Newbie Adventures in a 1987 HONEY RV w/ a Chevy 454

[66vdub]

Thanks for stopping to look. As I start this new chapter of my life kind of forced on me, ( divorce ) I wanted to make this thread to keep up with this New to Me, Motor home, and look back in a few years at it.

Most threads on the HONEY brand are older and closed, so it will be kind of a travel and info log that may help any other Honey Owners out there ( if there are any? )

1987 Honey 421s Mini Class A
Chevy 454 7.4L V8 4bbl
RPO: LE8
P30 Chassis
GVWR / Brake System: 10,0001 - 14,000 Hydraulic
Assembly Plant: Detroit, MI
Paid cash on June 28, 2015 with 33,523 miles.

Accessories:
Onan Emerald I Generator ( Model: 4BGEFA26100F )
Roof A/C: Duo-Therm Brisk-Air
Fridge: Dometic RM2501
W/H: Atwood G6a-6E
Oven: Wedgewood T2130
Furnace: Hydro Flame 19000

A few photos:

Floorplan 7252











* I love classic Volkswagens, and this is the main reason I bought the RV is to go to more shows:



I look forward to hearing from other Honey Owners, or any other RVer that can offer any advice to a newbie, as I am sure I will have questions as I discover new things about this classic Motorhome.
Subscribe, if you would like to keep up with my adventures.


EDITED TO ADD:

Found some info on the P chassis that may help others.
pg 25 has the VIN code breakdown.
P Chassis Info PDF

This site has all types of links for Onan generator Manuals.
Onan Manuals PDFs

* fixed the missing pics being held hostage by photobucket.

[66vdub]

Ballenxj wrote:

66vdub wrote:

Ballenxj wrote:
It's good you're upbeat and having a good time after all that life has thrown at you.
Photobucket? They shot themselves in the foot big time! I know a lot of photographers are dumping them, and rightfully so.

Thanks for checking in! A lot more out there worse than I was / am.
Knee replacement Surgery coming up in January, hope to be back out enjoying times by April.

Knee surgery? Replacement?

Yes, I was hurt overseas in Navy been dealing with bad knees for over 25 years... I am only 51 but Doc's says its time...
1st one in Jan
2nd in Fall 2018.

[Ballenxj]

66vdub wrote:

Ballenxj wrote:
It's good you're upbeat and having a good time after all that life has thrown at you.
Photobucket? They shot themselves in the foot big time! I know a lot of photographers are dumping them, and rightfully so.

Thanks for checking in! A lot more out there worse than I was / am.
Knee replacement Surgery coming up in January, hope to be back out enjoying times by April.

Knee surgery? Replacement?

[66vdub]

Ballenxj wrote:
It's good you're upbeat and having a good time after all that life has thrown at you.
Photobucket? They shot themselves in the foot big time! I know a lot of photographers are dumping them, and rightfully so.

Thanks for checking in! A lot more out there worse than I was / am.
Knee replacement Surgery coming up in January, hope to be back out enjoying times by April.

[Ballenxj]

It's good you're upbeat and having a good time after all that life has thrown at you.
Photobucket? They shot themselves in the foot big time! I know a lot of photographers are dumping them, and rightfully so.

[66vdub]

I like to run my Generator once a month for maintenance, but I went to fire my Generator up, to let it run for 30-40 min and it died out on me after 15 min of surging and running.

cleaned out carb, bowl and jet, tested fuel pump by taking 12v directly to it (works).

it looks like the circuit board ( 300-3056 ) isn't supplying power to fuel pump, so since I dont use my generator much, I will be putting this off until spring.


So that's where I am at.

since Photobucket decided to charge to post pics, I will be moving them over to imgur, and get them back up.

Hope everyone has a great holiday season.
will be back to update when more when I update, fix things and have more adventures in this fun old coach.

[66vdub]

OK came back and added pics to last post...

November started off with my youngest son and I going to Mt. Pleasant, SC the 3rd-5th



Turned over 37000 miles on this run...











A great time, I have 5 sons but now down to 1 that doesn't work, and on the go with their friends.


Up Next will be Thanksgiving and the Weekend 23-26th at Ebeneezer Park in Rock Hill, SC on Lake Wylie.

[Ballenxj]

Good to hear you're doing OK and having fun. Sorry to hear about the generator, but it sounds like you don't need it for now anyway. Enjoy.

[66vdub]

Alright, been a few months since my last update.
I finished up the plumbing, installing 1/2" Pex throughout and no leaks.








So after the Maggie Valley Trip, I did a few local runs, couple days camping and fishing around the county, I started removing the windows and resealing them.










July did a run to Lee State Park ( Bishopsville, SC ) and then on to Huntington Beach State Park, in Murrells Inlet, SC




You can check out the video I made of this trip on youtube,
Here






Stayed local up to Sept. and did our local VW show



Then a trip to Sevierville, TN for the Annual Fall Circle Yer Wagens VW show

[66vdub]

Been busy at removing all the old polybutyl plumbing and installing PEX lines throughout.

Cleaning out the Fresh water tank to so I can do some dry camping wherever.

Will update some pics as soon as I get a chance.

have a good one!

[magik235]

Excellent video.

[66vdub]

Finally got out this year..

.NC Mountain Getaway

I'm new at youtube, so dont expect much... anyway thanks for lookin.

[Jim]

Ballenxj wrote:

Jim@HiTek wrote:
Parking on a hill, getting up for a snack and then noticing the RV is coasting slowly towards a cliff is NOT FUN.

Is this the voice of experience? :E
That does not sound like fun. Talk about panic.

Sure is. I'd only owned the rig for a month, and was on a trip with a good friend who was dying of brain cancer. She was pretty subdued and quiet as you can imagine. We parked along the edge of a cliff, with a beautiful view on her side, at a slight angle, and as I got up and started to walk to the kitchen to fix a sandwich, she whispered, "Jim, we're moving". Surprisingly, I heard her, looked out the window, saw it was true and raced back to the driver's seat to stomp on the brake. We were about 6 feet from the edge of a drop off behind us when we stopped. Yikes!

That was my first indication that my P-B didn't work because I'd always parked on flat areas before.

Turned out that the P-B had been badly misadjusted, to the point of non-operation, by the previous owner for some misguided reason...probably because they'd read about the P-30 chassis Autopark Brake locking up on people and having to have the RV towed. Mine was a Freightliner so the P-B was a Bendix system, not prone to that type of failure. I adjusted it properly and it worked fine for several years.

[Ballenxj]

66vdub wrote:
Not been fun the past week...
more issues popped up...

WOW! Sounds like not a lot of fun. I've never been a fan of RV plumbing. Had to replace just about all the pex plumbing in a 5th wheel I had before I could sell it. At least the new owner shouldn't have to worry about plumbing for a while.
Sorry to hear about the pressure regulator and fan. Hopefully the fan is an easy fix. I once found a closeout deal on a Carrier A/C at an RV store that was going out of business. Best A/C I ever had. My old coach had two A/C units, and I found I never had to run the second one any more. Hopefully you will get this all sorted out soon. 🙂

[Ballenxj]

Jim@HiTek wrote:
Parking on a hill, getting up for a snack and then noticing the RV is coasting slowly towards a cliff is NOT FUN.

Is this the voice of experience? :E
That does not sound like fun. Talk about panic.

[Jim]

Just skimmed through your postings in this thread (really a great bunch of pictures) and don't think I saw anything about the Parking Brake. Many years of P30 chassis production used an inferior design component, prone to failure, that was called the Rotten Green Switch (just type that into Google). Your chassis might predate the use of that, but you should look into your P-B system asap. Parking on a hill, getting up for a snack and then noticing the RV is coasting slowly towards a cliff is NOT FUN.

Here's a link to resources for the brake: Auto Park Brake...

Although my system in the '94 Bounder I use to have was the more reliable Bendix setup, with a driveline drum brake, I did have to work on it several times. Didn't realize how much I depended on the P-B until I lost it.