jcnansen Report post Posted April 11, 2011 I have a 2006 40' Winnebago Vectra on a Freightliner Evolution XC Chassis. It has always been a problem when filling it with diesel. It goes good until you are about 20 gals from full when it starts to burp and shuts off. Then it is a never ending trickle to try and get it full. I have tried opening the opposite side fuel fill and that didn't help. Freightliner has just sort of washed there hands from it saying there is nothing they can do This I simply cannot believe. The vent tube is in place and not plugged. I have tried using the smaller diameter fuel nozzle when I can but can't get this unit into those places. I know this has been thrown around before but just hoping some clever sole out there has found a solution. THANKS Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wolfe10 Report post Posted April 11, 2011 Welcome to the FMCA Forum. Both Freightliner and your coach maker need to do their job properly in order to avoid the slow fill/burping while fueling you are experiencing. Verify that both the large-diameter fill and smaller-diameter vent lines do NOT sag between the coach side and tank. If either has a sag in it, you will experience these symptoms. If you find one with a sag, get a piece of PVC pipe the same ID as the OD of your hose. Run it over a saw to remove 1/3 of its diameter (over the full length of the length of the sagged hose. "Snap" the PVC over the offending hose and hold it in place with nylon zip ties. Shouldn't cost you over $10 to fix if this is the issue. Brett Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hermanmullins Report post Posted April 12, 2011 Welcome to the FMCA Forum. Both Freightliner and your coach maker need to do their job properly in order to avoid the slow fill/burping while fueling you are experiencing. Verify that both the large-diameter fill and smaller-diameter vent lines do NOT sag between the coach side and tank. If either has a sag in it, you will experience these symptoms. If you find one with a sag, get a piece of PVC pipe the same ID as the OD of your hose. Run it over a saw to remove 1/3 of its diameter (over the full length of the length of the sagged hose. "Snap" the PVC over the offending hose and hold it in place with nylon zip ties. Shouldn't cost you over $10 to fix if this is the issue. Brett When I was in the boating industry we had problems with several boat gas tanks. Several of the manufactures put in 20 gallon tanks where they had 16 gallon tanks before. What happened was the fill neck hose had to go up to the top of the tank and created a very slow filling. They solved the problem by going back to the 16 gallon tank. I believe what you are saying about the sagging hoses would create the same problem. Signed Pinoccho Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
cricard04 Report post Posted January 14, 2012 I have a 2004 Vectra which was a pain to fill; I could never hold the fill nozzle wide open when filling the fuel tank. I complained to Freightliner and it appears there was a fuel tank design that had a problem; they offered me a replacement tank that fixed the problem for free. Check on the installation cost of removing and replacing the tank if you go this route; the Freightliner service center in Londonderry NH I went too said it took 17 hours to change the tank ($1800). Personally I think they were dishonest, the tank is held in with two metal straps; the vent lines, fuel lines for the engine and generator and the fuel gauge electrical connections were all that had to be disconnected to remove the tank. The tank is in plain view under the coach and there's nothing in the way to remove it. I delivered the coach to the service center with almost no fuel in it to make it easy for them and when questioned about the cost they claimed the tank was full and it took a long time to drain and filter the fuel. The coach was originally brought to them because of fuel system blockage to the engine which caused the engine to buck (cut out) for lack of fuel. Initially when I called and talked to them, the service manager suggested changing the extra fuel filter I had them install prior to the engine lift pump a year before. The lift pump had suffered from contamination and blockage several times in preceding years causing us to limp home. The large fuel filter provided originally was installed between the lift pump and the fuel injection pump; it didn't do any filtering of the fuel to the lift pump. I hadn't changed the filter because it rained every day prior to taking the coach in for service and tank replacement. When I did deliver the coach for service I told the service person I hadn't change the filter and suggested they change it before wasting a lot of time. They didn't listen and went through a trouble shooting process that cost over $300 to find out the filter I told them to replace (on their recommendation) was clogged with some hard substance (not identifiable). Needless to say, when I complained I got no satisfaction. However, since this incident I have heard that if the welding slag inside the fuel tank that is created when the fuel tank baffles are welded in place is not removed, it can deteriorate in a moist environment (water vapor in the tank) and come loose and clog fuel filters This is the most probable answer as I purchase all my fuel at large truck stops where the fuel doesn't sit for months at a time accumulating moisture. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hermanmullins Report post Posted January 14, 2012 circard04, Welcome to the Forum. You didn't say how many miles you had on your coach before/when you took your coach to Freightliner. But let me say this. The majority of Fabrication Shops do not use stick electrode or flux cored wire to weld a thin guage material like a fuel tank. The will use MIG, Metal Intert Gas. This process doesn't leave slag. It will however leave some flakes around the welded area. This should have been brushed off with a wire brush. This material would be caught by your fuel filter, which in this case it did. I might be a little cautious in taking my coach to them in the future. One of the unfortunate thing about Motor Homes when taking them to a Truck Shop is that there aren't any Flat Rate Books for them. At this point you are at their mercy. And the more honorable will always get recognized and word of mouth will tell the world. Your commit about the shop in NH will also be heard loud and clear. Good Luck and Happy Fueling. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
vtbigdog Report post Posted January 14, 2012 In a lot of automobile gas tanks, there is an air pocket at the top of the tank. To eliminate the air pocket an old trick was to place an additional vent line from the top of the tank to the filler neck. This required drilling a hole in the tank and the filler neck and installing a small fuel line. So when the pump initially kicked off, you could then fill the rest of the tank slowly. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hermanmullins Report post Posted January 15, 2012 Richard, that seems like an older remedy. With todays computers, if your don't get the gas cap on and click it at least 3 times it will cause your check engine light to come on. But I remember a lot of thing we used to do before ECMs. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
vtbigdog Report post Posted January 15, 2012 Herman, the Original Poster was noting how difficult it was to top off the fuel tank. Removing the air pocket in the manner I mentioned eliminates this problem once the fuel nozzle kicks off. As an example my automobile has a 17.2 gallon gas tank. When filling it up it would shut off early and would have great difficulty in taking any additional fuel. I never put more than 16 gallons into it. Once I pulled the fuel tank and made the modifications, I could add an additional 2 gallons of fuel and "topping it off" would take no more than 30 seconds. The same modification to a motorhome can be made which would resolve the OPs issue. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wolfe10 Report post Posted January 15, 2012 Herman is correct if you are talking about a recent model gasoline vehicle with sealed gas tank which vents only through a charcoal filter. Ovefilling will contaminate the charcoal vapor filter with liquid gasoline. And that extra vent will cause the vehicle to fail the emissions tests-- at least the ones performed in most metro areas. Best answer is to insure that there are no sags in either fill or vent line and if still an issue, contact your chassis maker/coach maker. This can be more of an issue on coaches where the fill is installed lower than on others. The more elevation drop between side of coach and tank, the better. Brett Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
desertdeals69 Report post Posted January 16, 2012 The air space at the top of the tank is there for a reason. If you fuel the tank full to the top and don't drive and the weather is hot as the cool fuel heats up it expands and will over flow. Fuel that is in the storage tank under ground is rather cool. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
