Our 83 Pace Arrow Texas maiden voyage was a total failure

[kartvines]

Well after a year of planing and working on this 83 Pace Arrow the maiden voyage lasted only 30 minutes, after leaving home the motor-home broke down just 30 minutes from home, after overheating after the first climb and after pulling over to allow it to cool I lost all power and had to have it towed home after a 5 hour wait with coach-net. We ended up getting home only to throw as much as possible into our vintage 55 Crown travel trailer and headed toward Texas again just to again break down just before we crossed into Arizona, the hitch lost it's Lynch pin and separated from the truck, dumping the trailer onto the middle of the street.

Well we got to Texas only a day behind schedule, and made it home yesterday. so the motor-home was a total failure. I will check to see if I can discover the problem this week end, and plan to make another major repair, and if that too fails in the same way this trip did, we will get rid of it, being more than 10 grand down. We hope it doesn't end this way. It was a total disaster

[Shore2Shore]

So sorry to hear your maiden voyage went so bad :'(
Is the trailer ok? Maybe the rig needs some tlc on the radiator/thermostat/hoses etc area? Did it need or receive any of those items or service during the year getting ready?

Hope you find the problem when you look at it and that its an easy & cheap fix!!!

[Wanabee FTer]

kartvines,
So sorry to hear of your disappointing maiden voyage. Sounds like you were determined to have a good time anyway by using your TT, must have been a hair raising event to have the TT disconnect on the road
Getting back to the MH, did it stop running due to overheating or did you pull over before it got too hot?

[michelb]

That sucks but I'm happy to hear you still managed to salvage your trip. If it makes you feel any better, things break on the newest motorhomes too.

Hopefully you'll get the mh back on the road without much trouble or expense. I'd suggest a short 'test' trip to make sure all systems are ok before hitting the road for another long vacation. That said, I'm not one to talk - twice I've bought mhs sight unseen, flown in to pick them up and then drove 2500 miles home (although I did have both checked mechanically before leaving and on the second trip, we had have a water pump failure after about 500 miles and had to get that fixed before we could continue).

[Senior Chief]

You have all my sympathy! Stuff breaks on MHs, new, old or in between. Rarely is it at our convenience.

I wonder if you cooked some plug wires when you overheated that first time?

[kartvines]

Originally Posted by Wanabee FTer

kartvines,
So sorry to hear of your disappointing maiden voyage. Sounds like you were determined to have a good time anyway by using your TT, must have been a hair raising event to have the TT disconnect on the road
Getting back to the MH, did it stop running due to overheating or did you pull over before it got too hot?

We pulled over the first spot we could and think we did so before major problems developed, but won't know until I check the system out.

[kartvines]

Originally Posted by michelb

That sucks but I'm happy to hear you still managed to salvage your trip. If it makes you feel any better, things break on the newest motorhomes too.

Hopefully you'll get the mh back on the road without much trouble or expense. I'd suggest a short 'test' trip to make sure all systems are ok before hitting the road for another long vacation. That said, I'm not one to talk - twice I've bought mhs sight unseen, flown in to pick them up and then drove 2500 miles home (although I did have both checked mechanically before leaving and on the second trip, we had have a water pump failure after about 500 miles and had to get that fixed before we could continue).

That was alway our plan but for reason we did not get to do so. We had everything checked out by our mechanic before leaving, with a major tune up etc. I think we may have thrown a new belt, causing the overheating, but not yet investigated it. If we did it was a new belt and now I have to determine what cause it to break, my mechanic said it was a good belts and he adjusted them all just prior to our trip. Once I find the problem you know I will post it for more feed back.

[kartvines]

Just pulled the dog house to discover that it was the water pump belt, that was only thrown, did not break. so that caused the overheating, but not sure what cause it to drain the batteries. When we arrived home yesterday it seems as if the battery bank were charged, but when I tried to turn the engine over it is still completely dead,and I had it on a maintainer, I found I forgot to turn the refer off so I am sure it drain it, but can not figure out what is now killing the battery. I plus it into the house current yesterday and it too did not charge the battery so not sure what my next step will be. Now have it on the battery charger so I guess I will see the status in a few hours.

[GOLDWINGER2]

Originally Posted by kartvines

Now have it on the battery charger so I guess I will see the status in a few hours.

Shore power(120)only charges the house batteries, the chassis battery is charged by the alternator or an external battery charger. Was your water pump belt a new one? You have to re-tighten them after they break-in.
J

[JimElliott]

Originally Posted by kartvines

Just pulled the dog house to discover that it was the water pump belt, that was only thrown, did not break. so that caused the overheating, but not sure what cause it to drain the batteries. When we arrived home yesterday it seems as if the battery bank were charged, but when I tried to turn the engine over it is still completely dead,and I had it on a maintainer, I found I forgot to turn the refer off so I am sure it drain it, but can not figure out what is now killing the battery. I plus it into the house current yesterday and it too did not charge the battery so not sure what my next step will be. Now have it on the battery charger so I guess I will see the status in a few hours.

Fridge battery comes from the coach batteries NOT the main (engine) battery side.....
On my 83 Itasca the "dual-mom" switch can be a "PITA" especially when the ignition switch is left on (accessary side included) .
Your biggest problem at the moment is finding the reason the belt flipped over and that could be your "PITA" for a week or longer.

Jim

[Wanabee FTer]

Originally Posted by kartvines

Just pulled the dog house to discover that it was the water pump belt, that was only thrown, did not break. so that caused the overheating, but not sure what cause it to drain the batteries. When we arrived home yesterday it seems as if the battery bank were charged, but when I tried to turn the engine over it is still completely dead,and I had it on a maintainer, I found I forgot to turn the refer off so I am sure it drain it, but can not figure out what is now killing the battery. I plus it into the house current yesterday and it too did not charge the battery so not sure what my next step will be. Now have it on the battery charger so I guess I will see the status in a few hours.

Sounds like the alternator/water pump belt caused the chassis battery to drain when it came off. Hopefully no other problems then that.
Have your mechanic check for any miss-aligned pulleys. If nothing is found wrong, the new belt may have been installed in the wrong pulley groove.

[kartvines]

It was a new belt but ran for a while while keeping the engine warmed up for months before the final adjustment so I thought I was in good shape, funny than the alternator maintained the engine running until I turned it off unless it was still running on back up battery power because it didn't stall out due to lack of power. I really got twisted out of shape and not usable anymore because of that. I will have my mechanic check the pulley alignment again he told me all was correct prior to the trip.

Originally Posted by Wanabee FTer

Sounds like the alternator/water pump belt caused the chassis battery to drain when it came off. Hopefully no other problems then that.
Have your mechanic check for any miss-aligned pulleys. If nothing is found wrong, the new belt may have been installed in the wrong pulley groove.

[JimElliott]

Might have installed the wrong size belt also and when your freeway speeds were reached your belt climbed over the pulley.

Jim

[Senior Chief]

Can you check to see if alternator and water pump are free and not frozen up?