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Today was my turn for a head scratcher. I could not get the HWH system to go into level mode. The travel solenoids would not energize. I set the ride heights manually with the leveling pad and drove for a while. At the rest stop I thought I would do a little troubleshooting while taking a break from driving. I checked every fuse I could find with none found open. Not really understanding the system, I thought maybe it was connected to the slide out not locking since my leveling light and emergency brake light has been on for a year. So I deployed the slide. BIG MISTAKE !!!!!!!!  There is a very good reason to only deploy in travel mode. The coach was torqued and it racked the slide. I couldn't get it back in without one upper corner being over an inch out of flush. 

I tried a couple of times to untorque the chassis with the manual leveling but no dice. 

So, I made a jumper wire with a switch and I hot wired one of the travel solenoids to 12V. They are all tied together so that forced the coach into travel mode kind of. When the coach was leveled, I cycled the slide several times and it squared itself. 

When we stopped for the evening. I went hunting for a miracle. Since I had the hot wire to the travel solenoids, I measured terminal 75 on the HWH board. It now has 12v, so that told me the problem was not downstream of the HWH brain box. There is a fuse on the back the leveling board that I has previously checked visually but with more time I thought I would ohm all the fuses. When I moved the board to access the fuse, the travel solenoids clicked on, and the LEDs for travel lit up. Hmmm, maybe a loose connection. 

Here are pics of what I found. A burned connection and a bad solder joint on the board for that particular connection. It is the 12v supply to the solenoids. I don't know which came first the bad connection which melted the solder joint, or vice versa.

Anyhoo, I resoldered the joint, and cleaned the connector. All seems to be good now. 

A blind pig occasionally finds an acorn. 

       

I must be suffering brain death since I cannot figure out how to post images to the commentary I composed regarding the re-laminating of my entry door: HELP please.

i wanted a place to go for a few days after staying in shingle springs, ca before we went to tahoe.  

i looked in big rig friendly book and this place was the only one near.  

it is the coolest park.  small, but pristine, in the mountains, grass, paved spots, trees, super clean,  easy in and out.  

wes, the owner gave us two back in spots that make a 100 foot long pull through.  

we are sitting outside in the cool breeze after visiting with some fellow rv'r for quite a while.  

larry, i went down and said hi to wes for you.  

i highly recommend this place.  and it is very reasonably prices.  like 35 bucks or something like that.  

and for the first time in a week, i have a clear enough view for the sat dish to lock on.....

we are here till friday when we head to tahoe.  

the drive here was pretty, but quite windy and narrow roads all the way.  but ok.  

tom

If anybody has some old A/D/S equipment that you want to sell I might be interested. As some of you know I'm restoring a 1993 Newell that was vandalized. Many of the components were damaged. Even if what you have is broken I may be interested. Feel free to PM me.

DD series 60, bath & 1/2 and 365 upgrade on front tires. Looks like a good buy...........................

http://www.rvtrader.com/listing/2003-New...-114782497

 Works on LP, Costco has these on sale for $300, valid 6/1/15 - 6/21/15 while supplies last. http://www.costco.com/Ancona-Casetta-Ser...15229.html

http://www.anconahome.com/index.php?rout...uct_id=497

my main sewer dump air valve was exhausing when the paddle was closed. just started. i capped off the two lines running to the cylinder and it still did it when the solenoids were energized for the down position. so, not the piston seal in the cylinder of the dump valve.

i had an old solenoid valve body so i changed it out. that is really hard to get at and my arms are like chewed up. it didnt fix it but i did use one i think had problems.

so, i just capped it off for now and will do it manually till i fix it.

so....now i have had to stuck open air valves.....makes me think i might have some moisture or gunk in my air tanks. i drained the one in the front blower bay and no water. the one inside the rear passenger side wheelwell and no water, but there was some on the small separator in the engine bay.

tom

hi all,

after my aquahot gets up to temp, and i take a long hot shower with fairly cold incoming water, what temp should the aquahot gauge say/.

tom

Asking $169,900.  Rear has a crack "in two".  "Has its fair share of cosmetic issues."  Major components in working condition.

I will outline the steps I took to rebuild my entry door that had both the interior and exterior skins delaminating. The adhesive was releasing from either the skin or the frame. The adhesive was a solid black with straight edges so I assume it was originally a tape in form.

Support the door from the bottom and remove the screws holding the door to the hinge. Two people are required due to the weight of the door.

Place the door exterior side down on a pair a sawhorses with padding on them to protect the finish on the exterior side. I placed the sawhorses about 66" apart.

Next was the removal of the trim around the interior door handle and latch mechanism. It takes a bit of manipulating to get it off around the door handle but it will come off. I also then removed the handle bar from the door. I then removed the interior door handle (chrome) just to reduce the amount of stuff on the door but it is not required. It is also not required to remove the exterior door latch handle, though I did that too as it had a broken hinge.

Drill out the rivets holding the bottom of the interior decorative panel. Mine would not slide out so I took a broom handle inserted into the bottom and pried up. The plastic channels holding the sides and top got broken in the process. I found later that there was no local source for these strips. More later on this. I removed and set aside the decorative panel.

I then drilled out all the rivets holding the interior structural skin and the plastic strips for the decorative panel. There are maybe a 100 or so rivets.

Then began the fun. I used a utility knife with the blade fully extended and a small soft head hammer. Starting at a corner I drove the knife through the adhesive along the length of each side. Basically I kept the knife handle at right angles to the side of the door and used the hammer to drive it along the side thereby cutting the skin from the frame. Once the skin was released I removed it and set it aside. One person can handle the skin.

Next, the door was flipped. The adhesive was cut the same way. This skin, unlike the interior one, was stuck to the foam inside the door. A long hand saw was used to cut it loose. The skin was then lifted away and stored.

The hand saw was used to cut and grind away the foam until a straightedge showed everything was flat. This was done to both sides. I also needed to remove some of the wood veneers in the middle of the door to achieve the desired flatness. I did this to eliminate the bulging of the door which stressed the adhesive and I believe contributed to its failure. The flattening also made it possible to adhere the skins to the aluminum structural parts in the interior of the door thereby spreading the load and making the door stiffer.

Then more fun, I tried various ways to remove the adhesive from both the skins and the frame. Using Kutzit brand antique and furniture finish remover seemed to work best. I put on a coat, waited a few minutes, used a paint scraper to remove a layer, repeated this until the final layer was scraped clean with a razor blade. One more coat of remover was then applied and wiped off with towels. Then I wiped the surfaces down with mineral spirits per the label on the remover.

There was a crack in the frame on the inner side of the frame just above the door latch. This was repaired with a epoxied wood block inserted into the inside corner, it was also screwed to the top horizontal steel frame above the latch. I had planned to add some additional reinforcement, but deemed the resulting stiffness sufficient with the wood block.

At this point I leveled the sawhorses to ensure that their top surfaces were parallel.

I then made a trial fitting of the skins to determine how they would best fit onto the frame and how I would line them up when the double sided tape was applied. It also helped determine where the outside edge of the tape needed to be on the frame.  At this time I put a clamp crosswise to the frame just below the door latch to pull the sides of the door frame together. Other than at the top and bottom of the door nothing holds the sides of the frame together other than the foam. In the middle where I put the clamp the frame had bulged outwards, the clamp corrected that.

I wiped down all the bonding surfaces with a 50-50 mix of isopropyl alcohol and water per the instructions for the 3M 4951 double sided tape.
I then put the tape on all the aluminum parts of the frame, the interior of the door frame had several horizontal and vertical stringers that I applied tape to that had no adhesive in the original construction of the door. At this point I left the plastic covering on the exposed side of the tape.

I made 4 short 1X4  boards with eyelets in the ends with wires attached and placed these crosswise of the door on the foam so that the skin could be supported above the adhesive tapes while final positioning adjustments were made.

Without the boards in place, I laid the exterior skin in place and verified it's final position and how I would keep it in that position during the adhering phase. I then set the skin aside, peeled the plastic from the taped joints, placed the spacer boards in position, and reset the skin on top of the boards. I placed positioning pins in the holes at the top of the door where the roller for the awning was installed as well as where the  screws for the trim extrusions were. I then pulled the board near the top of the door out and pressed the skin into the tape at the top. Making sure I didn't move the skin, I pulled the rest of the boards out and pressed the skin firmly down into the tape on all the joints.

The door was flipped over and the process repeated on the other side. I used the rivet holes and 1/8" drill bits for alignment holes. However, before I adhered the skin I reinstalled the door handles.

The interior trim panel that had been held on by the plastic channels was installed using the double-sided tape except at the bottom where I replaced the rivets that had been originally used. I then installed the black interior door handle and the door locks.

With the door on a jack stand and with the help of a friend, I used the air suspension system to align the holes in the door with the holes in the hinge. After installation of the screws it was determined the door was setting slightly low so the screws were loosened, the door pried upwards using the jack stand as a fulcrum and a 2X4 as a lever, and the screws retightened. The door swung nicely. A small adjustment to the door latch pin was needed to get the door locks to work freely. Finally, I installed the cover over the door latch mechanism.

There was one late surprize. Just before installing the door on the coach I noticed that in the area under the trim pieces on the exterior of the door the skin arched away from the frame sufficiently that the tape would not hold. I cut the tape out in those 4 areas and injected structural adhesive (Sikaflex that Richard had given me for which I'm enormously grateful) into the gap. I pushed it back into the joint several times with a plastic blade and refilled the joint. I wanted to ensure there was plenty of bond achieved.  If I were to do this whole job again I would deal with this issue the same way since getting those trim pieces off without messing up the paint would be nearly impossible, plus with the skin flattened in those areas the paint lines wouldn't match.

The door now closes with a distinctive thud, way cool. I'll post a few pictures once I get them properly sized. The job isn't complicated, just a bit tedious. It also requires a selection of tools - nothing big and expensive. The 3M 4951 tape I used came from U-Line in a 36 yard roll and I used most of it on this job.

Be well y'all