Florida trip
 

We're going to take the 'big ole rollin turd' (motorhome) to Miami area for March. Wish us luck, we've only driven it a few hundred miles since we bought it last year. Miami and back will be close to 3,000 miles. I've gone over the brakes, replaced front brake hoses and flushed the system. Think I'll replace the driver's side front caliper, pulls a little under hard braking. Replaced the sway bar bushings, ripped out the bunks and put in a full size bed and new carpet in the bedroom. Also mounted an electric wall heater in the bedroom wall. Sealed the roof with a new layer of EDPM rubber.

Replaced the distributor cap, rotor and plug wires the other day. Can't believe that old 454 ran so good, or even at all. The distributor cap must have been the original from 1994. The posts were so eaten away you couldn't tell what they were supposed to look like. Had to drive a center punch through the top of the rotor and split it apart, it rusted to the distributor shaft. Don't think I can replace the plugs from the inside, have to get underneath and it's too damn cold for that. Need to replace the house batteries, one has a bad cell, but you can't buy golf cart batteries around here this time of year. Maybe I can pick up a couple at a Costco when we get farther south.

I'll load up one of the storage bays with all the tools I can, another with beer then keep my fingers crossed.

Good luck on your adventure. Sounds like you have done a complete run down on the motor home.

Ray

Best I can given the weather. It's just a little too big to fit in the garage.

I'd like to but that's one big garage, I'd need a 12' high door.

You guys are going to have a great time. Which way are you heading south?

We'll head south to Columbus OH then over to W Virginia, down through the Carolinas and Georgia. It's a little shorter than taking I-75 all the way and avoids Atlanta. Down side is the mountains in W Virginia.

Atlanta isnt too bad depending on time of day ,definetly suggest not going during rush hour.

Yea I know, it's actually better to go through than take the loop around. The other route is shorter though, I-75 brings us in on the wrong side of FL.

At this time of year I dont think there is a wrong side of Florida ,at least if its warm.

That's definitely our hope. After 1, then 0, then 1 degrees in the morning, 60 would be great. We're hoping for a little more but anything above freezing and sun would be really nice.

How about some AAA RV plus plan?

There are better RV road service plans available. Since they only deal with RVs all their contractors are equipped to handle 20,000 lb vehicles. I've heard AAA is a hit an miss thing. Especially since AAA is not one nationwide company but a bunch of regional companies.

Sounds like you may be a good Sam guy! Good luck on the trip. Keep us posted.

I was leaning more to Coach Net.

Thanks, should be an adventure, like I said we've only put a few hundred miles on it since we got it.

Is your last name Griswold?:p

No, but I keep thinking of the movie RV with Robin Williams.

A couple years ago David and I made a trip to Denver for an Audio Show. We used our Astro and took out the back seats and put a blow up mattress in the back so that one of us could drive and the other could "rest". The day we left I went to work at 4am and worked 10 hours, then came home and made from Detroit all the way to Iowa. I was cruising !

On the way back we decided to make a detour through Kansas. I know, why Kansas? We have a friend who was having a party and invited us out to enjoy some good 'ole BBQ. We figured it was only about 8 hours from Denver to Kansas and did it. It was SO worth the drive. He fired up the grill and cooked us some of the biggest, juiciest, tastiest steaks we had ever had.

When we left his house we couldn't find a hotel within 100 miles. Little did we know that there was a huge NASCAR race in the area. We finally found a hotel, spent the night and made it home the next day.


The van handled the trip awesome, and we loved having the room. The mileage was up and down as the air thinned. But I did manage to average over 75 mph for the entire trip. Now we had planned to share in the driving, and we did. Our trip was over 3,000 miles. And David drove a whopping 250 miles of it.

With all that you have done, I am sure you will have an enjoyable trip.

Well hopefully things will go smoothly. Lynda and I took a trip out west 2 years but that was in the Malibu. We had a pretty fixed schedule since she made hotel reservations at all our stops. That trip was around 5,000 miles and I pushed that little car pretty hard. Close to 90mph on the freeways with an 80mph limit. AC on almost all of the time, passing motorhomes and semi's climbing the mountains. The car shows average fuel economy, when we pulled into driveway it showed 30.2 mpg for the entire trip. Not too bad for a V6 and the way I drive. I'll probably get about 1/4 of that in the motorhome driving a lot slower and less aggressively.

Changed the oil in the beast yesterday, put on a 2qt WIX filter. I want to change one front brake caliper, then air up the tires, pack and we're ready to go.

Safe travels Hank. Hey will we have road updates at your stops ?

Assuming we internet access I'll try to give updates. First night we'll probably have to stay in a hotel, campgrounds that far north are not open yet. 2nd night we should be able to find a campground that at least has electricity.

Try a WalMart parking lot. My local Wally world parking lot here on the coast looks like a KOA on weekends.

Wally World, Cracker Barrel, problem is need electricity and my generator is not working right now. Going to take it over to the Cummins dealer in a week or so and see what's up. $150 for a diagnosis, hopefully I can afford the repair after they find out what it is.

Diesel? Whats it doing I tinker with some diesels?

Hank, what chassis is under that? Let me know and if you have the caliper OE part number let me know...I might be able to get one for you at work.

It's a Chevy P30(32) chassis. Pretty common caliper, used on about 8 million vehicles, even some Caddy's and Chryslers. I could get an OEM from the AutoValue website, I think, I'll look.

I know for a fact we do them for the GM560 and all the Ford chassis systems. I'll do a search for P30's on Monday. We did some GM stuff in the past but I know Delphi did most of them and we bought a lot of the Delphi brake business a couple of years ago and still learning on what ww have And don't have.

Ric here are a couple of OE numbers. I wouldn't really worry too much about though, a rebuilt caliper is less than $30.

14002543
15601613
15605093
15643131
15665667

Sorry Joe, I missed your reply. It's a gas generator. The engine runs but it shuts itself off right way. Couple of possibilities. The brushes and slip rings are corroded, doesn't produce any voltage and the control board shuts it down. Bad voltage regulator, control board shuts it down. Bad control board, it shuts down. Worse case would be shorted or open windings, no voltage and control board shuts it down. Sure hope it's not that.

I talked to the guy at Cummins. Control board or voltage reg are most common on that model, $300-$400 including the diagnosis fee. Corroded brushes & slip rings is an easy fix, after you pull the gen out of the MH. It weighs about 180lbs and you can't get to the brushes without pulling it out. That means removing the DC battery cables, AC wiring, gas line, remote start wiring and exhaust. Then a forklift to lift it and slide it out.

Well I found a source for the 1.75" rear sway bar bushings. Supposed to warm up this next week. I replaced the brake caliper last weekend. Rear sway bar bushings is the last thing on my list to make it road worthy for a 3,000 mile trip.

I'll probably check ignition timing again too. I had advanced it last fall. I'm thinking now it was really retarded because the distributor cap and rotor I replaced a few weeks ago were in such bad shape. The posts in the cap were about half gone. Air up the tires and air bags, check trans fluid and we should be good to go. I changed the oil and filter a few weeks ago, put on a 2 qt WIX filter.

I'll call the Cummins place tomorrow and see if we can have the generator checked out this week. We could probably survive without out it but if it's really cold it would be nice to run some heaters while on the road so we don't freeze. The engine heat doesn't go very far in space that large. Then when you get into south FL the engine AC may not be enough. With the gen we could run the roof air.

I'm looking forward to the trip but I'm a little nervous too. Driving the big old rollin turd through the mountains will probably be a white knuckle experience.

I'm sure you guys have lots of fun.after seeing your fun and enjoyment,I'm also planning to go for outing with my friends.

Forgot to mention I take it over to the Cummins dealer. They pulled out the gen and said the insides were destroyed. Apparently a mouse or something made a nest inside the gen part. When it was started something broke, which broke something else and on and on. Brushes, rotor, stator all destroyed, flywheel was even damaged.

Cummins guy suggested I call my insurance company since some cover 'rodent intrusion'. I called and sure enough it was covered. They had an adjuster out the next day. He approved a new gen as a rebuild was close to the same price. I had to pay $100 deductible and $278 for depreciation.

$378 is not a bad deal for new gen with warranty. Best price I could find on the internet for that gen was $2800 and that doesn't include pulling the old one out and installing the new one. AAA also warranties the new gen for as long as I own the motorhome.

Dam good deal! Glad to hear. Maybe a sign of the times for your upcoming road trip.