StellaTariche

...but still cheaper and less work than a big boat :) Besides, there are a bunch of us on here, notably engineers, former machinists, pilots, and other semi-austic types who actually enjoy messing with our toys. Welcome to the Arena, Rory!

Some things that might help: Use a heat gun on a low setting, and thick nitrile gloves to protect your hands. heat the stripes and loosen the edge with a plastic scraper. You will be able to pull the stripes in larger pieces. Don’t overheat the gel coat or your hands. Both will be blister. They make a “rubber eraser” which goes on a random orbital buffer. This will remove the small broken pieces using fewer/no chemicals Gas is not your friend. Acetone often works. Call a sign store and ask them. They will tell you exactly what to use in old signage as they do it daily. (When they seemed unable to find summer jobs, I locked my three teenage boys in a paint booth for two months to prep mine for full body paint. Amazingly, the following year they were all able to find jobs. Go figure.)

Hi Ali, I had the mechanic who installed it and re-attached the drag link (correctly this time - it was upside down) re-adjust the drag link and pitman arm as outlined below. Almost perfect (almost), so I asked him to tighten the adjustment screw a "slight" bit more. He had the touch. No lash at all now. Slight-ly tighter on the "return to center" and takes a slight bit more effort to turn - and I do mean *very* slight. If it were a trigger on a pistol, *slightly" would be 1 pound pull increase. Final adjustment to get the last bit of lash out was (maybe) 1/8 of a turn of the adjustment screw. You can always back it off if it binds too much. Keys to success: spray everything with lubricant the night before. Front wheels perfectly straight (later, rinse, repeat). Straight, as in "when I'm driving on a typical highway, the steering wheel is here" position. Mark it with respect to your dash board. No play in drag link ends or tie rod ends No play in steering column (vice grips and a helper to check) Drag link installed correctly, and adjusted. How? (a) Remove the pitman arm from the steering box (lots fun. not). Removing and re-installing was the key. (b) Loosen the drag link (front adjustable part) (also not fun). It spins and then clamps on the original. (c) If the drag link ends, or tie rod ends, have play, you will NEVER get it right. Tie rod ends are easy - any big truck mechanic can replace. Drag link - have a machine shop mod your existing one to accept a standard adjustable end (about $200). Or pay $1100 for a custom built replacement. (d) Without moving the front wheels or steering wheel (helper holds it in place), use the drag link adjustment to adjust the pitman arm mark with the steering box mark. The pitman arm should slip on - no pushing or pulling the pitman arm, steering wheel, or front wheels. (I needed to cut a hole in my electrical bay to see it - sealed afterwards). One spline off on the steering box WILL make a difference. Finally Tighten everything. Adjust steering box until no play (on a new or rebuilt box). No need to gorilla it, but the last 1/8 turn will be firm. Make sure nothing moves when you tighten the jam nut. Re-center steering wheel (easy). Drive a few miles. Re-adjust. Might move a spline or two to get it to taste. Lots of phone help from Van Williams Worth it - I hate lash. With that final steering box fix (TRW rebuilt box), a full Monaco Watts kit (front, rear, rear cross bars), it drives like a dream. One handed driving. Drive all day without fatigue. Jersey barriers no longer freak me out. Winds across the southwest US are no longer an issue. Good luck. - John

^^^^^^ What Don and Lee said is 100% the way to handle it, and accurate. I own an engineering firm that certifies commercial products for sale into every country, including EPA TCSA compliance in the US. It only applies to manufacturers and “producers” (which is a TCSA and EPA legal term), and you are neither. You are good to go. - John

Ok, am I the only one who LOVES the steer horns? I would mount them on the front of the Uberbounder like a brush guard to warn other drivers. Those are awesome! (probably not in in a rollover, but who cares). I had a 6 ft set in college over my bed. Almost killed me when the bed got moving and they fell off onto my date’s head. Then, after being married a few months at age 22, they “magically” disappeared while I was on a business trip. Mrs. Taylor v1.0 claimed (at the time) no knowledge why they were missing. Go figure. “Good times….”

Chinese New Year: Ain’t nobody returning emails until that settles down (I have to contact Chinese electronic manufacturers daily. They take a “week” off - more like a month before they did out of their inbox and return emails). Plus they have a new and improved COVID lockdown going on. It will be a while.

Hi T, Oh, you are soooo right about the superior experience of a home Bidet. And the passive one is a little more complicated. But there are a lot of engineers on the forum who think complicated is a feature, not a bug :) I too have two BioBidet BB2000s, and one BioBidet BB1000 at home. They are great. However, the BB1000 draws 600+ watts to heat a small (45 second) internal reservoir tank (closer to 30 seconds in actual use), takes 10 minutes to recover, and the pump and heated air dryer use an additional 250+ watts. The seat heater (if on and not in eco mode) require constant power of about 90 watts (depending on the setting). Not feasible to run off a 12v inverter circuit unless you have a metric butt-load of lithium batteries, and or lots of solar. Only makes sense if you are plugged in to 30A circuit. And, you'd have to run a dedicated GFCI 15a circuit to within 3 ft of the back of the toilet. My toilet room has no 120v outlet, much less where I want it. And just extending the 120v outlet in the bathroom would not work (overloads the existing 120v circuit). Even at home I had to run a new dedicated 120v line to keep the bathroom lights from flickering. I'm not into running new 120v circuits in crazy RV walls. Also, a home bidet often does not fit the curved angle RV toilets behind the seat - even the passive one from Lowes was a very tight fit to mount properly. In fact, many home bidets won't fit a home one piece or curved toilet (BidetKing can help you find one that will fit most toilets if you know the make and model of the toilets) The BB2000 is even better for home use - it provides constant heated water - at a huge power cost of 1475 watts (I put a kill-o-watt on it). On an inverter circuit (12v) you would be pulling 120 amps (including efficiency losses) for that puppy when in use, and about 40 amps when not in use. Only makes sense if you are plugged in to 50A circuit. They are also quite pricey, even though I would never go back - about $550 after tax for the BB2000 on sale at www.BidetKing.com I dry camp most of the time, so I needed a different solution that didn't use so much energy. My solution: If you have access to hot water nearby (under the sink next to the toilet room in the 2000 Diplomat) and you have a recirculating hot water system (the mod that sends the not-yet-hot water back to the water heater so as not to waste fresh water), the setup is pretty easy with a couple of sharkbite couplers and a adjustable mixing valve, all of which are easily hidden under the sink and behind the commode. Took me about 45 minutes to install. Total cost of the Lowes passive bidet (hot and cold fittings), connectors and mixing valve is less than $200, and require no extra electricity except the small 12v pump which only runs for 30 seconds a use. The recirculating hot water saver took me about two hours and cost less than $100. Saves a lot of fresh water and keeps the grey water tank less full. Hope that helps. Maybe I'll get a BioBidet with my Prevost :) - John

Hi Bill, Let me try again from a different angle. The electronics are confusing and the documentation is odd. The internally, the camera is sensor which can be electronically “aimed” Or shifted. Nothing actually moves in the camera. The camera sensor has a wide field of view with extra pixels, only some of which is selected by the up front CPU. “Shifting” simply means selecting a different group of pixels to display. The shifting is controlled by the external camera CPU. The CPU needs a signal to tell it if and when to “shift” (again note, it does not actually move anything in the camera. It simply selects a different group of the sensor pixels to display. Think of how a digital zoom on a phone works vs an optical zoom on a DSLR camera) The signal to the CPU to “shift” can come from a +12V source, or from the control circuit used by the the handheld remote. No difference: if the CPU gets a control signal to “shift” what you see a different group of pixels from that that camera sensor. Now, the red wire… The CPU has an input (“a trigger”) for each camera. Connect +12v to that trigger wire and it will shift that camera electronically. Remove the +12v and it will un-shift. The hand held remote will do the exact same thing via a different circuit. You can connect any +12v signal to the CPU trigger wire (per camera) and it will shift. You don’t need to use the red wire - supply your own, tap into a +12v source (even a button on your dash connected to +12v will work) and it will still shift when you press the button. The red wire is included in each camera wire bundle as a convenience for long installations where the trigger source is somewhere near the camera end, for instance the backup lamp at the back of the RV for the rear camera. In that case, you would provide an extra length of wire to go from the camera end of the red wire to a voltage source (center - or side backup lamp) that puts out +12v which lights up when you put the transmission in reverse when you want to shift the camera to see more of the back. Summary (in this example for using the rear backup lamp as a trigger to shift the camera): connect the camera end of the red wire to to backup lamp, and the other end of the red wire to the rear camera trigger on the CPU up front. Note: you may have to extend the camera end of the red wire to reach the backup lamp by splicing in an additional length of wire. When you shift into reverse, the red wire will get +12v from the backup lamp, send that signal up to the CPU rear camera trigger wire, and the CPU will change (shift) the display to show more of the rear cameras. Feel free to call or email me directly (719) 359-5170 or John@LeadFreeDesign.com (phone number corrected- apologies) Hope that helps - John

The bidet is easy, cheap, and an awesome upgrade. I put three of the high end ones them my home (wwwBidetKing.com) when COVID first hit, as many viruses are transmitted and shed by (wait for it…) .feces. People who have bidets will tell you they would never go back. My RV setup not as friendly as a heated water bidet in cool/cold weather (to be sure), BUT, there is a similar model at Lowes with both hot and cold water connections. You could tap both the hot and cold lines, put in a temperature mixing valve ($50 or so), and do it that way. In my rig, I’d have to set up a hot water pre-cycle to make sure the hot water was already to go at the mixing valve, and I’d move the mixing valve very close to the commode. Might get around to that one day, as I want to conserve fresh water when I boondock anyway, and the hot-water pre-cycle is an easy upgrade (simple switch, 30 second relay, small inline 12v pump, and a return hot water line to the tank = no wasting water waiting for the hot water to get to the faucet/ shower/sink/bidet). - John

Download that file from the Thingiverse website. Import it into your 3D printer software (called a “slicer”). Prep the file for printing (you’ll need a little practice on how to configure the 3D printer settings: temperature, speed, infill, etc). Dump to a memory card. Put memory card in printer. Print (about 12 hours for this part size and complexity). Remove, use as is, or spray high fill primer, sand, paint. Seems complicated, but practice on a few simple prints, and you’ll get it. *Very* useful for making custom RV parts if you can also create in 3D CAD software.

That is the correct link: https://www.irv2.com/forums/f53/bluefire-dashboard-community-share-427121.html ‘One contributor makes his gauges look really nice (Dark mode is easier on your eyes, and the background is easy to do: See Examples: Here is how he does the graphic backgrounds: “The technique I use is to create the background image in a vector graphics illustration tool. Save that as a 300 dpi .png file. Then on your dash layout create at text gauge and load the file as the 'text image' ... and 'check' the setting 'Show behind all other gauges'. Then on an iPad you change the gauge size to width 1020 height 746 ... and then lock the gauge. That's it.Here's another example. Still fiddling with what to show and what not to show to maximize ease of viewing and not make the display too busy. “

“Do you need a 3D scanner and 3D printer?” just a 3D printer.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/383192448511 https://www.ebay.com/itm/124857894372 Yup, those are the end caps for the SOK II that you are looking for. I just 3D printed mine (ok, my 5th year engineering student printed them for me) because I’m allergic to paying $200 for plastic parts I’d have to repaint anyway You can leave them as they come from the printer (with a slight surface pattern) or spray them with high build primers, lightly sand and paint your favorite color. Remember, they are 12 ft off the ground and the raw 3D printed ones look just like the originals at that distance. 3D printers are down to $150. A spool of black filament is $20, and will last you a looong time. _—————— The Ender 3 regularly goes on sale for $149. Creality is selling it, directly, for $213 right now. It's a legit budget printer.

That part (looks like a snail) is the end cap of the Carefree of Colorado SOK II (discontinued). If you have a 3D printer (or access to one - Local public library, almost any college engineering student), you can download the model and print it for the cost of the filament (about $3). I just printed a replacement for mine in matching silver. You would print yours in black. www.Thingiverse.com has a bazillion printable parts like this (Dyson vacuum parts, car parts, all kinds of stuff) https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4933180

“Weird acting tranny…” are we still allowed to say that phrase these days? :)

I have a 2000 Diplomat that also drains the air sloooooooowly when the dash button is pressed. ACC power must be on (seems like a good safety feature, right?) Shortcut: While holding the dash button with my right hand (which seems to drain one of the the two air tanks, I use my left hand to PARTIALLY depress the parking brake (big metal knob) on the rear left. I can drain it to 0 PSI in about 90 seconds. Pressing the floor brake pedal can speed it up even more, although you'll scare the neighbors :)

Hi Todd, If you know a machine shop, perhaps they could take the replacement ball joint and create an internally threaded sleeve for you. It should not be an expensive piece to make. Welding the threaded sleeve into the original crimped area will fix the ball joint problem AND allow you to adjust the length of the drag link, which is critical to getting the rig to track straight, and for removing lash (play) in the steering. Plus, if needed in the future, you can replace the ball joint again. - John

Clarification about "Never remove the steering wheel" I meant "there is no need to remove it to re-center your steering wheel" :)

How to replace your defective TRW steering Box, replace or adjust drag link and pitman arm, and re-center ("clock") your steering wheel: This spring, I just went through the whole "add the full Monaco Watts suspension upgrade", "replace the defective steering box (TRW in my case)" and "get the pitman arm and drag link aligned with the (straight) front wheels" fun and games. Woohoo! (insert sarc tag here): Tools and supplies needed: torque multiplier ratchet (you'll see why) Big cuss jar About $500 in dollar bills for said cuss jar PB Blaster, Nut Buster or similar rusted bolt spray 3" bi-metal hole saw and drill Metal electrical box cover (about 4" square) Sheet metal screws, sealant, vice grip pliers, various screw drivers - including a wide flat blade with a not-too-long handle that will fit in a 1/2" deep well socket that fits the TRW adjustment locking bolt. An assistant who can (a) hold the steering wheel straight as you mess with things, and (b) doesn't mind hearing a lot of cuss words. Some things I learned with a *lot* of help from the board members: Place half the $500 in the cuss jar up front to appease the rusted bolts, pitman arm and drag link gods. This seems to be the most over-looked step. Spray everything with PB Blaster, Nut Buster, or your favorite rusted bolt removal spray the day before. Spray again when you begin. Replace your steering box if worn or damaged. My TRW box would no longer adjust, so I replaced it. $1100, including shipping and $400 core charge from Weller Truck parts. (616) 724-2000 in Grand Rapids. Beware - it weighs about 70 lbs. The bolts on the steering box require a "big" torque multiplier ratchet to remove them, or a 20 ft cheater bar which won't fit, so a torque multiplier ratchet it is. Impact wrench won't fit. Face East and feed the cuss jar. If replacing the steering box, use new mounting bolts, washers, and ny-loc nuts. Bolts are about 4" long, Grade 8 (measure). Have fun finding the 3 or 4 of each part (bolt, washers, nuts) you'll need, instead of the box of 100 they'll want to sell you. Cuss and feed cuss jar. Steering box mounting bolt torque specs: 4 bolt mounting (5/8" or 3/4" Bolts) TRW 300-325 FT LBS 3 bolt mounting (3/4" or 7/8" bolts) 400-425 FT LBS. The drag link ends are not replaceable. Monaco crimped them on to save a few buck and make sure the bend stayed in the correct position. Cuss at Monaco (you'll be repeating this step - a LOT) If drag link ends are worn, replacement options include: (a) having a machine shop (or you if talented in that area) remove the worn tie rod ends, weld in threaded sleeves, screw in replacement ends, or (b) purchase a 3rd party replacement drag link (the right length and bend angle) that has new and replaceable ends. A replacement drag link is about $1100. Look on-line. Cuss and feed cuss jar. Aligning the marks on the steering box and the pitman arm is *very* hard to do accurately, even with mirrors, because of the location. I used a hole saw in my electrical bay to cut a sight hole for aligning. Move electrical things around so you can cut a 3" hole in the sheet metal. The hole should be exactly opposite steering output shaft. See attached photo below. Feed cuss jar. Make sure the front wheels are dead on straight. Measuring tape and multiple tries. Feed cuss jar. Remove plastic shroud around steering wheel shaft inside the RV if older than 2011 model year. Mine is a 2000 Diplomat. Remove the pitman arm from the steering box. Tons of fun (more accurately "ft-lbs of fun", or "newton-meters of fun" if you are German or Canadian). Remove the front drag link to pitman arm connection. More tons of fun. A big, strong impact wrench needed. A two-arm pulley remover is probably needed; A three arm won't fit. BF Hammer is often useful. Feed cuss jar. Recheck the front wheels for straightness. You'll get used to this step. Inspect drag link ends for wear and lash. See replacement options (above) if worn. Re-assemble in this order: (a) Make sure the front wheels are still straight. (b) Adjust drag link by spinning front tie rod end so the pitman arm / drag link combination easily slips onto the steering box. (c) Sight through the hole you cut to make sure the marks on the pitman arm and steering box output shaft marks align. (d) Re-check front wheels for straightness. Pulling on the drag link/pitman arm combo, even a little, will move the wheels or the steering wheel. (e) Yell/cuss at assistant who is not paying attention and let the steering wheel move. (f) Feed cuss jar and apologize to assistant. (g) Lather, rinse, repeat, until the pitman arm slides on with no effort and no pulling or movement on the front wheels or steering wheel Torque the drag link and pitman arm. Torque spec is online, but "really tight" is the answer. Adjust the steering box (TRW only) until tight but no friction to remove lash. Takes finesse to do both at the same time. Here's how to do it: Get up under the coach and grab the input shaft of the steering gear, the one that goes up to the steering wheel. Grab the input shaft just above the steering gear case, between the u-joint and the case itself. You will be able to rock the shaft back and fourth and feel any play, or gear lash. The pitman arm should not move, you are feeling the internal gear play. Loosen the adjustment lock nut and SLOWLY turn the adjustment screw in, a little at a time, as you continue to move, rock, the input shaft and feel for gear lash reduction. Once you have VERY little play, or even none, do not allow the adjustment screw to move and lock the lock nut good and tight. Helpful hint: Use a 1/2 socket, held by vice grips, to tighten/loosen the adjustment jam nut. Slip the wide blade screw driver through the 1/2" square hole in your socket. Hold socket and turn screw. To tighten jam nut, hold screw driver and turn vice-grips holding socket. Re-clock (center) the steering wheel like this: NEVER remove the steering wheel ! To center the steering wheel, there is a universal coupling under the plastic shroud at your knees. It is splined but has a grove for the bolt all the way around the shaft so you can adjust the wheel in very small, exact, increments. Pull shaft up to move to a different spline. On newer episodes coaches (2012' and newer) the steering wheel adjustment universal joint is outside against the firewall. The "knuckle" on the to TRW input shaft has a groove on the steering shaft input, and should have bolted right up with the same size bolt. Re-use the same bolt. A smaller bolt could induce play, defeat your efforts, cause damage, or come loose while driving and kill you. Test drive to see if the steering wheel is straight on typical crowned roads for a few miles at both low speed and highway speeds. Re-clock the steering wheel by moving over a spline or two in the correct direct. Repeat until steering wheel is straight. Re-torque everything again. A loose steering system is a death trap. Seal the sight hole you cut in the electrical bay with an electrical box cover and sealant when done. See attached photo. Donate contents of cuss jar to (a) your now PTSD assistant, or (b) your favorite charity or (c) your favorite liquor store. (Site hole - re-sealed)

Update in “RE: Financial liability for the RR bridge” Showed the photo to my 22 year old son who is a 4th year electrical engineering major… ”You guys are over thinking it. You just need another motor home to hit the train bridge support from the opposite direction” :)

RE: Financial liability for the RR bridge IANAL (“I am not a lawyer”), but I do have experience in asset protection strategies. ”Fire walling” individual assets - whether business or personal, especially individual assets that can run up huge liability claims - is extremely important and a successful strategy to protect your other assets (home, business, cars, bank accounts, etc). It is usually inexpensive to put your rig into its own corporation (usually an LLC). If done correctly, your personal financial liability is limited in situations to the rig and its insurance coverage. Protection against “piercing the corporate veil” is very important, and, initially, you’ll need advising on how to do that properly. But, in exchange for some minor inconveniences like how you pay for fuel, maintenance, and insurance, you are fire walled quite well. This is an excellent example of how a $2M umbrella policy can be blown away by a single vehicle accident. Now imagine if other vehicles and people were involved. - John

That's Brad Paisley's touring coach based on a Corvette C1

you know, if you are good with candies, stencils, masking and an airbrush, this Corvette theme would look awesome:

When repainting the Uberbounder, I painted the back cap to look like it there was a huge black window. It looked amazing at first. Unfortunately it is the only part of the coach that get exposure to the Colorado sun (covered but not completely enclosed storage) After about 4 years, the gel coat on black painted area is now very checked, and not those small spider cracks. I’ll have to scuff, fill, sand and repaint soon. While it still looks great everywhere else, the black “window” (and only the black) is noticeable at 8 ft. I will repaint it a lighter color, as it is clearly heat related. Also, the sides and front cap have large black areas, but they are NOT exposed in storage. They look great, but I’d bet that if it was exposed more, the combination of late 90s/early 2000s gel coat, combined with black paint and Colorado sun would crack all the black sections.

This is what shows on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Generic-Reversible-Torque-Control-Electric/dp/B00M6Q9B3S I haven’t taken the old motor out, so not sure of the shaft shape and diameter Does this one look correct? (physically as well as RPM) Thanks for the help. - John