Mike H

John,  Did you find the culprit?  I'm having the same exact problem.  All of my lights are working, including the upper clearance lights.  My side clearance lights and the rear running lights are out and I blow that 10amp fuse as soon as I try to use them.

I just had to replace mine.  It fell off twice during our last trip.  Mine fell off of the driver side slide on the front side of the slide.  It took me awhile to find out whether or not it was supposed to have a lock washer under it.  I finally found a star washer that had fallen into a cavity behind the shower.  I had to stick a long screw drive in there against one of the flats and hit it with a hammer to tighten it.  That hex nut you found may have been in there as a locking nut.  The slide will have to be all the way in to get at it.  If yours fell off the rear end side it may be a little more difficult to get at but you might be able to open a closet door for better access.

30 minutes ago, Ivan K said:

I agree with Rick but regardless what it is, why couldn't they at least just make a short extension to the line. Or maybe that's what they wanted to do and there wasn't enough meat left before the hose disappeared in a pipe? I doubt the engine powered compressor has anything to do with jacks and the only forward run is to the steering box which should be straight forward replacement. Maybe even pull the hose toward rear and make the extension up front where there might be more of an accessible run.

I was thinking the same thing about just splicing in a new section of hose or building an extension.

I use RV Trip Wizard exclusively for planning all of our trips.  In my opinion it's the best available and well worth the annual subscription.  It will let you set all of your coach important parameters, travel  preferences and route you accordingly.  It will show you all of the campgrounds, fuel stops and let you choose other points of interest you may be interested in.  You will also be able to click on the campground icons you may be interested in and pull up ratings photos etc of those CG's, plus a lot more.

Safe traveling and like Patricia mentioned the National Parks are now turning towards requiring reservations to get in.  I think ZION started it and now ARCHES has implemented it as well.  Another thing to be aware of is that in another month you'll be getting in to one of the prime tourist season for those western places, like Moab and Utah and anywhere in the SW in general because of the cooler temperatures.  You'll need to be making reservations well in advance and in some places that may mean 6 months to a year in advance.

On 2/3/2022 at 8:51 PM, Jdw12345 said:

Is this what you are looking for?

 

https://www.rvupgradestore.com/Kwikee-Heavy-Duty-22-Slide-Assembly-p/92-6933.htm?gclid=CjwKCAiAl-6PBhBCEiwAc2GOVPocMOc75sKs3pwR1TxUW34J_Xgks03W5XnJxGyYST_SV_1-Z_ijoBoCDVMQAvD_BwE

I see it's only rated for 200 pounds.  That might be a little light for 4 batteries.  My 6v Duracell AGM's at 70 lbs each.

I like that you placed the two round discs on the underside to 'lock' it to the cooler to keep it from sliding around.  My small YETI doesn't have any drink holders in the top.  Nice project.

On 6/14/2022 at 9:28 PM, tomevansfl said:

I wanted to try the TDS card for the first time so I kind of postponed stopping until we got to a Luvs. Even when the engine stopped running the gauge still showed just under 1/4 tank. That’s the lowest I’ve let it get. Now I know not to trust it until I can get it calibrated. 

Just for INFO only; your TDS card is primarily for using at T/A or PETRO truck stops and now if you use it at any non-participating stations they will charge you a service fee.  The Good Sam card will give you a better discount at Flying J, Pilot and Love's but I'm not sure about the new ONE9 stations I see taking over Pilot stations.  If you want to use Love's then it would be best to get a Love's card that I think you get a flat $0.28 discount.  Maybe someone else can chime in on what's going on with this ONE9 truck stop I see cropping up.

Just in case anyone is interested, this video was being passed around about a year ago so it's not something recent, but still something tragically devastating.  It sure would be nice to hear the complete circumstances. 

2 hours ago, Dr4Film said:

Lazy Days in Seffner FL offers a RV Driver Confidence Course where they have 2 hours of classroom training then you get behind the wheel of a coach and drive it throughout their RV Park getting use to navigating the roads. Not sure how they approach parking the RV into a site as I only seen them as they drive by my site when there for the Monacoers Gathering.

Richard,

WE bought our 45' Exec 4 years ago without ever having driven any sort of RV before.  Before I ever drove it I did sign up for the Lazydays Drivers Confidence course in Tampa and I made my wife and son attend as well.  In my opinion it was well worth it.  One of the big takeaways was showing how to put small reference dots on the mirrors and windshield to assist in navigation down the road and in tight areas.  I still use them today after putting over 35,000 miles on it.  They do show you how to use them to back into a campsite and the proper way to use hand signals (something the other passenger in our coach has trouble mastering 🙂 ).

1 hour ago, JDCrow said:

Castrol purple degreaser does an insane job on engines. Stuff is gold 

Never tried that but have heard it works well.  GUNK is the stuff I was thinking about, that I used to use on my car engines, and that stuff has been around forever.

Generous amounts of Dawn dish washing liquid will cut through it and let it soak.  There's also a spray foam you can get for cleaning engines that works well .... a brain fart made me forget the name of it 😞

22 hours ago, cbr046 said:

Hopefully you mean these guys - https://www.amazon.com/Kohree-Recessed-Replacement-Equivalent-Motorhome/dp/B07BF4SLGT/

 

It says NO FLICKER, but sometimes advertisers lie 😉 . . . . Any issues with flicker or pulsing if not at full brightness?  

If not I'll spend a week deciding 3000K or 4000K.  Sometimes I like the softer tannish color (like the halogens), sometimes more white. 

- bob

Mine had already been converted but when I needed a replacement I found these: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07N86919J/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1  .  The only thing I needed to do was use my Dremel and trim off about 1/8" from the pins so they would fit in the housing.

20 minutes ago, wayne.cerven@gmail.com said:

Fantastic pictures Mike 

I am going to reach out to a few suppliers in Canada to see what they have to offer, if not will have to do some cross border shopping, the usual.

Thanks again 

Wayne 

1999 Signature ceaser 

One thing you need to really check into on these systems is how they are put together and what type of hoses they use and what type of media they are using.  During Jim's presentation at the Gathering he mentioned that he strictly uses SS bellowed hoses because any of the other types that are pre-charged will eventually bleed off pressure over time and you might not know it.  The media he uses is like a soap based solution that can be easily cleaned up afterwards and is mixed with Dionized water so it can be used on an electrical fire (think near your inverter) as well as other types.  His systems, other than the small hand held units have gages so you can check on their condition.  Those pre-charged 'ropes' that you are now seeing advertised provide no way of knowing whether or not they are still functional over time.  You can check his web site at: www.fireproducts.com .

I have the FireFight Systems in both the generator and engine bays and plan on installing two more smaller units in the bays with the inverter and Aqua-Hot.  The SS straps they provide now for mounting them leave a little room for improvement.  When mounting the one vertical in the generator compartment I needed to provide a support for it so it wouldn't vibrate down out of the mounting strap.  A simple right angle Simpson clip would suffice.  I happened to have access to a small fire extinguisher mount that I was able to later adapt to my application.  The engine compartment has two spray heads, one near the turbo charger and the other over the engine, as show in the photos.  They're not cheap but worth it to protect our lives and investment.  I was fortunate in that the Tyron Bands we already installed in our coach when we purchased it.  I worked 35 years in manned space flight and safety was beat into us, on a daily basis, until it became a way of life.  We were required to present a safety message prior to starting ANY sort of meeting or design review. There are no short cuts!  Be safe everyone and stay Healthy.

At any tire store they will charge you a disposal fee and say they can't sell them because of liability issues but I'll bet one of the mechanics will 'dispose' them for cash.  Check with some local trucking or construction companies.  I sold my 6 Bridgestone 295's for $700 to a trucker through a friend and gave him $70 for selling them for me.  It was a win win for everyone.  I had Michelin 315's up front but because they were not the normal size most truckers use he couldn't sell them so I just let him have them.  The truckers were concerned about getting a flat and then not having a spare to replace it because of the 'odd' size.

52 minutes ago, Donflem said:

Wow did you really say until the truckers ruin it. I say thank you and god bless the truck drivers. 🙏

God bless the truckers as well but they sure as hell ruined the CB radio frequency.  NONE of them know how to talk into a microphone.  It's nothing but trashy garbage and noise now.  Nothing like when it was first created.  For someone who doesn't want to go through the trouble of getting a HAM license then GMRS would be the next best bet.

I see no evidence of a ground plane on our 05 Exec, even though there should be one.  My CB antenna is above the passenger seat and I've had to replace it 3 times from getting broken from hitting trees.  Our am/fm antenna is over the bedroom on the driver side.  If you have one up front over the the driver side it may either be for a cell phone or possible Sirius radio.  The question would be is how tall is it?  I think you'll find those old CB antennas are about 2ft tall and any ground plane for them should, at a minimum, be 2ft in Dia.  I've been contemplating replacing our crappy CB radio with a VHF/UHF ham radio (I still have my HAM license).  FM makes a world of difference.  That said, I believe the FCC is going to (maybe already has) to allow a portion of the CB freq spectrum to go FM so there may be some hope for it, until the truckers take over and ruin it.

For what it's worth here is how much my 'loaded' coach weighs and what my tire pressures are set at and this is how it has been since it was new and handles like driving my F-150.

The only place I can think of is Giant Recreation World in Palm Bay.  I wouldn't deal with anyone in Titusville.  The only other place you might try is the place on US-1 in Cocoa just north of 528.  I think it's called Coastal RV.

I had the same issue while I was out in Carlsbad, NM and had to drive back to Florida without any of my Smart Wheel functions.  I ended up having to replace the VIP SmartWheel Controller and in the process I ordered this connector upgrade.  It uses 10ga wiring instead of the original 12 ga and all I had to do was cut and splice it in.  This solved the over heating problem with the daytime running lights constantly being on and overloading that cable assy.  It's a little pricey but worth not getting the PC board in the controller melted.

3 minutes ago, Dr4Film said:

No gooseneck on my map light. Mine is mounted high on the bottom of the overhead cabinets above the driver's side console. It lights up when I unlock the entry door.

OK, I have those on both the driver and passenger side but they have their own switches in the consoles next to the seats.  I have to reach inside after I open the door to turn on the one over the passenger seat.

4 hours ago, Dr4Film said:

Mike, doesn't your driver's map light come on when you unlock the entry door at least for a few seconds?

My Essex Keyless Pad operates that way same for the Key Fob.

If you're referring to those gooseneck lights I see in some other coaches, our coach doesn't have map lights.

16 minutes ago, Dr4Film said:

Mike,

After reading all the material on the Essex Keyless Entry and Key Fob I think the only other function that can be used is to ARM a Anti-Theft Alarm System.

They already use one for the entry door and light plus one more for the Bay Doors. All that's left is an alarm system.

Yeah,  I suspect some sort of receiver would need to be built with a switch to operate any lights.  I don't know of any light the FOB operates and as far as I can see it only operates the entry and bay door latches.  I usually just use the key pad to unlock the entry door and at night it's hard to see the numbers on the pad until you press one and then it lights up but if you've pressed the wrong first digit then you have to wait until it resets, which can be frustrating if it's raining 🙂 .  I've mounted rechargeable LED light on the inside of the door and entry way that detect motion and light up that area when the door is opened.

22 minutes ago, Dr4Film said:

Is that a Trimark or Essex Key Fob System?

Essex.  It's for my 2005 Exec

I have the four button keyless entry Key Fob.  In the owners manual it states that only 3 of the buttons are used.  Has anyone figured out how to use that 'extra' button to perform another function, like turning on the outside porch light or something else?