B+ motorhomes

Burl,

I took a photo, below. My trim is not glued on. The center piece is held by 3 screws on each end. Each side piece is held by the 3 screws where it meets the center piece, and 2 screws on the gray furry end panel. Those 2 screws are under the gray button caps. There are actually snaps there under those caps, with the screws in the middle. You have to pry the furry caps off to get to the snap & screw.

So assuming you are talking about removing the side pieces, take off those 5 screws.

Oh, the towel was shoved in behind the center trim piece. Maybe there are towels shoved into the side areas too! I've never taken off that trim to look. Heck, maybe TL shoved the towels in, lol. :)

quietjake wrote:
re: genset gas reserve:

Snowman: Since I'm so new to this 213, barely a few weeks and but one camp trip down, I have some catching up to do.

I was specifically told by my previous owners there WAS some kind of reserve built in but they were sketchy on the details.

So far the biggest issue I've had is one of the stainless steel wheel covers clicks noisily each revolution. My tire shop isolated the noise. We took the cover off, and voila!~ no noise!!! But.....someone had tried to repair it before with duct tape. There's a couple of the riveted areas seem rather loose. I tried the old 'mash=em' together which changed their looseness, but didn't stop the noise. Next plan is super glue, as there is nothing functional as far as I can tell, to worry about....

unless you have a different remedy.

I'm in Oregon & plan a a LOT of short trips in this. Been dragging TT around for 30+ years. The 213 handles like a sports car & rides like a limosine.

Haven't had the 6.0L chev V8 before.

Cheers....and any tips on owner maintenance is welcomed.

For the sake of 'reading ease' I tried to respond to this a few days ago but got the dreaded RED MESSAGE, since I tried to insert my responses into Jake's post. Instead I will respond in a boring way, which is what I'm doing here.

CATCHING UP: no worries Jake, we all were there. doesn't make you a bad person!

RESERVE/GENSET ISSUE: The manual states the Gen will shut down at 1/4 tank, as did the dealer. It did happen to me once.

HUBCAPS: Gene covered some of this in a succeeding email. I also had the Pacific Dualies for the same price. They are a great bang for the buck. As for the noise, I had it too. The answer (which all would know if they owned a 1978 Scout2 :W is CLEAR SILICONE. Take off the cap, clean area thoroughly, apply silicone strategically to places where it will contact both cap and wheel, and reinstall. Let cure overnite, and the sound is gone. Any that squeezes out to be visible can be wiped off before it cures.

RIVETS? where?

RIDE, ETC: yes it does ride/drive great and is terrific for short trips. The Chevy V8 is a great engine. It was the first vehicle I ever had with 300 hp!:D

EDITED for clarity



I quieted the wires

I am afraid I could not reglue the gray trim if I unglue it as it is a vert glue surface.

You are talking above the steel, but it is between the headliner and steel, and maybe the headliner ‘shell’ itself that is so easily moved to make a rattle, and that I’ve mistaken so long for wood above the steel roof (and whatever may be between steel roof and the thick plywood 'counter top' supporting all the cabover cabinetry and to which the gray trim is glued)

Where was that towel?

Burl, I know I've seen the layers of the cab roof stuff. I think I took off the gray c-shaped edge trim for some reason. I can't recall why I would have been in there, though. I did change the TV to a flat screen, but that should not have involved it. In any event, what I recall was a layer of some sound deading mat on top of the steel, and the flat luan shelf/ledge on top of that. The previous owner had shoved a hand towel in there, so they must have been fighting the same kind of problem. I think I removed it though! We are not having the problem.

Anyway, my suggestion would be to take off edge trim in the middle and see. I'll be inside the unit this weekend and see if anything else comes to mind.

OH, I think I recall someone, maybe Daniel the OP, saying he had a problem with all the TV and antenna wiring bouncing around making noise. Could that be it?

Ever since we got our TL, I have posted about overcab noises on rough roads, but I seemed to be alone in this in this thread.

I can and have removed our custom former TV cabinet to try snd identify what can sound like a small stack of lumber being jostled on good bumps, but nothing in the woodwork behind the cabinets or on the plywood deck of the cabinetry seemed that loose (wrapped all the loose cables, too)

We have just discovered that you can lightly tap almost anywhere on the cab headliner and get a loud sound like the loose lumber. The headniner seems like a floating luan(?) shell that vibrates on a jostle.

Can someone tell me what lies between the furry/felt headliner and the steel roof and anything that might help? How is it supported to stay in place – just around perimeter?

Please help

quietjake wrote:
...So far the biggest issue I've had is one of the stainless steel wheel covers clicks noisily each revolution. My tire shop isolated the noise. We took the cover off, and voila!~ no noise!!! But.....someone had tried to repair it before with duct tape. There's a couple of the riveted areas seem rather loose. I tried the old 'mash=em' together which changed their looseness, but didn't stop the noise. Next plan is super glue, as there is nothing functional as far as I can tell, to worry about......

The original 1 piece hub caps that came with our unit got changed fairly soon. I got tired of removing them to check the tire air pressure. Bought the "Pacific Dualies" click here first discussed on bottom of page 70 of this topic. They were also discussed click here.

But,,, all 4 of the chrome wheel simulators have a small hub cap (to cover the lug nuts). The ones on the front click on and will make a tinkling sound at very low speed. They quiet down when the wheel starts turning faster. I believe I also paid around $140 for the complete set of 4. :)

I confirmed that using the genset to run the built in charger is a complete waste of time and gas. With the battery down to 12.1v (about 50%), the charger would only put 13.2-13.4v and 9-12 amps at the battery. It would take hours to charge that way.

Starting up the engine instead would yield 14.4v and 20a at the battery.

But I had brought a basic 40a automotive smart charger from the big box store. It would deliver 14.6-14.7v and 24 to 30-some amps. I could get a 90% charge in about an hour with it. 90% is when the battery is only accepting 6 or 7 amps. It takes a long time to put that final 10% in. So I got by on about 1 hour of charging a day.

The charger sometimes would work fine even with the built in converter charger also pushing a charge to the battery. But a couple of days, the big charger thought the battery was full. So I had to turn off the converter's breaker, which also turns off the outside outlet I was using to power the charger! So then I had to run an extension cord from inside the RV out to the charger. Jeez.

The problem with the stock setup is A) the converter charger, and B) the cables. The charger is a typical low voltage charger, basically a little better than a trickle charger. It can be replaced with a Progressive Dynamics charger. But the cables are still a problem. At least on mine, TL ran them all over the place under the chassis before finally getting to the battery.

I don't really have the space to haul the separate charger around. But I haven't figured out my next move. At a bare minimum, I am going to make it so I can turn off the converter without turning off the outdoor outlet. :)

We just returned from a one week trip up north, probably about 1000 miles total. Just before heading up there, I had the hubcaps off the front wheels. I put them back on, without paying attention to which one was on which side. Right away the right side one was squeaking. I had never experienced it before this. I took it off and put it back on, and it was silent.

400 miles later, as we arrive at our campground and I lower the window while we drive around looking for a site, the drivers side is now squeaking! cripes. It squeaked all week. At some point today on our way home, it seems to have stopped. I figure it has moved a tiny bit till it's finally settled. OR, maybe it was just the rain we drove through, and once it dries out it will squeak again.

We lost one of our rear covers on our first trip with it. I took the other side off. So we have only front covers. :)

We dry camped, and had to run the genset every day. Once again it ran near 1/8th tank. I have not had it run out of gas yet.

MPG was 11.x at 65 MPH, on tanks not involving genset usage.

Everyone has noisy hubcaps, and many of us just take 'em off

your genset will reportedly not run when only 1/5th of gas in 33 gal tank is left. this is about right, but snowman's seems more like 1/8

genset reportedly sips around 0.5-.7 gal/hr

the TL rides s,oother than our 4Runner

re: genset gas reserve:

Snowman: Since I'm so new to this 213, barely a few weeks and but one camp trip down, I have some catching up to do.

I was specifically told by my previous owners there WAS some kind of reserve built in but they were sketchy on the details.

So far the biggest issue I've had is one of the stainless steel wheel covers clicks noisily each revolution. My tire shop isolated the noise. We took the cover off, and voila!~ no noise!!! But.....someone had tried to repair it before with duct tape. There's a couple of the riveted areas seem rather loose. I tried the old 'mash=em' together which changed their looseness, but didn't stop the noise. Next plan is super glue, as there is nothing functional as far as I can tell, to worry about....

unless you have a different remedy.

I'm in Oregon & plan a a LOT of short trips in this. Been dragging TT around for 30+ years. The 213 handles like a sports car & rides like a limosine.

Haven't had the 6.0L chev V8 before.

Cheers....and any tips on owner maintenance is welcomed.