RE: Tell me about horsepower. :)
Well I've followed this for a couple pages and hope I am addressing the crux of what might be causing the confusing aka throwing Sallyco on this.
Sallyco, if you ever look at a HP chart for an engine it goes up and down depending upon how many RPM's your engine is turning. When these folks advertise the HP numbers for their engines they advertise the peak or top number it can produce no matter how good, bad, enjoyable or unenjoyable the circumstances to produce that number.
So your gas motor produces HP at idle but not peak or top HP. It might be producing 30HP when idling. To get to the top HP your engine needs to be running at 4000RPM. Sorry if I dumb it down too much but 4000 RPM is basically how fast your engine is turning when it kicks down into passing gear and you pull past someone on the freeway. It sounds like it is working hard and it is working hard.
Now the problem between the two engines is what sort of HP your gas engine generates at the RPM that is most comfortable for you to drive it in, say 2000-2500 RPMs. At this RPM it will not be producing 230 RPM. It might only be producing 130-150 HP.
So now the diesel engine, it produces 250 HP as the top or peak HP and does so at 2500 RPM or so which as you hopefully understand is more of a cruising RPM.
So if you are driving both down the freeway pulling the same trailer at 2500 RPM while cruising in overdrive, your gas vehicle might be producing 130-150 HP and his diesel will be producing 250 HP. So your vehicle WILL feel like it isn't getting as much done because it isn't. It can if you want to hit the gas to the floor, kick it down into a lower gear and have the engine rev up to 4000 RPM but most people don't think having your engine revving that high all the time is a very enjoyable way to drive. It basically sounds like it is working too hard and wearing itself out too fast. It sounds like you are trying to pass someone all the time.
So his Powerstroke feels like it is "kicking butt" because it produces all the power of which is it capable of producing right in the sweet spot of where you want to drive.
Your engine "sounds taxed" because at the same sweet spot, it is probably producing much less HP than the peak. Instead of 230, likely 130-150 HP. To get it to produce the maximum HP you have to knock it out of the sweet spot of cruising at 2500 RPM in overdrive and knock it up to 4000 RPM in drive. It will be producing close to the same power, but as you noted it "sounds taxed" because it is revving so high.
Hope this helped.
RE: Ipod use in RV and when camping
My wife subscribed to a service that lets her download two audiobooks per month. She doesn't get to all of them when we are home but man are they enjoyable for the long drives on the road. We polished off a very nice murder mystery that clocked in at around 12 hours last trip.
Nick
RE: 1971 Winnebago - Help!
First, I don't have any real pics yet but do appreciate the links especially to the group for Winnies where I downloaded and kept several ideas I am stealing for my own.
I will agree with the previous post. I had the pressurized air system but it was so bad off I dumped it and put in a new fresh water tank that is plastic.
I also had a garage go through through the brakes and though it was expensive totally worth it. I'll trust myself with many things, but if I screw up with brakes myself or others could be at risk.
RE: 1971 Winnebago - Help!
I happen to have a 1971 Winnebago sitting in my driveway that I have been working on and fixing up since summer. As others mentioned, there really isn't a manual available. In mine I have had to mix and match from current RV parts and mobile home parts because most of the plumbing is metal for example instead of plastic. I had to craft a fresh water inlet and replace the steel water tank because it was dust. My inverter would no longer autoswitch so now it has a manual switch for example.
As for whoever claimed we've come so far, I'm always shocked at how little has changed. I mean except for slides, most of this stuff is exactly the same only made out of real wood and in more garish colors.
Have fun figuring it out and tell your friend that is part of the fun. Also remember that you can't really make a mistake and even if you do, what has been lost in terms of monetary value, not much.
So you want to see what is behind a cabinet, take it out. You want to replace it, then replace it.
On mine I am proud to note that after taking out the burner assembly and cleaning it in alcohol, my ORIGINAL propane fridge works.
Now if I could just figure out that furnace, I would be set.
RE: Older with low miles vs. new...update!
I had to replace the transmission in my 1992 Chevy 2500. I had a GM factory transmission with three year warranty installed for $2300 including labor.
Someone is seriously trying to screw you over.
RE: 3000W Chinese Gensets Info.
Long time lurker who finally decided to chime in with my own experience. I own the Champion C46540 purchased at Kragen Auto here in California approximately 18 months ago. It was "broken in" almost the very first day due to the circumstances that necessitated purchasing it.
We have a membership at a private campground and a couple times each summer the one and only main power line that runs up the mountain fails. This means we facing late August heat with no air conditioning and also no pool within the campground because the filter cannot clean it with no power. So when this happened two summers ago, I drove down the hill, purchased this generator and "broke it in" by running it ten hours the first day in August heat.
Since then it has traveled to Glamis Dunes several times where it is run in an extremely hot, dusty and dirty environment for around four days per trip. Each day the generator ran around four to five hours.
In 18 months this thing has run beautifully. Maintenance has consisted of simply changing oil and occasionally blowing out the silt/dust that seems to penetrate certain components when spending so much time out in the dunes.
Honestly I could not imagine having a "factory" generator in my travel trailer, even if such a thing were available. First of all this generator really sips gas and runs on pump gas. Everyone else I wander out to the dunes with complains quite loudly about their toyhaulers having to share the fuel in the fueling station with the generator. (Running 91 octane for a generator doesn't really gain you much)
The second point is it seems any time you need someone to touch something inside your motorhome or trailer, and the quality seems worse than ever, the costs go through the roof.
So needless to say being a minimum of a couple hundred hours in on a very inexpensive generator that has been run very hard, in terms of environmental conditions, I am profoundly happy.
If they ever manage to knock a few more decibels off this things in terms of noise output, I couldn't imagine being able to find them anywhere.
