Tom Wallis

I've worked in tire stores several times in my career and changed lots of tires of all sizes with all sorts of equipment including the bar in the above photo. I'm 71 now and I can still do it if I have to but for the most part I'd rather take the MH over to Les Schwabs and have some 20 something guy get dirty doing it. The only hard part then is trying not to supervise. I do everything else myself but usually not tires. However, I did have to do one of my tractor tires the other day. I discovered that my jack hammer with a shovel bit works pretty good for breaking the bead if you don't have a tire hammer.

I would say that a box wrench would be the right tool. If it seems like there's not enough room for your box wrench to slide up on the back side have a close look at your box wrench. They're not all created equal. It might be possible to get a box wrench with a thin wall that will fit where yours won't.

Mine had the satellite receiver and some other TV equipment in that same compartment. 

I think there might be some confusion on Starlink coverage. There are parts of the country that have a wait list for ordering Starlink service due to being saturated with subscribers. However, if you have a Starlink system with portability I believe it will work anywhere in the US albeit with slower speeds in the more densely populated areas.

We don't even have a TV in the MH. Unfortunately we are kind of hooked on the internet though. Starlink has worked well for us almost everywhere we been. Occasionally we will stream something on the laptop but do pretty well without TV when we're away from home.

1 minute ago, DavidL said:

Starlink Internet and stream content is the current popular approach

I was just about to say the same thing. That way you have the high speed internet and you just add whatever streaming services you prefer. I prefer to stream everything on demand but if you prefer live TV there are a number of services that can provide that as well. Also, I understand that Starlink will soon have a mobile dish that will be legal for in motion use.

Several years ago we bought a Sleep Innovations 12" memory foam mattress that comes in a box. I think we got it at Costco but I see that Amazon has them. We have used the same mattress in more than one of our RVs and we love it. As a mater of fact we liked it so much we bought a similar one for home. Ours is a full sized queen and is bout 4" longer than the platform in the MH and it works just fine that way. Just be aware that there are different firmness options to choose from.

Nova Foam makes them also and I think we have had both brands.

I have the aluminum roof with the seam down the middle and the aluminum and tar tape. I have replaced the tape on the rear cross seam with 4" ETERNA-Bond tape and painted it with Flex seal. So far I'm very happy with the results. As soon as the weather warms up I plan on doing the rest of it. I hear both good and bad things about Flex seal but I definitely want to coat tape with something. If there's something better than Flex seal I am open to suggestions.

The hardest part of the job is removing the tar. I used a heat gun and a vibrating scraper and then finished up with alcohol.

I don't know anything about the electric reel but I thought I'd mention that there is a very long thread about the safety an reliability of the IOTA transfer switch that you might want to look at if you haven't seen it.

We live in Nevada and have had some very cold weather recently with night time temps as low as 5 and sometimes not above freezing even during the day. I have never winterized my motorhome. I have a wifi thermostat controlled 500W heater in the wet bay that's set at 40. Inside I have a 1500W heater on the same kind of thermostat also set to 40. On the nights that the temps go into single digits I set the furnace on 40. I filled my water tank the other day in preparation for an upcoming trip an it was 10 degrees since then and no problem.

I have traveled in similar temps and found that as long as the furnace is set high enough for living in the motorhome, no supplemental heat is needed in the water bay. It seems that the ducting in the floor provides enough heat in the basement to prevent freezing.

However, there are some big differences between motorhome designs so here is my disclaimer: "Individual results may very."

I won't consider deep cycle RV batteries the best choice for chassis batteries. They can work but won't give the best performance or life because they're designed for a different purpose.

Hooking up your small charger backwards briefly is not likely to have any negative effect on them but it seems they do have a problem. Also, charging them while hooked in parallel is not a problem but you will need to separate them in order to test them.

Since they're sealed you can't use a hydrometer. Once they're separated charge them one at a time and see if the voltage comes up. A 15 amp charger is pretty small for those large batteries especially when they're hooked together but individually they should be much higher than that after 12 hours. You should also disconnect them from the chassis while charging just to make sure your not fighting any parasitic loads. Ideally I would want to charge them with a larger 3 stage charger until the go into float mode. Then let them sit a few hours until the surface charge is gone. If at that point they're not at least 12.6v then they're not likely any good.

Here is one way to do it if the motorhome is plugged in and has wifi. Go to the back of the refrigerator and add a wifi smart plug between the cord and the outlet. Now set your refrigerator to AC mode. The display will read an error but when you turn on the smart plug with your phone the refrigerator will start working on AC.

You can hard wire it to the truck safely by adding a diode of the appropriate amperage to the positive wire. That does 2 things. It prevents any current flow from the generator battery to the truck and it will drop the charging voltage by 1/2 volt which helps prevent it from overcharging.

If the interior of the coach is heated it doesn't even have to be turned on.

I agree with all of that. However, I have been to campgrounds where the faucets have heat tape on them which makes it possible to use the heated hose. I find it's not worth the trouble though unless you're in for a long stay where it's very cold. Then you can add a heat tape to the hydrant or if you turn it of at night you don't have to put water hose away but just turn it back on in the morning.

The plastic sleeve in the battery fill hole is there to indicate the full level. The slots allow it to breath even when full. Unlike regular batteries, deep cycle and golf cart batteries have more room between that sleeve and the plates so they are more forgiving about low water. You should never let the water get below the top of the plates. I don't have any special caps and I only check my golf cart batteries every 4 to 6 months and they are never down to the plates.

8 hours ago, birdshill123 said:

If you are wanting wet cell ordinary 6 volts I would go with Costco. I have them in both of our motorhomes. Great price. They only have a one year warranty but Costco asks no questions and the replacement also comes with a one year warranty.

I agree with Bruce. I think Costco is good as it gets for price. I have four 6v golf cart batteries from Costco, they're 5 years old and going strong.

I personal am not as fan of the AGM unless you just want no maintenance. I believe that's their only advantage and they're more expensive. If you switch to AGM you need to change the charging voltage.

I'm not sure there's any advantage to a timer. The optimal thing for the batteries is to have the built in multi stage charger on all the time. It will maintain the batteries properly and give them the longest possible life. If it's power consumption that concerns you I don't think charging is the problem. If the batteries drain while the power is off the charger will use more power when it does come on. When my motorhome is plugged in and charging in float mode it uses less than 50 watts of power. If you're using a lot more than that I would look for parasitic loads on the 12v system and or find out if there are other things drawing 120v. Even with the inverter on, if there are no 120v loads the power consumption should be insignificant.

2 hours ago, Georgia Mike said:

I am down here in Melbourne FL for thanksgiving and brought my rig over to Josam’s to have an air leak fixed. I asked Barry to inspect the chassis for any other problems. When I went to pick it up he said the drag link would need to be replaced in 6-8 months. I know about the only place you can get them is Hendersons and they are expensive. Barry said that’s where he gets them. My question…..is this something I can replace? I have looked all over this form and can find people have fixed them by welding them but no one replacing them. Barry told me I need the 58 inch drag link so I know the one I need. Has anyone done this themselves?

Changing a drag link is not a big job but separating the tapered ends from there socket is tricky if you don't know how. Probably using a pickle fork is the easiest but it's not available to everyone and you shouldn't use it on any joint that you intend to reuse. Without a pickle fork, loosen the nut but don't take it clear off. Position a bar between the 2 sides so you can apply some separating pressure  then hit the end of the tapered eye with a very large hammer. This is also easier done with 2 people. They can be a bear and it may take a lot of prying and a lot of hitting before they separate.

1 hour ago, jacwjames said:

When I lube and inspect my coach I'm always looking for problems.  When I check my drag link I basically grab it and put as much pressure on it to see if I see any play. 

Is there another way to check it???

I am not having any trouble with my steering, still no wondering, minimal play (if any) and I have the Sheppard box!!

Checking steering linkage is best done with 2 people. With the engine running and wheels strait ahead on a hard surface, one person turns the steering wheel back and forth through all of its free play plus a little more, just till you notice the wheels start to turn. The other person gets under the front and observes all the connections. Sometimes the play is hard to see so the person turning the wheel can try faster or slower movements. Also, try putting your hand on both sides of the connection and you can feel how much play there is.

Personally, I think keeping your rig hooked up to shore power is the best way to maintain your batteries. The multi-stage charger in your motor home will do an excellent job of maintaining the batteries without over charging them. In 20 plus years of RVing and 4 different RVs I'm always plugged into shore power unless I'm driving or dry camping. My current set of lead acid batteries are going on 5 years old.

Regarding the water tank, I don't know what best practice is but I drain my water tank after every trip just because I prefer the quality of the water from home to some that I add elsewhere.

I don't know what's best for the frig but I do know that the cost of running it all the time can add up.

If you are using one or maybe two adapters to plug your 50 amp cord into a 20 am outlet, I would check to make sure power is coming through the adapters to both legs. You can use a voltmeter at the 50 amp side of the adapters to see if you have 120v on both sides.

1 hour ago, JeNkHat said:

Thank you all for your responses. I should have been more specific as to my intended use. Our Onan works great but is a little loud and very thirsty meaning it uses quite a bit fuel. We often dry camping for several days to a week at a time and just want to keep the batteries charged, use the lights, microwave, and TV at night. We have a residential refrigerator, which runs on electricity only, not propane and it can drain down the batteries after all day on the inverter. It would be nice to run a quiet generator at night to recharge the 8- house batteries. If it is hot out, we would definitely use the larger Onan to run both ACs.  Our last coach was a Tiffin Allegro Bus, the fridge would switch over to  propane and we could use a small Honda and a gallon of gas at night to recharge the batteries. The Monaco doesn't even recognize the Honda as been there, so we were looking at the Predators and wondered at what level, if any would work for our coach.

Thank you Tom Wallis- your reply was very helpful, but I still don't know if that would be enough to run an Executive even under limited use. More comments are welcome and Thank you.

I'm not sure why a 2000kw generator wouldn't work for you. I would guess that the oxygen concentrator is about the equivalent of your refrigerator. I run that and charge the batteries at the same time. During the day we use all the normal stuff on battery, things like lights, coffee maker, fans, Starlink, computer etc. The Champion generator doesn't even run at full load usually.

I use a Champion 2000 inverter generator when dry camping. My wife uses an oxygen concentrator at night and it will deplete my batteries by morning. Where ever possible I start the Champion before we go to bed and let it go till it uses up it's one gallon of gas, usually 7 or 8 hours. In the morning my batteries are full and handle most of our needs through the day. Obviously, if AC is needed we will run the Onan. The advantages of the Champion are, it uses much less gas, it is quieter, we never get any fumes from it and in some cases we can locate it a little way away from the motorhome. It only weighs 48 pounds and only cost a bit over $500.

I'm not sure what broke. If it was the lever then you should be able to turn the wheels to the right and back and cancel the signal. If it was the internal latching mechanism then you should be able to turn it off with the lever.