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Old 10-11-2014, 05:58 PM   #43
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Thanks again, Jayco. I think we're gonna wait until we burn through some of this gas to tackle that issue.

So everything seems to be working quite well, so far. We steam cleaned the carpet, couches, bed and curtains. We went through and did a deep clean vacuuming all of the nooks and crannies we could get to. I pulled the "dog house" engine cover and stripped it down. The fiberglass insulation was halfway missing. I bought a water heater blanket and some insulation tape and went to town. It turned out quite nice and now I can drive the beast barefoot and barely feel any heat coming from the motor. After the oil change it's running nice around 45 psi at operating temperature. I'll probably drain and replace the coolant, but it stays well within the operating temperature now.

We're out for our first week in it to test drive all the appliances. The fridge is cooling down quite nicely on 120V (I also tested it on propane and it seemed to function well) The little old oven fired up and all three burners work great. The propane heater fired up and cooked us at 450 degrees in about 2 minutes.

The only problem I found was here:



I believe this is the water line for the old swamp cooler on the roof (Does not work) It looks like it was plumbed right in to the copper tubing. Well I followed that plastic line and it looks like it was cut and somebody tried to plug it with a screw and electrical tape. It leaked quite a bit, so I had to shut off the water. I'm guessing I can just unscrew that fitting and sweat in a joint? That swamp cooler isn't going to work any time soon and we're just gonna save up for an A/C unit to be installed later. What do you guys think?

Other than that it's been pretty smooth sailing. I'm amazed at how well this thing runs for being 40 years old. It's a great machine.

Thanks,
Chad
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Old 10-13-2014, 10:25 AM   #44
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If you have room to do soldering in the area, sounds like you got things covered.

That's actually not bad leakage over the years from the saddle clamp, but like you, I'd want to fix it too.
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Old 10-13-2014, 10:19 PM   #45
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Yeah, it was a bit tight. I decided to try out those SharkBite fittings with a small PEX line. Man, those things are really nice. I figure some day in the future we'll go through and redo all the copper lines with PEX, so I wanted to try them out. They are a breeze. A lot easier than trying to sweat a fitting in there. Worked out great. We got the leak fixed and tested out the water heater. It works great! I'm so pleased with how well everything works in this thing. Here's the little repair line we plumbed in:




We're on a week long stay in an RV park close to home to get a feel for living in it. Now that all the appliances are up and running, we're trying to focus on organizing and storing stuff. You really have a small area to work with in there. I'll keep you guys updated with pictures and such as we get do little things here and there.
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Old 10-27-2014, 08:56 PM   #46
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Okay guys, after 2 weeks in action at a local rv park we've got a list of stuff to get fixed before we can start full timing. I'm looking for a bit of help from the crowd here on a few items:

1. Coach Battery:
I've done some research on rv electrical and this is my basic understanding of our system in this coach. We have a 120V system that we can plug into shore power. When I plug that in, there is also a Charger/Converter that is plugged into a 120V outlet. That converts the 120V to 12V and powers all the lights, the water pump and charges the battery. If we're not plugged into shore power, I can still use the 12V system off of the coach battery (which is very weak). I think that's the gist. I guess my first question is I only see a very small (14 gauge?) wire coming off the coach battery. Is that enough to carry the charging load? Also, is there a way I could run the 120V system off the coach battery, if say I got 2 deep cycle batteries? If I installed an inverter, ran the battery bank to that and then plugged in the power from the coach 120V system, like I would into shore power would that work? I could just unplug the charger/converter and it would think I was just on house power.

I'm still trying to figure it all out, but we'll be boondocking and it would be nice to figure out a way to get 120V. I know it's possible, but I'm just wondering how difficult it would be.

2. Attaching Stuff to the Roof.

So we're thinking about wifi and I think I'll get a wifi antenna and adapter. It will pick up wifi signals from around 4,000 ft. away. It can mount on the roof but I'm wondering what the best method is? It's around 4' long. Are there studs up there or is it a solid piece of wood I can screw into anywhere? I was up there to replace a vent and it did feel like it would flex in some spots. I didn't walk around, I was just on the edge. This rig also didn't come with a ladder so I'm not sure if they intended for anyone to go up there at all. What are your thoughts?

Thanks for your help guys.

Chad
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Old 12-06-2014, 01:49 PM   #47
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Hey guys, so we went through a couple days of rain and we have to chase down a window leak. The butyl tape between the RV skin and the window frame appears to still be quite pliable and not dried out, but the seal between the window glass and the window frame appears to be the culprit. Here are some pictures:



So what's the best option on sealing that portion of the window? I don't think replacing the seal is feasible. I'm thinking I'll trim the seal back, clean the area and use one of the Dicor non-silicon sealant caulks. What do you guys think about that?
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Old 12-31-2014, 07:57 AM   #48
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skip is right on the money. i would also like to add give the age of the mh, the heat riser passage in the intake manifold and heads plugs up and affects the coke opperation. i had to do this twice on two vehicles. 360s are a little hard on gas but good motors, and 727 transmissions are hard to kill. good luck.
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