How many of us are there? Owners of Dodge based RV's?

[whiteknight001]

I'm new here, and curious.

How many of us in Class C own Dodge B300 incomplete
cab/chassis based RV's? I know two others- Steve aka
Ripsaw, with a 1977 Brougham, and Leroy aka 1978_Dodge
_Delta who owns a 440V8 powered sharp looking 1978
Delta RV. I would like to ask, and offer, help, idea
swapping and comparing notes on our particular RV's
which are based on the Dodge B300 van chassis.

Yeah, I know. These are low tech, podgy old RV's that
would be considered "entry level" for folks like me,
but I have a deep and abiding respect for the quality
of these old "monsters of the open road". And anyone
wanting to pick brains, joke about, share notes or just
brag about our old A- Dodge-io's are certainly welcome
to PM or email me. Between all of us we can form a real
good support group, and help each other with problems
we know we'll encounter with an older vehicle.

Sure. I'd love a new RV. But I'd rather have an older
one already paid for, and a lotta great memories. Call
me frugal, an old hippie, or whatever you will. I'm proud
of my old land yacht.

Mopar Madness Manifest in the flesh,

Mark aka White Knight

P.S. Mine's a '72. Is there an older one out there someone's
motorvating in? Maybe even a Travco? W/K

[eyeteeth]

Curious...

Looking for alternative resources for a radiator for my 79 F40... i.e. 440. Apparently, That's hard to find...

I found one, just want to verify prices find options? I'd rather not simply repair the old one. I just figure it's spring another leak in short order. Autozone told me they could get one... they were incorrect.

[oldtrucker63]

Here is some real good info for you old dodge owners.
http://440source.com/index.html and here too for casting head #

http://www.mymopar.com/headcastnumb.htm

[oldtrucker63]

WVTravco Your Pap was right cause in the long run cheep just don't seem to work out. Its like paying for a problem somewhere down the road.

[DeadeyeLefty]

"the cheapest way to do something is usually the most expensive".

Too true. I get a lot of work thanks to people not realizing that !


Here's a chart from the bluesea website. I've used a whole bunch of their stuff in boats and it's absolutely top-shelf gear.


Here's a link to their "resource" page:
http://bluesea.com/resources/7

[WVTravco]

Thanks Leeann, Eyeteeth and Brian!

I'll have to check that wiring out. Safety is a very important thing to me. I don't care how nice it looks on the inside, expensive furnishing burn just the same as cheap ones! If the marine grade wiring is the best then we'll go with that, even if it is more expensive. My Pap always used to say "the cheapest way to do something is usually the most expensive". I don't want to get cheap stuff just to have it burn my rig down.

We have to fix some water damage to the roof in the back so we'll have to take some of the ceiling down anyways. As far as it being a big job to undertake, we just completely rewired our S&B house, now that was a pain! We should be able to handle this, at least that's what I'll tell myself. 🙂

[Leeann]

Okay, eye- I'll look through my stuff after work.

Thanks, Brian - and thanks for fleshing out what I said. I'm from the Department of Redundancy Department, personally...I love redundancy.

[DeadeyeLefty]

Should I change all the electric wires just to be safe? If so what should I use?

If I may, I'd like to chime in on the marine wire topic....

First, I'm with Leann: marine is the way to go for anyone who is restoring an old rig. SAE wire is for getting the price down - otherwise it doesn't belong in an old and (unfortunately) leaky/humid RV.
JMHO of course.

Marine wire is usually sized (guaged) as "AWG" rather than "SAE". The difference is in the amount of wire present for the guage - a 16AWG wire is 'bigger' in cross-section than a 16 SAE wire. The latter is what rigs are wired with. That will give you a bit of a safety margin when you are figuring out what guage you need to use.

The other great improvement of marine wire is that it is tinned along its entire length. That gets rid of the 'creeping black death' that we've all seen after stripping the insulation off our existing wiring.

Personally, I would go cheaper on the A/V equipment, or upholstery, or furnishings before I would try to save money on the wiring because that other stuff is easy to replace down the road.. Besides, a cheap-ass barrel chair won't start a fire if it shorts out...

My '77 had 2X2 framing with 1" holes drilled through it (I know!!!) for wire runs, so it was pretty easy to pull new wire through using the old ones as a fish. If I were in your shoes, I'd probably pull down the ceiling panels and run conduit to make life a little easier, but I don't know your rig so I won't be presumptuous.

The first step in figuring out what wire size to use is to do a load analysis. I drew up a floor plan and plotted out where my components would go and used that to figure out how long my wire runs would be (roughly) and more importantly how much current the individual components would draw.

This isn't spam (I have no connection to it) but bluesea.com has a lot of great resources, including charts for wire sizing based on length of run(always round-trip length) vs. current draw. The fact that it's meant for marine equipment just gives RVers an extra bit of redundancy - personally I like redundancy when the alternative is hitch hiking until I can get a tow !

I've built a few boats to ABYC specs ('building code' for boats) and I'm be happy to post their recommendations if you can come up with a length and amperage.

[eyeteeth]

It's an Onan 4000 Emerald...

[Leeann]

We've never had to touch our starter, so I dunno. What model genny do you have, again? It was an Onan, right? I might have or be able to find the service manual, so let me know.

[eyeteeth]

WVTravco wrote:
Should I change all the electric wires just to be safe? If so what should I use?

Sounds like one heck of an undertaking. Not sure how you'd pull new wires... I got nothng' but a request for information and description if you go for it.

I haven't gotten into the furnace yet. But I did pressre test the radiator last night. Autozone 'claims' to have a replacement for $180... I'll let you know more after it arrives. I figure 30+ years old, it's already sprouted one one leak, a second is probably right behind, no sense simply fixing it. I'm sure it will leak somewhere else soon anyway.

General consensus is it's a starter problem on the genny. It sat in a trailer for a year, not used... anyone here cleaned/repaired a starter or has everyone just taken 'em somewhere?

[Leeann]

I'd check them. If they show any signs of cracking/burning/corrosion, then I'd replace them.

It depends on the wire, but we used all marine-grade wire when we replaced ours. Same environment, so why not? Besides, the boat store was a LOT closer than the RV store...and cheaper. We replaced like with like, except when the bf decided the wire was too small for the load.

We did add ground wires everywhere. Literally. If there was a ground wire present, it was inadequate. Most of the time, there wasn't one (we had headlights that wouldn't work, wipers that wouldn't work, etc - all because of weak grounds). Redundancy is good.

[WVTravco]

Should I change all the electric wires just to be safe? If so what should I use?

[TreeSeeker]

If you Google "RV furnace troubleshooting" you will find a number of good sites. Here is one: Troubleshooting the
RV DSI Furnace

[eyeteeth]

The Furnace blower comes on just fine, but that's it. It's something inside...

[oldtrucker63]

The oil leak could be a b%tch, The Furnace just check the wires between the furnace and the temp setting box a lose wire would be my guess, Easy fix, Don't give up man there is light down in that tool box somewhere.