Finally got to take her out. Now come the questions.

[snowyegret52]

So we got our 1986 Fleetwood Bounder parked up on our property in Vermont and FINALLY got to go for the weekend and test out everything.

Questions are:

1. The generator. Started up just fine but when I went to move the knob from choke to on, it dies. Kept the knob sort of in between choke and on and it stayed running. I know I need to change the spark plug and wire since it's been sitting for a few years but is there a fuel filter I need to change too? Onan generator

2. The Refrigerator. Runs great while the generator is on but when I put it on gas, I can't hear any ignition clicking to light it and it doesn't work. It's a Dometic 2852. Is there a way to manually light it or see if the ignition is clogged or something?

3. The furnace. How does it come on? I put the dial on the wall on 80 degrees to see if it would come on but nothing happened. Is there some other switch?


4. Battery. I know where the engine battery is but where is the deep cycle battery for the RV? It must be deader than a doornail because nothing works on DC no matter how long I ran the generator.

Other than that. Everything works great and considering its nearly 30 years old, that's saying something. The roof leaks like a sieve but we tarped it and it's fine now.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks
Pamela

[Gary_]

Hi Snowegret, if you are going to change any rubber fuel lines, MAKE SURE THE RUBBER LINE IS FOR FUEL. A friend of mine had a bounder and some mechanic put in a rubber line for a fuel line, and like Olfarmer said little bits of that rubber line kept coming off and he had a lot of problems. Good Luck.

[Geocritter]

turbojimmy wrote:

Geocritter wrote:
PS I noticed you talking about your owners manual. It must be an RV thing, the owners manual in my 1994 Holyday Rambler is the most worthless document that I believe has ever been written!

My '84 Allegro "Motor Home Owner's Manual" is pretty good, but assumes everything is working as it should. However, except for some routine maintenance info, there's no troubleshooting or repair info in there at all. The PO did leave behind a stack of other manuals that evidently came with the rig that have all of that stuff for every system.

Same with mine turbojimmy, I guess I expect too much. I'm just glad I didn't buy the rig brand new only to be handed that worthless thing. You're right though, much of what I need comes with the other manuals, but they don't always tell how their equipment has been adapted to my specific RV, the HR manual should cover things like that.

[turbojimmy]

Geocritter wrote:
PS I noticed you talking about your owners manual. It must be an RV thing, the owners manual in my 1994 Holyday Rambler is the most worthless document that I believe has ever been written!

My '84 Allegro "Motor Home Owner's Manual" is pretty good, but assumes everything is working as it should. However, except for some routine maintenance info, there's no troubleshooting or repair info in there at all. The PO did leave behind a stack of other manuals that evidently came with the rig that have all of that stuff for every system.

[WILDEBILL308]

Congratulations on your Bounder. Be shure to look for a battery disconnect switch. If this is off you will have no 12volt power.
Bill

[Geocritter]

As for cleaning carbs, for the last one I cleaned I purchased a gallon bucket of carb cleaner with a built in basket at the auto parts. I took the carb apart, put the parts in the basket and soaked it in the cleaner overnight. Then I took the parts out and followed up with compressed air and spray carburetor cleaner through all the tiny passages in the carburetor body. I finally, put it back together with new gaskets and a new float valve, adjusted the float valve and I was good to go. Not as hard as it sounds after you've done a few. BTW the carb was off a Mercruiser I/O 4 cylinder boat engine, the engine went from barely running at all to running perfectly and idling smoothly at 400rpm.

PS I noticed you talking about your owners manual. It must be an RV thing, the owners manual in my 1994 Holyday Rambler is the most worthless document that I believe has ever been written!

[olfarmer]

I had an 87 Itasca with an Onan generator.
the rubber gas line feeding it would flake off rubber pieces and clog the carburetor needle valve. I would clean it and it would run good for awhile and then it would happen again. I finally replaced the line and put an inline fuel filter right before the carb. No more problems.

[turbojimmy]

My 84 doesn't have them either.

[snowyegret52]

JimFromJersey wrote:
My 88 has no jacks. I'm not sure that they were even offered back in the 80s on Bounders, anyway. I have a pair of tri-level, 3' long 2x12s with big ass lag bolts holding them together that I use when I'm really off balance.

That's just weird that they are not there. I had a 1975 Winnebago Elandon that had manual jacks so I know they must have been available in 1986. Maybe they were an option this unit didn't get.

[JimFromJersey]

My 88 has no jacks. I'm not sure that they were even offered back in the 80s on Bounders, anyway. I have a pair of tri-level, 3' long 2x12s with big ass lag bolts holding them together that I use when I'm really off balance.

[snowyegret52]

JimFromJersey wrote:
+1 on late-80's vintage power converters. Mine is the original, but I'm kinda hoping for the day when I can replace it with a newer design. My 2 12v batts stay charged up ok SFAICT, but a modern converter makes all the diff. in the world. Remember also that your current one does NOT charge the engine battery when the unit is sitting - only the alternator does. I bought a Trik-L charge unit that steals a little bit of juice from the two coach batteries to keep the engine batt charged up when on shore power or genny.

The genny needs a tune up. Remember also that the fuel pickup will not draw when the main tank gets down to around 1/4 full or so. Run the genny for a half hour, with load (AC & Fridge) every month. Gennys NEED to be run. They also use oil as part of their operation so make sure you check it each month.

There are a bunch of 87/88/89 vintage Bounder owners here, so feel free to ask away. I have most of the original docs that came with mine too, so if you're on the Chev chassis with the 454, I can help with reference questions.

Oh that's great advice. I haven't been back up to the property so I haven't looked yet for the house batteries. One other thing I can't seem to find and can't find any mention of in my Bounder User Manual is the leveling jacks. Where are they? Did the 1986 31 footer come with leveling jacks. I thought it was funny that the book also tells all about how to care for your house batteries but not where they are.

[JimFromJersey]

+1 on late-80's vintage power converters. Mine is the original, but I'm kinda hoping for the day when I can replace it with a newer design. My 2 12v batts stay charged up ok SFAICT, but a modern converter makes all the diff. in the world. Remember also that your current one does NOT charge the engine battery when the unit is sitting - only the alternator does. I bought a Trik-L charge unit that steals a little bit of juice from the two coach batteries to keep the engine batt charged up when on shore power or genny.

The genny needs a tune up. Remember also that the fuel pickup will not draw when the main tank gets down to around 1/4 full or so. Run the genny for a half hour, with load (AC & Fridge) every month. Gennys NEED to be run. They also use oil as part of their operation so make sure you check it each month.

There are a bunch of 87/88/89 vintage Bounder owners here, so feel free to ask away. I have most of the original docs that came with mine too, so if you're on the Chev chassis with the 454, I can help with reference questions.

[turbojimmy]

There's not much to cover that everyone else hasn't except to emphasize that you need to fix your 12V problem before you try to troubleshoot any further. I have an '84 Allegro and learned early on that:
1) Power converters of that vintage suck
2) Power converters of that vintage suck even more when you are using it to charge batteries that have deteriorated beyond charging

I replaced my power converter with a modern unit with a smart-charging algorithm and 2, new 12V deep cycle batteries. The difference is like night and day - everything started working properly.

With regard to your generator, I would try the Seafoam first. If that doesn't work try the more aggressive carb disassembly and cleaning. Mine ran okay, but surged under a load. Seafoam made a world of difference. My experience with engines that sit, however, has been that if you need to choke them to keep them running then you have a blockage somewhere - probably in the jet that someone else mentioned. The problem is that there isn't enough fuel for the engine to run with the unchoked airflow.

[bdecker]

Batteries are in the nose. Open the hood hatch and look down in front of the radiator.

[garymunson]

The issue with the generator is a plugged jet in the bottom of the float bowl. A new carb will fix it or if you are handy, you can remove and clean it. Chemicals won't dissolve those deposits. As the fuel evaporates in storage, it leaves deposit that makes the jet 'smaller'. Be careful not to make the brass jet bigger when you clean it. I've always used a tiny drill bit rotating it VERY carefully with my fingers. These deposits are very hard and brittle and with care can be 'chipped' away with the bit. Sam's Club/Costco is the best source for replacement 'house' batteries. Don't cheap out and use 12 volts. The system works best with 2 6-volts in series. Wiring 12 volts in parallel will cause charging problems since any difference in battery charge between the two results in current flow between them. You really can't troubleshoot problems until the batteries are good. Good luck!