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Bob Nodine

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Bob Nodine last won the day on July 23 2022

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  • FirstName
    Bob
  • Make
    S.O.B. (Some Other Brand)
  • Model
    Quantum JM31
  • Year
    2022
  • City & State
    Corryton, TN

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  • Brief Bio (Optional)
    <p>
    Retired engineer.
    </p>

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  1. Hi Van, I am also a fan of Blue Sea and got my start from you. Even through I don't own a Class A any more I converted the stupid IRD charger in my Class C built on A Ford E-450 to the Blue Sea ML-ACR. Here is the stuff I took out: Replaced with this: We got excited about the new 3rd Gen Colorado and ordered one in December. Received it in April and now in the process of setting it up to tow. Since it is a new design no one has the baseplate out yet. We have one on order and they tell us it will ship on Sept 18. I have been doing what I can while waiting on the baseplate. The Colorado has an electric parking brake and electric steering and requires that the battery be disconnected before towing. I decided to use the Blue Sea ML-RBS for that. On this new truck there is almost no place to mount anything on the inside of the fenders or the firewall. I decided to mount the ML-RBS on top of the battery making it unpluggable So the the battery can be removed. Here is what it looks like: Made a cover for it from black ABS plastic: Bob
  2. I just watched both full length videos that Chris posted and now I feel like a destitute, ignorant, inadequate redneck, which is probably what I am.
  3. Call Cary Kaiser at Kaiser Brake and Alignment at (800) 877-5890. He can build any of the Monaco drag links with adjustable ends (both ends). Bob
  4. Sometimes it does not matter what kind of signs you have or the experience of the driver. Drivers often have their heads in the clouds or are just plain not paying attention. This is a famous railroad bridge in Durham, NC that has made for a bad day for all sorts of vehicles even with flashing warning lights.
  5. The real problem is the lack of detent once the rivet starts to wear. Bending the arm can add detent but then the arm often strikes the door frame or rattles as you drive down the road. After fighting the swing arm problem for years and purchasing a new one once I came up with my own fix. I drilled a hole thru the detent bubble (you must use a glass drill bit because the stainless steel is hard) and used Locktight Red to glue a panhead screw into the center of the detent bubble. Cut off the screw threads so the screw does not protrude below the swing arm. I maintain that the rivet wear is a non-linear process and once it becomes loose it will wear very little. This fix worked for our coach for years.
  6. When you are on your deathbed it is not the trips you made that you will regret, it is the one's you didn't make that you will regret. As long as we are able to travel we will find a way to absorb the cost of fuel. In 2016 we made a trip to Alaska and back and drove the motorhome over 8000 miles. We would do it again in a heartbeat. So many fun memories and thousands of mind blowing photographs and videos. Also the previous record high for diesel was $4.84 July 17, 2008 and adjusted for inflation is around $6.19 a gallon.
  7. Scotty, Pam and I will keep you and Debbie in our prayers and hope Debbie has a fast recovery. It is tuff enough when health issues happen at home but the situation is compounded when on the road. Bob Nodine
  8. Rick, I have a Tire SafeGuard system we no longer use. It has 6 flow thru sensors for the coach and 4 standard sensors for the toad and the monitor that mounts on the dash. No repeater. It was working fine when we took it out of service. We downsized to a gas Class-C and it has OEM built in tire pressure monitoring for all six wheels on the coach. We use the RVi3 braking system that supports tire pressure monitoring so we use 4 Tire Patrol Sensors on the toad. If you are interested in buying the Tire SafeGuard let me know. We are heading down to Florid now but have to be back home on the 1st of Feb for medical stuff. If you are interested I can ship it to you in early February. Asking $75 and I will pay the shipping. You can contact me at nodine@gmail.com Bob
  9. When someone says something is not political you know right away it is. This whole thread is political. If we are being honest we know we will never produce anything without using energy from at least one source. Most folks who are against electric vehicles are because they think their diesel motorhome will be taken away, or they want be able to hear the rumble of a big V8, or they don't like the politicians who are pushing them, etc. Electric vehicles have their place just like internal combustion engines have their place. We need all the energy sources we can get. Anything we can do to reduce our dependency on foreign oil is a good thing. Take the environmental aspect out of the equation and think about how we can reduce our consumption of crude oil without giving up our motorhome or that big earth mover that needs a lot of power. Wouldn't you like to tell OPEC to go jump in the lake. By the way, you could build another interstate along side of I-10 that does not allow trucks and has an imbedded inductive charging system that would charge your passenger vehicle as you moved down the highway.
  10. An advantage of the Dynasty and above coaches often overlooked is the rigidity of the chassis. Because the motorhome structure is a steel frame welded to the frame the frame is very stable and does not flex. When we purchased the 2006 Diplomat it was only a year old and I think it was traded in because it handled so poorly. The ride height was way off and when we would hit a dip in the road the bathroom door would fly open. Being a newbie to the motorhome scene I did not understand what was going on but later understood that the frame was flexing. After getting the ride height adjusted the bathroom door did not fly open. Still when driving on the interstate and getting hit by a gust of wind or passed by a semi the coach would jump a foot in the lane. Very unnerving. That is why we spent so much time and effort on the Watts link. So besides the tag axle you have the stiff frame in your corner of the ring. If you pay much attention to the forums you will notice that the folks who are always complaining about wandering and handling are those who own the non tag and non S-frame Monaco coaches. Another downside to these Indiana built coaches is they usually have a Shepard steering sector that has lots of dead motion. It would be nice if everyone could own a coach like you have but that is not always the case. Even the lower end Monaco coaches have a well built house with nice cabinets and often folks are sucked in by the eye candy and the quality of the coach. Once they purchase the coach they love everything about it except driving it on the interstate in windy conditions. You may not see the value of the Watts link or the cross bars because they add little improvement to the Dynasty and above coaches. They make a world of difference on the lower end coaches.
  11. JD, I ran the front and rear sway bars on our 2006 Diplomat for 13 years and never had any problem from the way they were mounted. The sway bars were the second thing I did in my quest to improve the handling of the coach. On your coach have you looked real close in the rear for broken welds? If there is a broken weld that will allow movement of the rear axle then taking the truck off would make a difference. Often towing a vehicle reduces wandering but in your case it seems to exacerbates it. Bob
  12. JD, have you checked the alignment of your rear axle? Often the rear axle is not square and perpendicular to the direction of travel and will cause a constant pull either left or right. I mention this because you made a comment about the coach not wanting to go straight. On a level and straight road you should be able to turn loose of the steering wheel and the coach should continue straight. Bob Van, Hope Sandy is OK. Bob
  13. Van beat something into my head and I think everyone needs to keep that lesson in mind. It is a simple statement, "your coach is going to go where your wheels are pointed". If gusting winds are changing the direction of your coach then the wind pushing against your coach is changing the direction that the front wheels are pointing. The design of the Roadmaster chassis makes it almost impossible to completely stop this because the wheels are floating on four air bags that must be stabilized by trailing arms and a single Panhard bar. The Watts link makes a huge difference because it removes the tendency of the H-frame to twist on the fulcrum point created by having only one Panhard bar. That is why it is important to keep the Watts link as far from the Panhard bar as possible. If the Watts link is mounted on the same side of the H-frame as the Panhard bar then it will not be as effective in keeping the H-frame from twisting when trucks pass or a gust of wind hits the side of the coach. The trailing arms are long and that coupled with the fact that bushings must have some give makes it impossible for the trailing arms to completely stabilize the H-frame. I don't know the relationship of your Watts link to your Panhard bar but I suspect that it is either not far enough away or your Watts link is not firmly attached or has a loose or broken pivot pin. Just 1/16 of an inch of movement will affect the straight line handling of the coach. This brings up the subject of the TRW and the tie rod ends. Any slop in the tie rod ends or movement of the Pitman arm on the TRW will cause the front wheels to change direction when wind pushes against the side of the coach. Remember your coach is going where your wheels are pointed. I could bore you with some trigonometry of what will happen at 60 MPH if your font wheels slightly change direction but I want.
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