B+ motorhomes

[Daniel_C_]

I just bought a Trail Lite B+ 211s with 8.1 Chevy
engine. This is my fifth motorhome (others range
from an old 20' Vagabond, and three Winnegagos, from 19 to 32'. This vehicle is fantastic. I am
using it as a mobile office (and sneaking in a fun
journey from time to time). It gets about 9.5mpg
and I believe I could pull a bus behind it if I wanted! I paid low $40's which is about what I had expected to pay for a five or six year old Chinook with a nicer interior, but fewer features
(slide). I am delighted thus far.

[Scottiemom]

I am back on the road, leaving Indiana this morning and heading to Charlottesville, VA, to visit my daughter and family. No problems fueling. Yay!

Dale

[Scottiemom]

I took it a truck/RV place in Elkhart where we had shocks put on the Phaeton at one time. I talked to them before I went and they assured me they could handle the problem. My regular mechanic had an accident with a chain saw so he is out of commission for awhile.

I got it there this morning. The tech said the one vent tube was blocked but there are apparently more (?). He said he cleaned everything out. Before I paid, he had me go fill it with fuel. It clicked off twice. I pulled the nozzle out a bit and then it filled completely up without shutting off. So I went back and paid him. No parts, just labor. So I'm hoping it's taken care of.

Got filled up with propane before I came home. Back at camp.

Dale

[Scottiemom]

bobndot wrote:
Hi Dale, this is probably a common blocked canister where the vent hose becomes clogged as well. It should be a simple fix by your mechanic.
Its EPA ORVR - 'Onboard Refueling Vapor Recovery' related , as you pump gasoline into your gas tank it pushes out air thru a vent tube canister filter setup. When the air can't escape due to a clogged line then the nozzle at the fuel pump shuts off.
Those nozzles are highly intelligent, I don't how they know when those canisters are clogged but they do. 🙂

Thanks for the info. That is pretty much what I found in my research. I'm calling my mechanic first thing tomorrow. He's extremely good, quick, and is reasonably priced. When we had business here, he always took care of our company vehicles. He was the one who went through this motorhome when we bought it at 8 years old with 8,000 miles on it and got it ready for us to take to Alaska. Worked perfectly. He did an oil change for me a couple weeks ago when I was up here.

Dale

[Scottiemom]

IAMICHABOD wrote:
I,like you sometimes have a problem with filling my tank on my Express Chevy based Class C, Everything else checks out OK but I have found that if I hold the nozzle at a 45 degree toward the rear of the Motorhome I have no problems. It seems that small filler tube doesn't vent well and holding that way lets the vapor recovery work.

I also have the same problem on my GMC Yukon the trick also works on it too.

I will certainly try that. I have tried about every other position and I have found if I hold that rubber flap back that surrounds the nozzle it seems to help. But today that didn't work either. Push the nozzle all the way in, pull it out a little, etc. Today when I got the 5 gallons in, it took a long time as it was just trickling in. I will try this. Thanks for the suggestion.

Dale

[bobndot]

Hi Dale, this is probably a common blocked canister where the vent hose becomes clogged as well. It should be a simple fix by your mechanic.
Its EPA ORVR - 'Onboard Refueling Vapor Recovery' related , as you pump gasoline into your gas tank it pushes out air thru a vent tube canister filter setup. When the air can't escape due to a clogged line then the nozzle at the fuel pump shuts off.
Those nozzles are highly intelligent, I don't how they know when those canisters are clogged but they do. 🙂

[IAMICHABOD]

I,like you sometimes have a problem with filling my tank on my Express Chevy based Class C, Everything else checks out OK but I have found that if I hold the nozzle at a 45 degree toward the rear of the Motorhome I have no problems. It seems that small filler tube doesn't vent well and holding that way lets the vapor recovery work.

I also have the same problem on my GMC Yukon the trick also works on it too.

[Scottiemom]

Okay, any of you with the Chevy Express chassis. I made a trip from Florida to Virginia to Indiana and back to Florida. About 8 weeks altogether. Was home in Florida for 2 weeks and headed back to Indiana last week for a family funeral.

I wonder if any of you have had this problem. I had several times where I tried to fuel and the pump kept shutting off. I thought the station might be out of fuel. I would move on to another station and fill. This started happening more frequently and today I tried to fill first thing in the morning and couldn't. Kept shutting off. Moved on down the road, filled up with no problem. I had a short driving day so my full tank of fuel would get me to my destination, which is my sister's house where I plan to stay. Decided to top off my tank. . . no joy. Again, I drove on and at the last opportunity, tried again. I was able to get an additional 5 gallons in which I was happy with because I have enough gas now to get to my regular mechanic in this area. I have been reading and suspect the EVAP canister or something else with the gas fill mechanism.

I am hoping it's something my regular mechanic can deal with, but I suppose a Chevy garage can help.

It is a 2004 R-Vision Trail-Lite 213 on a Chevy Express van chassis. This is the only problem I have had with it and I am glad it happened when it did, because I was able to get to my destination and decide what to do next.

Dale

[Orion_42]

Excellent. I may hunt down a used standard shift model for same. Thanks

[Teacher_s_Pet]

As the Miata goes, all set up except disabling steering lock and changing trans lube to Redline transmission gear lube, plus need to install an elbow to "overfill" 6 speed trans. Health problems in past few years has gotten in the way when we were in Indiana as we fulltimed.

[Scottiemom]

Orion_42 wrote:
Sounds all good. Did you, or are you, going to tow the Miata? I’m pondering a toad to pull behind my M211.

It was always our intent to pull the Miata behind the B+, but it's not quite ready. Got base plate on and wiring done.

Terry can add more.

Dale

[Orion_42]

Sounds all good. Did you, or are you, going to tow the Miata? I’m pondering a toad to pull behind my M211.

[Teacher_s_Pet]

Trip to Florida last month was uneventful. All went well with the B+ and trailer. B+ now parked at our place in Polk City. Since then we made another trip to Indiana and brought the Miata down to it's new home. Three day trip back, we did the Tail of The Dragon through the TN and NC mountains, great views, with and 318 turns in 11 miles.




This Saturday we fly to Ft Wayne IN for a great niece's graduation party. Monday we pick up a Penske rental truck for hauling the last stuff out of storage. Hope to be back for Granddaughter's Birthday "Parade" in Melbourne FL Friday evening.

[Orion_42]

Good to hear, TP. Still have my 211 and have found that, in these times, it makes the perfect long-range transport while not being too big to park and maneuver anywhere. Also, gas being cheap means 12+mpg ain't as big a deal as it used to be. We've been using it to take us the 120 miles between our vacation home and winter home. Replaced tires and did some graphics updates last year and it still looks like new with only 58K miles on it. A personal porta-potty on wheels is a good use until the campgrounds all open up completely.

[Teacher_s_Pet]

Just got the R-Vision 213 out of storage yesterday afternoon. Other than a bad valve stem extension, all is well, took care of that and inflated tire. It's in a campground now with the refrigerator cooling down waiting on us to return a rental car to the South Bend Indiana airport. Less than $100 rental for us to drive up from our new place in Florida since Monday. Next will be loading up our enclosed trailer for the return trip the end of next week. Plan on replacing the 8 year old tires for the drive back, only have about 20,000 miles on them, with 3/4 of the miles from our Alaska trip of 2013.

[ronfisherman]

Always good when a trip ends with minimum problems.