RambleOnNW
Explorer II
Joined 15 years ago
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Re: Kwikee Steps Won't Extend
We had that happen on our 2006 a number of years ago. Kwikee steps worked until they didn’t. Picked up a folding chair at Walmart and used that for the rest of the trip as a ‘step’. The key to getting the steps working was unbolting the motor and verifying the motor would turn both ways when opening/closing door, which it did. Putting the motor back in and the steps started working again. Must have been jammed. The controller limits the max current the motor can draw so if steps are jammed nothing will move. Sprayed a lot of Kwikee Kwiklube on all the joints.5.9KViews0likes0CommentsRe: Cape Disappointment, WA
Cape Disappointment was originally named Fort Canby as it was one of the 3 forts protecting the entrance to the Columbia River up to WW2, along with Fort Stevens and Fort Columbia. Cape Disappointment has the Lewis and Clark Museum which has been built in front of one of the old Ft. Canby batteries. Fort Columbia is worth a visit, has all the various buildings restored and it is above the tunnel you drive through from the Astoria-Megler bridge to get to Cape Disappointment. Astoria has the Astoria Column that you can climb the steps up to the top for an excellent view. We like the Ft. George brewpub in Astoria. A couple of blocks away is the historic site of Fort Astoria (called Fort George by the British) built in 1811. There is a recreated block house there. If you are interested in geology Cape Disappointment has exposures of the 50 million year old Siletzia basalt. These are pillow basalts of the Siletzia Large Igneous Province which is the western basement rock from Southern Oregon to Vancouver Island. There are pillow basalts behind site 166 and other places in the park.544Views0likes0CommentsRe: Need Help! Can't get anyone to work on my F53 6.8 engin
Krusty wrote: Pretty easy to get a throttle body and chuck it on there. One hose and 4 bolts Easy on a truck, not on a van chassis. On the van chassis the throttle body is under the upper dashboard. The mobile mechanic climbed on the bumper to reach it. Don’t know about Class A accessibility. Likely under the doghouse.1KViews0likes0CommentsRe: Need Help! Can't get anyone to work on my F53 6.8 engin
I had a bad throttle body on our V10. I found a mobile mechanic who fixed it in the storage area. The failure appeared suddenly. Did a trip, stored RV at storage area. A month later went to pick it up for a trip and it threw error codes. Ran the ScanGuage and it said it was in limp mode and throttle plate was stuck shut. Couldn’t drive it anywhere being stuck in idle mode with a max of 1000 rpm. Mobile mechanic used his diagnostic controls and said the throttle plate motor was working correctly to move the throttle plate, but the position sensor was bad so the position could not be measured. The sensor could not not be replaced separately so it required a new throttle body unit. Mechanic was able to replace throttle body from the front so didn’t have to open up the doghouse. Good thing ours didn’t die on the road, I can imagine the hassle. Hope you find a competent place to work on your rig soon.1KViews0likes0CommentsRe: Rear Jolt on 2017 Ford E450 V10 with only 6,300 miles
Did you have the A/C on? The A/C cycling on will kick the RPMs up. Anyway if you feel the jolt again quickly look at what the RPM gauge is showing. I had this same thing happening on an older AWD car occasionally. Could have sworn someone was tapping my rear bumper. But concluded the power output was fluctuating for some reason. Perhaps related to how during a cold start the vehicle RPMs are elevated for a short time until partially warmed up. Pressing the brake harder prevented the increased power from overpowering the brake pressure. Or put the transmission in neutral at stops.801Views0likes0CommentsRe: Is there a preferred oil for the Ford V10 E-450?
I had been running Mobil 1 5W-20 Extended Performance and occasionally getting an oil analysis over a period of 10 years. Copper wear had been running higher, 8/10/10 ppm for 4100/4300/3750 mile oil change intervals. Universal average is 3ppm for 4400 mile interval. The last test in ‘22 I ran 5 qts. 5w-20 EP and 1 qt. 0W-40. Copper wear dropped to 6 ppm on a 4600 mile change interval. But we had been taking it out more often too so it was sitting for shorter periods of time so perhaps less top-end start-up wear. cST viscosity has increased too from 8.0 to 9.92 just out of the top end of the 5W-20 range of 6.0 - 9.7. So I’m now running what ‘appeared’ to help, 5 qts. 5w-20 EP and 1 Qt. 0W-40 with a Napa Platinum filter. The platinum filter has full synthetic media. One car works well with 0W-40 instead of 5w-30 (0W-40 is thinner now, Cst dropped from old oil 12.7 to 11.3) so I have plenty of that and use it for top up here and a 0W-20 car. Could try 5W-30 synthetic but would have 4 quarts sitting around for up to 18 months. Easier to use 5W-20 5 Qt. jug and add a qt. of 0W-40.2.4KViews0likes0CommentsRe: oil filter?
I change oil by miles and not time so every 4000 - 4500 miles. I use the NAPA Platinum oil filter which has full synthetic media. The filter is the same between the 6.8L V10 and the 7.3L V-8: 41372. I’ve also used the Ford Motorcraft Racing version of the FL-820S which is M-6731-FL820 but is more expensive.1KViews0likes0CommentsRe: Portable Solar Generators
pnichols wrote: Well ... I paid ~$400 for the Bluetti on a Black Friday sale: 1) Instead, I would have to have installed/wired a 12V DC recepable back by the rear bed, which would have been a real pain (I have higher payback things to do with my time). 2) In addition to 1) above, I would have needed to buy a 12V DC to 20V DC upconversion adapter (medical grade - for failure-proofness at ~$130) to power the CPAP machine. 3) Sometimes our family group campouts have their outside evening camp fires too far away from our rig to run the long extension cords from our rig necessary for powering heated throw-blankets for us. 4) The DW and myself didn't know what other Christmas gift(s) to buy for ourselves, anyway. :B P.S. #1: So far during my in-home testing of the 537 Wh Blueitti it has powered a CPAP machine for 4 nights - while consuming only around 35% of it's LiFeO4's stored energy. P.S. #2: It's ultra-safe LiFeO4 lithium battery electrochemistry is way safer than me trying to make my own more dangerous-to-use-in-confined-spaces Lithium-ion, or LA, or AGM portable concoction. I missed this thread but it turns out I bought the same unit on the same sale. pnichols you missed a couple capabilities I use: - Hi/Low diffuse LED lantern on the back - Qi wireless charger built into the top - Both USB A and C ports. So I can charge a laptop through the 100 watt USBC ports - Overall size is that of a group 34 battery at 1/3 the weight of an AGM. And greater capacity to 0% than a Group 34 AGM to 50%. MPPT input can be used for solar input up to 200 watts OR you can hook any 12 volt battery into it. For example get one of the inexpensive 100A or 200A LiFePo4 lithium batteries to get an additional 1200 or 2400 watt hours. Pass through charging: Charge with solar while powering loads at the same time. I already had a 200 watt Renogy solar suitcase that I can hook into it and works well. We have long wires so that we can camp in shade and have the panel in the sun. DW can run hair dryer on medium (500 watts) without starting Onan generator. I have used it with a 200-watt AC tire inflator so I wouldn’t have to start the generator for tire inflation. The only thing that didn’t work was a 12-volt tire compressor. It sat there and chugged and drew 68 watts but didn’t fully run. I am not interested in wiring in a large inverter in our class C. I did enough contorting in replacing the failed transfer switch under the drawers in the rear wardrobe. It will be the go-to unit now in a power outage at home in the dark until I get the generator set up. Grab flashlight under bed, go to closet, get power station, turn on LED light, go to living room, plug lamp into inverter outlet. It’s also a bug-out unit. You’re not going to get that with a roll-your-own. I realize the OP was shilling for a particular brand/unit which I took a look at online. It had a number of obviously fake reviews which is a definite warning sign.840Views0likes0CommentsRe: EV alternative for light/medium duty trucks
free radical wrote: RambleOnNW wrote: Lantley wrote: You Chicken little men are too much. A Tesla semi breaks down and you want to scrap the entire program. I wonder if Kenworth had this bashing when there first truck broke down! Funny thing is we have large wrecker companies, trucker down website and all kinds of resources dedicated to repairing over the road semi trucks. Why?............Because they break down! They all breakdown. I don't think the Tesla Semi truck sky is falling just yet! No worries, Musks semi will be put out of business by a real semi truck company, Freightliner, with a 600 mile range hydrogen powered semi and 2 actual front seats for team driving. https://www.kezi.com/news/zero-emissions-semi-truck-being-designed-by-osu-portland-based-truck-manufacturer/article_ab87379c-96a0-11ed-b2f2-f7a9f237acad.html Wasnt Nikola suposed to do that? What happened. Hydrogen fuel cost more to make then diesel,its extremely dangerous volatile to handle and store. Its a dead END Get over it Freightliner has already been shipping their 220-mile range electric eCascadia, part of their Cascadia architecture. Hydrogen is the next step for long range. And they are a subsidiary of Daimler.594Views0likes0Comments
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