[Ted]

Wheat Ridge

[Ted]

It may have been me Peter.

Towing a black Ford truck Sunday.

Love your part of the country. Was up in West Yellowstone for a couple of weeks.

[Ted]

I guess I’m going to order a new inverter.

Any reason on going up to a 3000 watt?

[Ted]

Thanks Jon,

that is what I was thinking it was. It was 7% grades for 4-7 or so miles at a time, trying to keep it between 45 and 55 without using that much brakes. Never really made it all the way to 230, was probably in the 220 range. As soon as I hit the brakes (and I presume took pressure off the retarder), the temps came down immediatly.

[Ted]

Mark, we are here and will be until 9/2 in site #315. Would love to see you again along with your new bus. Last time we saw you was at Branson. Geo.

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I got this at a paint store in Jackson Hole where I got locked out.

I is a hook to hang paint cans on a ladder.

Works great to get between the weather strip on my older XL and flip up the lock lever then you can slide the window open and reach the door lock or handle.

[Ted]

Picked my coach up at Jeff’s today. Finally got to see what $22 grand looks like in the back of a coach. Jeff had gone over everything and test drove the coach and all was good, thank god. It drove great home with no coolant loss, no codes or warning lights. Should be good to go!

As to what went wrong? Discussed it for a long time today with Jeff. He examined the parts etc. the liners were not pitted much and there was no real cavitation. In the end he did not feel it was a coolant issue. Several of the people Jeff talked to and the DD shop feel it probably started with a bad casting on the head. Apparently there are several series of heads in the past that have shown a higher incidence of failure.

Thus the chain of failure is thought to be bad casting → eventual gasket failure → pressurization of the cooling system with coolant being pushed behind the liners and out the radiator overflow → sunk liner and pitting and erosion around #6 cylinder. If there is any luck its that the problem was picked up before any true cavitation or coolant contamination of the oil. Of interest is why it was so difficult to easily reproduce the problem. The coolant primarily would spill only when the bus was being driven with high turbo boost. That is only when the engine pressure would be high enough to push through the damaged area and pressurize the cooling system.

That’s about as much as I know and more than I understand! Thanks especially to Jeff Rowe and ETLC, Freightliner of Knoxville, Ken Arnold and everyone on PC who tried to help. Planning on not seeing Jeff Rowe again until the October seminar!

Chris

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Well said from a Liberty Coach Owner. Would’nt it be fun to pull into a nice camp site only to see a Country Coach owner fighting with thier full length gowns and slickers just to eat dinner. I am sure that would be a memorable moment that would make it’s way around the internet in a heartbeat. Viral – I think that is what that is called.

I think I will keep my full length closet for my gun and my wifes gowns.

[Ted]

Check out this site. It may have what you need.

ELREG

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Thanks Tom

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The only need Jeff has for the lift truck other than batteries is to get the donuts out of the back of the truck every morning…

When the boys come through the back door they have this white glaze looking stuff all over their Tshirts.

In case you haven’t been there lately, he is raising chickens out back where I use to park so he will have plenty of fresh eggs.

[Ted]

If you have the Kubota/Kohler 20kW genset, don’t worry about a little black smoke. They tend to run a little rich when they are under load. Check the air filter and the charge hose from the turbo to the intake fir cracks or leaks.

The exhaust for the genset runs across the bus and out the passenger side. The left side exhaust is the Webasto. You will find it in the key-locked bay on the driver’s side just forward of the radiator door.

[Ted]

Thanks Jon, I thought I was missing out on the fun stuff of this mystery switch but I guess not!

T & B

[Ted]

Karl, application of the retarder often triggers a downshift so the retarder will retard better. Like a Jake it is more effective at higher revs. This is the default programing of the Allison. I believe the auto-downshift can be cancelled by a programming flash. Since I prefer to downshift it myself, I’m going to look into it. Until then, at the top of a steep grade I slow to the speed I want to decend at, downshift manually, and then apply the retarder. Still I sometimes get an unwanted downshift, that brings my engine RPM higher than I want. At that point I usually shut off the retarder and let the bus upshift and then re-apply the retarder. That process often gets repeated a number of times on a long downslope.

p.s.: I run 6% and 7% grades while towing a Jeep pretty often and I try to keep the bus at around 45mph on a divided multi-lane highway because I feel I can safely stop in a reasonable distance with just the service brakes if necessary. I assume you will encounter 10% downgrades only on a two lane highway. My preference would be to stay at 35mph or under in those conditions, and even less if it’s twisty. As others have said, do not let other traffic on the road affect you. You set your comfort zone and then stay within it.

This is the steepest I’ve yet encountered:

[Ted]

Thanks Tom, wireing diagram shows high, low fan speed. I dont know what they are talking about