Vanman

Not based on the Ranger unless they cut the brake size in half. The Transit Connects used by several of the companies around here have lousy brakes, don't stop for beans even with a minimal load and the brakes need replacing often. All the guys I know who have one hate it with a passion for a variety of reasons. Companies are not getting any more and are trying to get out of the leases of the ones they have is what I hear. Ford never recovered from the choice to drop the Aerostar, thou GM did the same with the Astro van shortly after ford. That is why we see so many imported small and medium trucks around here, some have names I have never seen before. Friends with Rangers are holding on to them as they are pretty bulletproff and nothing comperable by the blue oval imported to the US.

I keep it at 40 mph in second and 15-20 in first, unless I really need the speed. I seem to remember mine shifting 2 to 3 at about 60. Air locker is a device installed in the rear end that locks up the diff, making the rear axles locked together, better than posi-traction but only good for very low speeds. I think the modern ones are not air powered but use 12 VDC and a switch on the dash. I would think there must be some form of interlocking to prevent the unit from coming active at inopportune times, but have not researched it that much yet. There is probably a more modern term for this also??

My owners book says max speed 29 MPH first, 54 MPH second gear. One way to check yours is to first warm everything up, check all fluids, hit a level highway, no wind. Stop then press it to the floor and watch what speed the trans picks to up-shift. Mine is higher then those speeds but, some reasonable safety margin baked in my Toyota. ECT on all the time yes. I only use the OD if, I have a tailwind, a long downhill run, I am gonna go 65 MPH or better. The first 2 are light load, relatively speaking, third is if full load need enough engine revs. Low speeds and OD it doesn't feel right on my rig. If I get the extra $$$ would like to modify rear end to lower the gear ratio and add an air-locker for those ocassional marginal traction situations.

When I got back from Les Schwab doing lots of work, I priced some of the parts on the 'net. Shocks and steering dampener were about double what I was charged, not so bad on the bushings and brake components. They did a good job and all in all, for $1300, I was ok with that. The labor was really cheap, I guess because the profit was in the parts mark-up. That may be one reason, they do not want to show how much they really charge for labor??

I did not think the shocks were bad on mine, no rebound bounce, but knew some suspension bushings needed replacement so I just had everything new front and rear and shocks also. Wow what a difference in the ride and steering, espically in crosswinds and sudden course corrections. also sway in bumps is reduced so much it's as if I put in a sway bar where there was none, but the sway bar was on it when I got it, no way of knowing if it's stock or not. Mine had 84 K miles on it when this was all done by Les Schwab, shoulda done it sooner. john

Mine is like that cause the door in not flat anymore. I found I had to use the thicker solid rubber strip insulation, even doubled up at the bottom. Use the same on the other side of the door where it hits the rv so when you open it there's no damage to the side of the RV. john

Went to the auto parts store for oil/filter for the Ford and the Toyota dealer is nearby so I stopped in and asked them what they put in my Toy when they did all the work and he said Dex III, what they put in all the old trucks. I still haven't decided what to go to but it is winter now and real, real cold so no hurry. The Dex Merc is cheap and the Mobile 1 is costly, others in between. john

Get one way too long and get a bunch of the metal clamps that go at the ends. Just keep shortening it till you're happy with the way it works. I did that on a canopy at the home and it's still working great. Eventually it will lose some strength and just shorten it a bit. john

Thanks !! I bookmarked that site and am doing that every time I turn this thing on. john

Is there anything we can put into the gas that would possibly help or extend the life of these components inside the gas tank without damaging something else??? john

This post got me checking mine, .14 VDC difference across truck / coach batts. Not ideal, but short of up-grading the wiring size from truck battery to isolator to coach battery I will live with that. john

True, except the one he has is a full-wave, that is if the schematic he posted is accurate. Old voltage doubler ckt from back when we were using tubes. Not many centertapped transformers around nowadays, mine was buzzing and running hot that's why I got the Progressive Dynamics. That sucker will charge both batteries at once, runs quiet and cool. Great up-grade. john

Noticed that on I-5 last month, some still fast but most going around 60. Tie-ups when one is passing another at a few mph more, stacks up the left lane with cars. I am going faster than most all the trucks but much slower than the cars. Especially on the way back, I'm careful not to get it too close to the floor and thought the weather was worse than it really was as when I got home discovered they had reversed the floormats, which cost me over 1/2 inch throttle pedal travel. I put it to the floor to see where I was and then backed off, tach and vacuum gages on the list, the evergrowing list. john

Ours were both damaged and the mountings leaking so we had them all removed. I think it looks much better. The roofs are not strong in these rigs, but I like the idea of access so I am gonna get me one of these from santa, http://www.amazon.com/Telesteps-1400E-10-5-Feet-Extension-Ladder/dp/B003YJLFCQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1384030698&sr=1-1&keywords=Telesteps+1400+ladder . Have used the telesteps at work and they are great, be wary of most of the cheaper imitations. Not nearly as well built, the one at the hardware store I looked at for less than half the price was unstable enough that I would not use it at all. Bonus is you will have access to the entire roof and will not have the some idiot trying to climb up "for a better view", stores easily in the back of the closet. john

Good work, nowadays large capicators are cheap, placed across the rectifier output will take out the ripple. Might make the lamps last longer, good for electronics. john

At that price I'd be wary, but you could buy 2 and carry as spare and still be $ ahead. When I was pricing the tail/brake LED lite package I had already got at the local auto parts store for $ 20 I found it for sale at RV stores on the internet for from $ 10 and change all the way up to $ 39!! so that range might fit the variance in that motor pricing. john

When we got ours the motor squealed like a stuck pig. The more it got used the quieter it became and now it never makes that noise anymore. WD-40 is mainly a solvent and water displacer and the solvent part will burn but it evaporates quickly. I use a lot of it to clean things but for penatrating lubrication I use corrosionX marine, and for dry film lube(specially locks) I like poxylube cp-200 dry film lubricant, both as hard to find as they are excellent and expensive. john PS wow almost forgot my other favorite ,(sold in hardware stores everywhere) made by Norvey called Zoom Spout finest all purpose turbine oil, comes in a handy plastic bottle with the extendable spout on the top.

Derek up North Is it just me and my computer? I used to be able to format posts using the Full Editor to do 'things' like change font size and colours. Can't change ANYTHING any more. Can't underline either! Nothing is 'clickable'. I can't either, Firefox 2.0.0.20 on OSX 10.2.8 this box is almost 11 years old, but still works, sorta..... john

Yes I would go after that. Sounds high to me, unless the current draw is really high that seems a bit much. I have replaced/repaired almost every connection made by the coachbuilder. What part is wired with a #10 wire? that's too small to be feeding your coach battery. What starts almost all electrical fires is arcing and in low voltage high current ckts connections are crucial. Go point to point with a digital meter and see if it's mostly one or two items or a slight drop at many places, don't forget to check the ground side too. john

Same with the Dolphins, truck made in Fremont, RV made in Souther Calif. Did a CarFax on ours. I saw a Winnabago on I think e-bay motors and it looked in great shape, but no generator. I was thinking about getting that and selling ours till the bidding went to a few dollars below 20,000$, at which point I said, we'll keep this one and fix it up. Had no idea how entensive or expensive that would end up, but I need this floorplan and there are very few like ours. Model 400, where the captains chair was is now a birdcage. I didn't do all this work to anything other than keep using it for many years. Spent 3 hours on it today after we got back from our day trip. I wouldn't sell it for a penny less than 20 K$, which is a lot less than I got in it. I'm to the point where it mostly for appearence items now. john

Just the big bills I got 21,000 in mine, just a guess but several thousands in small stuff, new converter etc. I'm not in a position to do anything major to mine myself, so I have to pay others. But now I am getting comments about it almost every day, since the coach got painted, looks like new. In the park today they were taking pictures and peeking inside and were suprised to find " there's people in there!" Funny, but the to-do list is still there.

Oh boy, I had a chart that showed what the numbers mean and how to compare. But it seems now I have lost it. and failed to bookmark where I got it. This is giving me a headache. Think I'll sit on this a while. john

Well, numbers, numbers, what's the rite number. I tried to add the numbers I got off a Valvoline PDF for MaxLife fully synthetic (red bottle) in black after your numbers. This is what the tech at Ashland oil recommended for my Toy, said it was their best. Hope this post works, the formatting changes from the editor to the final post,at least on my computer. My original post was edited many times to try to get the rows to line up in the final post. john

If the isolator is the relay type usually it's wired to the truck battery on one side and the coach battery on the other. There should be a ckt breaker at the truck battery, usually not done by the coach builder. Usually the side of the isolator that goes to the ckt breaker goes to the coach battery, there may or not be another ckt breaker at the end of that wire at the coach battery. Search the index, either waiter or Maineah has posted an neat basic wiring diagram of our Toys. john

That is exactly the way my 91 Dolphin came, looks factory to me, but I did change the speakers to Infinity's. john