[Fred F.]

Dick, Traveling west from where you are, Van Horn, Tx is a good overnight at the Southern Star RV Park. Walk next door to the Van Horn Cattle Company for good food. EZ in and out pull through w/50amp. Darrell in Dallas, Tx

[Dick]

Good to know about Southern Star RV, we stayed at Mountain View in Van Horne, big long gravel pull through’s and reasonable, not much to look at but good for overnight.

[rafael]

Day #7

We been released from quarantine.

Did a mid-afternoon test drive up 7% grades and no problems. The drive four hours to Fort Stockton, Texas for the night. Tomorrow we leave early for Los Cruzes, NM to connect with the Hilger’s.

In a day or so I’ll post the damage report.

Thanks again for the suggestions, ideas, and thoughts.

[Archived]

Dick, are y’all staying at the Hacienda RV Resort in Las Cruces?

If so, it’s a wonderful park! There is a fantastic restaurant in downtown Las Cruces, the Double Eagle restaurant. Their steaks are delicious along with the Banana’s Foster (made table-side).

Have a safe trip, hi to you and the Hilgers!

Mark

[Archived]

Dick, I’m curious what the shop said regarding the clutch hitting the fan and how it was prevented from making another appearance? Safe travels to you.

[Michael]

Well we finally met up with the Karths in Las Cruces, funny thing though, Dick looked like he has lost a considerable amount of weight. Seems to have come from his wallet.

[AL]

Dick, When are you going to tell us “the rest of the story”?

[Eric]

The recored radiator came back from the radiatory shop on Tuesday morning and was installed, buttoned up, and ready for test drive early afternoon Wednesday. I drove while the tech who did the work rode shotgun.

Everything was fine. No leaks. I did notice that climbing steep grades outside of Kerrville the water temp got about a needle width higher than what I was used to seeing (that has continued through mountains into Phoenix). Interpolating the analog gauge, I figure 207/208*F. When the big pull is over at the time, temp drops down.

The invoice with LeMeilleurs RV, Truck & Equip was $6,579.58. The bill from Prevost was $2,240.41.

Breakdown:

$338.98 (freight to get core to radiator shop, because of its size, special order)

$174.65 (antifreeze and coolant)

$22.95 (coolant hose)

$88.90 (hose fittings)

$27.25 (misc hardware)

$1800 (twelve days of 50amp hookup @ $15/day)

$3,1990 (recore radiator, subcontracted out)

$2,3200 (labor)

$2,240.41 (Prevost for fan clutch, blade, belts, and shipping from California)

Total of $8,819.99

Cause? Appears to be pretty simple. Over the time the three fan belts stretched and before the pneumatic tensioner made contact with the limiting bracket the fan clutch hit the radiator bracket, breaking off the fan’s cooling fins, and firing them into the radiator poking holes in it.

Could I have reused the fan clutch? Maybe. Probably shouldn’t.

Could I have gone with a new radiator? Yes. There was one in Nashville. Prevost’s price to me for a new radiator was $4,606 plus freight from Nashville, TN to Kerrville, TX (guessing $500). So it looks like I probably saved $1,569 by going recore vs. new. New ordered immediately might have saved us a few days.

Upon removal of the radiator we noticed that a corner of the fins were gone, corroded away. Upon pressure testing by the radiator shop they found a couple of pinhole leaks in the area of the missing fins from corrosion. So eventually the radiator needed to be replaced in probably the short term.

Could this have been prevented? Yes.

1. If the bracket that limits the travel of the pneumatic tensioner was adjusted right so its impossible for the fan clutch to hit the bracket. How this is accomplished, I’m not sure. I’m going to investigate and figure it out!

2. The belts were almost six years old. They stretched. I probably should have changed them or had them changed out. BUT … BUT … BUT if the travel limiting bracket was correctly positioned, the belts could have stretched and there would not have been a problem … except maybe a tossed belt.

Some 40′ XL owners reported not having a bracket for the fan clutch to run into. They said their fan clutch could collide with the radiator. Not good. A friend of mine with an H3 had his fan go through the radiator which traveling through Milwaukee. His son told me the bill was over $15,000. I suspect they also had to replace the CAC and have the coach towed

I hope everyone can learn from my expensive experience. I will make another post that more specifically addresses how to check fan clutch/bracket clearance.

The shop. LeMeilleurs RV, Truck & Equip of Kerrville, Texas. On our first meeting the service manager told me Kerrville is halfway between Florida and California on I-10 and they end up with lots of transient repair work. Very nice facility. The techs are all ASE certified in autos, trucks, diesel, RV, etc. They had a couple of Class A DPs w/tag axles waiting for service when we pulled out. During the test drive the tech asked how I liked driving the Prevost. Everyone on the Forum knows the answer. He said he has driven many Class A DPs and a few Prevosts and Newells … he found the Prevosts drive the best, Newells a close second, and most of the DPs are all over the road. I’ll be putting LeMilleurs on the PC Forum map and recommend them.

There you have it.

[Archived]

Dick, Thank you for sharing your experience with all of us. Having the same chassis as you, I checked my radiator/fan clearance after your first post. I’m sure others did the same. Mine checked out fine. I did not know about the “stop” that keeps the fan from the radiator until I read your post. We have all learned from your experience. Sorry about your expensive break down. Darrell

[Mike]

Clearance cannot be checked between the radiator and fan or clutch without considering some springing or deflection of the steel components or the rocking of the engine on the motor mounts.

The radiator is fixed, but the steel assembly the clutch and fan is mounted to moves with the motor and is restrained primarily by the belts, but as a back up in the event of a belt failure there is a stop built into the assembly. To evaluate the effectiveness of the stop you also have to consider how much the engine will rock towards the radiator. Keep in mind if the fan is engaged it is pulling so much air it is imposing a serious load on the engine to the point where a lot of horsepower is required. If a belt fails that fan and fan clutch will move suddenly toward the radiator with a lot of force and it will flex the steel assembly and pull the engine to the extent allowed by the engine mounts.

I am certain when Dick’s coach was built there was a no belt clearance but as the steel assembly pivot points wore a little, as the engine mounts allowed a little more movement, and a little flexing of the steel structure was taking place that theoretical clearance became interference between parts.

The only way to be assured of never having the problem is to keep new belts on the gear box drive and monitor them for stretching.

[Fred F.]

Did they install two new thermostats?

[Archived]

Prevost parts does offer match sets on certain part numbers.

This is a very good choice on these triple belt applications.

AL

[Archived]

I have always tried to use the three belt combination joined into a single belt. When I have used 3 separate belts I know they stretch at different times and have separate lengths because when I match up the labels and start the engine it doesn’t take long before the labels are no longer aligned which is an indication one or two of the three belts are doing the work.

With a triplex the work is being done uniformly

[Michael]

Jon, what is the name and size of your triplex fan belt ?

[Roger]

I don’t know without looking but whatever it is it may be different than your. Whatever size belt you have now is available as a triplex or a matched set of three.