boostedone
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Re: Tailgaters
Funny.. Out of 55 posts, I see two that are what I consider truly balanced.. When I am pulling, do I care *that* much about someone tailgating? Not really. I am in front and I have to worry about keeping my own load under control. On a 4 lane or more road, if they want to get around its easy. Im not going to go 10 over when I barely feel comfortable going 5 under just to appease people. But on the other hand, I get the gist from many on here y'all don't give a dang about who's behind you or what kind of issues you are causing whether you are technically right or not. Some people do have places to go(like work). If I am on a heavily traveled 2 lane road that has a speed limit of 55 that sees most people normally going 65, even if I am going 55 or so and I see cars piling up behind me that can't get around because of oncoming traffic, I will usually pull over every now and then and let everyone go by. Do I have to? No.. But it doesn't make me feel superior to everyone else by sitting in my seat and laughing about how i am holding people up. I also know that sooner or later having that attitude is going to result in some unstable persons blood pressure boiling to the point that they do something stupid and pass when it is not safe, and possibly take themselves out, someone coming in the opposite direction out, as well as possibly me. I'd rather just add a few extra minutes to my already long trip and be safe, rather than being life-flighted to an emergency room with the comfort of knowing "Hey, I was in the right, that guy was just being an jerk"...301Views0likes0CommentsRe: Things are FOULED UP BEYOND ALL REPAIR
Is it blowing smoke from the exhaust? I don't know how a leaky heater control valve would affect the running. But if you don't need the heat, just bypass the heater core by tying the line to it to the line from it. Only way I could see the leaking valve causing a running issue would be if the valve is designed such that the diaphragm in the valve is exposed to the coolant on the other side, and the engine is sucking in water through a ruptured diaphragm in the valve, which would be temporarily solved by disconnecting the valve and plugging the vacuum hose. Or if the dripping coolant was shorting out electrical items or your ignition wires(somewhat likely depending on the packaging of your engine). Hopefully the reason for the loss of power isnt because you lost so much coolant while driving it, that the engine got hot and popped a headgasket. A dead converter can cause a loss of power, but is typically a gradual failure and many times they rattle like crazy.382Views0likes0CommentsRe: Packrat damage- even worth fixing?
westernrvparkowner wrote: If you only have $6000 invested in it, take a vacuum to it along with a bunch of rags and some heavy duty cleaning solution and do the best you can. Then sell the thing "as is, where is" for a couple of thousand and be sure to disclose the damage. That will mitigate your losses and it will only be a three or four thousand dollar lesson. I wouldn't get involved in repairing all the damage because even if you could, at night, as you are trying to go to sleep, you will never get the thought of those pack rats completely out of your mind. Thats pretty much what I would do unless you have alot of time on your hands, and think this type of work will be fun, or looking at it as a hobby. I'm a pretty handy guy, I rarely back down from a rebuild challenge. However my last camper was structurally really good, looked decent on the outside, but it had a little water damage where the front met up with the roof, and in the shower where the wood was simply not protected from the shower. I rebuilt the bathroom(in the rear) and gradually worked my way to the front. Replaced counter tops, blinds, wall paper, updated the stove, microwave, little fittings here and there, new A/C panel, etc. Well, getting to the water damage in the front required disassembling the cabinets. When they build these things they staple all the stuff together, its not meant to be disassembled. Much of the trim and stuff is made by the RV company for the run. Once I had my bedroom gutted, I looked at what I had, and what it was worth(about 5000-5500 here in good shape, to the right buyer on the right day). I considered what it was going to take in effort to reconstruct the cabinets, and replace all this RV style trim with RV style trim instead of it looking like I went to Home Depot. I said "screw it", and threw it up on Craigslist and took 2000 for it as is, and didn't look back. Did I lose 3-3.5K? Maybe. On the other hand at $2000 the phone was ringing off the hook and it sold in 2 days. The first buyer that came didnt even hesitate because he heard my phone ringing every 10 minutes. At $5500 fixed up I probably would have gotten a call every day or two, and hopefully after a few weeks it would sell. And I didn't lose another month or two of my life doing work that I do not particularly enjoy.396Views0likes0CommentsRe: Sway Bars - Need One or Two?
If you feel like you need it, just get the extra sway. Theres apparently plenty of heroes here that say you don't need any on their half ton trucks, and call me a wimp but whatever. Back when I had my 30' TT being towed by my dually diesel, it wasn't too bad as long as I was going down a 2 lane country road on a calm day. Get on the interstate with trucks passing you, or get some crosswinds it made for a white knuckle ride at times.. No amount of mirror checking does any good when crossing a long bridge and you get a nice 25-30mph cross gust and the thing starts flopping around. I was constantly hitting the lever on the brake controller to get the trailer to settle down... Thats in a 8000lb truck with the added track width of a dually, pulling a 5500lb 30' TT... If some of you want to pull a 5-6000lb camper with a 6500lb truck and no sway control have at it, I just hope when it goes out of control you don't take any innocent people in other vehicles with you.1.5KViews0likes0CommentsRe: Expired Propane Tanks
hawkeye-08 wrote: I've been told that the propane suppliers will re-certify tanks. maybe someone has done this? I ran into this last year.. I had the tanks filled in 2013 at Camping World and was warned next year they would be out of date. So when I went to get them refilled last fall, I opted to go to the Ace Hardware which has several teenage kids working there whom I would not figured would have looked. Sure enough, he noticed the dates even though the tanks are perfect and wouldn't fill them. But he did refer me to a propane place in the next town that would "recertify" them. So I take the tanks to the other place, mention they are out of date and cautiously ask what this recertification will cost me. If the valve is good(it was), its a whopping 5 dollars a tank. If your tanks are in good shape, don't even fret about it. Just have them recertified. I wasted 5 dollars in diesel trying to avoid it.757Views0likes0CommentsRe: Dometic 2652 Cooling Unit Replacement
smkettner wrote: Nobody is talking compact dorm fridge. More like 18+ Cu Ft fitted in the same space and generally has more interior room along with faster and more consistent cooling. Search on "residential refrigerator" *I* am talking about what (atleast)I consider a dorm fridge. Note, as mentioned in the title, I have a Dometic 2652 here(6 cu ft) in a camper, not a 50+ foot coach with a side by side. The fridges most of the people in the threads linked are talking about are the size of my bathroom, haha. According to the Dometic manual, my opening is likely somewhere between 53.75 to 54 5/8 tall, 23 11/16 to 24 7/8 wide, and 24 to 26 deep. While alot of the 10 cube dorm fridges will fit the width requirement they are close to 60" tall. I didn't want this thread to be another residential vs absorption argument, which unfortunately I now see any fridge discussion turns into. I don't have a problem with a 120V only fridge, even the small ones. I have a fridge in my shop to hold beer and water that I picked up for under 200$ from Pep Boys of all places, and that thing has been running 24/7 with no problems for the past 7 years. My only complaint with it is that it not frost free so the freezer is 30% the usable space it should be. But aestetically something like that would look like absolute hell in my camper. I am not interested in cutting up my cabinets and doing trim work to make a cheap fridge look acceptable only to go to sell it down the road and as soon as someone walks in the door they say "WTH is that?" The reason why I made this post was to inquire where to buy the most decent unit, reman or new, and any other parts I should get while the unit is out. I may as well just get to ordering stuff, because as was mentioned time is money and I am burning time.289Views0likes0CommentsRe: Dometic 2652 Cooling Unit Replacement
smkettner wrote: If you are always plugged in... consider a residential compressor fridge as a replacement. I thought about that with my old camper when I thought the fridge went out.. But that rig was a heap of junk.. While my current trailer is older(2004) its dang near perfect shape. I really can't stand the thought of fitting a dorm fridge to it from Costco. Big Katuna wrote: Just did mine at Christmas. Used the Amish unit. They come a tube of transfer gook and tape. BUT he sells them with or without the heaters and fans. I used more tape than he supplied. New unit is much better quality and cools better. It's daunting at first but went smoothly. Lots of tedious scraping and cleaning once the old unit is removed. A Harbor Freight furniture mover was the perfect height. What is this tape you speak of? The video I saw I dont recall tape, just the heat transfer goop in the caulking gun. Is it aluminum foil tape or something? Who did you get your setup through? David Force/RV Pines/etc? And just noticed you arent too far from me. I'm over in Osteen :) rjxj wrote: Depending on the age, maybe it's time to just buy a new frig. I have a Dometic that has the recall completed but I have wondered what I will do when it quits. For another $600.00 I can have a whole new frig. My water heater went out so I just bought a new one. It was 14 years old so why take a chance of having something else break on it? It needed $100 in parts or $350 for a new unit. So if I put a price on my labor of at least $200.00 to install the frig coil that brings the difference down to $400 to $450 plus the risk factor of the other old parts. Maybe a new frig is just as cheesy as the old one and the replacement coil is better? Sure would be nice to slide the old one out and slide the new one in. Kids and I swapped one out of an old truck camper and put about a 100 rounds of ammo through it. I see your point.. Part of the reason for this post is to keep the install time to a minimum. If I end up missing something thats more time lost as I will likely forget how to put something back together if I have to wait too long for more parts to come in. To tell you the truth when I realized the problem wasnt a 40 dollar fix and that it could be more like a 5-700$ fix for a "remanufactured" or "aftermarket" unit, I was initially pricing out a whole new fridge as well, since.. Those are in the 12-1300 range plus tax/shipping. But from what I can see, it appears that A) other than the cooling unit, theres not much in there that costs significant money to replace and B)usually aftermarket and remanufactured means sub-OEM new.. From what I have been reading, it seems like these remanufactured and aftermarket units are more like an upgrade than a financial compromise. Did you factor in the price of ammo on that? After the 2008 election when ammo became scarce as heck I quit using it on such events haha. stickdog wrote: I replaced my cooling unit with a Amish unit 3 years ago. I have replaced the AC heating element eight months ago. As of now I'm past the warranty period had I purchased a new one and also the Amish unit. I'm still $600.00 ahead. Ok, I feel alot better at this point.. With the current age of my trailer, I am not sure I will have it another 3-5 years anyhow. Buying a whole new fridge just doesnt make a ton of sense. Did you do the new or reman unit? I will probably just pay the extra 150 or so on the new unit and be done with it.. I guess i have to call or email david to see if he has the thermo fuses, and what he would recommend for the fan kit on this thing.289Views0likes0CommentsDometic 2652 Cooling Unit Replacement
Well, where to start... Last season I left my camper at a campground to use on the weekends. After not using it for several weeks I went to pick it up, and found the fridge not cool. It was lit, and "running" on electric, I never use it on gas. I figured maybe one of us just forgot to shut the door all the way. I brought it home, plugged it in and checked a few days later, still warm. Anyhow, I mentioned it to a friend of mine who said its probably the heating element. Due to a bunch of other things going on, I just filed that in my mind. Now that its getting nice out again, I want to use the camper soon so I went yesterday evening to trouble shoot. Well, now the fridge lights are off. Checked power feeds, all good. I found the problem is the thermo fuse, which I found was part of some recall. Also found the heating element to have 40 ohms resistance so that was good.. I bypassed the thermo fuse and everything powered up fine. Unit would run on gas, heating element worked on electric. My problem is, there is yellow deposits all over the solenoid area.. From what I gather, this means my cooling unit probably sprung a leak, discharged, lost cooling, and then in time the heating element got so hot that it melted the thermofuse. Now I am looking for a cooling unit. I see the Amish units have a good rep, and David Force is the man to get them through? Do his units come with all thats needed to put it in? I saw a video online to replace the unit, and it mentioned a special caulking to transfer the heat to the box.. Does davids units come with that? Also, just what is the difference between the new and reman'd units? Is the new that much better? I am trying to figure out all I need to get the job done the first time. Also are there any other worthwile upgrades or things I should do when I have the fridge out? I see David sells a bunch of fans and stuff like that, an adjustable thermister, etc. Sorry for such a basic question, but I feel like i am getting blasted in the face with a firehose by googling. I think half the hits for new units are multiple domains run by the same guy, and I also want to make sure I dont buy an imposter unit from some guy thats importing******from China and cut and pasting the real info on his site.2.5KViews0likes9Comments
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