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BoomerD

BoomerD

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 21, 2014
Posts
1,326
Location
Grays Harbor County, WA
I swear...a lot sometimes... ::)
I was setting the Sightseer up in my driveway a few days ago...so we could get it cleaned and de-winterized for this trip. Unfortunately, my driveway has a pretty good slope to it...and even though I had the front tires up on blocks...3 levels of 2X lumber cantilevered on a 4x4...it still wasn't quite level front/rear. While running the living room slide out...I heard a "crunch."  :eek: APPARENTLY, being that little bit out of level threw the slide out of whack...and it bent an inner piece where the inner seal is...and broke a piece of faux wood trim...I'm not sure how I'm going to take it apart to fix it...it's gonna be a real PITA...and, of course, since that seal no longer seals...I can't use the slide in all this rain we've been having here.  :-[

Needless to say...the DW is oh so happy with me... ::)

But hey...we're RV'ing...and sh*t stuff happens... 8)

After we get home, I'll take and post a couple of pics in hope SOMEONE has some ideas how I'm going to have to do this.
 
Oh my. The larger slides are fairly sensitive to the body getting racked, fortunately my bedroom slide isn't very picky.

Once we spent a night at an RV shop and we were at quite an incline facing down, way too much for jacks to compensate. I discovered I could safely open the slides with no jacks even though we weren't level. As long as the body isn't twisted, the slides are happy.
 
I had my jacks down, but still had something of a downhill incline...

That MIGHT NOT have been the cause of the problem...Once we get home, I'll take time to troubleshoot it.
 
Forgot to update this...Removing the faux-wood trim wasn't difficult...remove the wooden plugs and a few screws.  Underneath was a piece of steel "channel" that provided the backing for the trim and also had the foam seal attached. It had a pretty good bent spot in it....but with a big hammer...and some varying sized pieces of wood, I was able to get it pretty close to straightened out. Close enough...I think.  ;D
When the steel piece bent, it ripped a couple of screws from the channel that makes up the end of the slide room. I had to drill a couple of new starter holes for the self-tapping screws...but that was pretty easy. In all, maybe 1-1/2 hours start-to-finish...including vacuuming up my mess.

On another issue...I subscribe to the camp of "start and run the generator under load for at least one hour per month."
It had been about 6 weeks since I did it last, so, when I went to pick up the coach to fix the slideout, I thought I should do that...no joy. When I tried to prime the unit...it made an odd "rattling noise," and the genset would not start. I scratched my head...gas gauge showed about 3/8 of a tank of gas...so that couldn't be it...right? pfft...silly human.
The coach took a bit over 56 gallons to fill...and, yep...that's 3/4 of the 75 gallon tank.  :-[ Genset started right up and runs like a champ...now that it's getting a good flow of gas.  ;D
 
The pick up tube on chassis mounted gen sets are a bit higher in the fuel tank than for the engine.  This way you can not get stranded without fuel in the middle of nowhere due to the genny drinking all the fuel from the tank.
 
My pet peeve :-[ I have a 90 gallon tank and run the generator most of the time we're moving. That means I have to start looking for fuel at a half tank and stop at least 150 miles before I would otherwise to maintain a reserve for the generator. The generator simply doesn't need that much reserve (it's 22.5 gallons, enough to travel about 175 miles or run the genny three nights).

Ernie
 
Ernie, have you ever checked to see just how low you can run your tank down and genny still run. They vary quite a bit. Not that I want to, but mine for example will run right down to darn near empty.
 
Ernie, are you judging your reserve based on how much fuel you put in the tank?  Like a propane tank, fuel tanks usually have an airspace at the top to allow for expansion of the fuel as it heats up.

A 90 gallon tank might only hold 80-85 gallons of fuel unless you fill it until fuel is literally visible in the fill pipe, which is not a good idea.

Your 22.5 gallon reserve might be more like 15 gallons.
 
Becks said:
Ernie, have you ever checked to see just how low you can run your tank down and genny still run. They vary quite a bit. Not that I want to, but mine for example will run right down to darn near empty.
Click to expand...

Did that quite by accident last week. Was out where I store it, cleaning up and getting ready for a long weekend camping trip. With the AC cooling it down, when the gen suddenly stumbled and stopped. Took me a couple of minutes to figure out that it was the fuel supply. With the ignition switch off the gauge reads 2/3rds regardless of what is in the tank.

When I started the RV, the fuel gauge showed 1/4.
 
Yes! I have verified the 1/4 tank level is where it quits. Both the fuel taken and the fuel gage agree on that. In fact, its so perfect that I suspect it may be done in software rather than an actual different pickup (Freightliner chassis).

Ernie
 
Yeah, I know the genset should cut out at 1/4 tank...that's more-or-less an industry standard...but the in-dash gauge was telling me I had a bit over 3/8 of a tank...so, it took me a while to realize what was going on.  (sue me...I'm old and stoopid!)  :p
 
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