Pace Arrow: Newb Pace Arrow issues, need some advice, hints

[benedicttw]

I don't do much of the maintenance on my 2003 Pace Arrow myself so I'm not real up to date on technical issues. I also had an issue with the leveler going up. One day I decided to crawl under and see what I could find. The is a grease fitting of them. This surprised me. The mechanic that does the oil changes and grease did not know. I put grease in, boy were they dry. They have now work.
Hope this helps

[zorro2kita]

Regarding levelers not rising fully - I also found out that the rear units had zerk fittings -never lubricated by previous owner - after lubing, helped a lot! I also sprayed them with silicone prior to raising - never a problem again! As someone mentioned earlier, hydralic hoses were poorly placed - had 2 fail due to rubbing on chassis - keep plugging away --

[Kluffinator]

Thanks for the heads up on the rear leveler grease fittings. I lubed mine also and that helped.

[cjkrolak]

Originally Posted by Kluffinator

CJ

One of the modifications I have done recently and wished I had done sooner was to relocate the struts on some of the cargo bay doors to open higher. An inch higher on the base mount of these lifts makes all the difference. Specially the bay just behind the curbside entry door and the two bays under the bedroom slide. Having to bend down so low to get under those doors at the horizontal position was a real pain.

Another modification I am thinking of doing is to replace the hold open struts on the two cabinets above the driver and passenger seat to open higher. As you know they only open about 75 degrees. There are cabinet struts that will open to 105 degrees which should eliminate having to duck under these doors.

I too would like to get longer struts for the two cabinets above the front seats, let me know if you find some that work for this. I just recently replaced the 25" tube with a 42" LED on the front, there's interference with these overhead cabinets, I put the TV on a telescoping mount so I can pull it forward and tilt it to the side to get these cabinets open. Not ideal to have interference but I figure these cabinets don't need to be opened very often.

[Kluffinator]

I didn’t replace the struts one the cargo doors. I just moved the lower mounting bracket up to give the doors a better open angle.

As to the upper cabinet doors I haven’t addressed those yet. My next priority is replace the short bit of rubber hose on the fuel fill line up behind the generator. Mine deteriorated to the point it was leaking when I refueled. Discovered the leak by accident when I was fueling and opened the propane door to make sure it was off. Wrapped it with electrical tape but need fix permanently. You might want to inspect yours as well.

[Kluffinator]

Thanks for the heads up on the Cabinets struts. I’ll check those out.

[Kluffinator]

Here’s a bit more info on the gas hose issue I mentioned


Gas Leak While Fueling
https://www.irv2.com/forums/f22/gas-leak-while-fueling-504000.html

[mchero]

Where are you guys sourcing your lift struts? I need to replace 4 or 5 pairs.

[Neicy]

Amazon has an RV area, I ordered there. Tried Camper World but not good selection and pricey

[cjkrolak]

Originally Posted by zorro2kita

Regarding levelers not rising fully - I also found out that the rear units had zerk fittings -never lubricated by previous owner - after lubing, helped a lot! I also sprayed them with silicone prior to raising - never a problem again! As someone mentioned earlier, hydralic hoses were poorly placed - had 2 fail due to rubbing on chassis - keep plugging away --

Zorro, where abouts under the chassis were you finding the hydraulic hoses wearing against the chassis?

[Kluffinator]

I don’t know about Zorro but my right rear line had a coupling fitting that rubbed right at the hole in the frame that it went through on its path from the pump (behind the front left wheel) and across above the engine bell housing. This created a leaking fitting. I took the complete hose to a local shop that makes up hydraulic line and had one continuous line made up without any intermediate couplings. I had them make it with some slack so that if one of the end fittings ever failed I could just have them cut that off and put a new fitting on.

If you do the same there is a bleed fitting at the top of the rear leveling jack to eliminate any air in the line.

The $9 hand pumps at Harbor Freight work well for refilling the reservoir.

[zorro2kita]

The wear and eventual failure was on the hose that went left to right over the engine area. Had a shop replace - actually La Mesa RV in Albq, NM. The replacement hyd line was rather flimsy so I covered it with fuel hose line - split the hose and inserted hyd hose into fuel hose - it will never rub through again !! The other hyd hose that failed was also the line that ran over the rails on the right side of the chassis - really poor design!! Did the same as above - covered hyd line where it came into contact with chassis.

[mchero]

Nice job Nick! Thanks for the update.

[Kluffinator]

So in an effort to cut down on some of the engine/road noise and to reduce the heat coming off the doghouse today I installed some Noico sound deadening may and Dynamat headliner on the doghouse. I measured a 2 to 4 dB reduction at idle and 2,000 rpm in the drive and the tonal nature of the sound seemed to have changed some. I’ll have a better evaluation when I drive it to Gulf Shores this weekend.

I used just over 10sf of the Noico mat so had to buy two boxes. I’m thinking to install the rest on the bottom of the fiberglass dash where the defroster vents are as I think that also sends some road and engine noise into the cabin.

I also went to replace the hood struts and evidently 35lbs each is still not enough.

Here some pictures of the doghouse. With just the Noico and then the Dynamat.