High Gang

[Alek&Lucia]

Gary,

Welcome another Royale !
Royale is a good choice, you will like your coach.
With POG and http://www.royalephoenix.com/ you bus is not an orphan,

Alek

[GSwaim]

Got into the dash today and found the sqirrel cage fan was rubbing shroud, easy fix to move the fan a 1/8th of an inch on the shaft and clamp it down again. Noise gone.

I did however realize yesterday I'm in for a long road of this and that needing attention. The AquaHot needs service as well as something with the Headhunter water pump. The AwuaHot is no big deal, I've had them forever, the Headhunter pump on the other hand is new to me. The pump seems to cycle on and off which would appear to be sucking air or a leak on the discharge side. The only problem with that therory is I'm not loosing water and I can't find a drop of water leaking anywhere. Any Suggestions?

I'm crossing the US from Knoxville to Arizona in the next ten days. Any suggestions on a reputable place to take it for the work?

[Danss]

Just finished with same problem. Pulled hose off top of pump and let it run for about 10 seconds to get air out (do not know what caused this). It must have had and air lock. Actually I watched while Pete Pitre & Ed Brockman did the heavy lifting. Thank goodness for people who know what to look for. Good luck, Dan

[Loc]

Gary,

Welcome. Try opening all your faucets (including the shower and outdoor faucet) and letting the pump run. My Headhunter will shut down if there is air in the line and it can't get to the pressure shut off and maintain it. Usually opening all the faucets (hot and cold) and letting them run for a minute does the trick. You can also do it a faucet at a time.

Good luck,

Loc

[GSwaim]

Thanks all for your suggestions. I finally determined that the pressure diaphram inside the the original JetPaq water pump was faulty. Since it is an obsolete pump with very few replacement parts available, I went with a new Mach 5 Headhunter pump. After spending some quality time with Headhunter tech support I replumbed the entire water pump bay so that the Shurflow aux water pump and the new Mach 5 main pump run silent and both have isolation valves on the inlet and outlet side of the pumps as well as a new expansion tank. I also relocated the headhunter strainer as perscribed by Headhunter so that it would not get air-locked. Now everything is running perfect and the pumps are easy to access & maintain. Headhunter was not only helpful with their techsupport but discounted the new Mach 5 pump heavily since I had a obsolete JetPaq pump. I would reccommend them to anyone . total repair cost was around $1300.

[GSwaim]

Well it's been a few months and I have had my hands on many of the bus systems since then. For those looking at going down the bus conversion road here is a little overview of how new pruchases can go:

The first thing to go was the water pump. When you want water you don't want to have to worry about the pump failing. This can be an expensive project and I decided it was worth replaccing the headhunter JetPac pump with a new MAC 5 headhunter and a expansion tank. After about a thousand dollars and a days worth of work I was back in business and pleased by the results. With a headhunter toilet you need at least 50 PSI to fluch and the new MAC 5 did the trick without breaking a sweat. I then turned my focus to the 12V backup water pump. It worked fine but only had 30PSI and wouldn't flush the commode. I installed a new pump that produces 60 PSI at 6.5 GPM and positioned it so it ran silent. This pump works excellent and even flushed the Headhunter toilet. In hindsite, I could have saved a thousand dollars and just went to the upgrade 12V water pump. Heck, I could have install two if I wanted a backup.

Next thing to get the attention was seals. I suspect every Bus out there on the market has done a bit of settling if the owner is wanting to sell it. I deduce this because if they were using the bus they wouldn't be selling it. Unfortunately no matter how magnificent the unit looks the seals will be dry and brittle from setting. Some seals are easy to replace but some like the tranny front or engine rear seal will be expensive. Additives will help the seals and in some cases even solve a leak but most seals that have had a long setting condition will need to be replaced. I'm about done with all of this and a few thousand dollars lighter in the pocket book.

Then come the plumbing. I hate plumbing! It messy and sticks and always hard to get to. I spent many a hours checking the plumbing hand over hand on every pipe, What a job. What I found was Royale didn't always pleace rubber sections in the rigid pipe causeing fractures at the stress points int he PVC pipe and leaks. I have got all of them taken care of but there is quite a bit of disassembly to do to get to all the plumbing. Then there is the air system plumbing. Not nearly as messy when leaking but hard to get at. I'm still chasing some of these but so far nothing too bad. You can live with small leaks but for an old Navy guy that lived inside the machine your responsible for I have to have it perfect, so I'm still chasing the minor leaks. This are aisn't an expensive area if your willing to give your time to it yourself.

Generator repair popped up and if you go to the Generator one second run thread you will see what occured there. Suffice it to say, once you know the system it is as easy as fixing an old chevy small block engine. Again this isn't an expensive repair if your willing to spend the time your self and don't need a lot of replacement parts. I found Power Tech technical support to be excellent.

Cleaning, this is a never ending job in all cases. I have been in every corner and surface of my bus and it has dirt and grime. Some was there when they built it I think and some just built up from age. Overall this is kind of a fun job, if your like me and want everything spotless and have the tools to make it that way. I have a hotsey pressure washer and this makes chassis cleanup a breeze. This area can be as expensive as you want to make it depending on how anal you are.

lights and vista lighting. well I can't tell you how many light bulbs there are in a bus but I can tell you I've went through a 24 bag of little lightbulbs and many packs of halogen bulbs. I'm about to embark ont he vista lighting that has single bulbs out here and there. I don't know how to fix single bulbs in the strand so if anyonw knows let me know. If you are like me you will be replacing the entier rope or bar of lights in the Vista lighting. The LED version of this is expensive to say the least. replacement is not that hard as long as you are confortable working with electrical (12V 7 A/C power).

This is my fourth motorhome so I can say with experience that this bus is far easier to work on than any of the production coaches. things are actual put together with something more than Home Depot self tapping screws!! The experiences of taking apart a broken or worn part and renovating it back to new is rewarding and much less expensive. take the plunge and enjoy...more to follow.

[GSwaim]

I have gotten into the documentation kick. Check out our website for all the latest updates and photos on our Royale. I will continue to add to the site as we bring this 2002 XLII Royale up to new standards and beyond. For those interested I just created a installation document for renovating your water pumps and installing a deionizer on the bus. Hope you enjoy the articles and the website.

Stay tuned for the updating of the Kitchen cooktop in a couple of weeks followed by the transformation of the antiquated entertainment system into a over the top media serving system for the next century! Did anyone think in-motion HD direcTV could be possible? stay tune.

[Loc]

Gary,

Nice job on the documentation. I want to install a deionizer on the bus to work with the on board pressure washing system.

[GSwaim]

Just an update after using the deionizer on the road...I LOVE IT! two hours is all it take to wash the bus roof and all and no rush even inthe sunlight because it's spot free. I actual don't mind washing any longer. I do however need to add an additional filter to the inlet of the Deionizer. I experienced some very bad water in Elkhart Indiana and althought I filter and soften all water coming into the bus the deionizer was short lifed by this water. I will be putting a two micron inlet filter on it to prevent this from happening again.

As for running the deionized water throguh a pressure washer, I think this would knock off the hard water better and with less deionized water use. I used my deionizer through a High pressure hotsy at home and love it even more than using it out of the wash port on the bus. I will be adding a pressure washer onto my bus when I return home to try this out. I also think hot water washes are more effective than cool water, any suggestions as to how to make the water hot without destroying the over the counter pressure washer?