Keeping an older bus on the road.

[Joe Cannarozzi]

Although we haven't officialy named her I think that would be in order.

The camper has preformed quite well up to now with only a couple of small problems.

First problem was the first night out of Chicago. It poured down rain all the way to Nashville and while driving one of the stainless lock nuts that holds the smaller wiper arm to the blade backed off and the two arms seperated causing the wiper to fail. This was repaired at the next exit with none other than a small plastic TIE STRAP replacing the missing lock nut, gotta love them tie straps:D Although I carry a lot of STUFF, small stainless lock nuts arent included. The tie strap will remain till home!

Yesterday While flashing our high beams to signal a passing truck back over the turn signal assembly came apart in my hand. Seems as though an internal part cast in pot metal finally failed with age. We stopped and I continued to disassemble it the rest of the way exposing the contacts for the turn signals that I can now opporate by touching them togeather with my finger in lew of the arm that is now removed. It also failed with the headlights in high beam and I simply unplugged the 2 high beam bulbs, we have a 4 headlight set-up.

Anyone had one of these fail? Its got 212000 miles on it. I'l betcha that switch is 300 bucks if its a nickle. Concidering the temporary fix, I think this is also gonna wait till we get home to fix as well.

The 2 smaller slobber tubes that drip a little when starting are no longer dripping at all as I suspected might happen with more use and the oil consumption is about 3 quarts so far and we are right at 2000 miles into the trip. I'm know that some of that was leaked at the alternater not burnt.

So in conclusion all in all the old girl is doing pretty good. In fact I think she is loven the trip more than us:rolleyes:

Tootles.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Every single one of us goes through variations of what you are going through Joe.

The newer the bus the fewer the glitches, but the cost in real dollars to get to that point will far outpace whatever you spend to maintain your bus.

I see cycles on stuff like that also. At a certain age I am convinced air bags and brake chamber diaphragms will start to fail. As soon as they are replaced, regardless of the coach age they are good for quite a while.

I have had welds on the water tank spring a leak, I have had height level valves and levelling valves fail, speedometers have failed, countless relays, and on both coaches I have had serious refrigerator failures.

Loose electrical connections have heated up circuit breakers or switches causing them to fail. My Jake failed on the previous coach along with toe space heaters and several radios. But despite the myriad of necessary repairs, when I consider the years and miles the maintenance compared to the complexity of the coach has been amazingly little.

Can you imagine how someone who has paid 20 or 30 times what you paid feels when something does not work on their coach?

[Orren Zook]

Joe,

Grote makes a couple (you've seen them in trucks) that might not be as pretty as the original one was but that might work as a replacement. They have 4 and 7 wire (hard wired units) and plug replacements for major truck manufactures. They also have one that looks like the 900 thru 903 series that Signal Stat had when they were in that business. I'll try to do some research and get back to you - prices range from $35-60.

[garyde]

Jon, George Lucas (Star Wars) once said when you buy a Chevy you can understand when something breaks or fails, but when you buy a Mercedez, you pay big bucks so that things will not fail. Its more infuriating.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Mercedes is my hot button.

When I lived in the snow belt I did not buy one because I did not want the road salt and sand to ruin such a fine car. When we moved south I bought an S model and it is the worst piece of crap I have ever owned. An unreliable piece of junk.

None of my other cars has ever gone back to the dealer for repairs, and that includes a jeep we used to own that we dragged behind the bus for about 200,000 miles and drove for about 60,000.

[garyde]

Mercedes is my hot button.

When I lived in the snow belt I did not buy one because I did not want the road salt and sand to ruin such a fine car. When we moved south I bought an S model and it is the worst piece of crap I have ever owned. An unreliable piece of junk.

None of my other cars has ever gone back to the dealer for repairs, and that includes a jeep we used to own that we dragged behind the bus for about 200,000 miles and drove for about 60,000.

Used to be, Mercedes had a better Track record. I own a couple and have owned others. No problems with the newer Autos with the 5 year, all inclusive Warrenties. The Range Rovers are another matter, best to dump them after the warrenty runs out.
Its all the same, you expect to get what you pay for and are not always satisfied. GMC's and Fords are what I buy for my buisness.