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Window latch
This thing is the only thing in the bus that rattles when I am driving. It isn’t all the time, but it is enough to drive me bats. Twice I have had Liberty look at it, but whatever they do is only temporary. Any ideas on how to fix the vibration?
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20 Replies
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Karl, the track is the rattle. As it travels back and forth in a channel it starts and stops with a ball bearing falling into a slot.
The red lines are on the handle to mark open and close. If the handle travels to far “opening” then the ball bearing falls out from the horizontal track behind the frame…thus your rattles.
Liberty, probably replaces the ball bearing and then someone opens the window lever, the ball bearing falls out… it starts all over again. Who could be the trouble maker here ?
We found that using some care in opening the window handle, watching the red mark when they line up prevented any further problems.
I’ll offer to fix it at OKC for a cool beverage !
AL
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I have had to adjust the mechanism to have it tighten up the rattle. When the motor pulls the window shut and tight it is OK, but after some driving it seems to relax and the mechanism is not as tight and then it rattles. I cannot remember exactly what I did without going out to the coach but it wasn’t a big deal. I has been about 2 years since I adjusted it and it has not been a problem since. Only one window has required the adjustment.
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Jon, I believe his latch is manual.
Better take good care of your fancy push button window motors …there $600 each. No joke
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Not kidding about this. We do not open our windows. We spent a whole lot of money to get 4 AC units plus a great Webasto system so we don’t plan to open windows to get comfortable.
Getting up to open windows is so old school. I have Crestron and I use that while sitting on my butt to operate the sophisticated environmental systems in my high tech coach.
Bring on the comments………….
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Thanks guys. Al, a cold beverage of your choice is in order if I don’t pump it full of silicone caulk by then!
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Jon,
Until Alaska I would agree with you on keeping them closed… We have several that have bad motors and Prevost said it was going to be close to $900 per window parts and labor to fix… Not going to happen so I figured out a way to push them open from the inside and saved a bunch. Now that we are up North and are spending most of our time in parks that don’t have 50 amp and don’t allow use of Gensets…. we are keeping the windows open as we don’t have enough AC to to run the rest…
Just something to think about.
Bill
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At this point in our lives if I cannot get 50 amp in an RV park, I am going somewhere I can run my generator.
I am not going to live in a metal pup tent.
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Yes to what Jon just wrote… you reach a point in life that requires a certain comfort level and many of us are there already.
You younguns with families are braver than we are… enjoy it while it lasts !!
Cheers, Diane
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Metal pup tent. I like it!
I think I fixed the rattle today. I opened the awning, then the window, then tightened a screw holding in the handle from the outside. Crossing the minefield that is the streets of Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine it seemed quiet. Now, the blinds vibrated with every bump, but I think the handle was quiet.
Al, I will still buy you a beverage of your choice!
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Jon,
We were the same… we hadn’t stayed in a park with 30 amp until the Alaskan Highway… now 30amp is pretty much the norm in most of Alaska.. sometimes can’t even get a 30… With three kids and a wife that all like water… having water in sewer at the site is more important than having 50amp… Having been to a couple of places without water or sewer… we will take 30amp with water and sewer anyday… we have adapted nicely to 30amp… Can’t do laundry or cook with the cook top… My wife hasn’t decided if that is good or bad yet… 🙂 Lots of eating out….
Bill
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I’d likely pay to use their water and sewer, but unless we were very comfortable and able to use our coach’s equipment we would likely dump and fill and move out to a parking place where I could run the generator.
We have been too many places where opening the windows allowed tiny little annoying bugs into the coach, or the aroma of diesel exhaust, or just didn’t allow us to be comfortable. No more.
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I’m with Jon. We have powerful, long lasting and very quiet generators….use ’em ! Geo.
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There was a discussion about generator hours back in the beginning of PC and everyone was reporting their genset hours and ours (the Vantare) had more than double the hours of most and never missed a beat !!
Be nice to them and they will to you !!Be interesting to see those hours now with so many new members… ?? I’m sure we would have a new winner now.
Diane
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I have spoken directly to people who use generators like our coaches have. The general agreement is they are expected to last beyond 30,000 hours. That is not a typo and the decimal is at the end of the 4 zeros.
The advice from those “experts” who run their generators long and hard is simple. Keep them supplied with clean oil and fuel, and do not allow them to run lightly loaded.
One who I spoke to had a remote fishing lodge in Canada that was a seasonal operation. He had two Kubota powered generators and they were started at the beginning of the season and turned off in the fall. Both were set up to run with a 55 gallon drum of oil as the sump. A fresh oil tank was used at the start of the season and it was taken away at the end of the season. Because guests of the lodge were in the habit of turning off lights, the lodge owner had to periodically connect a pair of 7000 watt heaters to the gensets so they would run hard and clean out the sooting that occurred when lightly loaded.
A second operator owned entertainer coaches that were leased out. It was typical to have two generators on board the coaches. One would run when the tour started and at the end of the week it was shut down for an oil change and service, and the second one would take its place and run for a week. Generator problems were rare and on the fleet of coaches almost all the coach generators were beyond 30,000 hours.
None of us runs our generators enough. And when we do run them they are not loaded. The best thing we can do to help our generators is to run them at every opportunity and when they are running, load them as heavily as possible. The whole coach will benefit. If I had a non OTR coach I would start the generator every time I was driving, turn on all 4 AC units and let them cycle on and off to keep the entire coach comfortable. That keeps the heat out of the alternator which is working hard to run AC units through the inverters. The generator is doing what it does best and the comfort in the coach is what you want after a day of driving.
With the OTR, I run the generator from the on ramp to the rest area until I start up and pull away. Even if I am just eating lunch having the generator running and all AC units turned on is keeping us comfortable and even though the total annual hours of use is minimal we are at least comfortable all the time in the coach. Why drag the generator around with us if we don’t take advantage of it?
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True dat, but I do like some fresh air too. Maybe not today in Bar Harbor, but sometime soon!
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