RE: DW won't drive
Unfortunately, my wife isn't tall enough to drive our Georgetown. The seats are too high off the floor (no height adjustment), they don't go far enough forwards, the pedal cluster doesn't move and the steering column isn't telescopic.
If I had the cash and the time, I'd go look for a retired Gillig transit coach and get the Recaro driver's seat and the double-jointed telescopic steering column to put in our rig. I'd also get the Ford power-adjusting pedal cluster from the Taurus or the F-series truck.
Our "get home" emergency system is a one-way airplane ticket for a son-in-law to fly out and drive us back.
RE: Refrig light
When the bulb in my frig light failed, I decided to get an LED version. It didn't occur to me that the "D" stands for diode. I installed it and it didn't come on.
I called the store and they said "put it in the other way round". I did so and the light came on.
RE: Misleading avertising/ignorant sales people
I'm afraid that there's a difference between "ignorant" and "fraudulent" that is often missed. We have a 32' gasser that we bought with no preconceptions about towing capability. The original owners didn't have a toad in the 9 years they owned it and, for the moment, neither do we.
It has a 5K hitch, and initially we thought we'd be able to tow our '03 Kia Sedona, which has a "curb weight" of 4800 pounds. The cost of adapting the Kia to flat towing was prohibitive (more than the damn thing is worth!), and a dolly that could support a 4800 lb. FWD vehicle is certainly going to weigh a lot more than the 200 pounds remaining on the hitch capacity. For the moment we're remaining toadless.
I'm still looking at ideas. It's "generally accepted" that Saturns can be flat towed without any mods. Can anyone confirm that the blanket statement also applies to the bigger L model? The LW wagon with the 3-liter V6 would make a damn good family (me, DW and two Labs) vehicle and, if it can be flat towed as delivered, it would be ideal, provided I can convince DW that buying a used car whose manufacturer has gone out of business isn't a dumb idea.
Comments appreciated.
BTW, I initially spelled "curb" how I'd always spelled it ("kerb"), but spell checker got all ticked off. I'm an ex-pat Brit, and after 45 years in the US, I get more confused now than when we first came over, by differences in our "common" language. Is "curb" the way it should be spelled? After all, "curb" means to limit something.
RE: I was going to de-winterize...
This part of Washington State (the usually wet side) will be bright and sunny for about a week, with temps approaching 80F over the weekend. I'll be de-winterizing today and getting ready to leave for the Oregon coast shortly.
RE: 460 exhaust manifolds
When we had our old rig with a 460, the chief mechanic at a local Ford place said "the reason the stock 460, with the Ford manifolds, blows exhaust gaskets is that it shouldn't have any. It should have the manifolds bolted directly to the heads with the type of fasteners specified by Ford. This is critical for proper heat transfer which is messed up by putting gaskets in".
He did relent on one specific type, from JC Whitney, that was annealed solid copper and came with specialised fasteners with locking heads.
RE: Tire question from a Newbee
It's a bit complicated, particularly with a tag-axle rig, but you really should weigh the rig when loaded for travelling. Get both front and rear weights separately and, if possible, pull off the scale forwards so that just the tag axle is weighed. It's a reasonable assumption that the weights side to side are close to equal, but you might just want to check at the scale by doing all left-side wheels on the scale, then all right side.
Once you know what weight each axle is supporting, you can get a weight per tire/recommended inflation pressure chart and inflate them appropriately.
As far as tire gauges go, I'd recommend one like I have. It's a Radio Shack digital gauge and is powered by the sir itself - no batteries required. I think Sears has the same model.
Welcome to the world of RV travelling.
RE: 460 exhaust manifolds
We ordered a set of Thorleys for our 85 460 when I was having the trouble with the Ford manifolds. When they arrived, we found the distance from the exhaust ports to the bottom pipe was about 4" too short and didn't go underneath the chassis cross member.
Thorley insisted they were the right p/n and wouldn't take them back. Eventually, the shop sold them to someone for a 460-powered car. Maybe Thorley is a bit more customer oriented these days. I sure wasn't impressed.
I had the Ford parts trued and re-installed. I sold the old clunker the following season.
RE: 1998 ford class A chassis Fuel injection???
IIRC, Ford went EFI in '91 or '92. My old '85 Class C 460 had a carburator (a French noun that means "leave well enough alone") and enough anti-smog gear to power a small town. Was I ever glad to get rid of that turkey!
RE: Propane to small grill
I've seen a few posts that suggest that the regulator for the MH isn't sensitive enough to control a small grill. One poster said he couldn't get his Weber Q220 down below 600 degrees!
I bought a "squatty" 10-pound tank that has the same size base ring as the more typical 20 pounders, and a Camping World base-retaining ring. I bolted the base ring in a cargo bay and carry the 10-pound tank in there. I don't fill tha tank, but have it filled to about 2/3 each time.
RE: Generator wont start
What brand of generator? If it's an Onan with a carburator, there's a drain screw that lets you drain the float-bowl for storage. That will tell you whether the pump is providing fuel. On my Onan, there's a diaphragm type fuel pump mounted on the RV's frame just below the shock-mounted platform the generator is mounted on.
BTW, mine won't run either - still puzzling over it. It starts, running very rich, then quits after a couple of seconds. I have the feeling that the float isn't floating any more, as the prime doesn't stop until I let go of the switch.
If it will stop raining for a few hours, I might be able to get back to work on it!
RE: 460 exhaust manifolds
When I was struggling with my old POS, I came across a set of special bolts and gaskets in the JC Whitney catalog. By the time I spotted them we'd aready had the repairs done and decided to sell.
RE: Memories
Grizz:
Does your "handle" mean you went to the University of Montana? We have a grand-daughter going there, doing a degree in wildlife management.
RE: 460 exhaust manifolds
A few years ago, we had a 26' Class C with a 460. Being complete uninformed idiots, we didn't know what we were getting into. We hadn't found this forum or irv2.com.
Within a few weeks we started to get manifold leaks. We took it to a local shop which was run by a former Ford dealer shop manager. He recommended headers, so we ordered a set from Thorley. They were totally wrong for our rig - we'd have had to bore a 3" hole in the transmission cross-member to get them to fit. Thorley insisted they were the right parts and refused to re-stock them. The shop chose to take them into stock at no charge to me.
We then spent the best part of $1300 to get the manifolds resurfaced an reinstalled. The mechanic said that gaskets should not be used, unless they were the soft copper gaskets from JC Whitney.
We had the manifolds re-installed without gaskets ahd they seemed to be OK. We were so pissed off by the quality and configuratiion of the rig, we sold it, at a significant loss, just to be rid of the POS.
After 7 years without an RV, we finally bought our current 32' Georgetown, an F53 with a V-10 and we're very happy with it. It gets 30% better gas mileage than the 26-footer, rides more gently, climbs the mountain passes much more athletically and is overall so much better.
RE: Stove Knobs - Accidental Pushing
On our stove you have the push the knob in, agaisnt a spring, to engage the mechanism that actually turns the gas on. I hadn't come across any where just pushing against them turns the gas on.
RE: new to rving
Beware of big V8 engines of that age with carburators and all the anti-smog junk. We started out with a 1985 26' Class C with a Ford 460. The best gas mileage I ever got was 6 mpg. I had problems with warped exhaust manifolds (about $1200 to fix).
Personally, I wouldn't consider a rig that wasn't either a diesel or had EFI.
RE: Onan 5.5 HJAB-901A starting problem
That wasn't the problem. I am puzzled by the fact that, when using the prime feature, the pump never shuts off until I let go of the switch. Since the spark-plugs were extremely black with carbon, I'm now wondering of the float valve is stuck open.
Carb off again today to check.
RE: Iowa Bill Aimed at RV Registration Fee Evasion
It's not so much the license tab fees that get you, but the sales tax. My bill when I transferred ownership on our $36,000 Georgetown in 2010 was well on the north side of $3,000, since we have an 8.2% sales tax. Annual tabs were $117 last month.
The latest idea our State pols have dreamed up is an additional "lost revnue" fee on electrics and hybrids. They're talking $100 a year on pure electrics and $75 a year on hybrids. This is because, though these vehicles use the highways, they aren't paying "enough" in gasoline taxes, which are the funding source for highway maintenance and construction.
RE: Never ending winter
In Anacortes (100 miles north of Seattle), it's been warm (high 50's F) for the last 5 days, with blue sky and sunshine and humidity hovering around 15%. At least a couple more days like it before we go back to NW grey and miserable, but it beats 80-knot winds and 4' of snow. I hope those Boeing execs who relocated corporate HQ to Chicago are enjoying the winter! It's something we retirees and those whose jobs stayed in the NW chuckle over every time we see the crummy winter weather there.
We have had no snow at all in Anacortes this winter, no daytime highs below freezing and only about 12 nights where the temp went lower than about 28F. We keep our snow in the ski areas mostly. Mount Baker (about 50 miles away) came close to getting its chairlifts buried again this season. It takes a bit over 12 feet, without much packing down, to do that.
Travel over the two lower Cascade passes was a bit messy in February, but not much more than usual. Our local pass (SR 20) closed in late October and probably won't get plowed clear until early June. The max elevation for the road is around 5200 ft.
RE: goofy , but true ?
You may run into the same problem in WA, as we have plates both front and back, but the tab is required to be on the rear plate.
I'd be concerned about putting high stress loads on the steering when towing backwards, unless you have a way of locking things up close to the wheels. I wouldn't want to rely on the steering column lock. I wouldn't want the steering to be free to move either!
