case is in how the change is being implemented and the fact that current members don't seem to be involved. I consider myself to be warm and welcoming, but that doesn't mean that I'll agree with everything that's being done. John's response to my earlier comments really does sum up what my problem is...the magazine staff made the decision on the new name. Like I said in my initial comments, it seems as if the changes are being done with little input by members. At least from what I can see. Sorry to beat a dead horse, but it was my understanding that this was a membership-based organization. I didn't think that I was joining a business that made decisions from the top, but rather joining a membership-based organization that made decisions as an organization. I don't expect every little decision to be run past the membership, but something as important as a change to the name of our publication seems like something that the board and magazine staff would at the least ask the membership for input on. I've belong to many other organization in my life, and I've served on the board of a few. It always seemed like the best way to get membership buy-in on changes was to involve the membership in the change.