jimc99999

Do you need to remove the fuse when you're not flat towing? Seems like that's what the cabin switch would be used for. The flat tow kit is not necessary for my 2018, so I can't help you out directly. The JeepCherokeeClub forum is very active, and if you search for flat tow lots of results pop up. They even have a subforum dedicated to towing trailers and being flat towed.

My drive axle inner and outer usually run within a couple psi on the highway. On secondary roads in higher temps (e.g. the southeast summer) the inner tires trash 5-10 psi higher than the outers. I’m not sure whether it’s related to different loading with more turns, braking, road crowns, but it’s pretty consistent. Tread temps are usually 140F+ according to my infrared temp gauge, but road surface temps are 130F+ in direct sun.

If you haven’t swapped out the battery bank isolator with a ML-ACR then you may have a trickle charger that keeps the chassis batteries charged. The problem is that even the marker lights draw far more power than that trickle charger can provide. (Yes, I left the marker lights on overnight accidentally once and the chassis batteries were under 9V the next morning.) The old style battery bank isolators allow the alternator to charge both banks at high amperage but not the inverter/charger.

I can't use Rustoleum Topside because I have a rubber roof, but I've been working on repainting it with Henry's Tropicool. Had to stop for rain the other day, so when I got back up there today I checked roof surface temps with the IR thermometer. Ambient temp was 90F, full south FL sun. Area coated with Henry's Tropicool was 95-98F. Old coating was 120-125F. I also coated the rear AC cover but forgot the front AC cover until I had painted past it. Both ACs had been running for a while, front AC cover was 125F over the rear section, 115 over the front. Coated AC cover was 113F over the rear section, 100 over the front. The rear section is where the external fan is blowing air through the hot coils, the front is where the cold coils are but they're inside a metal box, not directly under the cover.

Last year we ended up boondocking in a parking lot for 6 days in the Jersey summer heat, 85-90F each day. I figured that was a good opportunity to test generator fuel usage, so I filled up at the nearest TA on the way and when we left. Drove 72 miles, ran the generator 106 hours, used 37 gallons of diesel. The coach gets around 8 mpg on flat easy driving like that, so figure 9 gallons for the Cummins and 28 for the Onan 7500. So 106 hours, 17 hrs/day, at least one AC was running for probably 70% of that time, and both AC units around 40% of those hours. Still had average usage around 0.26 gph. I thought idle usage would have been around 0.25 gph, so I'm surprised at the numbers. But I filled the tank to the top like I always do, and that truckstop is very flat, so it seems like there shouldn't be much variance related to coach being tilted right or left. My average fuel usage is 7.5 mpg over 25K miles and 1200 hours on the generator (3297 gallons total, almost $10K!).

I replaced mine with that Dorman in 2019 and it still looks new after 25K miles.

Sprint/T-Mobile has poor coverage outside urban/suburban areas and highways. I used Visible for a while, via a $50 iPhone mini from Ebay and the GL-iNet AR750. It worked most of the time, but I seem to remember having some dropouts and the tethering just stopping working sometime. I think it was somewhat better once I switched out the iPhone mini with an iPhone 7 after I upgraded. Around that time I also switched the phone to an AT&T SIM, so maybe it was the AT&T that worked better and not the iPhone 7. Eventually I was in a place with very poor AT&T signal. My client had an extra CradlePoint laying around so they sent me that device to try out. The better antennas did help some but the AT&T tower in that location was just unreliable. One thing to note is that an AT&T line that allows 100GB of hotspot data will throttle your connection to almost nothing after that 100GB, so you have to pay attention to data usage with the iPhone/GL-iNet combo uses hotspot data. The Cradlepoint apparently appears to be a cell phone and uses the unlimited cell phone data, not the hotspot data. The CradlePoint uses more power than the iPhone/GL-iNet combo too, which might be a consideration for boondocking. I should check its power usage with the Killawatt. I'm curious if the Netgear Nighthawk registers with the SIM as cellular or hotspot, does anyone know for sure?

I bought two VMAXTank MR-137 (120AH 12V) batteries 4 years ago and I wouldn't recommend them. We have not done much dry camping so they've spent most of their life charged but I feel like their capacity has dropped off dramatically. After about a year they also had problems pushing enough current to start the generator when fully charged, and at anything under 70% I had to use jumper cables (battery boost solenoid didn't seem to allow enough current, has since been replaced with ML-ACR). I had to switch the generator starter circuit to the chassis batteries. The VMAXTANK batteries are supposed to be the "good" AGM batteries, they do have plenty of lead in them. But for the same $300/ea you can get a decent 12V 100AH lithium battery that maintains voltage down to 10% SOC and should support many more charge cycles. For $400 you can get the same battery with bluetooth BMS and battery heater so it can be charged in cold weather. If you're willing to buy parts and build a battery you can get more for less. Even the old Xantrex in my 97 Windsor should charge them to 90%+ using the "12 Volt Gel Cell Cool Temperature" setting (bulk charge to 14.4V). If I were going to dry camp more I'd definitely switch. Anyway, this is not to say you should switch to lithium. But I feel like there's no reason to switch from flooded to AGM. I've seen quite a few people mention getting 7+ years out of their wet cell batteries and nobody saying the same about AGM. These days you're paying lithium prices for AGM and getting worse than flooded battery performance.

I used ground from the chassis next to the ML-ACR. I think I just took power from one of the sides of the ML-ACR, I can't quite tell from my picture.

The wiring diagram posted above shows that second solenoid in line for power to a hydraulic pump and a big box that says something like "coach-specific stuff". So a good first thing to check is if you have power across that solenoid. If you don't, you'll have to figure out what used to cause it to connect. Sounds like you're making good progress though.

This picture shows +12V from the bottom side of the battery boost solenoid to the house battery fuses. One of those fuses should feed the salesman switch solenoid on the right side. It will spark if there's any switches on causing a power draw. It might show continuity to ground if a light switch is on. You should not be connecting the power to that fuse bus unless the battery cutoff switch is off anyway. On your 4-fuse bus, the 2 fuses on the right feed the inverter. The one on the left appears to feed the salesman cutoff solenoid, and from there to the 12V systems like water pump, lights, furnace, etc. I'm not sure about second from left, it feeds that bottom solenoid and something else (according to the wiring diagram posted, maybe hydraulic pump?). If your house batteries went to 8 volts under suspicious circumstances (like very quickly while you were traveling, since it sounds like that killed your alternator), maybe something shorted somewhere else in the coach to cause that. You could try disconnecting the cables from the 2 left fuses, connect the house battery cable to the fuse bar, and then turn on the battery cutoff to see if you can power up the inverter alone.

You've mentioned you have no power to the inverter and no interior lights, which are 12V separate from the inverter. So likely your problem is not the salesman switch solenoid or the inverter, but the power supply to both of them. In my coach, the power supply to both 12V lights and the inverter is that bar with fuses left of the ML-ACR. The thick cable that feeds that bar used to cross the house side of the isolator. In this "before" picture, the isolator is the blue device at the top. The alternator 12V+ is the center cable on the isolator. That is now connected to the chassis post on the ML-ACR. The house power crosses the left post of the isolator, and feeds the house side power (12V lights/fans and inverter). There are no ground cables in this photo, it's all +. I know your setup is going to look different but the concept should be the same. The isolator, battery boost, and maintainer that the ML-ACR replaces are all positive side, no ground wires. The alternator ground runs to the chassis near the alternator. Battery grounds connect to chassis, and there will be a big ground strap connecting the engine block to the chassis. From any of these +12V wires you can check voltage to a clean spot on the chassis. Even if your ML-ACR isn't working in auto mode, you should still have 12V from house batteries to inverter and house 12V circuits, and 12V from engine batteries to alternator + post. Obviously battery disconnect switches interrupt those circuits.

The 4 fuses to the left are on the house battery positive side. The top goes to the salesman switch solenoid, the second is generator starter power, I assume the bottom is +12 to inverter. The old isolator and now ML-ACR handle only positive 12V, the grounds all connect to the chassis. Some systems use battery cutoff switches on battery negative instead of positive but mine does not. That’s something you’d want to double-check on yours.

Power to your inverter should be coming from the batteries to the cutoff switch, across the ML-ACR house-side post, to the inverter. So the house-side cable from the inverter to the isolator should now be connected to the ML-ACR house-side post, as well as the house battery. The boost solenoid and cables can just be removed. I removed my maintainer as well, because with the ML-ACR in auto mode, charging current from the inverter/charger will cause the ML-ACR to connect the banks and both sides will receive charging current. The engine side should be similar. Chassis battery to battery cutoff switch to ML-ACR to alternator. The big cable from the alternator to the isolator should now be connected to the chassis post on the ML-ACR, along with the cable from the battery cutoff switch. On my ML-ACR, house is left side, chassis is right side. The thick cable coming from the right side of the ML-ACR heading downward goes directly to the back of the alternator. The copper bars I used on the ML-ACR came from the boost solenoid I removed.

Nice work! Did you have the corner piece or did you have to shape the whole corner? Does the resin itself dry green, or just the can is green?

I'll be removing the plastic shield whether or not I repair it myself. There isn't any reinforcement behind any of the mounts that I've seen. I know for a repair I'd have to grind the cracked edges back, and clean up the back side enough to epoxy a backing mesh. I just don't know what products are better than others, or if there are different kinds of fiberglass that not all products will work with, stuff like that.

I already had a couple scratches I inflicted on the rear end cap a couple years ago, and I just noticed a little crack around the air intake on the rear end cap. And then today someone merged into where I was on the highway and punched the front shield mounts through the fiberglass. We're going to be heading to FL in the coach in a couple weeks, and we'll be there a couple months, so it won't be able to go to the body shop anytime soon. For the thousand miles to Florida I might just remove the shield and tape over the holes. But I've done automotive body work before and while I'm going to see if I can get money for repairs from the insurance company, I might see if I can fill the holes myself to prevent further deterioration on the front cap. On another note, the decals on the side are fading as well, and the blue paint is coming off in a couple other places (rear wheel arch, aluminum oxidizing bubbling the paint on the slide edges, etc). The white gel coat is kind of streaky or stained in places too. A previous quote for paint from a body shop was around $5 per side for only the blue skirt, and if only that part is repainted the oxidized decal and uneven colors on the gelcoat will look even worse. I'd rather not spend $20K+ on a 1997 for full body repaint. What kind of things can I do to make the coach look better that's more cost-effective? Can the decals be removed without destroying the gelcoat under them? Can the off-white gel-coat be restored in some way?

I had already replaced my battery isolator with the BlueSea ML-ACR, partly because I suspected alternator problems. There are no alternator rebuild shops nearby, so I ended up with a Delco 28si. The alternator is self-exciting, just needs to rev over 500 rpm to start working. Occasionally the startup doesn't rev quite high enough so I have to tap the throttle to get the alternator charging. I'm pretty sure I only attached +/- charge and tach sensor, leaving the ignition and voltage sensing wires disconnected. Not being a DUVAC alternator, the new alt doesn't have a separate voltage sense post. It does have the ignition sense but it isn't required on my 97. So far 5K+ miles with the new alternator and ML-ACR and no problems. The DUVAC alternator was only necessary because of the voltage drop across the diode-based battery bank isolator. If you don't have the old-style battery bank isolator you don't need a DUVAC alternator. If you do have a diode-style battery bank isolator you should consider replacing it. The ML-ACR takes the place of the diode-based battery bank isolator, the boost relay (mine was also failing), and the trickle charger that keeps your chassis batteries charged while on generator or shore power. Here's a post with before/after pictures for ML-ACR installation. I still haven't wired up the remote yet, I just leave it on auto and it's fine. The only thing I ever needed the battery boost for was starting the generator when the house batteries were low, and with the space cleared up from installing the ML-ACR, I just switched the generator start circuit to the chassis batteries (the way it always should have been).

Fortunately I've never seen the massive pileups on I-75 either, but they happen every couple of years and when you drive on I-75 during the daytime it's easy to see why. For the OP heading to the keys, they'd only want to take I-75 to the turnpike. But I-75 + FL Turnpike is only 25 miles shorter than I-10 to I-95, plus tolls on the turnpike and high probability of stop-n-go traffic for a few miles in Orlando even on the turnpike. I've been both ways multiple times and I-10 to I-95 is a far nicer drive.

If weather permits you could take I-40 through Flagstaff, which puts you close to Sedona, Arizona's Snow Bowl (12K ft mountain with ski resort), Sunset Crater, and not too far from the south rim of the Grand Canyon. Also about 2 hours from Page, AZ for Antelope Canyon, passing through the Painted Desert. We enjoyed our 3 months in Flagstaff and would love to go back sometime. I-40 also takes you close to Santa Fe, NM which is kind of neat but we only spent a couple nights there. You might want to spend a few days on the white sand beaches of the Gulf between Pensacola and Destin, FL. If you're returning late enough in July and you like military air shows, Pensacola Naval Air Station is home of the Blue Angels and they have a show the week after July 4th. I've seen people mention I-40 being pretty rough west of Flagstaff, I'm not sure if that's east or west bound. Last time I crossed I-10 was December 2020 and the worst parts were the 20+ miles of construction on each side of San Antonio and Houston. Louisiana seems to have finally covered the old I-10 concrete with asphalt so it was pretty smooth. Unless you really have something you want to see on the west coast of FL, I'd recommend I-10 all the way to Jacksonville and then south on I-95. I-75 is terrible* until you pass Naples, the FL Turnpike is not bad though. I-95 is busy from Jacksonville to Daytona and then a nice smooth ride all the way to West Palm Beach. Do yourself a favor and take the FL Turnpike south from at least Jupiter (Indiantown Rd is a good transfer from I-95). (*) I-75 from I-10 to Naples is heavy traffic of terrible drivers. All those stories you see of 50+ car/truck pileups? All I-75. I-10 to Jacksonville is smooth and pleasant, and I-95 is pleasant from Daytona to Jupiter, except for a short stretch from Cocoa Beach past Melbourne. If you use the TSD fuel card the TA just west of Jacksonville used to be the cheapest you'll find in FL. If you're overnighting at rest areas along the way the I-95 rest area near St Augustine has a large RV parking area separate from the trucks, nice for an overnight stop. The Lafayette rest area in Louisiana (near the Atchafalaya National Wildlife Refuge) is also a nice quiet stop separated from the truck parking, 680 miles from the St Augustine rest area. I don't know if you've traveled in the Eastern US before, but you won't find many of those nice big clean mostly empty rest areas you have out west. East of Texas, they're mostly backed up onto the on-ramp by 5-6pm. You'll want to use your diesel truck stop shoes only, because you'll be stepping out of the coach into where many pisspots have been dumped. I'd traveled a lot in the Eastern US by car and motorcycle, never really "seeing" the truck side of rest areas other than noticing they were there. We bought our motorhome in Portland and spent a year bouncing around Northern CA and Oregon and boy was it a shock when we came back to the east coast! Actually most of the rest areas on I-10 and I-95 across FL are not that bad but on I-80 it's pretty bad east of Colorado and the mid-Atlantic to northeast can be terrible. As non-commercial vehicles, we can get away with parking lots and with motorhomes we carry our restroom with us so we at least have more options, but I really feel bad for the commercial truck drivers. So many trucks because there's so many people, the roads are terrible and very few places for them to stop for their required rests. Most trucks stops in the mid-Atlantic to north-east are 75% full in the middle of the day.

My 97 Windsor has a surge tank, mounted under a drawer in the bedroom behind a furnace vent.

If you get a a braking system triggered by the air brakes (Demco Air Force 1 or similar), then your engine brake or compression brake will not trigger the car's brakes. I'm not familiar with the brake systems triggered by brake light circuits, but many of them have bluetooth controllers so you can probably shut them off while descending if necessary. And if you can't, many cars have decent sized brakes that can handle quite a bit of braking on a long descent. If the car is braking enough to slow the motor home beyond what the engine brake is doing, you'll have to release the engine brake pretty often anyway. The compression brake in my 97 Windsor can keep my speed down pretty well by itself with the 4200 lb toad doing no braking. If the toad was also braking enough to heat its brakes too much, I'd be releasing the pac-brake because I'd be slowing too much. I think you're overthinking this aspect too much. Many tow dollies have surge brakes, which only brake based on how much you are slowing. I'd imagine using the engine brake descending a hill will probably not trigger those surge brakes, and even if it did, the brakes would pull the dolly back off the surge trigger. As for whether you have enough power, the extra weight will make you slower when ascending grades. But our 97 Windsor is 275hp factory with a Banks kit (maybe pushing 320-330 max), and I have dragged a 4200 lb Jeep Cherokee. about 20K miles, crossing the country 3x, and on the steepest, longest grades, we're still faster than the slowest trucks. Those long steep grades are a small part of any long trip, and it's fine to just put on your hazards and follow a slow semi at 35 mph up the mountain. You'll get to the top, these big diesels can run WOT for as long as you need. They're under 350 hp with radiators the size of small cars, 1500 lbs of motor, and gallons of oil and coolant. That will restrict the areas you can travel quite a bit. You'll find those uber costs adding up quick when it's $30 to go to town and $30 to come back, so you can buy $40 in groceries. In many national park areas you may not even be able to get an uber. If you're only going to the most popular areas like Zion and Sedona, it should be fine, but I'd be surprised if you can get an uber in Avenue of the Giants. Or if the trail you want to see requires you to travel 5 miles on a narrow 2-lane road with no bike lane (the majority of roads near campgrounds in the US), you'll be re-thinking that pretty quickly when the asshole with the pickup truck (it's always pickups) blasts their horn as they pass you as close as they think they can without hitting you, or trying to hit you with their mirror. On a bicycle you should expect that at least once per 10 miles traveled, more often if you're biking in any smallish town.

I saw that as well, and I wonder if their weird single-wheel trailer helped flip the MH. With a single wheel it can't swivel in all directions, so it could act as a sail and add a significant twisting force from the hitch.

The Tesla semi runs a little less than 1 mile per Kwh. Someone also mentioned an EV coach platform that that has a 225 mile range on 500 Kwh. If you look on evwest.com, batteries (even used Tesla model S batteries) are around $300/Kwh, so if you wanted 500 Kwh you'd be looking at close to $150K for batteries alone. Obviously Tesla and Hyundai aren't spending $25K on batteries for the Model 3 or Ioniq, so at the manufacturer level the batteries are far cheaper. But even if you could get the batteries for $150/Kwh, you're still looking at $75K in batteries, and that's before you get into a 350hp+ electric motor, control systems, etc. You also have to consider your 12.5Kw generator is probably rated for 8Kw or less continuous, so you're looking at less than 200Kw per day output. Similarly, you can pull a max of 8Kw continuous from a 50amp RV connection if you set up properly to fully utilize the separate circuits. If you need to run your AC units, subtract about 1.5Kw each. Then you have to consider not all RV parks have power systems capable of allowing you to use 8Kwh all day long, some are limited to 30amp plugs, etc. It would be nice if it was a better option, but right now it's expensive and somewhat limited in usefulness. On the plus side, you'd use about 0.5 gph on your genny at around 8Kwh continuous, so with the generator being able to run at an efficient rpm, you'd travel at about an effective 12-15 mpg. But at 0.5gph usage, you'd have 12-15 miles per 2 hours so you'd have a lot time stationary. I've seen a lot of people mention they travel no more than 200-300 miles per day, so if you replaced the C15 with a 30Kw generator, you'd be getting close to feasible. Running both generators would allow you to generate almost 50% of the power you use rolling down the road so you could probably get away with 250Kwh of battery, maybe less, depending on how much travel vs resting time you required. And all that is not even considering how to integrate a motor strong enough to push the rig up the mountains. You'd need something in the 400hp+ continuous output range, definitely not cheap or easy.

Plenty of empty space in front of the Kia before the wheel they never had a chance to see rolled in front of them. At least 500' empty lane ahead of them and in less than 0.5s the tire went from the truck to the Kia. Even a Suburban or Expedition or a truck like the one the wheel fell off would have launched on a wheel like that. Something like the lowered 240SX I used to have with 4 inches of ground clearance and a bumper around 12" high might have been able to punt the tire instead of run up on it, but any reasonable car with normal-height bumper would run up on that tire just like the Kia. The problem is when the bumper hits high enough on the tire to grip and start rolling over it.