[tom]

Here is another opinion on brake lights coming on with retarder-jake use.

The person following you knows your braking when seeing your brake lights. All other is slowing down with a brake light on and hoping the person tailgating you understands.

I pulled my relay long ago for jake brake lights.

[tom]

This is the short version………..

Tom and I and several others were founding members of POG. It was created to be a private forum for owners who wanted the freedom to say what they wanted about suppliers, converters and service companies as well as a place we as friends could have conversations not open to the world at large.

The site went through two ownership changes and the present owner used a heavy hand and censored some discussions because he was afraid it would piss off some advertisers, which defeated the original purpose of the group.

Tom and I and several other original POG members also at about that time came to realize as the various Prevost clubs or groups were formed it fragmented the owners to the point where no single group had the numbers to negotiate for programs such as PC offers. Also no other group is free. Not that $100 will put anyone into bankruptcy, but it is a limiting factor in reaching all Prevost enthusiasts. So when we were unable to convince the owner of POG to create what PC gas become using Prevost Stuff as the base we told the owner we would do it with Prevost’s blessing and encouragment.

That pissed him off because he rakes in a bunch of money from folks that want to talk on the POG forum so he immediately jerked both Tom and I around, even though we were both dues paying members who just wanted a platform open to all Prevost enthusiasts, not a site that siphons members from any other site. We continue to want PC to be a supplement to any group or club. In a short period of time we found ourselves non-members and speaking personally I am past caring about POG but continue to be amused at how we are still viewed as the enemy.

Tom may wish to add to this but we have such a large and strong membership that POG is tiny compared to our site that I don’t believe the mention of POG is a threat. For what it worth we have influenced POG greatly because POG no longer is quick to censor legitimate conversations about advertisers so the tail is now wagging the dog.

[tom]

There are a couple of Google ads at the top, but everything else I get is from PC. I guess that’s just the cost of using Googles service. Beats the old search by a mile!

[tom]

Greg,

I use my iPad 2 almost exclusively and apart from the text being a character or two behind what I am actually typing, I have had no issues. I am on 7.x.x rather than 8.x

[tom]

Davy I may have new Aqua hot at my business in Canada that was in motorhome that was in bad wreck my brother said it did not get hurt if it is good you can have it I will check on it to see if it is good and when we might be able to have it waiting on the insurance company to decide what they are going to do

[tom]

Ron… Maybe the new 4 slide guys need more A/Cs … we all know we can’t run everything on 50 amps in the heat of the day !! LOL

Cheers, Diane

[tom]

They are $99.50 with free shipping and no tax on Ebay… ebay search Progressive SSP50 and several will come up.

Diane

[tom]

Not certain, but I believe the 4 green lights are an indication that the shore power wiring is good, but I doubt there is any surge protection. So if you get a bad surge while hooked to shore power, you’re not protected.

I also use an external surge protector what will sacrifice itself and keep the bus from getting fried.

If the Marathon 4 green light gizmo is also a surge protector, that would be good to know.

[tom]

Great idea will do, thanks

[tom]

Maybe connect another fuel pump of some kind to the line that comes from the fuel tank to your genny pump, this should draw fuel through the filter.

Disonnect the line and attach to the new pump and see if you are getting fuel from the tank through the line.

Any kind of pump you can connect to the fuel line and try to draw fuel through.

Maybe get on the line where it goes into the filter so you can draw straight from the fuel tank.

If that fails try blowing air through the line back towards the tank, careful with the air pressure, then see if you can hear air bubbles in the tank. Maybe line is stopped up.

[tom]

I really don’t care if something is a “profit center disguised as a forum”. I really don’t care if I pay $100 a year or access is free because of the business model allows it to be “free”. Anything half ways decent always costs something; someone if paying the freight for all this infrastructure. I wouldn’t log in the PC form almost every day if I wasn’t finding the information to be of value. The market potentional for regular users is pretty small, even if measured in the thousands. So regardless of how the infrastructure gets paid for, I’m blessed and fortunate the forums exist.

Without the forums I would have never attended the All Prevost Show in Tampa and learned a ton, I would never have crossed paths with Camper Joe who early on in our search help educate me on some subtle differences between the converters I would never have figured out myself, I would never have found Jeff Rowe made our purchase of a Prevost coach a success versus what could have been a disaster, and without the forums I wouldn’t be in a position to leave at least one new thing about Prevost coaches almost every day!

Without the forums I would have probably bought a problem riddled coach and by now have dropped it on myself and be only a fading memory to my friends and family.

[tom]

Charles,

Like you I have a Ram 2500 with the Cummins and a 4X4 with the 6 speed manual. It weighs 7600 pounds.

I have gone to great pains to avoid the tow bars that slide into the receiver on the bus because there is no way I can keep the tow bar level. So I am using a Roadmaster all terrain 10,000 pound tow bar that mounts to a base plate I made that mounts to the tow hooks on the truck. On the coach I am using a 10,000 pound adjustable height ball hitch so when the truck is connected to the coach the tow bar sits level. I have a similar set up for the H2 Hummer we usually tow.

I realize it is not typical to use tow bars that drop over a ball on the rear of the coach since the trend has been to keep the tow bar mounted on the bus so the toad doesn’t have that ugly hitch on the front when it is not being towed, but the tow bar manufacturers all used to make it a very important point to insist the bar be kep level when towing, something not possible with bus mounted tow bars that slip into the receiver.

[tom]

The following free advice is worth every cent you paid for it.

The leans are common, and if the bus always leans the same way every time the specific part of the system the air leak is located is able to be identified. The leak in your case is going to be somewhere from the 5 port Norgren valve that controls that side of the coach back to the tag axle air bag. If you are lucky a few minutes with soapy water will show you the leak, it can be fixed and the problem solved.

But if that actually happens you should immediately run out and buy a lottery ticket.

Cold weather begins to show the effect of leaks faster than warmer weather. This is the time of year when coaches that were fine during the summer are going to start leaning or having air pressure start dropping faster than normal. You are now experiencing that.

If your proposed service provider is capable of explaiining to you where the leak is likely to be isolated, and he understands and can explain to you the difference between a five port Norgren valve and a ride height valve, and he can explain the purpose or function of each in your bus system, by all means bring the coach to him. But if he cannot do that you have to understand he will be vacuuming Benjamins out of your wallet while he receives on the job training.

Soapy water will never find all your leaks. Never ever. To find the leaks it takes a methodical approach which includes soapy water among other methods. If your air bags and valves are 10 years old or more you also need to recognize that it might be far more cost efficient to renew your suspension with new air bags and valves rather than play whack-a-mole chasing leaks on a system that is going to have them popping up from now on.

The answer to the question is a 5 port Norgren valve in your coach locks air into the suspension when the key is off, and when the key is on it is the gateway for air flow from the ride height valves to your air bags, or it becomes the flow path to add or exhaust air from the air bags for leveling. The ride height valve as the name implies controls the height of the coach when you are driving.

[tom]

Chuck: Is there any reason why you didn’t go with the Guest 2613A vs the Guest 2611A? The 13A is 20 amps and the 11A is only 15 amps.

I think I just answered my own question …. the 20amp 2613A will be available in Q1 2015.

Chuck and everyone else:

The chassis batteries were not strong enough to start the engine on Saturday. The coach has whatever Liberty put in for a chassis battery charger back in 1999 (Megnetek or something like that). Ran the generator for over 2 hours and the gauge said the batts went up only 2 volts. Fan not running on the charger. Jeff Rowe said it was probably junk, called it a boat anchor, and to replace it with a Guest. So we’re going to hook an old Buick onto the thing and pull it out of the engine compartment.

Using the PC search skills that Tom taught me I’ve read quite a bit about chassis battery chargers. Guest is the most popular, at least one owner is using the popular Battery Tender brand (someone doesn’t like Battery Tender because its charging voltage is too high), and another owner says only the IOTA brand will protect our buses from burning to the ground (inspite of I think Tom or Jon saying that if a Guest sets our coaches on fire we can beat the fecal matter out of him).

It looks like all the Guest chargers are now Mariner chargers.

I’ve also concluded that most if not all of these chargers have 12 volt output leads and if you need 24 volt charging you use two pair to get to 12 volts. I wonder why they don’t have actual 24 volt leads.

So … I’m going to order a Guest 2611A , I can’t/don’t want to wait until the higher capacity chargers come out in early 2015. I am just a little bit concerned that the instruction manuals for 2611A and the ones coming out in 2015 make lots of references to “trolling motors” and I’m going to install these on in a Liberty Prevost Motorhome. I would be much happier if the referenced “trolling motors”, large boats and small yacts, luxury motorhomes, and Prevost motorhome conversions.

Also it appears the Guest doesn’t have a cooling fan where I think the IOTA has a fan and the boat anchor I currently have has a fan. Not having a fan a problem?

Am I headed down the right path on this? What do the rest of you think?

Dick

PS: I noted in the instructions that charger should not be installed over the batteries or hung from the ceiling (like my current charger is). Fumes from the batteries could damage the charger and hanging from the ceiling doesn’t allow for proper airflow. Either or both of those situations could have resulted in the fires referenced above and in other threads.

[tom]

Jerry, see Tom & Bill’s post today under General Disscussions/Sales Tax and Coach Licensing.