[Dan]

This is just a general observation that everyone should make………..

When whole coach air pressures are low there is a large volume of air at 120 PSI needed. It takes time to build the systems to that pressure.

Anytime someone comments about how healthy their compressor is because it takes so little time to pressurize the coach bells start going off in my head. I am not saying there is a problem with this particular coach, but often when the time required to charge the system is short, it is often due to air tanks containing a lot of water, reducing the volume of air needed.

Over time we get a sense of how fast our coaches build air. If the time gets less and less there is a problem because air compressors do not get more efficient with age. Quite the opposite.

[Dan]

I have one Roadmaster all terrain tow bar that I use most frequently. Unlike most of those I see in use this is one that mounts to the toad and drops over a coach mounted 2″ ball. I use that type because I have and still tow multiple vehicles and to keep the tow bar level I have adjustable height coach mounted hitches. The coach mounted tow bars cannot be leveled if the toad and coach mounted receivers are at different heights and the tow bar ends up being out of level.

It is the only tow bar I have that has the arm slides on a welded large diameter round tube that cannot be serviced. My other hitches all have replaceable pivot points. My commonly used tow bar has been used in excess of 250,000 miles towing a Grand Cherokee and a H2 Hummer. The Hummer is very heavy so I would expect wear but the tow bar is not even close to being worn out.

I do clean the entire assembly because the dust and grit from the highway does contribute to wear. I also put a small amount of oil at the wear points. I also put a dab of grease on the hitch ball. When we return from trips the tow bar assembly is pretty dirty and the black greasy oil at the pivot points looks pretty bad but I think the practice of adding a few drops of oil is delaying wear on non-serviceable parts of the tow bar.

[Dan]

Jimmy: did I understand correctly? The Webasto didn’t put out enough heat? That doesn’t make sense to me. The Webasto should put out tons more heat than you could ever stand. We used the Webasto over Christmas at 3*F and 5*F overnight and had to turn the Webasto down.

The Cruise-Airs ability to crank out heat is dependent on each unit having the right amount of Freon, all the valves working right, the evaporator and condensers being clean and their fans working, and finally the outside air temp. From my experience they don’t work very well (produce heat) under 21*F to 25*F OAT.

Your CAs eventually gave you heat? Sounds like you had a valve sticking that probably unstuck itself. My CAs give me heat in a few minutes.

I’m not an expert on how the CA works, but understand how heat pumps work. To switch from cool mode to heat mode, there should be some valves that have to open/close to reverse which heat exchanger gets hit or cold. If a valve gets stuck, you probably won’t get the desired result. Once all the valves are working properly, then it should work correctly; if the unit has enough Freon.

[Dan]

Thanks Tom, I understand. For several years from new, everything that was supposed to pivot or slide was so tight, it was a pita to work with. Now that it is finally broken in, it is much more user friendly. Everything is working as it should, so going to leave it friendly for now. Thanks again.

[Dan]

Don’t know what to tell you Dan, they wear out and Roadmaster confirmed that when I talked to them. It gets loosy goosy and there’s no way to tighten it up, I tried.

[Dan]

The Roadmaster shank I had to replace was expensive and they have you by the short hairs. The nut that’s inside the shank holding it altogether can not be removed and takes a special tool only available at Roadmaster. You have the option of sending it back to Roadmaster or by a new one. Buying new at e-trailer for 1980 was cheaper than sending it to Roadmaster. Mine is a Blackhawk 2.

I like the towbar, but Blue Ox is probably cheaper to maintain.

[Dan]

When the 24 volt and 12 volt chassis battery switches are turned off there is still a direct wire from battery 12V supply that goes to the DDEC . I had trouble with this circuit draining down the starting batteries during Winter storage so I put a switched inline fuse it that circuit , end of problem. Haven’t charged the chassis batteries since October but on checking battery voltages last week the 24V was 27.4V and 12 v was 12.9V . If anyone should do this just remember that the engine will not start until this switch is turned back on, engine will crank but not start.

This is just what I did for your information and thoughts.

[Dan]

Never saw that Andy, but nothing much surprises me anymore in this cyber stuff.

Just be glad it didn’t appear like this!

[Dan]

Jimmy, Short answer, no unless you are planning to load it heavy and bring it up to full operating temp.

Some generators have dedicated start batteries and the only way they get charged is by running the generator. That might be a reason to start the generator so the battery does get an occasional charge.

But other than that I don’t think routine starting of the generator is important, bus as stated, if you do load it up heavily and make sure it has been brought completely up to temperature.

[Dan]

That link was a good read Jon. Might be worthy of adding it to the “Good Links” article in the Articles section .

[Dan]

I don’t believe my inverter/charger was incorrectly charging my batteries. I don’t think they went from bulk to float too rapidly, rather the batteries were not discharged all that much. But I don’t know, and that is one of the reasons I got new Magnums, but only one of the reasons. About 6 or 8 months ago, I conducted a rudimentary load test on my batteries individually, and determined that 1 of them did not perform as well as the other 4. Its voltage fell off more rapidly and did not recover as well. My test was only a comparison between the 5 batteries, and 4 performed equally and better than the 5th. I removed the bad battery and have been running only 4 since. Performance improved, but it is nothing like before. The other night, after 9 hours of running a roof A/C fan, AquaHot with one heater on, and refrigerator, my auto generator start cranked the generator, at 11 volts. That is not many amp hours used. While warranty help from Lifeline would be welcome, my main concern is buying the right batteries and treating them properly to get more life from them. It seems that a smart regulator for my 300 amp alternator would be available and would help. I don’t do it regularly, but after a night of inverting, I would rather charge the batteries with the engine while traveling than also running the generator.

[Dan]

It looks pretty straight forward. That would explain why I was getting a big drop in the pressure reading (118 to 33 psi) overnight but the pressure would build extremely fast so I did not really believe it was that low.

Thanks again.

[Dan]

K&L, traffic???? Florida???? Really????My sources must have miss informed me. You folks are coming over for Clawfest IIRC?

Same for you Dan, you and Barb are trekking up from Naples?

[Dan]

Bay heat, Aquahot and electric, at least that’s what my 97 Royale had.

[Dan]

Thanks Buddy. I did not know that NAPA carried these types of components. Nice that I can use my discount card.