[Mike]

It’s on the back side of the door handle Brian..

[Mike]

The problem is our coach policies are either agreed value or ACV (actual cash value), not homeowners or property damage insurance which is what is described.

The coach policies are the policies to read carefully.

By the lack of posts about insurance claims from coach owners we have a strong indication that as a group our losses are very modest. We need an insurance company that will offer a fair priced insurance product tailored to our needs, and that policy should recognize the repairs are to a commercial bus chassis and a very expensive conversion and should not be confused with a conventional RV.

[Mike]

Jon,

My experience with insurance claims has been quiet different then your thoughts. Some of my real world experience has been. These do not include all the claims over by business career.

1) My trailer full of Illusions was stolen in 2010. Luckily it was behind a locked gate at my warehouse, my policy stated anything within 300 feet of my property was insured I had replacement value for the props. I was reimbursed $140,0000 for the illusions. Some of them were 20 years old. This was with absolutely no depreciation.

2) I have a 15,000 square foot warehouse which received hail damage. Even though the roof was 20 years old, I received $60,0000 which totally gave me a new roof. No depreciation was included

3) Last spring my home in Oklahoma City had hail damage. State farm wrote me a check for $30,0000 to re roof. I did have a 5 % deductible of the adjustor’s amount. Currently as I GC’d my home I have arrange my contractors to replace roof 10K in labor and 17 k in materials. Which is less then my payment.

As a owner of a medium size company I learned early to read the fine print and really grill insurance representatives and get everything in writing.

Thanks

David Thomas

1998 Featherlight

[Mike]

Sheila an I are out. While I usually refrain from commenting on people’s posts I feel I must. I am an anesthesiologist. I am on the front line of this medical and societal disaster. I can tell you it is as bad or worse than it is being reported. We already have 5 on ventilators waiting to be confirmed. That’s today! At the current rate we will be out of ventilators 5-7 days. Meanwhile the jack ass in Washington tells me it’s not his responsibility to get supplies to the hospitals – “We are not a store clerk.” it is a disgrace. This type of response should worry us all. There will be nobody to care for any of us if we don’t get serious. We need a coordinated federal response not bullshit.

I have three partners out on quarantine with two positive. As everyone talks about the hype I am being told to use a god damn bandana when the masks run out; and they are about out (1-2weeks at best I’m told). I’m told I get one mask a day that I need to keep in a paper bag when I’m not wearing it. We are one week from being out of hand sanitizer.

Even with this I show up out of a sense of duty to more than myself. All I ask is we all take it seriously. Frankly the average age of our group puts us in the “high risk” group. Let’s not lose anyone we don’t have to.

Sorry for the emotional response but I felt the need to try and make it real from the front line.

Alabama restrictions:

• All gatherings of 25 persons or more, or gatherings of any size that cannot maintain a consistent six-foot distance between persons, are prohibited. This Order shall apply to all gatherings, events or activities that bring 25 or more persons in a single room or single space at the same time.
• Any restaurant, bar, brewery or similar establishments shall not permit on-premise consumption of food or drink. Governor Ivey continues to encourage patrons to visit their local eateries for take-out or delivery provided the social distancing protocols include maintaining a consistent six-foot distance between persons are followed.
• All beaches will be closed effective today at 5:00 p.m. For clarification, the term “beach” means the sandy shoreline area abutting the Gulf of Mexico, whether privately or publicly owned, including beach access points.

[Mike]

I have been 11,000+ in Colorado and New Mexico numerous times and didn’t notice a drop. I have been over Wheeler Peak in NM and the summit is just over 13,000. I-40 at Clines Corners (50 miles East of Albuquerque) is over 7,000, Albuquerque 5-6 and Flagstaff is right at 7,000 I am through those areas a lot and have never noticed a drop. I am pre-EGR.

[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.

[Mike]

Is this what you were talking about?

[Mike]

I have the same question with regard to 12R22.5. Last pricing I saw from the NSC for BF Goodrich was in the $560/tire range.

[Mike]

Thanks still haven’t got around to it but I will this weekend

[Mike]

Depends on the bms. Many cutoff at 2.5v/cell which is 10v. So 10.5 is pretty close with how steep the discharge curve is at the bottom shoulder. Many cut off even a little lower – but it’s actually better to cut off slightly higher as you are reaching down to the last few percentage points there. So depending upon where the manufacturer sets the watchdog to start – this will determine whether it will trip before the lithium battery cuts itself out.

but in terms of discharge – lithium’s actually dont need (or want to be topped off) a severe discharge will damage the battery and shorten the life just like agm batteries. They have high cycle counts but the life is shortened with regular deep discharges you are better off going from 20-90 over and over than 5-100. Lithium’s don’t like being in their “shoulders” – which means not fully charged and not fully discharged. It’s a misconception that you can go to 5 percent with no degradation in performance/cycles. Lithium batteries usually have several times the cycles of agm – and certainly for deeper discharges- but if you take it to 5 percent regularly (whereas for agm it’s 50 percent) – you will be shortening the cycle life significantly (like from thousands of cycles to hundreds )

[Mike]

$47,000 is a typo, probably who listed the coach on Craigslist used an old add…

Coach is listed on Prevost Stuff for $269,900 same price as on Rvt…

[Mike]

The chassis batteries were fine, probably fully charged. To clarify, my house batteries were completely dead. The 50DN on the Detroit Diesel does charge the chassis batteries and the house batteries through the isolator.

Jeff might jump in here and explain better than I can.

I think the issue was that 50DN would not charge the house batteries unless it could sense a small amount of charge in the house batteries.

You might want to test this out on your coach by fully discharging your house batteries and experience the same conditions.

Second part of response … now you’ve go me thinking. The 50DN alternator shoulda seen voltage from the chassis batteries, and then sent power out which would then flow to the house batteries through the isolator.

Maybe the isolator needs to see at least a tiny amount of voltage in the house batteries before it will send current to the house batteries.

The 12 volt automotive battery charger was essentially hooked directly to the house batteries.

[Mike]

Andy,

Relion’s charging instructions state float at 13.3 – 13.8. Is the lack of constant current the reason for a 14 float? What voltage do you charge bulk/absorption?

Glad you chimed in here, now we’re hearing from someone with actual Relion Lifepo4 experience.

[Mike]

That hurts Joe. What happened?

[Mike]

What Mikee said. I had similar issues and had to change some settings.

As an example if you are running from north to south and prior to leaving your tire pressures were set, just the change in outside temperature is going to increase tire pressure. When you add in the pressure increase that is normal from driving it is easy to exceed the high pressure settings.