Community Forums

Joe Gilbert · 05-02-2008, 04:28 PM

obbm: I see that you travel from Upstate NY to the great South West. Does that by chance take you through Colorado? If yes have you driven over their roads in the fall, winter, or spring. If yes that explains the corrosion. Colorado, and other mid-west and mountain states treat their roads with liquid magnesium salfate. This stuff will eat darn near anything. Ask the truckers about it. They even had to reformulate the truck brake linings to keep them in one piece.

If you have not run the RV through salt or over roads treated with MS than I guess I don't know why your coach has such corrosion issues.

My W22, with 30K miles does not have this problem.

Joe

jwine · 05-02-2008, 04:51 PM

Bill, I have a new 07 itasca w-22 and the aluminum pipes that connect to trans cooler that have some pretty severe corrosion/rust spots on them. I cleaned and put some primer and will keep an eye on them. Good luck working with WH.

max49 · 05-02-2008, 07:33 PM

I live in Co and have heard about the magnesium chloride but I have'nt seen damage any thing like when I lived on the coast of Florida where it seemed like steel rusted overnite.
We have very few rusty cars out here compared to back east.

obbm · 05-03-2008, 03:47 AM

Thank you all for your various replies. The exposure to salt occurred in Rockport, TX where we camped on the shore for several weeks at Goose island State Park (this park is Paradise). Salt spray blew all over in the Texas winter wind.

We have been half timing for 11 years without driving on salty roads.

To those who suggested I repair it, thanks but this is a difficult and messy job. An important consideration is that if I clean the rust and treat it or cover it, as many well know, an imperfect cleaning and painting of rust often results in further rusting underneath the paint, thereby hiding additional corrosion. This could result in failure without any warning. In the case of the brake pump, a crash could result. Then the manufacturer would say, as very often quoted on this forum, "tampering with the chassis has voided your warranty and absolved us from liability".

This is an expensive vehicle, still in warranty, and has an obvious defect. Why should I have to fix it? It should be driveable and useable under prevailing conditions, which includes exposure to salt.

We owned Ford and Ford/Freightliner chassis, and they didn't use the metal pipes for fluids. they used high quality hoses, which are much better (and much more expensive) than metal.

Granted, I posted here before contacting WCC, on the chance this had happened before and someone would know some results under warranty.

DriVer · 05-03-2008, 09:36 AM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by obbm:
We owned Ford and Ford/Freightliner chassis, and they didn't use the metal pipes for fluids. they used high quality hoses, which are much better (and much more expensive) than metal. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>Obbm, In a former life some 30 years ago I was a heavy duty equipment mechanic. Metallic hydraulic and or other fluid conduits are the preferred fluid transfer plumbing which most OEM manufacturers will specify for their equipment. On our chassis this would be from Allison. There isn't anything cheap about metal conduit. Rubber hoses are used where a direction change and flexibility due to movement of a particular piece of equipment is evident as opposed to a fixed piece of conduit. For instance you would not be able to run a fixed conduit to a brake caliper from the frame because the caliper constantly changes direction.

The best machines use hi pressure metal conduit and these are superior to rubber hoses. If rubber hoses were the excellent medium that you believe they are to transfer fluids, we would see entirely rubber hosed brake lines, fuel systems and not to forget LP systems. This clearly isn't the case.

If you look more closely Freightliner and Ford both have fixed plumbing systems and were terminated to the supplied or powered devices using rubber hoses.

exrench · 05-03-2008, 04:34 PM

We live in a nasty environment with various salts of chloride as well as acid rain in many areas of the country (I measured rain with a 4 pH last year during a rare rainfall.)Live with it and deal with the issue by spraying Fluid Film on any problematic lines.especially the end fittings.The man who services that line (if ever necessary} will save enough time to pay for many cans of that product.It may not be easy to find.NAPA is locally a good source for it.WD40 is an excellent product for which it is sold but is not good for this particular use.