1nolaguy

Dennis, The eye bolt is a great idea. Wish I had thought of that when I had a dolly. Crawling under the car to attach safety chains was my most hated part of the process.

Pressure washers should never be used on finned radiators, especially those with aluminum fins. Even a water stream from a garden hose nozzle can damage aluminum fins. I was advised that the best way to clean the radiators( and also your A/C coils) is with lots of running water and from the side that air usually flows through. For radiators that is from the out side toward the engine. I do this every time I wash the rig. If your coils are really dirty water them down and then spray on a mix of water with dawn and distilled vinegar. let it soak for 10 minutes then rinse and repeat at needed. Alternately you can use a commercial coil cleaner which come from big box stores in a spray foam or from an HVAC supply house, usually in a concentrate that is to be diluted with water. Spray on, let soak about 10 minutes, rinse and repeat as needed. I find the best way, once thoroughly cleaned, is to rinse with plenty of water regularly and then once or twice a year I do the Dawn/vinegar thing as noted above. Also, if you have fins that are pushed over use a fin comb or stiff plastic bristle brush to "comb" the fins back straight. It is amazing how much heat exchange efficiency can be lost by a coil when fins are bent over, even partially, and restrict air flow.

Our 2005 Safari Cheetah has had a similar crack on the passenger side for 3 years now. When it happened (bad 1-25 in Colorado) I cleaned the window and traced the crack (from top to bottom) with super glue. Like others have suggested I carry a roll of clear Gorilla tape just in case. We are lucky in that we have a split windshield so it does not effect driver view, even if there is additional failure. The rig has traveled about 6K miles since the crack without issue.

We got ours at Home Depot, a 3M product, but can not recall the name. Note, there were two types, one with like a sand paper finish (black) and one with a heavy textured plastic finish (grey). I found the sand paper type too aggressive and it began to rough up our new seal edges. We changed to the textured plastic and it works great without damaging the seals. The grey is a bit more noticeable but not obtrusive. I put it right next to the existing black tape where the back of the slide comes out of the coach. This way the seal always has to pass over the tape when opening or closing but does not actually sit on the tape when deployed or retracted.

Hi Rik, I can sympathize. I absolutely agree about the need for transportation separate from your motor home, unless perhaps if you are driving a class B or perhaps small class C. I am in the process of changing to a 4 down from a dolly. I would say it all depends on your situation. Since you already own a dolly my initial thought would be to use it however depending on your age, dexterity and strength this does come with added issues such as how well you can get up and down, and move the dolly around by yourself when empty. Also, how often do you plan to move. If you are moving once every two to four weeks this may not be a big deal but if you are moving every couple of days that can be a whole other story. Using a gps that is programmable for your height, width, length and weight can keep you out of the need to back up for the most part but that is not guaranteed. I speak with authority on this. This will mean perhaps more needed advance scouting when it comes to parks and parking lots. On the other hand, switching to 4 down can be complicated and expensive. Once you start buying a tow bar, braking system, base plate, brak-a-way cable system, umbilical cable, etc you can easily spend $2500-$4500 dollars. Then is the labor to outfit your vehicle, if you are not in a position to do it yourself. That again can be $1000 to $4500. Lastly , is your current tow vehicle tow-able 4 down or dolly or trailer only. If your intended tow car is your 98 Grand Cherokee and since you already have a dolly, and assuming this is not your plan to generally take long trips but that this is a one off, I might be inclined to invest in a gps system for RV (or possibly use RV Life Pro and your phone if you prefer) and take my time. Another thought might be to invest in an e-bike that you can carry in the Cherokee, for use when you need transportation for short jaunts where in you would not want to disconnect the dolly. In my case, at 69, dealing with the dolly on trips where we were moving every couple of days was becoming a hassle, although it was more of an issue for my wife than for me. When we were faced with having to decide about replacing the dolly or go 4 down and with our dolly only vehicle surpassing 250K miles and needing to be replaced as well were chose to go 4-down. This has not been a cheap endeavor and since I opted to do the labor myself it has proven to be a lot more time consuming then the Youtubes would have you believe; at least with our new 2023 Equinox. Good luck with your decision. In the end it is a personal one as all options come with there one set of challenges and trade offs.

Ni Brian and welcome on board. I can not speak specifically to your unit but with regard to dual filtration systems in general you are correct, in that there is no real advantage to both the primary and secondary filters being the same mesh size. For my coach, which has a CAT C7 engine, I believe the primary filter is 10 micron and the secondary is 2 micron. In my case the filters are two different physical sizes and even the thread and fitting sizes are different between the two filters are different to make it impossible to install the wrong filter in the wrong place. My recommendation would be to go to your owners manual and check the specs. If you do not have an owners manual you may find a copy in the the down loads section above where you can get a pdf copy. If not your exact model then perhaps a similar model with the same chassis. If all else fails try doing a search on the internet for the manufacture (model and even serial number specific can help) for your engine to find out the OEM specs, From there you can look for what is compatible. I hope that helps.

Every coach is different. Some you can access by pulling the dash guage panel or even have access panels from the top of the dash. Most can be accessed from underneath although depending on age and flexibility this many or may not be a consideration. Before you do that, however, you may want to use your multi-meter to test out the electric leads that connect to the lights. If you are reading low voltage it may be an issue of bad ground.

Don't mean to hijack this post but while on the subject does anyone know of a source for replacement hardware for the pocket doors? Particularly the plastic ground track and also the wheeled unit at the top.

Did you get the photos I sent? I am going to throw these away if they are not wanted. Re-post of picture

Yes, unusual size. I could not find an impact socket that size/ They all seem to go 32mm and then 34 mm.

I am sure my experiences may have been the exception, but it soured me on Synchrony to the point I almost canceled our Sam's membership. I guess it is peculiar how a series of bad experiences cam sour one. The same can be seen with car brands, RV park reviews and RV brands in general. I am glad your experiences with Sam's MC have been good. Ours were also for several years until the issues started. We do still shop at Sam's, almost weekly.

Yes, the FP 32" French door bottom freezer will fit and has a bit more capacity at almost 17cf and greater shelf height flexability. For us, at 5-1/2 X the cost , we did not mind giving up the extra space for the savings.

I also used Sam's Club Master Card for the same reasons but Synchrony Bank, which issues and manages this MC, is the pits. We had issues with them canceling a card because of suspicious on line orders and taking over 30 days to send a replacement card. We also had issues with payment being applied to the wrong account that took close to 12 months to resolve. Their CS via phone is almost always handled by agents having English as a second language and they are terrible at replying to email or web inquiry. They do not publish their corporate address or officers and it took a great deal of research to track down the corporate address (in Virginia under a different name) and months of writing and sending registered letters directly to the VP of Credit Services to get a reply and get the mis-applied funds sent to the correct account. When I finally got this all straightened out and the account balance satisfied I locked the cards in a safe and will only use in case of an emergency. We have other MC / VIsa cards so the only reason we got this was because of the gas savings. For us, at the end of the day, the savings were not worth the headaches. As they say "caveat emptor" or buyer beware.

This post is an FYI - We have been shopping for a while for an alternative residential refrigerator to replace our Norcold 1200. While many have gone with the Samsung RF18 or similar. With our particular floor plan (2005 Safari Cheetah 40 DST) the RF18 will not fit in the space available without significant carpentry. We also tried the Haier 14/16 cf 4 door unit (we have one at home and love it) but again the height required significant carpentry. Because of the floor plan we are limited to no more than 51" in depth with the fridge door open at 90 deg. This further limits us. If we wanted an install that was easy, requiring the least amount of modification, while maintaining capacity close to the 1200 we were very limited in choices. We researched a few small Frigidare, Whirlpool and Magic Chef models but they were either lacking or had many discouraging reviews. We narrowed the search to to Insignia models an 11.6 bottom freezer model or a 10.4 cf model to freezer. Research showed not a great deal of usable space difference. The bottom freezer version is slightly taller, has a drawer in the freezer as well as an extra deli draw for meats and cheeses. The main reason we chose this one is with my wife's height and the fast that our fridge sits 12" off the floor, it was easier for her to see what is what. Based on the published annual energy usage and some math I calculate that you can run the fridge from an inverter for about 70 amps (@ 12v) in 24 hours, so great to run while you travel or even boon-docking/ lot-docking over night if you have a decent house battery bank. While our RV model is new, Insignia (a private label for Best Buy) is made by the same company that makes Haier and GE. We have had our home Haier for 3 years without issue. Currently Best Buy (as of this writing) has both of these on sale for under $500 delivery included. They also offer a Greek Squad extended warranty from $100-$135 for 3-5 years years of nationwide coverage. Free delivery is included in the purchase price and for about $25 they will hall away your old unit. I am in no way associated with Best Buy or Haier/GE but found this to be a really good alternative at a very reasonable price. Anyway, wanted to share this in the hope that it may be helpful to others shopping for refrigerator alternatives.

I replaced two Penguin II A/C units with two RecPro (Houghton) heat pump-A/Cs about two years ago. Here is what you need to know before making a decission: As noted by others the RecPro is quieter and more versatile, uses a bit less amperage (especially on start up). The remotes are handy, especially when you are in bed. Install: Depending on your roof thickness you may not be able to use the provided bolt or may need extensions. If you go back and check previous blogs on this subject under my handle I posted details about this. I ended up having to buy additional metric coupling and threaded bar to extend the 4 main bolts in order to reach from the inside flange to the roof mounting. As I recall the bolts provided are about 6" in length but required length for my roof, which also has a slight curve, was about 8". Also, if your roof is not flat, with the provided foam gasket the unit can accommodate up to about 5 degrees of pitch. If you have a pitched roof you will need someone on the roof and someone inside in order to secure the bolts through the ceiling. Not knowing this in advance added greatly to the time of the project and in my case to the cost as I had hired a mobile tech to do the install. Also - The Rec Pro unit is stand alone with internal thermostat at the ceiling fixture. It will not tie into the 5 in 1 wall mount controller that is mounted on your wall. As a result you will also loose control of your furnace. I am still working on finding a solution to this but since we avoid cold weather camping and are generally with hook ups the heat pump does the job when needed. Also - If you have a ducted system and you are planning to install 2 - 15000 btu units you may, like me, find that when running both units one may cause the other to cut off. This is because very cold air from one travels down the duct and if there is a leak or by pass in the divider baffle cold air will bypass the baffel and cause the thermister in the second unit to freeze up and cut off the second unit. This is more an issue in highly humid areas like the gulf coast and Florida. All that said I am still pleased with my RecPro A/C purchase. Its just that knowing these things in advance can save you some time and headaches.

I believe they are aluminum. I had several fail along the belt line and Talin RV caught it while I was in for something else. They replaced with ss and advised I do the same should any more rivets fail.

Sorry, you did state that in the OP and I forgot. If you want to run the A/C from the battery/inverter rather than the engine you will likely need a Softstart to make that work.

Assuming you have not already bought a roof top A/C you might look at the small one from Recpro, I believe it is a 9500 by Houghton. It had a low amp draw, low profile (both popular in van conversions). Based on what your have stated you might be able to get away with a 1500 watt unit if it can handle peak whats of 3K ( check the requirements of your A/C) If your peak start up watts exceed what your inverter can handle it will not work for you. You also might consider a Softstart for your A/C to reduce that start up demand if needed. Houghton claims this is not needed so maybe note you may need to buy one after the fact. I believe Gretch uses these in there van conversions and they can run off battery power although they may require solar assistance to run for a long time when the engine is not running. IF I MAY MAKE TWO OTHER SUGGESTIONS; 1) get a battery monitor. I have used the following one from Amazon for 2 years without issue. It provides blue tooth to your phone for easy checking and just connects between the 2 posts of the battery. 2) You might consider a good Lithium battery. The Li Time (aka Ampiertime) 200 AH battery is reasonably priced and should provide ample power for longer than you own the van (see youtube Will Prowes recent review). Note: if you plan to charge your Li battery off of the van alternator be sure to install a DC-DC converter that restricts how much amperage goes to this new "house" battery. Not doing so will result in burning up your alternator if you use Li.

It depends on your use. If it is occasional and you are home or at shore power in the evening it is different that if you are on the road full time. I kept a mobile shop in my van with power tools that was used daily but on shore power each night. The 1500w inverter from Amazon has run flawlessly for 4 years. I charge separately using a digital charger from HF because the charger from my altinator quit working. I will post the details on the inverter later but as I recall at the time the cost was about $150.

Welcome to the group. You have a beautiful rig. Gute reise!

I had the same thing happen on our rig several years ago. I replaced the rivets with SS as originals were aluminum. I can not recall the size but I know a standard rivet gun would not work. I found one that would at Harbor Freight: https://www.harborfreight.com/hand-tools/fastening-tools/riveters/13-in-heavy-duty-professional-hand-riveter-58018.html Hated to buy a specialty tool for one project but much cheaper than mobile tech. I only had one side fail but decided to drill out the other side and replace those as well while doing this project.

Very nice Scotty! Please post a pic once installed so we can see where you pit it.

If your engine is reading hot and the coolant tank remains at max full whether the engine is hot or cold there is a good possibility the problem might be water pump related.before you head out I would suggest having that check out. Coolant system errors that are not addressed can lead to extremely costly repairs.

I have a set of tow straps (2" yellow) that were only used for a partial trip of about 700 miles. The dolly failed and was disposed of but the straps were kept. Instead of getting another dolly we opted to go 4 down so now have no use for the straps. They are free to whoever wants them if you pay the freight. I can send straps only if you have shackles to reduce weight and freight cost. If you need a photo I can post later today.

Thanks for that information Peter. I have a few follow up questionsfor1) If a system holds a vacuum, say -3psi for an hour without change, what is the benefit of charging to 200 psi with nitrogen? Can you have a leak that only reveals its self under positive pressure? 2) In this exchange I have not read anyone mentioning the low pressure switch. Assuming that motor coach systems are similar to automotive systems and have a low pressure switch a bad one may be the cause of short cycling. I had this issue with a car earlier this year. I did not discover it was an issues until after I had replaced the condenser and dryer (twice). In a car the LPS is generally located near the accumulator/dryer. Is this the same for the RV and if so is that back near the condenser for a DP?