dennis.mcdonaugh

I ordered the 20V De Walt grease gun from Amazon. I went with the kit that comes with the case, battery and charger. Since I have other De Walt cordless tools I can use another charger and battery.

We really haven't used our motor home in two years. Over that time, I've sort of kept up with maintenance, I put a new chassis battery in it last year when I drove it over for its yearly safety inspection and I've kept up with re-caulking the roof and things like that, but I have not been doing most of the maintenance as it came due since we weren't using it. Now I'm doing all the deferred maintenance at once. Holy cow have prices gone up! I'm starting at the front and working my way back to the end. I going to end up spending close to $1500 just for parts and fluids.  

The upper and lower service kit for the Haldex Pure Air Plus air dryer is over $275 from NAPA. 
The cheapest I could find the engine air filter is $190 for an AC Delco unit from Amazon.
The fuel filters are over $100 for the pair of Fleetguard replacements.
Oil and oil filter are over $130.
The generator oil and oil filter, fuel filter, air filter and antifreeze are over $100.
Transmission oil filters are right at $100 and a gallon of Transynd is $50. Has it really been three years already?
The three filters for the hydraulic reservoir are $100 and 5 gallons of AW-46 hydraulic fluid is $75.
Finally, 20 quarts of gear oil for the differential is $400.
That still leaves miscellaneous things like grease for the chassis, PAC brake lube, Dexron transmission fluid for the hydraulic systems, windshield wipers, and fan belts. 

Well, I think you guys answered my question. I  didn’t know dewalt made one, I have other dewalt tools so…

Anyone have a recommendation for a good, durable pneumatic grease gun. I've bought a couple, one $50 and one closer to $100 and they both worked great for a couple years. The seals started leaking after only three years in the cheaper gun and the more expensive one quit pumping grease. The both worked great when they worked, especially after I installed the locking nozzle.  I've been looking at the Milwaukee cordless gun, but I wonder how much pressure it can exert. Most of the pneumatic guns can apply upwards of 6000 PSI. 

We’ve been pretty lucky. Our auto insurance renewal only went up $75. It’s the home owners insurance I’m really worried about. Between skyrocketing building costs and natural disasters, there’s a lot of pressure to raise rates. Wildfires have replaced hurricanes as our number 1 natural disaster. Hurricanes do more damage, but they don’t happen every year. There are hundreds of wildfires annually. 

11 hours ago, jacwjames said:

Yes, but it limits me to 6 months of actual use, which if fine with me. 

11 hours ago, jacwjames said:

Yes, but it limits me to 6 months of actual use, which if fine with me. 

That’s dirt cheap. 

42 minutes ago, jacwjames said:

I just got done checking with Farmers insurance for House, Car, and RV,  Each was higher then what I pay with Auto Owners.  RV quote was about double.  I had been paying $260 but new quote went up to $340, but still cheaper. 

Is that $340 for the whole year??!!

I just received my renewal notice from Foremost and my policy went up $300 this year. Our policy is through Farmer's insurance.

My coach is now 24 years old, I paid $47K for it almost 10 years ago. If it’s totaled, I don’t want a 24 year old replacement, I want reasonable compensation and for them to pay to haul it off.  I’m thinking it won’t take much real damage to total a 24 year old coach given parts availability and labor costs. 

On 2/29/2024 at 1:00 PM, Ivan K said:

Any good insurance tip in N. Texas? I pay way way more than the quotes I am seeing here, like 1600/yr and could not get any better quotes. And thats after a proof that it is garaged and no claims ever. Auto Owners does not operate here.

Homeowners rates in Texas rates have risen substantially the last couple of years, mainly due to a high claim rate because of weather. I thought it was mostly caused by hurricanes, but turns out its wildfires. The town of Fritch, in the panhandle, was ravaged this week for the second time in 5 years.  I had a roof claim for hail damage of almost $40K a couple years ago, but my rates didn't go up last year. I'm dreading this year's renewal. Having a recent claim makes it hard to change companies.

I’ve been running Final Charge in my coach since around 2008 and changed it again in 2017 when I had a hose fail. I drained the system and replaced all the hoses - including the heater hoses - and refurbished the metal pipe. I have not tested the coolant, but I only put about 70,000 miles on the coach in that time. 

32 minutes ago, Tom Cherry said:

I broke all my “hard to reach” screws with this …. Out of curiosity, before the shop pulled the window….just to see how hard it was. The lower driver’s window corner is less than 2” from the dash….as the window went in BEFORE the dash. Don’t use the kit I have much, but it is a lifesaver when you need it.

I had one of those, but it wouldn’t work on my coach. I had to shorten the bit by half and use a mini vice grip to turn the screws. 

I fixed one about 5 years ago and haven’t had issues with it since. It’s not a difficult process and you don’t need special tools although two home made ones might help, one to remove the screws holding the window in place and one to measure the distance between the edge of the glass and inner seal. 
 

https://www.irv2.com/forums/f115/2000-dynasty-drivers-side-window-334706.html

13 minutes ago, Dean Bennett said:

I just finished installing my second set of MH Bags this last spring. The first set was on our 2000 Windsor about 4-years ago then, this spring, on our 1999 Exec. On both rigs there was little or no-room to get a wrench much less an impact on the top nuts. I spent almost a day per bag on the first two bags until I welded up a nut-breaker tool. I should have done this 8-bags ago! The tool was no help running the nuts up, but breaking them loose now takes just a few minutes each. I changed out 3 bags in one day using it. Most of the time was jacking up the axle, removing the wheel and then replacing it when done.

I did use the ‘cribbing’ in the H-Frame approach. I never found it difficult to compress the new bags but, I did fill the old bags before starting to give a fair amount of clearance (the cribbing was about the height of a bag). If I had to compress a bag, I’d place it on the ground, smush it and put my finger over the fill hole to keep it compressed while setting it in place. I hope to never do this again as I’m getting too old to be crawling under rigs!

I did find that a generous amount of Kroil oil on the bolts/nuts beforehand and I could just get a 3/8" Milwaukee M12 cordless ratchet on some of the nuts for running them on and off much quicker. Also, a wheel dolly is worth it's weight in gold.

How does that tool work?  I used a 90 degree air wrench to get them loose on my Dynasty. The two in front of the rear wheel were the hardest as access is an issue. Removing the wheels would have made a lot of difference, but would have introduced other problems since I had no way to break the lug nuts loose or retorque them to specs.

I removed and repaired the slider on my 2000 Dynasty. It cost me around $100 in supplies and took a little over 4 hours of actual work. Here's my thread on iRV2. I took it out by myself, its not hard, but make sure the window is locked, otherwise it'll slide and that change of balance can surprise you. 

https://www.irv2.com/forums/f115/2000-dynasty-drivers-side-window-334706.html

I’ve heard that Dicor will crack skylights, but never from someone who had it happen to them.  I’ve been told by the fewpeople who’ve used it that they had no issues. I used it when I replaced mine a few years ago and have contemplated removing it, but decided it wasn’t worth the effort. I had two skylights custom made so I could use them as a double pane skylight. The inner was about 2” shorter than the outer. Even with two skylights, it’s not as dark as the original was. 

Good explaination! That’s about what I did, but my jack stands aren’t tall enough to do it exactly the same way.  I have hydraulic jacks so I drove up on ramps made of 3 layers of 2X lumber then placed blocks under the jacks and dumped the air. I removed the nuts holding the air bags and air connections, then raised the jacks to clear the air bags and put blocking between the frame and axle. I had plenty of room to remove and replace the air bags. 

Check your bay door switches. They have interlocks and must be closed to activate the slides. 

Running a new air line shouldn’t be an issue. All the air lines on my coach run through corrugated plastic conduit. It doesn’t look like yours does. 

Just a thought, I repaired my drivers side slider about 5 years ago and it’s held up great. The materials cost a little over $100 then. 

I don't think my 2000 Dynasty has a gravity fill.

7 hours ago, jacwjames said:

.I also have an outlet under my sink, intended to power the small Instahot water faucet at the sink.  I don't keep the insta hot plugged in, my wife sometimes like to use it but it's a waste of battery power if not on shore power. 

It is powered off the inverter, a 20 amp circuit on my coach.   Not sure if it powers any other outlets or not. 

I have a toaster oven plugged into that circuit but never use it unless on shore power or running the generator.

This would be a viable option, just have to remember to start generator when cooking if not on shore power.  That's what I do with the toaster oven. 

The idea of adding a switch makes sense also.  If it truely doesn't like MSW inverted power you could shut it off when not in use.

We always run the generator when cooking if not plugged in to shore power. I put in the switch because the induction cooktop has some parasitic power draw even when off.

https://www.irv2.com/forums/f115/do-you-smell-smoke-411575.html

https://www.irv2.com/forums/f115/inverter-or-appliance-trouble-429382.html

On 11/28/2023 at 4:05 PM, richmelcole@sbcglobal.net said:

We have a 2002 Windsor 40PST.  Just replace our gas cooktop with a True two burner induction cooktop.  Want to run a new separate electrical circuit from the inverter subpanel located in the bedroom to the kitchen.  I would like to mount an outlet box with cutout switch under the cabinet near the front.  How do I fish a new romex wire from the subpanel to the kitchen?  What is the proper and safe way to wire the switch and outlet in the new box?  Also, I do not have a wiring diagram for a Windsor 40PST.  Thanks for your help.

Richard Cole

I installed an induction cooktop and used the outlet under the back of the propane cooktop. I removed the outlet and made it a junction box and extended the wires to a switch just inside the cabinet door. 

here’s my post on iRV2 about changing my lines and rebuilding my cylinders. 
 

https://www.irv2.com/forums/f115/2000-monaco-dynasty-slide-room-cylinder-rebuild-and-hose-replacement-547651.html

I replaced all my hoses a few years ago. I connected the new hose to the old with a coupler and pulled it through. The difficult part was disconnecting the hoses from the Tee connector since it was outside the basement over the fuel tank.