Owners manual and basics help!!!!

FYI on 86 motorhome since we got ours 4 years ago we have been from our home in Arizona to Yellowstone and points north, to St Louis, up California one to Coos Bay Oregon and planning on going to North Carolina next year. ENJOY

Sorry I havent got back to you in a minute. As far as I can tell, its a 26 foot eldorado motor corp coach/ econoline 350. I have looked through most of it, well the things that I know, and there are minor leaks, little damage and so thats good. I was planning a tire set for it because I dont trust older tires. I ended up fixing the fridge myself and works...yay. I bought a dogbone and got it plugged into my current house so I can go through and see how everything runs. On the control panel it says it has an inverter on it. What does that do? If it is plugged into a power source, is it going to charge both my main batteries or just one? I hate electrical so I will be cautious and prob let the pros help. It doesnt have a heater at all but I have a great little convection heater for the cold nights. I know that it will take up allot of wattage but worth it. It has an Onan emerald I genset and runs like a champ. Thankfully. I have tried looking up the names of products that I have found and most are extinct. Oh well. But hey, we are in it for the adventure right? I love figurng things out so totally worth it. And to the person that talked about trying to find a place to park near a hospital, I have an answer. Towing my car behind. I know that the older motor is expensive but for the money this gets us started. I am living off of my veterans disability. But she and I have wanted to travel and being that its expensive to travel and find hotel rooms and thats no fun anyway. Our plan is to fix up what needs it within reason and go for a couple trial runs before we go for broke so to speak. I really appreciate all your help with giving me ideas and tips. I am soo impressed with the RVing community already. Thank you

If the hospital has an outdoor parking lot, you may well be able to overnight there. Strike up a conversation with a security guard (have some hospital paperwork with you) and ask. Motorhomes can typically operate for 2 or 3 days without any hookups and a week if you drive occasionally to charge the house batteries.

Mother in law living with us had a heart attack last week and got flown 600 km to a city hospital. We debated between following with the MH or the car. We chose the car but checked out the situation for the MH. The hospital only had parkades, though there was a pay parking lot a couple of blocks away that would have worked. No one around to ask permission from. Nearest campsite about 12 km away. We lucked out staying at travelLodge which has a discount rate for people visiting hospitals - $79 a night. Glad we took the car - the hotel was very comfortable, it only took $120 worth of gas for the trip and it was much easier driving around and parking in the city. I bought a 1 week pass for the parkade for $40. The parking lot for the MH (two spots) would have been $120. They kept MIL for four days and we brought her home in good shape.

Even if the MH doesn't work well for hospital trips, it will for many other occasions. I think your mobility will be much greater.

You are not likely to find manuals for a specific C motorhome (unless from a manufacturer like Winnebago who published them), but with make and model number of components, you might find manuals for each components. I also recommend a generic RV repair manual like this one by Bob Livingston. OK, the manual is 15 years old, but your motorhome is a whole lot older.

If you could identify the make and model of the motorhome (Ford Econoline is just the chassis carrying the motorhome) maybe people could have more specific information.

Not for the coach but would recommend a shop manual for the chassis. You can find CD versions of them on E Bay for under $30 Do run a VIN decoder first to verify the year of the chassis the year of the motorhome and the year of the chassis is not always the same.
Even if you could find a owners manual fir your coach it would be so general that it would be virtually worthless been there done that.
Check this page out for some books and or DVD,s that cover the basics Books and DVD's
And I have found camp hosts, and fellow RVrs are generally glad to help out the rookies. When we got our first RV this is what we did and it worked for us. If you want a crash course it will cost a little bit but you can contact your local Camping World and see if the offer a walk through explaining the different systems and the have them do a diagnostic check on anything not working.

Using your mh for your wife's doctor's visits seems like a great idea! Having a
"home" to use rather than a waiting room will be a lot more comfortable. My wife
drove every day about 80 miles round trip for almost 2 months when I had an
accident. It wore her out. I hope you can work out all the logistics. Best way to find out about all the systems is to get into them. Like PapPappy said, ask questions of owners. After owning two new campers and now a used class c, all
with owners manuals, I found them to be good for telling you how to turn on and
off things, but not specifically the things your unit has. They are very general. Find owners of rv's and don't be afraid to ask. We don't mind. That's how we found out. Best of luck to you both.

Chassis: Replace tires that are older than 6 years old right away. Have entire brake system checked including flex hoses at front wheels, have brake fluid drained and replaced.Have engine cooling system including " clutch fan", radiator and all belts and hoses checked and serviced. Have transmission and rear end serviced. Have front end suspension and steering components checked and aligned. Have engine alternator and starting battery checked.

Housebox: Have house/auxiliary battery(s)checked and replaced if needed. Have converter/house battery charger and connections to house battery(s) checked to make sure it is charging the house battery when you are plugged into 110vac "shore" power, replace if needed with a modern converter. Have the 12 volt DC connections to all appliances checked and fixed as needed. Most appliances have circuit boards that may need to have their contacts cleaned or boards may need to be replaced. Furnace and water heater runs on propane and 12 volts DC power, may need servicing of connections and safety devices to get running properly. The generator's ground connections and carb may need servicing to get it to start, generator will need oil changed. The roof AC unit runs on 110 volt AC shore power or 110vac power from the generator. It may need servicing or replacement of the roof mounted compressor unit to get it working. The fridge temperature control operates from 12vdc from the house battery. The fridge cooling unit works on 110vac from shore power, or from propane. Fridge may have automatic or manual control to switch from 110vac to propane for cooling. Look for discoloration, smell of mold,delamination signs of water leak damage. Repair of leaks may be minor to costing thousands of dollars to repair water damage.

General: Try to find an RV repair place or mobile RV repair service that has a good reputation in your area. Find a good light truck repair guy for chassis servicing and repairs. Get estimates for all parts and labor and time needed for new tires and all repairs needed for chassis and housebox and determine if you want to invest real time money getting this old rig safe and dependable to drive and pleasurable to travel and camp in. Be aware that resale with all repairs and upgrades may only bring some $5000 due to age, appearance and mileage. You may want to sell it for what you can get and save to buy a much newer rig with everything working. Best of luck and prayers for you and your wife.

You didn't say what make of mh you have. Most mh manuals are rather general and not very detailed.
Some where on my computer I think I have a copy of a 1988 Mallard mh. If yours is a Mallard I'll see if I can find it and e-mail it to you.

Dusty

You have come to the right spot!
A wealth of information to say the least. You will have to read the comments, and then try to figure out what is best for your situation.

You may be able to go on-line to the mfgr's website, and download a PDF copy of the manuals you are looking for, or maybe they can point you in the right direction, or answer questions.

I would also suggest looking around your neighborhood, to see if someone else has an RV....then go introduce yourself. More than likely, they will be more than happy to talk with you, and may be able to answer many of your questions with actual demonstrations of how things work (most of these systems are very similar, no matter the year)

As far as your use of the RV.....you may find that it is not as good a deal as you thought. Figure about $0.50 per mile for gas......and then you'll also have to find a CG that is close to the hospital (not always easy)...especially if you have to visit every day....you'll have to disconnect the RV each time. (one of the advantages of a TT in this particular case)

But, you've got the RV, and you want to use it, so I'd have the engine and chassis checked out by a good mechanic (brakes, transmission, tires, etc.) before making that drive.
Also recommend a road-side Assistance Plan (Coach-Net.com) is a good one....because you don't want to be on the side of the road, with your wife's medical situation.

Keep asking questions....
Good luck...happy Camping:)

There is SO much to learn. Unless you are a good mechanic, I would start by finding a local shop that can work on an older Ford and have them dial in the engine and transmission.

Next thing is to make sure all your fuses/relays are in good shape. You have chassis and coach electrics, so make sure they are all healthy.

Your heater is likely a propane powered furnace like mine. I wouldn't mess with it. I prefer to pay people to fix the parts that can go boom.

Multi-power RV specific refrigerators are EXPENSIVE, as in $1200 and up. You could buy a residential fridge for about $500 that fits in the space, but you will no longer have multi-power. I went with home type fridge and have an inverter if I need to run it off 12V. A fridge doesn't run 24/7, it cycles. So plugging in overnight to cool everything down is a good idea. Run off generator when possible and off inverter when necessary. I will soon be adding an auto cutoff so that I can just leave everything plugged in. The fridge can then switch from 110V to inverter without me needing to touch anything.

To operate things off shore power, you have a high amp extension cord inside a smaller access panel (probably at the rear, left). You can plug that into a regular home 110V outlet with an adapter available at any RV place or even Walmart. Be careful about running a lot of stuff when you use a regular home outlet. It can overheat the plug and melt things. If you have a generator, then look in the space where you find your power cord. There is an electrical box. You plug your extension cable into that box and now the generator can feed power to the coach.

A critical issue is tires. If they are more than 7 years old, replace them no matter how good they look. One blowout can cause major damage and replacing a tire on the road is twice as expensive as buying a new tire at a local shop. Your motorhome might have 16.5" coined wheels. You will only find one or two tires on the market if that is the case. I bought a set of Firestone TransForce and they were $1150 installed for all 6.

Those are some starter pieces of info. I am sure the rest of the forum will pitch in some useful tidbits. I hope you have another member nearby or a local shop that can walk through the RV with you and explain anything you don't understand. Enjoy your rig.

Jose