vegaman19760

Our local Interstate Battery dealer will test any battery we bring to their shop, RV car, house back up generator, anything. I replaced our DP four House batteries with AGM batteries. Our Interstate dealer removed our old batteries and installed the new AGM batteries at no charge. Not sure all dealers do that but ours does. Stay safe, Stay well.

Our insurance policy purchased when new in 2014 says in the event of a total loss, it is replaced with a one year newer coach within the first 5 years of the policy. If a total loss after the first five years, my policy specifically sates that we get "Our original purchase price refunded back to us." and each year the original purchase price is indicated on the policy.. Yes it is an expensive policy and at that time was only available with new purchases. Stay well, Stay safe

Heat is what ruins transmissions. All my race cars had transmission temp gauges. Transmissions are expensive to replace especially Allison DP type transmissions. From your explanations you have very (not extreme) high Trans temps assuming your water temps are normal. I have driven those high hills on I-75 many times and my trans temps rarely go over 200 Deg F if that. I monitor my trans temp from start up to trip end as part of the three extra digital sensors on my dash. Hopefully you can get a good result on your trans fluid sample saying it is still good. Trans fluid does wear out but can last a long time with proper filter changes. I hope you are successful in finding what is causing the high temps of the trans fluid. Myself, I would spend the time and money to take it to an authorized transmission dealer. In my case that would be an specialty Allison Trans shop, not a Freightliner/Allison shop. They would do an analysis of the fluid, change the filters if necessary and take it for a test drive to verify the trans itself is ok and that the cooling system is the problem if there is a problem. It is always nice to be able to do things by ourselves but there are also times to let the experts do the job. Good luck and let us know how you make out. Stay well, Stay safe

Years ago I replaced my 6 Volt Acid batteries, that I had to maintain the water level constantly, with 6 Volt Interstate AGM maintenance free (almost) sealed batteries. They are almost the exact same size of the original batteries so no problem replacing where old ones were. My Interstate dealer installed the new AGM batteries at no charge. They charge faster and hold their charge longer. Less generator time when dry camping. Make sure your inverter is usable with AGM batteries. They are more expensive and heavier but the advantages are worth it. No matter what battery you have, always maintain the battery terminals from corrosion and check tightness as the roads we use these days are mot the smoothest and vibrations can cause problems. More free time not to worrying about battery fluid levels.

Back when our coach was still under warranty, we had rain water coming in a light fixture in the ceiling of our living room slide. While at the factory repair facility for many other problems, the diagnoses for that problem was that the slide roof had been installed up side down. The roof had been incorrectly installed concave, when the correct install is convex so that rain water runs off to the outside portion of the slide. Instead the incorrect install had any water getting under the slide topper and pooling on top of the slide. They had to put us up in a motel for three days to remove the slide, rebuild it correctly and reinstall. No problems after that. Probably not the cause of your problem but that is what happened to us. Hope you get it fixed. Dick 2015 HR Ambassador 38DB

Our 2015 HR Ambassador came with Chassis AGM batteries. Three years ago I changed out flooded type House Batteries over to AGM. Before changing over to AGM or Lithium or any change in battery type, first make sure your charging system and inverter can support your change. Then you can decide on pros and cons. Cons for changing to AGM from Flooded include: Higher Price and Higher Weight The Pros IMHO out weigh the cons. Much easier to maintain - no fluid upkeep, no battery acid to contend with. they hold their charge much longer when dry camping, less use of generator to keep charged, charging system does not work as hard. All battery systems require some maintenance such as checking battery hold downs and terminal tightness from road vibration, checking for terminal corrosion, checking for frayed wires and the like. We have been using AGM batteries in our race cars and show cars for over 15 years simply for protection in the event of an accident, easy to charge and almost no maintenance. Manufacturer and price vary. What is good for me may not be right for you. However, AGM batteries are and have been gaining popularity for years. Good luck.

Have been reading and support by donating for years...

We use Zero G water hoses. They make 2 types, one for Potable (drinking) water and one as a normal water hose. They are from the marine industry, They come in 1/2 and 5/8 sizes and in various lengths.. We have used them for a few years now. Easily coiled up to put extra connected hose inside water bay so no long lengths left outside our water bay and very easy to coil up and store when not in use. No kinks and very light weight. Check them out. Stay safe, Stay well, Safe travels.

Jim.... You did not mention how old the batteries are. Do you know the age of those Chassis Batteries?

Our 2 cats are gone now to be with their brothers and sisters in heaven. But we have had that same experience when the cats used the steering wheel to climb onto the dash as night. Stay safe, Stay well, Safe travels

rpasetto asked about replacing his CHASSIS batteries. Many of the replies were about those who replaced their HOUSE batteries. My coach has two 12 Volt Chassis batteries. There is not enough room for four 6 Volt batteries and I do not know of anyone who has done that change. To my knowledge all batteries have some kind of label on them that shows when they were made and or installed among other data. Clean off the label(s) as best as possible and take a picture as best as possible. Hopefully a battery dealer can tell you how old they are. So, lets talk about batteries. I know of no one who can tell me how long my House or Chassis batteries will last. There are way too many variables that will determine that. I can only tell about my experiences and my methods. I check my two 12 volt Chassis batteries, as well as my four 6 Volt House batteries on a regular basis using my battery control panel. The voltage readings should be equal when being fully charged. If one bank of batteries is lower than the another then it is time to check the individual battery voltages involved to see what is going on. The same thing can be done woth a voltmeter at the batteries. The chassis batteries are the easiest to check for problems. Disconnect both the Chassis battery common ground terminals. That should disconnect those chassis batteries from any draw what so ever. Take a voltmeter and write down the voltage of each battery immediately after disconnecting the ground terminals. Those voltage readings should be very close to each other. Then wait at least 24 hours and take the voltage readings again. Because there is no draw on those batteries, the voltage readings should be the same as the initial readings. If one of the batteries shows a lower voltage, that battery has a problem. There a several causes that I will not get into at this time. The battery with the lower reading, when connected in normal use will pull down the charge and may increase the draw of the good battery and in time will result in both batteries going bad. It is common practice that if one battery needs to be replaced, both should be replaced. I replaced both my chassis batteries last year (February 2020) with 2 AGM Interstate batteries with their standard three year warranties. I did that at my Interstate Dealer and he took out the old and installed the new batteries free. In September 2020 I noticed the Chassis batteries not charging up to the same House battery voltage. I did the disconnection of the ground terminals and did the voltage checks as described above. Sure enough one of the chassis batteries showed a voltage drop. My Interstate Dealer came over to my coach during one of his deliveries and tested my batteries. He tested the batteries for voltage, tested under load and other parameters. His hand held intelligent testing device gave him a print out besides what was on the digital display. One battery was bad and the other showed evidence of having been pulled down by the bad battery. He replaced both the batteries under warranty. I use all AGM House and Chassis batteries. I still do at least monthly checks on battery terminals tightness, signs of battery cable fraying and any sign of corrosion. I use my old school racing ideas (I'm 78) and apply Vaseline to all battery terminals and connections to prevent corrosion. The Vaseline prevents the air from getting to the terminals, no air no corrosion. This is just my way. I am sure others have different methods of monitoring and maintaining their batteries with good results. My experience with the AGM batteries, while weighing and costing more, hold their charge longer, charge faster and I am not messing with fluid levels. Stay safe, Stay well, Safe travels

RIP Bill. You were a great help to so many and had so many friends. Condolences to your family and friends. Your smile and personality will be sorely missed.

When thinking about changing from standard wet cell to AGM type House Batteries, call the manufacturer of your inverter to make sure your inverter works with AGM batteries. If it does, then go through, with the manufacturer tech, all the different charging settings because the charge times and percentages available to verify their performance is what you are looking for as they are different for AGM batteries. Just changing your inverter from Standard to AGM without changing additional charge settings can result in inferior and or damaging battery performance. My Magnum inverter has various AGM performance settings which I discussed in detail with the Magnum Tech before and after installing AGM House batteries in my rig. The AGM batteries I selected have and continue to out perform the standard wet cell batteries that came with my coach. Stay well, Stay safe and Save travels.

I got to a point when I was done with standard wet cell house batteries for our Coach. I had been using a sealed AGM style battery in my race car for years and years as they are required for safety reasons and do no leak if the car gets up side down. The Chassis batteries are sealed AGM style, for good reasons. I made sure my Magnum Inverter could be reprogrammed for AGM style batteries as they require different charging rates among other options, which it does, and I spent the extra money and purchased some Interstate AGM batteries for the house side. Besides the obvious advantage of almost no maintenance associated with standard wet cell types, they held their charge for longer periods while dry camping at race events meaning we had to run the generator for less hours over a weeks dry camping. There are other small advantages which I won't go into. The disadvantage, which did not detour my purchase, is AGM batteries cost more and they weigh more. But the advantages mentioned above have provided me with much less maintenance associated with standard wet cell types and less wear on our generator. There is no such thing as a NO MAINTENANCE battery. All batteries require some maintenance. The primary maintenance with AGM, as with all batteries in any moving vehicle, including race cars, is fighting the vibrations that can cause battery terminals and wiring to loosen, or the batteries themselves to become loose in their tie down configuration, and of course any type of terminal corrosion. Everyone should regularly check their house and chassis batteries for these conditions. AGM batteries, for whatever reason, are not for everyone. And I will not go into which brand name is better or not. I am only giving information on my situation when it came time for me to replace my house batteries. To all on the list, Stay Safe, Stay Well and wishing all a HAPPIER NEW YEAR>

We have 2 transponders. One for our Motor Home and one for what ever car we put it on. The one for the motor home stays in the motor home. When we have our Toad hooked up to the Motor Home, The transponder for the Toad is wrapped in tin foil and in the glove compartment. We have heard of a customer that was told to return his old transponder back to the Headquarters that is in Long Island then (maybe now also). He was from our area near Buffalo, NY. He put it a small package and mailed it out. He failed to wrap it in tin foil. The transponder went on a truck to Long Island via I-90 and registered a trip from Buffalo to Long Island and that charge got onto his bill. The bill was resolved and that charge removed but those transponders put out a good signal and that is their job. If you have 2 or more make sure only one will give out the proper signal and any others with you on the same trip are unable to be detected. Stay safe, Stay well.

That 9.98 second 1/4 mile run was made 29 years ago back in 1992. We have moved twice since then. I have looked for my record/time books but have not found them. I have not raced the car since 1992 and it sat until 2009 when we started converting it over to the street, which took over 2 years. Below is a picture of the steering wheel and center instrument cluster lowered as we worked on the wiring Yellow light is for shift points, red light is for low oil pressure. Ivan. Nice Camaro . Running with a blower takes more engineering and more work. Tuning older carbs gets tricky because trying to run lean to get the most out of the engine and fuel without all that fancy instrumentation can cause really bad things to happen. And converting over to the street with a blower took a lot of returning and smaller carbs and a larger upper pulley and on and on. But no one bothers me on the street LOL. The 6/71 blower is as big as the small block. Contact me off list at wb2raj@aol.com for more pictures and info.

That 9.98 second 1/4 mile run was made 29 years ago back in 1992. We have moved twice since then. I have looked for my record/time books but have not found them. I have not raced the car since 1992 and it sat until 2009 when we started converting it over to the street, which took over 2 years. Below is a picture of the steering wheel and center instrument cluster lowered as we worked on the wiring Yellow light is for shift points, red light is for low oil pressure.

Dennis - thanks for the manual listing. That is a lot of effort and time on your part. There maay not be anything for me with my newer coach but I am sure others will appreciate this listing. Stay safe, Stay well. Dick

Dave sent you a private message. Any one else wants pictures or info about my Blown 1972 Ford Pinto please email me at wb2raj@aol.com

Due to some physical problems I retired at age 42 and that retired me from my drag racing hobby as a driver. But I was able to continue in drag racing for many years as an engine builder and crew member turning wrenches and washing parts. I have spent 2 years converting my Blown 1972 Ford Pinto drag car to a Pavement Pounding Street Car for cruise nights and car shows. I am also a Ham Radio Operator and have communicated with every country on earth except North Korea. I have been involved with home computers since 1978. I still follow the Space Program as I worked on Project Apollo from 1966 to 1970 in which we put Man on the Moon with slide rules of which I still have three in my desk drawer. I am co-contributor to a book on the History of the United Stated Space Program. Stay safe, Stay well.

We are on our third Class A. All had fan-tastic fan covers installed on all our rigs. You did not mention if you had covers over your fans. Our present coach has the remote fans with the rain sensors because that is they way they come. The fan covers allow the fans to stay open and working without any rain coming in. The covers also keep any of the fans workings out of the elements. Even with the covers over the fans, the movable fan lid can stick especially in hot weather. Once a year I go up on the roof of our coach, flip up the fan cover, open the fan lid and wipe down the fan lid rubber seal with rubber seal spray leaving no residue. Works for me. Good luck, stay safe, stay well.

Upgrade to Interstate 6 volt AGM no maintenance batteries. They are heaver and cost more but they hold their charge longer and no more checking fluid level and refilling. Make sure your inverter is capable of using AGM type batteries, My Interstate dealer installed my AGM batteries at no cost. There is still battery maintenance with AGM batteries such as making sure the terminals are tight and cleaning any corrosion and dirt. But the advantage of holding a longer charge and no fluid levels to mess with are worth the expense. Good luck with whatever you have installed. Stay well, Stay safe. Dick 2015 HR Ambassador Sorry my bad . They are AMG Batteries NOT AGM. My Dislexia is kicking in. Dick 2015 HR Ambassador Maybe I was right the first time DIck 2015 HR Ambassador

To Hitechpete, There are no "SOLID CONNECTIONS" to our stacked Washer Dryer, The Dryer Vent Tube goes directly to the outside wall and is a very short coiled flexible type. The washer hot and cold feed lines are Braided Steel Clad Flex lines (replacing the original rubber factory lines) just as what should be on home washers. Those steel clad lines are fed from 3/4 inch brass hot and cold shutoff valves that are hard mounted to a wall stud. Those brass valves are fed from hot and cold Pex water lines that are connected to the brass shutoff valves with compression type fittings and not the original factory pinch or crimp type fittings that leaked. When or if the dryer shakes, the Dryer Vent Tube takes up the vibration. When the washer shakes, the Steel Clad Flex lines take up the vibration.

Cruzbill, No problem. My point was basically that the rear of a washer installed in a motor home is not the best place to get at if a leak occurs, which did happen in our case. The cold water Pex fitting leaked at the input connection to the 3/4 inch shut off valve. So we had to shut down our water system because we could not get to that Pex fitting. So I was not convinced that just reparing the Pex fitting would solve that problem. That is why I insisted that compression fittings be used and shut off valves that I could get to to isolate the washer in case of any future leaks. I also had them remove the rubber water hoses from the 3/4 inch valves to the washer and replace them with steel clad lines. You are correct that the majority of the water lines are Pex type. However the majority of those water lines are for the sinks and toilets (we have a bath and a half), the water heater, the inside shower, outside shower and drain system. Those Pex fittings for those items are accessible under the sink cabinets or behind a drawer or other removable partition in case of a problem. So yes, as long as you can get to the fittings, Pex works fine. But what if there was a Pex leak at a fitting you could not get to in your trailer. Would you just fix it after going through what ever it took to finally get at that connection after being without your water supply for a while on the road? Or would you repair it in such a way as we did to prevent it from happening at that connection again. For us it was behind a washer with a dryer stacked on top in our motor home, So we did a better fix at that location. Stay well, stay safe. Dick 2015 HR Ambassador 38DB

I don't trust Pex Pipe fittings on a washer or washer/dryer combo where I can not get to them if there is a leak from vibration of a moving vehicle.. And sure enough during our warranty period both the cold and hot water fittings at the back of our stacked washer and dryer leaked. Under warranty I had the repair facility change the Pex fittings over to Compression fittings and also had them install compression type shutoff valves where I could get at them to isolate the washer from the rest of the water system. Pex works great in homes and cottages that are not driving down the highway.