Post Trip Maintenance

[garyde]

I'm going thru the Bus, checking different systems to see what needs attention after my 12 day trip to Idaho. One ot the items I noticed is the front door hindge appears to be not right. It does not appear these need lubricating but it is too tight. Is there an adjustment?
When on the trip , I dry camped one night. 10 hours later my house batteries were dead. Troy at Liberty said this is common depending on what is running.
The only thing I ran was the refer. If I had my Generator on Stand-by, it would have started at 22 volts but I don't want that coming on in the middle of the night.
Well, with 2 dogs, 4 kids, the wife and I, everything worked very well.
Except losing my Canopy, a great trip.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Gary,

We have discussed the battery life here in the forum and amongst ourselves at rallies. It appears unless you have some phantom loads that are exceptional that 10 hours is just not long enough.

We have the normal range of key off loads such as clocks, and TVs, and alarm system, tank monitors, and a whole range of other devices like you. But If we are dry camping overnight, I can go all night long, then make coffee on the inverter, plus use the normal lighting, plus have the water pump kick on when needed and still be above 24V which I recognize is almost a dead battery, but still is way above the critical point.

I guess the only way to determine if you have poor batteries or exceptional loads is to try to shut every thing down that you can possibly turn off and see if that has any impact. The refrigerators (and yours may be different) draw around 5 or 6 amps on 120V, except when they defrost and then the current draw kicks up because of the heater, including the heaters around the perimeter behind the door seal to eliminate frost or condensation.

[JIM CHALOUPKA]

Hey Gary, could'nt resist that.

Wondering did the awning removal damage the bus/paint? Could it have banged into the door?

What was the ladder-less way your wife suggested for the awning arm removal?

Were you at your Idaho ranch? (Show and Tell some pictures please)

[garyde]

A few small scratches at the top, most not noticable when I get the new awning installed.
OK, here's the story on how to get to the top edge of your Coach.
a. Make sure your wife is with you so you don't do something stupid like attempt a spiderman climb using the front door attempting to reach the roof horns and pulling yourself up.
b. Instead, open one of your cargo doors and lift them up midway. Then place some boxes, crates, whatever , under the door as a support for the door, then step up onto the top of the cargo door. This will place you at eye level with almost the top of the bus edge.
Not recommended for balance impaired individuals but it will do in a pinch.

I will post some photos as soon as I can figure that out.

[JIM CHALOUPKA]

Very ingenious method Gary. Smart Wives are wonderful!!

So now we know where the tight door hinge came from;)

[Joe Cannarozzi]

Gary on our 86 there are 2 grease fittings underneath the bus at the R-F corner with tubes that lead up to those hindges. If the newer busses have them I do not know.

[lewpopp]

Joe

On the post just now, you said in the RF of the coach there are 2 grease fittings that go up to the hinges thru a tube. I cannot recall anyone asking a question referring to the hinges but I am having troubles with my front door hinges. Just exactly where are these fittings? Where did this answer happen to come from?

Lew

[Joe Cannarozzi]

Lew on ours the grease fittings are pointing straight down at the front corner of the bus directly under the door hindges.

Our door was squeekin pretty bad and I went and removed the door pannel to WD-40 and that is when I noticed the plastic tubes going down.

Also I did not like the way we had to SLAM the door to get it closed. So I removed the striker, that is not designed to be adjustable because it seats in a recess, and put a flat washer under it so I could. Now it closes with very little effort. When we roll if the door is not air locked it will have an air leak but we air lock it and it seals up just the same:)

[lewpopp]

Joe, you speak of removing the panel (door) to access the hinge. Is that the bottom part of the door where mine is carpeted? There are no moving parts to the hinge there or am I confused.

I looked under the hinge area and my coach is covered with foam. I hesitate to scrape it all off until I zero in where the zerts are. There is a rectanglular metal piece coming down from what looks like it is right under the hinge pins. Should I just start scraping the foan off until I find the zerks?

My door just started working very hard and I squirted WD-40 in on the hinge the best I could. I know that the WD is only a cleaner so I then squirted lithium grease in and after working the door several times the squaaking and difficulty in movement stopped. I would still rather do it the correct way with a grease gun.

Lew

[dale farley]

I also looked under my door and didn't find any grease fittings. Maybe they stopped this before our year coaches or maybe it was done by some converters and not others.

[Joe Cannarozzi]

I'm pretty sure those fittings are prevo installed. How about it Dale you have them?

Lew, you are correct, if you pull the lower front panel for the dash, where the drivers blowers are, you will be able to look over there and see if there are small clear plastic lines going down from the hindges. I had the door panel off to replace a broken return spring on the outer door latch.

[Joe Cannarozzi]

I dug this up this morn. out of the service manual.

1365

[garyde]

Clarification. The issue I was having with the door was not with the Hindges. It is with the door stop. The door stop is above the top hindge arm and limits the swing of the door to its open position. There is a small thimble bearing on this limit hindge. This is what was making all the noise and making the swing tight. I tightened this thimble type roller and it is much better.

[Just Plain Jeff]

As to 'tightening' the fit on a closed door, the locking pin is an eccentric (laeving that topic alone for a moment), which when loosened, provides varying degress of 'tightness' for your entry door.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Having dealt with wind noise from the rivet coach front door, I can say with confidence that minimizing the noise is more artistry than it is a defined process.

Jeff shows one adjustment point. The door hinges are usually mounted on shim plates, which can be removed or added to. In addition to the gasket around the door periphery, the sliding window seal also has the potential to create wind noise as does the mirror depending on how it is positioned.

If you adjust everything to minimize or eliminate wind noise on a zero wind day (meaning you have no cross winds), you may experience wind noise when there is a cross wind.

If anyone is having problems with wind noise I will have the ultrasonic noise detector at Branson and anyone that need it is free to use it. It can locate potential noise sources when parked, but if you are willing to run the coach at highway speeds you will be able to see if having the coach in motion alters the source.

The fee for the use of the detector will be very modest...bring the title to your coach for security...I know what you guys are like.http://www.prevostownersgroup.com/forum/

[JIM CHALOUPKA]

Pretty nice manicure on that cabinet maker finger there Jeff. Get busy, winter's comin. You will need furniture in front of the hearth.