canman47

I'm a little late jumping in here but I had to get new cables made for my class A motor home and had some excellent cables made at custombatterycables.com. He has all the tools to do it right including an industrial crimper. You just can't do that right yourself. I was told never to use welding wire on a motor vehicle. It makes good jumper cables but apparently the insulation is not resistant to automotive oils and greases. Also isn't 6 gauge a little light? I used 2 gauge.

Wear would make the valve clearance looser. In 40 years of wrenching on engines I've almost never seen one tight more than a thousandth. That typewriter sound you hear from old Toyotas is loose valves. How could they get tighter unless somebody adjusted them wrong?

It's very close to the wiper motor and usually gets it's signal from the same wire. Usually silver can with 3 wires.

I had the exhaust burn the spare in my Apollo motor home. You hate to see that on a new $150 tire. That picture sure looks like it's too close.

I guess I'll have to look at one with a spare underneath. It seems like my propane line runs right across where a spare could go. Did U haul use this chassis for moving trucks?

Quite an impressive project Derek. Must have been pretty exciting when the body ignited right next to the gas filler! That was the spare tire solution I was thinking about since I've owned older Toyota p-ups with that. Dont really want to reroute the exhaust and propane though. Do you worry about exceeding GVW? I have a very low payload limit.

Thanks Linda, I see the Hankook has a higher speed rating so maybe a better tire? I'm wondering if I want to keep my best old tire for a spare if I can even get another wheel. They're getting pretty old. And where would I put it?

Well I took my third trip in the Spirit and experienced my first shredded tire. I was wondering how I would handle this since Winnebago in their wisdom didn't make any provision for a spare. I took off the blown dual and aired up the other one to it's 65psi max and drove real easy. Of course I was 40 miles from the nearest town and of course it was Sunday so there were no tire stores open. I made it the 200 miles home at 50 mph. Do other people add a spare somehow? The tires were nearly new but the DOT code says they were made in 2003 so I guess tires really do go bad from age. A quick look on line showed few choices in tires that size. Mostly Chinese companies I've never heard of. I see some no name tires for around $50 but can those be trusted? I can't afford a flat with no spare. I see Yokohama at Tire Rack for $100 which is a name I've at least heard of. I see the sticker on the door says 6 ply tires but I wouldn't go less than 8( load range D) I read the other recent tire thread but it was mostly about beer which was entertaining but not that helpful.

So today the AC will run on the generator. The only difference is that it's much cooler today. When it was stalling the generator it was 107 in the shade and much hotter in the sun baked RV. Today it's only 85 which is a freak cold spell here in the Sacramento Valley. Does that make sense? Lacking any high current reading meter I used the smart meter on my power pole. I don't think it can read the surge start current but I briefly saw 1800 watts and then it dropped to 1400. I'm going to go ahead and replace or add a capacitor since it's 22 years old. So I guess I can use the AC as long as it's not too hot!

Oops, yes it's a Kohler. Onan is my other RV.

The generator is an Onan 2.5CMZ. It's rated at 20.8 amps. Seems like maybe that's not enough to start this AC. Does the hard start capacitor reduce that load or just the duration of the load? I'm going to get an inductive ammeter. I've wanted one anyway. The Kill-a-Watt sounds like a good thing to have too. Thanks for all the info. This site is a great resource.

The generator is 2.5kW. My shore power is a 20 amp circuit at home which seems to run the AC ok. The AC is small - just 7100btu and Coleman specifies a 20 amp fuse so a 20 amp circuit should be safe. I think I'll get one of those Kill a Watt meters but it sounds like I could burn it up if the AC is pulling too much current. The booster start capacitor looks promising. Have others here tried that?

My roof AC runs on shore power but it won't run on the generator. It almost stalls the generator every time the compressor tries to start. The generator is supposed to handle a 13,000 btu AC and this one's only 7,100 so it shouldn't be overloaded. Volt meter shows 120V output which drops to 80 when the compressor tries to start. Could it be a start capacitor or something else?

Mine came with air bags but they are blown out probably from being run flat. I don't think the previous owner knew they were there. Is it worth replacing them? The manual for them said that they do not increase load capacity, just increase stability.

I just got these messages in a "Daily Digest". I guess I selected that when I joined. It's under Notifications in Settings. When you start a topic the default setting is to "Follow this topic" which I take to mean that you will be notified of new comments. But that rarely happens so I don't even know what that selection does. It's really not that big a deal since this site doesn't have hundreds of daily comments. Just trying to understand the features that would be useful to me.

When I start a new topic the default setting is to "Follow this topic" so that should be automatic it seems. I have received a daily digest e mail 2 or 3 times but it's not consistent. I've been just logging in and rechecking my posts but that's a pain if you have several threads going at once.

Still not sure if my isolator is failing. It's charging the coach battery so maybe just leave well enough alone. But as I said when the coach battery was pretty low I read 14 volts on the start terminal and 11 on the coach terminal. To my simple thinking if it's just a set of contacts then it should read close to the same on each side minus a tiny voltage loss through the contacts but not 3 volts. Am I wrong? With the batteries fully charged there's only a tenth of a volt loss.

OK, stupid oversight on my part. I took apart the burner and cleaned it and the orofice and blew everything out but still a very small burner flame. Then I noticed the inlet shutoff valve which was mounted with the handle behind the pipe so hard to see. Turns out it was 90% closed! All is good now but the manual says to clean the flue baffle once a year. Do you access that from the roof? The manual says to do stuff but doesn't say how to do it or even provide a picture.

By the way I've read reviews of Tekonsha relays being sold on Amazon that are Chinese counterfeits that have blown apart creating dangerous short circuiting.

Still not sure if the isolator is bad or not. The coach battery is charging so maybe just leave well enough alone. I disconnected the 2 battery connections and started the engine. Seems to me there should be close to 0 ohms across the terminals when the closing coil is activated but I read infinite. Maybe the start battery lead needs to be connected to power the coil? Anyway when running with slightly discharged coach battery there is a .12 voltage drop across the isolater. Normal?

I keep finding electrical problems. First time driving at night and I realize the dome light in the cab isn't working. Bulb is good, all fuses are good but no + voltage to the fixture.

Hmm, My lamp is drawing 4.5 amps so something is wrong. I know about the pump recirculating but wouldn't I hear that? Seems like the wire from switch to pump. The wiring is in the shower wall so pretty hard to get to that.

Thanks. Now that you mention it I remember cleaning the orifice on my older Dometic fridge and that fixed it. It was simple on that one but this one is more complex so I guess I'll be looking fo the manual.

My Dometic fridge freezes everything solid on 110V but on gas it's 40 degrees no matter where I set the thermostat. I guess the thermostat is bad unless something else can cause poor cooling. Can I get and replace that myself? The beer is not quite cold enough.

So how much of a pain is it actually to replace the alternator on a 92 V6 with all the accessories? Mine is still charging fine but it's making noise like bearings. It is original so after 22 years it might be time. Does the radiator have to come out?