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RE: Class A Motorhome Gasser
Production of 8.1 liter GM motor continued until 2009 according to online sources, parts available at workhorseparts.com or ultrarvparts.com, actually same company that specializes in all things workhorse/8.1 liter engine.
Four years ago we purchased our current class A with 8.1 liter/Allison 2100 tranny, it has been bulletproof thus far. We live NW of Albuquerque at 6K' elevation and coach robustly handles mountain driving, easy to maintain powertrain.
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Sandia Man
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05/17/23 12:28pm |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: Holiday Rambler anyone?
Back in the day Holiday Ramblers were well built and well received, can't speak for today's version but I would believe they compete well with other brands newest offerings, go for it as any issues should be taken care of under warranty.
As for the gas versus diesel debate looks like human nature and the need to feel superior strikes again. Don't let them fool you, we live at 6K' elevation and our 40' Monaco gasser handles the mountains fine, even my wife loves to drive it.
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Sandia Man
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05/15/23 09:27am |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: Durango to Angel Fire
Just as stated above, down 550 to 64, east across top part of NM to Taos. We have done it both directions in our 40' Monaco, beautiful drive and not any noteworthy issues if you are accustomed to driving in the mountains. We live at 6K'elevation NW of Albuquerque and nearly always travel at elevation and on winding mountains roads, we love RVing in Taos and travel frequently to the enchanted circle towns of Eagle Nest, Angel Fire, and Red River from Albuquerque area.
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Sandia Man
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05/04/23 08:43pm |
Roads and Routes
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RE: 2019 coleman 264RL tire pressure?
ST tires are not to be filled based on weight as you would on passenger and LT tires, they perform best at max psi and that is the way we filled our ST tires for 3 decades of towing fifth wheels and travel trailers. With all the issues online and on forums about ST tires, we NEVER had a blowout across 4 different RVs and roughly 100K mile across the 30 year span. Below excerpt is from Tire Track website.
Special Trailer (ST) Tire Maintenance
Allowing inflation pressure to drop can dangerously overload a trailer tire, resulting in excessive heat buildup and possibly a blowout. And while not always resulting in immediate tire failure, even a short period of operating a significantly under-inflated trailer tire can cause hidden internal structural damage that can result in tire failure. Tire load capacity is reduced while tread/sidewall deflection and heat buildup are increased anytime a tire is operated without enough inflation pressure to carry its load. The chance of failure greatly increases if trailer tires are underinflated or overloaded.
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Sandia Man
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05/03/23 05:10pm |
Travel Trailers
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RE: Typical price for Class A tire mounting and balance
I see you have a 2018 motorhome, are the Michelin tires worn out or exhibiting sidewall cracking. I mention this because the original owners of our class A said that after 5 years they had to change out factory mounted Michelin 22.5" tires for excessive sidewall cracking although tires had just 15K miles. They also put on Toyo M154 tires and no cracking visible after 8 years, they still rode smooth and quiet.
Just over a year ago we paid about the same as above poster Yankee Clipper, our 22.5 inch Toyo M154 tires were $360 each and $50 to mount and balance. I shopped around online and from motorhometires.com, they were all much higher than local offerings. I could not readily source tires for our 40' motorhome locally although many tire stores claimed to, finally asked a local mobile RV tech, I would imagine Tampa Bay or nearby regions will have a few.
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Sandia Man
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04/18/23 08:51pm |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: Full Time Motorhome
Initially when we were looking for our current RV roughly 4 years ago, the search occurred after three plus decades of RVing in TTs, 5ers, and toyhaulers, we did not consider motorized RVs since we still had a stout truck to pull with. Many of the TTs and 5ers had stackable washer and dryers although they were not a priority for us. After a year or so it appeared my DW was losing interest in our quest for an RV for extended stays and couples living as our kids are grown and out on their own.
We still had our 36' toyhauler although we don't bring along the toys much since kids don't come often, we were not in any rush to buy. At RV shows, once in a blue moon we would walk through some class A rigs never considering them as a future purchase. Limited headroom and maintenance/upkeep of another powertrain were primary factors in avoiding them. For us 5ers provided the best interior space but my DW was growing tired of going up steps to access bathroom & bedroom.
We both are enamored with the RV lifestyle and wanted to continue enjoying our RV excursions, now with trips suited for our adult oriented interests. As we continued to look for a rig for our next phase of RVing, we went to an RV storage yard to look at another 5er but owner could not make it due to an emergency. While there at the storage lot we saw a man with a class A preparing for his next trip, in reality he was getting ready to sell his coach and asked if we wanted to take a look.
Well, we did look at his class A diesel although we did not purchase. What I did notice was my DW was all of a sudden heavily interested in getting our next RV, and that lead to researching all things class A. My advice is take your time and drive/view as many coaches as you can. We had to go to neighboring states to widen our prospects, we went open minded and looked at both diesel and gas class A rigs. Over 2 dozen rigs and 18 months later we acquired our 40' triple slide class A coach.
As with any class of RV, floorplan is a major deciding factor. With motorized RVs another major consideration is powertrain and chassis. Like everything in life, there are pros and cons to every powertrain and chassis regardless of cost. Go in open minded, do as much research as possible, the blanket statements made on RV forums are simply farcical at times, and certainly not 100% accurate. We did our due diligence when looking for our coach, 3 years and 25K miles later it has been a blast and issue free.
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Sandia Man
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04/05/23 03:00pm |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: Deming New Mexico to Albuquerque on hwy 26?
They say 3 times the charm, no worries for any size RV as we have been through that route with our 5er, TTs, toyhauler, and currently our 40' class A with GMC SUV toad attached. Great time and mileage saver plus eliminates the hassle of going through often crowded Border patrol checkpoint north of Las Cruces.
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Sandia Man
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03/25/23 02:45pm |
Roads and Routes
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RE: DISH Network Issues
Yeah, happened to me last weekend. Normally just use MyDish app but had to call in to get one receiver of the 2 we have onboard pinged. Surprisingly it took about 15 minutes for them to wake up bedroom receiver, my DW had to go without her bedroom TV for a day as we thought our automated dome was just being finicky. They explained their app and online issues were due to their systems being hacked, they apologized profusely and thanked me for our patience. Wouldn't have noticed as Hopper and Joey receivers working fine at home, they indicated they did not know when app or online systems would return to normal.
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Sandia Man
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03/22/23 06:02pm |
Technology Corner
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RE: New from Texas
Welcome aboard, congrats on your new Grand Design TT, hope you have a great maiden voyage.
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Sandia Man
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02/28/23 02:32pm |
Travel Trailers
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RE: class A safety
Well, I can see your beef with your class A rig if driving above 50 mph causes the dreaded white knuckle effect. When shopping for our current class A we viewed/drove 2 dozen units across 4 states over 2 years, whether diesel or gasser, they all did relatively fine at 50-65mph, no white knuckle events, of course this is in fair weather conditions.
When we picked up our Monaco gasser first summer of pandemic a few years ago, we had to drive through record breaking Texas heat back home to NM. We drove the entire way at 65-80mph. Before this purchase I had never drove a 40' long, 13' high, 9'wide, square block down the road (towing 5K# GMC toad) at highways speeds, all things considered it was a pretty smooth and uneventful ride home.
Only issue which significantly affects our ride quality is high winds, rain is no issue, but we experience crazy wind during our Springs here in NM. After hearing your improved ride quality results with installed rear trac bar, it definitely has me thinking of adding one as Springtime is nearly upon us. We still have factory Bilsteins and bump stops, probably get around to changing them out this year too.
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Sandia Man
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02/28/23 12:09pm |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: MH used newer or older
X2 on what Chum Lee stated, do as much research on the various powertrains available for class A rigs and get out and view/drive as many coaches as you can get your hands on. We took our time and looked at coaches in surrounding states eventually driving nearly 1K miles to purchase our 40' class A.
These type of queries will get responses in favor of the rigs currently owned by responders, just good ole human nature and our need to feel superior. Not to mention some of the blanket statements that are simply farcical, best to take responses with a grain of salt, don't rush and enjoy the experience.
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Sandia Man
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02/23/23 11:57am |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: 1/2 Inch Drive Corded or Battery Impact Wrench
X2 on cordless 1/2 inch impact wrench, Santa brought me a Rigid last Christmas and already tackled a few projects on our class A with astounding ease. Sure gave my right arm quite a work out as it is pretty heavy, but removing bolts that would have required serious muscle, literally in seconds, don't know why I did not get one sooner. Tried the electric AC driven 1/2 inch and it just did not have the torque, probably why I didn't pull the trigger on the 20 volt version sooner thinking they have similar power. These newer batteries hold power for long periods of time, more than likely you will still have plenty of power remaining in the battery when called into service.
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Sandia Man
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02/11/23 01:03pm |
General RVing Issues
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RE: Slides out or autolevelers down first?
Although our Monaco owner's manual states slides should be deployed first, I go by how out of level our coach is at the site we are currently in. If we are somewhat level I may deploy slides first, but more often than not, we level rig first. Once level our slides go out smoothly without drama from slide motors. When unlevel slides still move in and out fine, but our longer, heavier living/dining slide sure lets us know that being out of level is not ideal circumstances for drive motor.
On our rig slides can not be manipulated when engine is running, thereby they are normally deployed off house batteries which is an easy task with our 4 GC2 6 volt jars. Our power gear levelers however can be manipulated with or without motor running as long as auto park brake is set. Occasionally after we have leveled upon arrival, levelers may dig in and lose initial level after a couple of days. Again, with slides already deployed, we hear that the larger slides in main cabin don't appreciate the movement of the levelers while raising/lowering coach.
What does all that say, we do what we think is best for our rig depending on the scenario we are currently experiencing. Coming from an engineering/technical background, and working with various leading edge OEMS, you cannot simply duplicate every environment in which your equipment can be used. Also spent a few years writing both owners and service manuals, believe me not everything stated in a manual is rigorously tested for every imaginable scenario. I imagine RV engineers do their best, RV mfgs just to cheap to employ better designs.
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Sandia Man
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02/11/23 12:37pm |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: snap pads
The process was easier than we expected, a bit of liquid dish soap and a helper to engage levelers while I set snap pads in place. One of the very first mods we did when getting our class A a couple of years ago, we have been 20K miles since their install and they have stayed on without issue. They are a bit pricey, but as we are getting up in years, having to to place leveling pads upon arrival and retrieve them when departing was a hassle we no longer deal with.
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Sandia Man
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12/30/22 11:03am |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: No LP to the stove top.
Appliances that utilize propane are at times difficult to fire up, particularly when propane supply has been turned off for extended periods of time. Under this scenario in many cases air needs to be purged from LP supply lines before appliances will ignite. After turning on propane at tank, I turn burners on let air in lines purge lighting stove when I detect propane coming from burners, doesn't take long.
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Sandia Man
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11/04/22 09:47am |
Class C Motorhomes
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RE: Traveling to California
Going down I-10 will have less issues with mountains and higher elevations compared to I-40, although I-40 is not by any means difficult to travel unless their happens to be a storm moving through AZ or NM. From Austin I would more than likely utilize I-10 for most of this rather long trek, lots to see on the way if you have time, happy travels.
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Sandia Man
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11/04/22 09:35am |
Roads and Routes
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RE: My generator may not be repairable, what do I do?
Even if you find this part, older Onan gennies can be troublesome, particularly if they have not been used much. It could be quite tasking to get it to run smoothly since their carbs tend to gum up easily, some have luck cleaning them, most times a new one has to be ordered.
Portable gennies is another route to take, inverter versions run quieter, provide cleaner power, and are more fuel efficient. We have a Champion 3K watt inverter genny with electric and remote start, easily powers our single AC unit and most 120Vac items on our 30 amp rig at the same time.
Being new to RVing do you plan to have power hookups most of the time, or is your preferred method primarily off the power grid? Two (or 4) house batteries will better serve your needs for off grid camping, we use 6 volt GC2 batteries from Samsclub, a single 12 volt can work if mostly using electric sites.
Our last 3 RVs have had onboard gennies, our first 2 TT/5er did not and we did not purchase a portable genny, that was 2 decades ago & did not realize their benefits when RVing off the power grid. Although we have solar we quickly learned that our Onan provided 100% self-containment at a touch of a button.
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Sandia Man
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10/24/22 04:11pm |
Class C Motorhomes
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RE: Ordered new Goodyear Endurance & New GC battery install
Single axle and a spare, 3 new tires does the trick. Going with GC2 batteries will certainly increase furnace run time, we do lots off RVing off the grid and made the switch from original dealer provided battery early on.
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Sandia Man
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10/06/22 09:15am |
Travel Trailers
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RE: Michelin vs Toyo tires
We have only been in the class A world for a few years after 3 decades of towing TTs, 5ers, and toyhaulers. Every time we got new tires for our tow vehicle, regardless of brand, whatever we were towing was swaying all over the road, found we had to break them in as LT tires are made of very hard rubber. To alleviate this issue we ended up buying 2 tires at a time and putting them on front axle for a few months to break them in, then went back and got the second set and rotated the now broken in front tires to the rear. No more issues with sway or rear traction with broken in tires, our HD truck was dedicated to towing our rigs and just sat in garage when we were not out RVing.
The class A we purchased a couple of years ago had a set of Toyos roughly 10 years old although they showed very little wear, private seller dropped price $3K and we drove our new to us rig back home nearly 1K miles through blistering record setting TX heat. It drove great, tires being well broken in and scorching heat kept us glued to the road, got home and replaced with the same Toyos M154.
First time out on highway were were all over the place, checked pressure and tire store had them at max psi, prior Toyos only had roughly 85/90 psi. Dropped psi in new Toyo tires to around 90 and drivability improved dramatically, after a couple of in-state trips they are now broken in and riding marvelously.
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Sandia Man
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09/27/22 12:58pm |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: Is changing to a quieter AC worth it?
We did not realize how loud the Penguin II AC units on our rig were until the bedroom AC gave up the ghost a couple of months ago. Was just going to order same AC but RV tech said it would be at least a few weeks and we had a couple of trips planned that we did not want to reschedule. He mentioned several of his customers, after extensive research, have changed out the loud AC units that came with their rigs for the Recpro units manufactured by Houghton, although their original units were still functioning fine.
I ordered directly from Recpro website beating Amazon's price and delivery was insanely quick, reviews are very good and I was impressed with the reduced sound level not to mention the fact that our rig's bedroom gets cooled off much quicker than with Penguin II. Love that they come with remote control although controls are available directly on unit, they also have functions that were not provided on our Penguin II. Overall we are happy and will more than likely replace our front AC unit with Recpro/Houghton unit when it dies.
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Sandia Man
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09/13/22 03:20pm |
Truck Campers
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