Fun / Projects / with my 1997 America Dream

Glenn -

Nice mod ! We feel your pain We campaign a car w/ a friend in the NASA road race circuit & occasionally support a motorcycle friend in the CMRA series - we use scanners & hand held radios to catch the announcements / call to grid.

I recently added a antenna for use on top of the trailer to try and improve the signal reception.

We also plug our handheld & scanner radios speaker output in to portable "boom boxes" (like yours) and our coaches outdoor entertainment system so we can amplify the track announcements.

So this might be a little off topic, but the Motor Home was purchased for pulling the dragster to the track.

When at the track announcements of when to come to the staging lanes is usually done three ways, none of which has proven to be totally reliable.

One is someone rides around in a golf cart announcing a class to the staging lanes. This is the lest reliable method of communication.

Two the PA system at the track is used to announce which class should be in the staging lanes. This is a little better, but has problems. The quality of the PA system is always a factor, echo / speed of sound from one speaker to the next, to the next sometimes makes announcements very hard to understand.

Three, most good tracks have a small FM station they broadcast on. The Motor Home radio usually does a good job of picking these broadcasts up, but means sitting inside the Motor Home.

Having a radio outside is probably the best method. Lots of racers mount a car radio in the trailer with speakers outside.

I bought a DeWalt work radio and found it to have very poor reception, but was convenient in that everything was contained in one unit.



If I sit the radio on top of the trailer it does a little better but still not great. I have tried rapping mechanics wire around the antenna and stretching it to the back latter on the Motor Home. This actually works pretty good so long as it does not touch any metal on the trailer.

According to Google a CB wave length is about 36 feet long so a 1/4 wave length is 108 inches. An FM wave length is supposed to be 120 inches.

So my idea is to take a CB antenna and add a little length of wire to it to approximate an FM wave length. The length of wire that I added was about 10 inches long so I'm close to a full FM wave length (I think).



I modified a CB antenna mount so I could screw a screw into the end making it a terminal(this was a cable connection that I cut the threads off so I could get to the antenna terminal).





I mounted the antenna mount to the door of the trailer.



The idea is when I set up I open the door and screw the CB antenna into the mount.



I tried finding a weak station and then clipped the extension onto the antenna for the radio and it seems to help.

We will see when we go to Norwalk next week.

Ok radio guys let me have it.

Just finished replacing the trusses in one of out E-Z Up shade tents. A gust of wind caught it in Bowling Green and blow it over the top of the trailer.



I cannot tell you how many of these tents we have gone through. We finally stepped up and bought true E-Z Ups. They are expensive but much heavier duty than the cheaper ones.

I also had to have the canopy repaired.



I really only have myself to blame for this damage as I had forgotten to pack the shock cords we usually use to tie the tents down to the trailer. The stakes just are not enough.

GlennLever wrote:
American Coach has refunded my entire purchase on this order

They do not want the parts back because they are damaged.

Great customer service.

I certainly enjoy reading your thread. And, it's amazing that those parts even got shipped.

Glad it worked out.

MM.

American Coach has refunded my entire purchase on this order

They do not want the parts back because they are damaged.

Great customer service.

i was gonna say those sure LOOK like automatic drains....but American Coach says they cant be ;)

I might have missed it - is there a problem w/ the (auto) drains ?

I got a response from American Coach this moring.

So even though Gillig says this.



American Coach says.

"Glenn,
That system is not a Fleetwood system. The chassis manufacturer provided all the suspension pieces and parts. The emergency air inlet is always located in the Front roadside bay. That comes with the chassis and we mount it there on all coaches thru 2015.
I understand Gillig said it’s Fleetwood that but it is not a correct statement. Fleetwood does not install anything in the air tanks.
I’m sorry but I have no information on any of the items you are working on. I wish I did but that one is all chassis.
Regards"

Well I'm still scratching my head on the location of the air tank drains.

The American Dream Owner's manual



says "These tanks hold compresses air for the brake system. They will hold enough air to allow the brakes to be used several times even if the compressor stops working. Entrapped liquid must be drained from the air tanks at frequent intervals. Consult the Chassis Owner's Manual for additional information."

The Motor Home Chassis Fleetwood Owner's Manual



which appears to have been written by Gillig.



says "these valves are mounted in the generator radiator/battery compartment, the front compartment on the curbside of your Fleetwood motor Home. Refer to your Fleetwood Motor Home owners manual for more information".

Which is a loop.

I wrote to Gillig and received this.



Which says the coach manufacture may have replaced the manual drains with automatic drains.

I wrote to American Coach and was told.

"We don’t install those parts for the chassis manufacturer. They are usually on the air tanks. Most have a small lanyard that you pull to expel water/moisture.
The tanks can only be seen from under the coach."

I spent some more time exploring, and under the coach today.

I traced as many air lines as I could.



One of them lead to the front most compartment on the driver's side. I believe I have only been into this compartment one other time, and found this.



The mounting of the air jack to inflate the air tanks looks professional, but the routing of the air line does not.



I'm not sure if this was done by Fleetwood or a past owner relocated it.

The Chassis manual indicates there should be three manual drains that are made up of "Plug, Hex Head 3/4 MPT / Anchor, Coupling Elbow / Valve, Air Tank Drain, Nipple".

I did find one on the first search.



It certainly is not "these valves are mounted in the generator radiator/battery compartment, the front compartment on the curbside of your Fleetwood motor Home."

I'm sure Gillig did not wire tie this like this, and I find it hard to believe that Fleetwood would do this. My only conclusion is the a previous owner did this.

The value assemble is as described in the Gillig Chassis Manual.







When opened no water or moisture of any kind comes out.

If I trace the line back to the tank it ends up above this valave.



There are three of these valves, two on one tank and one on the other. While under the bus they release a very short burst of air.

A closer look at the valves seems to indicat that one side it (ACT) activation? and the other side is (EXT) exhaust?



I tried to trace the ACT line but it disappears up into the fame into a bundle of hoses and wires and is impossible to trace. The bundle is heading towards the rear of the Motor Home.



I'm really at a loss, I believe there is an automatic drain system on the motor home, the one manual drain has no water in it.

I have to believe there must be a way to trigger the automatic system but have no clue where it might be.

I have looked through the battery/electronics bay and find nothing.

To see the whole search / plea for help click here

I have not been keeping you up to date on projects. I will start with the projects I attempted today.

Some days I think that if I did not have bad luck I would not have any luck at all, or maybe I just expect to much.

I ordered three different parts from American Coach and they all arrived while I was away at Bowling Green.

The first part was a new water heater. I had attempted to clean and repair the existing one, but it still does not function correctly, I will post that later.

The Atwood Water heater. HTR-WTR 10GAL LP/110VDSI/ATW

Outside of the box is undamaged, a fair amount of packing was missing from the box (this was the total packing in the box), and the heater was in the box upside down (top on the bottom, top side is the side that is bent).



The metal mounting frame is bent, and twisted, front view



Left side top



Right side top.



There is no hardware bag, one hinge is missing, and the hinge is there on the right side.



Hinge missing on the left side.



Metal mounting frame is scratched up (see photo of bent upper left side of metal frame and the photo below)



There was no installation instruction pamphlet (there was an instruction manual on how to use the unit).

Conclusion, at some point this box was opened and parts were scavenged and possibly dropped or shipped from Atwood damaged.

In any case it cannot be installed into the Motor Home in this condition. It needs to be returned for a new undamaged one.

Inner door window slider PANEL, SLIDER W/HOLE-P/O

This part is plastic unlike the original safety glass piece.

The protective coating was applied before the felt sliders and parts of the protective coating are underneath the felt sliders.

The coating cannot be removed where the felt is on top of it.





Felt sliders were cut uneven and not applied straight.



There are scratches in the upper corner of the replacement part, also look at the condition of the felt slider in this photo.



The temporary slider I made (and boy was I glad I had it in Bowling Green)is better than the part supplied (other than it is of acrylic and is getting scratch from sliding open and shut(which was the reason for purchasing what I believed to be a replacement piece of safety glass like the original)).

Just as a comment, $69.95 for a piece of plastic this size is a little crazy. I researched having a custom piece of safety glass cut and drilled for me and the price on that was $120.00. If you cannot get safety glass like the original part I would like to go that way.



And finally TRACK, SCREEN, SLIDE, THERMAL WDW 377162

It is the right color and right length, however, the new pieces are narrower (original is the top one).



It is not as tall as the original



And not the same shape.



So I believe this whole order needs to be returned.

I tried called American Coach, but no one is there, must be out for the 4th.

The text and pictures is essentially the e-mail that I sent them.

Every project I attempted today on the Motor Home came to a crashing end.

I still have not found the drains for the air tanks. Tomorrow I will crawl around under the Motor Home again, and also relocate and straighten out this mess and air line with the air chuck on it.



Tomorrow is another day.

GlennLever wrote:


No, no meters. Only a high / low voltage indicator for shore power.

Another project to add to the list.

glad i can help spend your money & consume your free time ;)

the meter on the right (in my photo) is a simple 12vdc plug-in meter....
i have it connected to the battery side / dc input of my converter/charger....when the converter isn't powered it shows my (house) battery charge level / voltage.

when the converter/charger IS powered, it shows the dc output of the converter/charger.

its not perfect (since this picture i have changed to a dc volt panel meter) - but its simple & it show the battery charge level. I keep saying I'm gonna further improve this data point / meter but for the type of camping i do (not often completely dry), even at the tracks, it provides plenty of information - and is an indicator (for me) of when i need to start the generator and recover the house batteries.