jack092
Cherokee Village, Arkansas - USA
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Joined: 07/28/2005
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On the last day of February, my wife and I were traveling across Oklahoma on highway 412, or the Cherokee Turnpike. As we entered into Arkansas I flipped my exhaust brake on. At the bottom of the hill I could only run in 1st gear. I have a Cummins/Allison power train. I got it off the road and got my book out. I reprogramed the transmission and everything worked. We proceeded East on 412 to about 10 miles West of Alpena, Arkansas. As we went down a three legged hill I flipped the exhaust brake on again. At the bottom of the hill I could only run in 1st gear. I got off the road and fooled with it, finally giving up. I called Good Sam, they sent a wrecker which pulled the motor home back to Springdale, Arkansas. The Freightliner place found that the switch that controls the exhaust brake was defective, which they replaced. The wrecker bill was $700, which Good Sam paid and the repair bill was 265, which I paid. My point is this - the money I paid Good Sam for breakdown protection ($95) saved me a lot of money. I am thankful for the quickness that Good Sam gave to my need. Jack092
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cascabel3
Los Angeles
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Joined: 06/22/2005
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I can't believe I just read all 38 pages of this post. What an awesome post no less. It appears to me that a lot of incidences happen from mere bad electrical connections and sensors, and filters. This tought me what to carry as spares, fuses, connectors, wiring, voltmeter, belts, filters etc....
1977 GMC Conversion 8V71 DD 3 spd Allison Jake etc
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PaulNWAS
Pasco WA
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Joined: 05/03/2003
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90 Southwind 454 Chevy P30 Chassis 98 Windstar in toad 4 down
Last November 7Pm 55 miles West of Sheridan Wy on I90 going up a hil at 70MPH hear loud "Bang" with total lost of power. Immediate;ly thought "Oh &*% I've blown the tranny"" Coasted to stop. Crawled underneath with flashlight surprized to find tranny intact, but discovered last segment of drive shaft missing! Contacted Good Sam (thank goodness I had reactivated my coverage before leaving on trip) Got excellent service and was towed into Sheridan campground. Of course being Friday night knew was stuck for several days. Fortunately there was truck service shop needby. They came out and measured for new drive shaft and early Monday got us on the way. No more problems on that trip and returned home.
However, in prepareration for another long trip east this summer, took unit for complete service (belts, fluids, lube, etc) discoverd lt rear springs. shocks were falling off, entire rear axle about to come out and tag axle supports broken!@
Upgraded to 99 Safari Zanzibar with 300 cat & 6 speed allison. 8400 miles trip completed in much more comfort than with Southwind!
Paul
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ToBNamedL8r
on the road
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Joined: 04/01/2005
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RV particulars: 97 Yellowstone Capri Bunkhouse
Driveline (Engine, Transmission): Big Chevy V-8 auto tranny
Miles: 29,000
Year: Mar 05
Break Down Description: Engine stopped running when leaving campsite to go to dumpstation
Symptoms: engine died - tried to start and would run for a few seconds and stop then would not even do that after about 5 tries
Effect: Not able to move
Cause:Fuel pump died
Outcome![[emoticon]](http://www.coastresorts.com/sharedcontent/cfb/images/scratchead.gif "scratchead") ad fuel pump replaced($1100)
![[emoticon]](http://www.coastresorts.com/sharedcontent/cfb/images/eek.gif "eek")
kb
2005 Chevy Silverado 2500 HD D-Max/Allison Crew Cab Long Bed
PullRite Super 5 hitch
2015 Cougar 337 FLS
You can live for many causes. You can only die for one. Choose wisely.
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dlloyd
Narrows, VA
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Joined: 07/30/2005
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2004 Holiday Rambler Scepter
ISL 400
13,000 miles
Exhaust Brake solenoid failure.
Exhaust brake would not release.
Had to manually (with a wrench) break the air line to exhaust the air from the cylinder and then drive without the exhaust brake (not recomended, but I was in the middle of nowhere on I77 in WVA). The brakes heated up enough to smell pretty strongh. Cunnins shop replaced the defective part (solenoid) under Monaco warranty but I was deadlined a week waiting for it. (I now carry a spare) Note: the solenoid manufacturer is ISO certified and has few failures.
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askfwe
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Joined: 11/13/2004
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'93 Allegro Bay
Sudden loss of throttle control
Driving down the LA freeway system pulling a toad. The accelerator pedal went to the floor and stayed, the engine went to idle and the speed decreased accordingly. Turned out to be a broken throttle cable. Opened the doghouse and wrapped a line around the carburator linkage and pulled on it to apply power. Drove about five miles to a service center who replaced the throttle cable. Glad the CHP wasn't there, they would have probably objected.
'93 Allegro Bay 28', '02 Saturn Toad.
Fulltimers
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Golfingene
Placerville, CA, USA
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Joined: 06/10/2004
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Sorry to qualify for this forum, but here goes, it happened Mon 8-1-05.
RV particulars: 2004 Winnebago 39K Journey
Driveline (Engine, Transmission)![[emoticon]](http://www.coastresorts.com/sharedcontent/cfb/images/cool.gif "cool") at 7, 330hp, Allison 6-spd
Miles:17500
Year![[emoticon]](http://www.coastresorts.com/sharedcontent/cfb/images/biggrin.gif "biggrin") uilt 12/03, bought new 4/04
Break Down Description: Suddenly Overheated, after cooling restarted, drove 1 mile overheated again. Had to be towed 40 miles to Sparks, NV.
Causeorton Fan Hub failed. Bolts, bearings, failed and it separated from engine.
Outcome: Still in Caterpillar Shop in Sparks, awaiting parts (7) coming from 5 different areas of US and Canada.
THE CATCH IS...Kenworth (through NHTSB) issued a recall for this same engine and fan hub combination in APRIL 2004! Had it been recalled by Caterpillar or Winnebago, I could have avoided this costly breakdown. BEWARE Other C-7 Cat drivers...
Golfingene and Mary Lou
'04 Winnebago Journey 39K DP
Toad: '99 Grand Cherokee w/
Blu Ox Aventa II, Brakemaster Air Brakes
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Lyman
Colorado Springs, CO
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Joined: 08/08/2005
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Well I'm not sorry to qualify; learned a lot from reading those problems, and from having my own. I'll get to those in a moment, but a couple notes responding to others:
RDG: On your Bounder starting a hill at 50 and ending up doing 20 or less at the top - I think you'll find my post informative.
GotTheBug: On your Batteries not holding a charge although they've been there less than a year - you too may find some good info in a moment.
ToBNamedL8r: 1100.00 for a fuel pump on a gas engine? Next time, send me a round trip ticket. I'll fix it and show you how, and you can pay me with a 12 pack of beer. It'll be cheaper and quicker, I'm sure, lol.
So on to my stories:
1st MH was a 1979 Pace Arrow on a GMC frame; 27' with a 454 under the hood. Acquired it used in 2001 from a dealer since it had roof a/c and an over the driver/passenger compartment pull down bunk, and was cheap. It was in seemingly good shape mechanically and appearance wise, so ok.
I live in Colorado Springs, we (my then wife and her son) go camping about 4 hours away a couple times, and I notice and attend to some wiring problems, and not much later she decides to visit her aunt in Buffalo NY. Get her all packed up and off we go. No real problems other than the gas gauges don't work - and we don't know exactly how much fuel we can carry, but I'm one of those crawl under/over/around/through everything people, so we get it pretty well figured out on the way there, and what documentation I can get from GMC and Fleetwood on schematics (water and gas only, no electric available) and how many/what gal tanks we have I've received. Get there (Buffalo), step up on her porch, look back to the unit, and to roof has peeled back about 2 feet. Hmmmm. Wonder if that affected gas mileage any (ya think? lol). Off to the local RV store. Buy some roofing tar, some tape, and some putty. Roll the roof back down and tape and tar the sides. Up front I putty, tape, and tar the thing. That roof isn't going anywhere now, trust me. We're there a week visiting, and I occassionally get under her and trace this wire and that one and pull the ones that the guy before added that go nowhere (our belief is he broke things on the road and temp wired them to something else because he wanted a reason to not have to listen to his own she who must be obeyed at home, and be the hero on the road when he suddenly fixed something (that he broke in the first place)). Must have pulled about a mile of wire, and even there are some stories. My favorite? Been running fine, no problems. One morning doesn't want to start. Cranks. No start. Need gas, fire, air. Check for spark, and notice a wire running from the tach side of the distributer should go the the cruise. Pull it off. Starts. Hmmm. Let's see if it acutally goes tot he cruise....Uh-uh. Not here, buddy. Runs to the fuel solenoid that switches which tank you are running on. Just isn't right, you know? YANK!! (well, unplug from here, unwind from there). Suddenly, low and behold, the gas gauge works when the selector switch is in either tank feed position. Hey. I'm a genious, he's an idiot, lol. Never did fix the cruise, by the way. What for? So I can go to sleep driving? Nope.
So it's late and we're on the way back in Nebraska, wife and son asleep, about 2 a.m. and we've been tag team driving. About a mile from a rest area I'm rounding a right hand corner on I-70 and BANG!!! (Ever notice that every time something in a motor home goes wrong, it's always accompanied by a loud BANG!! and dust suddenly in the air???) I holler an expletive and I'm suddenly trying to hold onto the wheel and she dives to the left and crosses into the left lane and heads for the median. The BANG!! and sudden lurching wake up the wife, she grabs her son and braces for impact. It's a wide median, and down I go, trying to keep from flying into the oncoming lane, fishtailing, and ended up with all the drawers open, stuff everywhere, and not spinning or rolling the RV. Whew. We clean her up, do a walk around, and find nothing. Wife says I fell asleep, I tell her, well never mind what I told her. Ended with fine, you drive to the rest stop. She does get her to the rest area and we spend the night. Another walk around in the morning. Still can't figure it out, but it is pulling to the left while driving once in a while. All the linkage looks good and we get home safely though, just have to fight the wheel a little.
So I check all the tire pressures, they are good, and I check the air bags which are front only. I put in air, I hear it coming right back out. Hmmmm. I climb under and the although it was hard to see until I was under there, the air line for the bag had come off the fitting. There's my bang!! and the reason for the subsequent behavior. Falling asleep at the wheel, my ***. This was a violent jerk for those of you who haven't experienced it. At 65 mph, this is not something that you want to experience. I couldn't keep her on the road if I didn't to roll her. Had to go into the median and make a semi controlled skid in the direction I needed to keep her headed in mud and wet grass to get her under control and stopped. No way to match the right hand corner when she pulled left.
Always keep two hands on the wheel.
We make 2 more 4 hours trips in her, I've fixed the wiring on about 20 more things now, and she's pretty solid (the rv). So I'm headed to Lake Havasu for a biker rally towing my 2003 Indian Chief. Just as I'm leaving town on the freeway, I get a BANG!!! and dust fills the cockpit. Left driver side rear outer tire is flat. So I drive her about 2 miles to the next exit, turn her around and head for the truck stop. They can't change it, but keep promising they can for 4 hours. I go down the street, he has the tire and gets it done in 20 minutes. I pay for it as he sits down and puts the lugnuts on. Something really tore that tire up, sure didn't see anything.....fade to about oh, 45 miles later. I'm hearing a definite rub and smelling burning rubber every time I am in a left hand corner. But not in the right hand turns. Ok. Off the freeway we go, into Pueblo, CO. Find the closest place out of the way and pull in. Start looking and each tire. Hey look. If I sit down my the tire that was just changed, I can see what's left of the tail pipe wedged in above it. Now why didn't the guy changing the tire see that? Must not have looked up, huh? SO I get out the jack to take some pressure off the thing and find me the biggest guy I can find. WE start moving it around and finally manage to push it completely through the hole it had made into the interior of the RV through the wheel well. I store it, give the guy 1o bucks which he won't take, duct tape the wheel well inside and off I go....fade to about 12 miles north of Las Vegas, NM on I-25.
You guessed it. BANG!!! Engine is running fine and the throttle responds, but she's steady slowing down. I pull to the side and pull the doghouse. Linkage looks fine, it's working. Shut her off, restart and move the lever. I'm going nowhere fast.
Ok. Shut her off. No signal on the cell phone but ***NOTE*** I know that dialing 911 will connect with whatever carrier has a sattelite in the area. That's a federal law to deal with emergency situations where your carrier doesn't have a signal.****
I call 911. New Mex Hwy Patrol gets a tow truck headed my way, and the guy knows I'm towing a bike and I'm a 27 foot class A to begin with.
Tows me into Las Vegas to the Diesel mechanic's shop (These guys are awesome - I recommend them highly!!!). I stay in the rv, and I'm in the garage in the morning. They know the problem in 20 minutes. Now I've been dealing with what seems like dieselling in this engine for about 2 years when I hsut it off. Not all the time, but when it acts like that, just hold the accelerator down, and she'll finally die. These guys in 20 minutes determine that the last bolt hold the flywheel to the torque converter has sheared. AHA!!! And they will go to the local salvage yard to look for the converter and the flywheel for me to save me 2 days waiting for Albuquerque to drive the stuff up there. 900.00 and about 6 hours later, I'm on the road.
Great rally, let's get back. Going uphill, I'm suddenly only able to maintain about 5 mph. Once on the level I can do 65. Ok. I pull over on a hill and leave her idling on the rear tank. A little 10-100 and back to the driver's seat. Put her in drive, hit the gas and she starts dying. Flip the tank switch to the main (which is full and has no pump - the electric pump is on the rear tank which just went dry), and not enough vacumn to pull the gas into the engine. I'm contemplating how I'm going to do this since I can't get to the tank gas line connection, and finally pull over a guy in a pickup, hoping he he has some gas or a siphon hose. I explain the problem. He says, don't you have gas in the bike? I slapped myself in the forehead so hard I shoulda had that V8 and we both start laughing. I'm on the road 20 minutes later, but still can't get her going any faster uphill, whereas on the trip to Havasu everything was fine.
Get home, and walk into a divorce, I get the bike and that motorhome, she gets the house and the 92 Pace Arrow. Ok, I take it to get emissions for the new title, she's running ragges. Turns out 4 of the 8 cylinders weren't firing. 4 plug wires had gone bad. What the heck??? First time for everything. Replaced wires, rotor and plugs. Plenty of power now. And she passed.
Lived in her in a RV park for 8 months. Traded her in for a 2000 Pace Arrow Vision 36' with 2 slides, a real bed and washer/dryer. Been living in her since then, and still in the same RV park. I'll finsih in my next post.
* This post was
edited 08/09/05 12:08am by Lyman *
2000 Pace Arrow Vision, 36B, 2 slides, Ford V10
2006 Audi A4 3.0L Quattro Cabriolet
2003 Indian Chief
Patriot Guard Rider
Iron Indian Rider
Indian Riders Group
American Legion
USAF, Retired
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Lyman
Colorado Springs, CO
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2000 Pace Arrow Vision. Less than 12000 miles. Parked, but lived in all the time. Only 2 companies will insure if you live in them full time, did you know that? Anyway, she's covered.
Winter, I don't even think about draining the ice maker connection, and pop goes the weasel. Come home from work, water and ice outside the unit. I find the problem and turn it off, but have multiple problems inside. Heat works but blows the circuit breaker. Lights don't want to work. Finally locate the house batteries (under the steps) and they aren't getting a charge, even with the generator or solar panel. Check every fuse in the RV and out on the pole. Have to replace a few (HEY PEOPLE!!! BE SMART!!! KNOW WHERE ALL YOUR FUSE BOXES ARE LOCATED. You can check that it isn't that before you call someone who charges 65.00 just to show up and replace a fuse) fuses. Still, no charge. OK. I know it's the inverter. Call the mobile maintenance guy, and 600.00 later I have a new inverter and climate control unit (all under the fridge - guess where the water was leaking to inside?). Common problem with Fleetwoods - Turn off that water and blow that blue valve out every winter, folks). Batteries work fine now, although I did have to add distilled water to every cell. NOTE TO SELF: Check water level once a year and unplug and run batteries almost down to nothing before plugging back in.
I do have some stories from people that have limped into the park, I see about 90 rv'ers a day from all over. But I'll get to some of those later.
* This post was
edited 08/09/05 12:13am by Lyman *
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metalmangler
WV, U.S.A.
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Joined: 06/19/2004
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Lyman, you're doing just fine here! Hope to read (& learn) more.
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