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RE: Aluminum Sheet Finishing Options
Aluminum shts come in SO, T-3, and T-6. SO is soft and easy to form around corners. T-6 is harder but much stronger. T-3 is in the middle. 7075 has better mechanical properties than 6061 and 2024 within the same heat treatments. If it is going to be used for the flat sides I'd use the T6. If you have to form corners I'd use the SO or T3 aluminum. .030 SO can be formed by hand and has very little spring back. All can be primed and painted.
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Gjac
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05/18/12 06:36am |
Tech Issues
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RE: Opinions on 1997 Georgie Boy Cruise Master
I bought a 1996 GBM Swinger in 2004 with the 454 eng. when I retired with 24,000 miles. It now has 76,000 miles. I knew nothing about RV's when I bought it. The front end needed work, the exhaust manifolds leaked and ran hot, dash was loose, side walls had some delamination and the auto park system did not work right. It would down shift at the slightest hill and the temp gauge would go up. I spend several years fixing the issues with allot of help of people on this forum. After installing headers, free flow mufflers, Cold Air Intake, new coils springs in the front it has plenty of power and rides smooth. I drive it like a car with one hand no "white knuckle ride" that may report with with the P-30 chassis. Fixed the delamaminations and loose dash etc. Been to Alaska and Canada several times with it runs well and have averaged 8.6 mpg over 50,000 miles. Check the things that I mentioned that were problems and be prepared to spend 5-10k to fix and upgrade. Hope this helps you decide.
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Gjac
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05/13/12 09:21am |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: Water Leak
Roy have you found your leak yet? I had a leak that drove me crazy for over a year. Caulked and re caulked every thing. Local spraying with a hose showed no leaks only after a rain would it leak. I finally found it by reversing my wife's vacuum cleaner and blowing air into the leak and saw water coming out of the roof seem 30 ft away. What was happening was the M/H was parked at a very slight decline and water was running into the top channel from the rear all the way to the front. I suspect this may be your case. Hope you find it.
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Gjac
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05/11/12 10:08am |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: Lamination repair plan
I had some success using the side of a building, plywood caul plates, and car jacks to apply pressure. Drying the area to be bonded is crucial. Removed windows and used wedges and acetone, and heat to dry bond line also parked it sun for several days. Used polyurethane adhesive because it reacts with water. Worked good on smaller areas that were dryer. In larger ares where I could not get all the moisture out the adhesive foamed too much and did not bond as well. My advise is to use a good 2 part epoxy system with low viscosity. There is an old resin called water glass that was almost the viscosity as water. This can be accomplished by adding more solvent to the 2 part resin. The solvent will flash of quickly anyway leaving the epoxy. It will weaken the bond but will still be stronger than the substrate that you are bonding to. Hope this helps.
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Gjac
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05/10/12 07:22am |
Tech Issues
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RE: Water pump issues -- normal or needs replaced?
Mine recently started doing this. When I looked at the pump I noticed water/corrosion underneath along the split line and re tightened the bolts. This did not help but stopped the leak. I took it apart to clean it and reassembled it, same problem. At this point I knew that I needed a new pump which I ordered from Amazon.com $70 and free shipping. I then took the old one apart again and applied an adhesive/sealer on the flange and tried it again and it worked fine. Now I have a spare. I said all that to say this, if you know that you do not have any leaks in the lines you may be drawing air in along the split line which is easy to fix.
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Gjac
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04/27/12 08:03am |
Tech Issues
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RE: Class C camping in the Smokies
Elkmont is right on a river in the park and has some good trout fishing and old buildings to explore. Cades Cove is also interesting and you can see allot of animals if you drive the loop at dusk. I would go during the week to assure a site. The weekends are booked in the summer. I have been there 4 times but never in May. Have a good trip.
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Gjac
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04/25/12 11:23am |
RV Parks, National Parks, State Campgrounds & More
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RE: What is your most memorable/fun RV trip?
Alaska via RMNP, Tetons NP, Yellowstone, Glacier, Banff, etc for 3 mos.
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Gjac
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04/25/12 10:49am |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: Breakdown X 2...
Jim I think that all of us with older M/H's are in the same thinking process, it is just a matter of degree. I bought my M/H in 2004 when I retired, a 1996 GBM 454 tbi. I bought used to figure out if I really like rving and to learn what I really wanted in the next and final M/H. I had a lot of problems to work out and it has cost me almost $10,000 for repairs, mods, and maintenance in 8 years of ownership. I kept good records on everything down to nuts and bolts. I payed $28,000 originally. So in total it cost me $38,000. I still have issues that I am working on and I learned allot in 8 years. I have looked at newer M/H's but have not found anything that I really like yet so I keep fixing the old one. I don't know if I put too much money into it or not. I'm not sure what the average cost of ownership is. However a friend of mine has bought 3 new M/H's during this same time frame and has had many problems with each. Another way to look at it is that he lost much more in depreciation on just one M/H than I spent in total. I put 50,000 miles on mine and he has put less than 15,000 on the 3 of his in total. I'm sure you put allot more miles on yours so from a miles per dollar you probably have done all rite if you step back and look at the big picture. Hopes this helps in your decision.
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Gjac
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04/25/12 10:42am |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: Has Anyone Tried Dollar Tree Solar Lights? They are great!
How many batteries do they take? I was looking for one that takes 4 AA's so that I could remove the pole and use the flat round disk to recharge my batteries on the dash board of the RV.
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Gjac
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04/18/12 07:59am |
Public Lands, Boondocking and Dry Camping
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RE: OMG PLEASE HELP!!!
I removed mine several years ago and had to use a wire brush and wire wheel on the removable parts to get the rust off prior to putting them back together.
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Gjac
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04/15/12 06:19am |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: Can Anyone Tell Me How to Replace a SureFlow Water Pump?
It could be a bad connection between the red or black wires going to the pump also.
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Gjac
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04/09/12 06:59pm |
Tech Issues
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RE: Bicycles in Alaska?
I took mine and stored it in my basement storage by removing the front wheel. It was out of the elements. My wife's was stored the the trunk of the tow car. I used mine just about every day when ever we stopped for the night. She rarely used hers except around a few campground. When ever we would go into town for shopping, laundry, etc I would use hers to site see, fish or just get exercise. I probably would not have taken them if I had to hang them off the ladder outside in the rain and dirt.
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Gjac
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04/05/12 07:25am |
RVing in Canada and Alaska
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RE: Taking an inflatable to Alaska
When I went to Alaska in 2006 I took a 3 man rubber raft reinforced with fabric. My traveling companion took his kayak, and another fellow that we met on the way up had a Zodiac with a gas motor. We were all in our late 50's at the time. What I learned from this is that the zodiac took time to set up and took a lot of space and weight. Once assembled and blown up it was great on big lakes. The kayak was stored on the roof of the M/H and took 2 people to load and unload and was somewhat difficult but faster and less work than the Zodiac. My raft was stored in my basement storage at took 15mins to set up. We ended up using my raft most of the time because it was the easy to use. We had our wife's with us so fishing was not the the primary purpose. That being said I fished anyplace that we stopped that had water for a short time and caught a lot of Rainbows, Grayling, and Dollyvarden as well as Salmon. The lesson learned is think of how much time you will use it.
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Gjac
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04/05/12 07:14am |
RVing in Canada and Alaska
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RE: MH fresh water tank
I would loose a 1/3 of my fresh water driving to the campground. I raised my overflow tube up above the tank about 4 ins and made a clip to attack it to the bottom of the floor. This solved the problem.
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Gjac
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04/02/12 09:12pm |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: Hydraulic levelling jacks not working
Doug this is good information to know. Does this also apply to the joy stick models of HWH?
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Gjac
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03/31/12 06:31am |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: Water Heater
I don't like the hot water surge after I turn the water off and back on again. What I found that works for me is to turn the HWH on 15 mins before taking a shower in the summer and 25 min in the winter and just use the hot water handle. No more scalding water.
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Gjac
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03/30/12 08:34am |
Tech Issues
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RE: Broken upper rear shock mount
I tried for 2 days to get a replacement part and could not find one. Tried several junk yards also to no avail. One told me If he had an old P-30 chassis that I would still have to remove it myself. Drill the heads of the rivets. The thought of laying on my back with a cordless drill in the dirt did not sound good. Don't have experience in welding and was concerned about welding by the gas tank and lines. I know some welders are good and wouldn't worry about that. I only checked with one and he wouldn't do it either. This is what drove me to the 1/2 bolt fix.
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Gjac
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03/29/12 08:04am |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: Sound deading material...
Is your generator under your bed? Mine is, and I store blankets and extra pillows on top of and on the sides of the generator box under the bed. It is very quiet with 6 1ns of insulation surrounding it.
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Gjac
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03/29/12 07:35am |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: Jack spring removal
Have you tried cleaning the seals real good. Mine had allot of dirt in there. If not it is worth a try.
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Gjac
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03/28/12 07:46pm |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: Broken upper rear shock mount
The same thing happened to mine several years ago. After some searching here on the forum and some help from another member I installed a grade 8 bolt through the hole and into the shock. It is still holding up today 15,000 or so miles later. It was tricky to get the bolt and lock washer into the box area. I also had to grind an old wrench to fit into the box area to hold the bolt head for tightening. Hope that helps.
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Gjac
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03/27/12 09:37pm |
Class A Motorhomes
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