Harry
Forum Replies Created
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Raises hand. Harry, I got this one, go to Home Depot and buy one of those fire escape ladders for $35. Keep it under the bed, don’t care how spry a person is, if you want out bad enough you can make it work.
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I don’t know about the old 4104, but Prevosts like ours have a primary and secondary brake system separated from the wet tank with check valves.
There is actually a test where we dump air from one tank with a remote solenoid and test stopping distances. The driver presses the brake pedal as soon as the low air warning comes on. As the primary system loses air (drive and tag on the bus), the parking brake applies with spring force. No parking brake on the steer axle.
If you have a major leak on one system, the compressor probably won’t be able to replenish the tank on the good system. So you only have what made it past the check valve prior to the failure.
If you are interested, you can look at the air brake system on prevostcar.com under tools, air schematics. Make sure you’re sitting down! Hold control and scroll up to make it legible.
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Your assumptions are that blowing air through the water lines removes the woter.
Let me ask a question. Are your coach water lines perfectly horizontal? Do any of them have a low spot? You cannot answer those two questions because like all of us you cannot see the water lines because the interior was built over and around them.
If you have low spots the air blows a hole through the water in the lines and as soon as you stop blowing air the water that did not get carried out recollects in the low spot.
Then let’s accept the fact a lot of devices still hold water. The washer is a maze of water collection points, from the fill lines to the solenoid valves to the water pump. Same issue with ice makers, either stand alone or built into the refrigerator. It is not where ice is made that is the problem, it is the lines and components leading up to the ice making section that need freeze protection. Like the washer how do you propose to insure RV anitifreeze is in those components and water lines unless you fill the water lines with RV anti freeze and start a cycle on the washer and ice maker to make sure anti freeze is where it needs to be.
How do you propose to get RV anti freeze in the washer P trap? The ice maker P trap? You can’t even get to them without pulling out the appliance.
If I am raining on your parade it is with the intent to make you aware I do not think you yet understand the difficulty associated with a complete job of winterizing a coach. I know you are looking for a silver bullet but there is none and if you do a partial winterizing job you need to be very lucky or have a bale of Benjamins ready to pay for repairs to busted pipes and devices.
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Thanks Kirby (or Linda).
The coach was on its first trip after the owner completed the conversion and he put the dash cam in just before the trip.
It does not take much damage to create enough repair cost to cause an insurance company to treat the repairs as in excess of insured value
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Winterizing a conversion, old or new is a very complex procedure because of the number of potential spots where raw water can be hiding. I know my coach water system very well and with all the possible places that need RV anti freeze I cannot ever say I protected it all until winter is over and I fill with water and check for leaks. It is scary just thinking about making an error and tearing walls and pipe chases apart to fix a leak.
Just imagine all the places water can be retained in the washer for example. Ditto for ice makers or refrigerators with ice makers or water in the door. With the exception of “P” traps the drain system is probably OK, but what about all the low spots in the water lines that are hidden. It will take a lot of RV anti freeze and patience to run RV anti freeze through every single water line and fixture to insure it is all protected.
As bad as it is trying to protect the coach, the real tragedy is the process is such a pain nobody will want to flush out the coach systems just to take a mid winter trip to escape the cold. The coach ends up out of service once it has been winterized.
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Harry
We’ve lived in Colorado for lots of years. Back prior to our first motorhome, Airstream,trailers were routine and not intricate to winterize. Our 1999 Airstream Cutter 35ft had a Dometic double door frig with no door water. At the time, we had a shed roof off our office barn, so we winterized it by pumping RV “pink” antifreeze thru the lines, but did keep it plugged in
A year later, buying our 2000 CC Affinity, we vowed never to winterize a motorhome again,
We enclosed our shed roof off the office barn and heated an d insulated it. So my point is, we don’t have any experience winterizing Beaver Bus#34. Sorry
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Hi Jon and thanks again for your input. I’ll have to come up with something based on the options available to me. It almost seems like my having an older coach could work to my advantage?
I know my coach has resided in Austin, TX it’s entire life until now. I know the last 4 years its been stored outside and I’ve not detected an off smell of any kind. Of course it’s been with Jeff for the last three and a half months and who knows what he’s done to it?
Now we’re adding colder winters to the coach and a touch of snow (although the bus will not be on the road with snow) I’ll have to find out what others have done with similar aged coaches to mine. I don’t know what else I can do?
Maybe Jim will have some ideas for me since he had a similar bus to mine. I know he lives in Colorado now, not sure where he lived when he had his Beaver bus?
Harry
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Dick,
I will never come close. Most likely Jon has forgot more than I will ever know. Just want to not have any BIG worries. And do what is right for the ole girl.
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I agree with Jon 100%.
I kept the race car (plus tools, parts, etc.) in the garage attached to our house for 10 years before I built the race shop. It was unheated with three sides and the ceiling roof exposed to the cold of winter and temperature changes throughout the year. The walls, double garage door, and ceiling were insulated.
Over the ten years various tools and parts eventually became covered with surface rust. It was very common to go to the garage to work on the car when it had “warmed up” outside to find anything metal to have a very thin coating of moisture. Condensation from the car, parts, and tools being cold and suddenly having warm moist air “condense” on the cold metal which then was perfect place for rust/corrosion to occur. Pick up a box off the floor and there was moisture under the box that had come up through the concrete because concrete is porous and the garage likely didn’t have any vapor barrier underneath it. If the race car tires were sitting on the concrete floor (rarely the situation as it was up on jack stands) and I moved the car, there were little squares of moisture on the concrete where the tires were, again moisture coming up through the porous concrete.
Now I have the race shop. Thick poly vapor barrier under the concrete, well insulated with 6″ walls, and pex tubing and a boiler to provide heat to a minimum of 55* all year round. No more condensation.
The Prevost does sit outside. Zoning laws won’t allow a building big enough for the coach and a race shop. But the coach is ALWAYS plugged into a dedicated shore power circuit that’s on a 100amp breaker. In the summer the Cruise-Airs are set to 82 degrees A/C. When it gets cold the minimum is about 40 to 45 with three 1000 watt heats in the coach. If its would get really cold I will turn on the Webasto. Once OAT gets into the high 30’s at night I turn on the electric water heater to keep the water bay warm (fresh water tank is FULL). If is gets really cold (I do monitor the water bay temp) I’ll turn on the the water bay heater (1200 watt heat gun Liberty installed on a thermostat).
The coach sits on 5 1/2″ to 6″ of reinforced concrete with a thick poly vapor barrier underneath it. When I move the coach, there is NEVER EVER any little moisture squares where the tires had been sitting. There is NO moisture coming through my concrete.
Leaving a coach, car, trailer, or anything sitting on grass, gravel, or even concrete without a vapor barrier underneath subjects it to moisture coming up through the ground which will promote corrosion of whatever you have sitting on the unprotected surface.
I wish I could have the coach inside, at not less then 55* year round, but in my situation that isn’t feasible. I think I have the next best thing.
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Tom, You can sure count on me to keep you feeling lonely! But Apple rules and not building for Apple products is like you having a slow dance with Nancy Pelosi, Tom… It’s just so wrong on so many levels!
Harry
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Apple folks unite, we know what works best, so ignore that rambling from the Godfather, he wouldn’t know an Iphone or Ipad if it bit him on the ass. All of that hostility towards you Apple folks has come from a guy with a flip phone who loves Windozzz.
Our web guy hates Apple more than even Jon, no now my vote doesn’t count anymore and they pick on me all the time. It’s lonely here….
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Jim /Chris, the saga of chasing buttons and log ins all over the page are almost 100% because we had to cater to the apple users and the dumb ass way apple makes us comply.
We have spent a lot of our web guru’s time and our dollars doing something that works real well on the rest of the world, only to get feedback that it is an issue with apple devices or Safari. So when you see something at the bottom today and then at the top tomorrow it is because it was inconvenient for apple users around whom the world seems to rotate. Can you guess this topic makes me a little grumpy?
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No, it says 2011 and up.
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Tom will these fit like yours is that price per wheel
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Harry, go back to General Discussions then down to the bottom, you’ll see the New Thread then.