Winnebago, what a screw up.

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tweak

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 6, 2006
Posts
94
Location
Lafayette,NY
I took our 1996 adventure 34RQ to my suns for a front brake job, he has a shop. Anyway I jacked up the front and found that I could not get the left front wheel off because the step was in the way. Well I jacked it up some more and still the step was in the way. There in no provision to unbolt it eather, dumb!! For fear it would fall off the jack stands I stooped jacking and started cutting with a hack saw. When done with the job I mig welded the step back on. This is all fine but what if I had been out in the Boone docks?? SOL I guess. Putting hinges in the step would have made sense.
 
I cannot imagine the step being in the way. Is the door over the wheel well?  Any chance you could post a picture of this arrangement? And couldn't you just retract the step to get it out of the way?
 
Sounds like you're talking about a step for the driver's side door.  I would think that turning the wheels a bit to the left would give more clearance.
 
So you are saying you have a 1996 coach with original tires on it?
 
OK let me try and answer all the questions. I am the second owner and the tires are 2006 vintage. The step is under the drivers door and directly over the wheel well. If you lean the wheel out from the bottom it hits the top of the hub and wont clear the step. If you try to lean it out from the top it hits the step. It can be moved forward slightly but not enough to get it out of the wheel well. On the passanger side just  jacking it up tell the tire clears the ground is sufficient and the wheel can be removed straight out. I will post a pix later.
 
There HAVE to be answers to this problem, (logically).

How were the tires changed in 2006?

Is this step and aftermarket driver's door step?

What jacking point did you use? (ie did you get the axle high enough?).

Rankjo
 
Rankjo,
Yes there is an answer, take it to a shop that can lift it up real high so the step will clear the wheel. My intended point is, that shops with equipment to do that charge 60 bucks an hour or so. I thought that we rvers were an independent type that took care of our own problems. I cant carry a 10ton floor jack around for things like this. As it is the 12ton bottle jack is a bit large. I would have had to jack it up to a point where I felt unsafe and at that point the hack saw came into play. The right side was a snap, no step.
 
I had a similar problem on my 1999 Kountry Star last year. I found the problem was that jacking up the axle pushed the wheel up into the wheel well. The answer was to first use the leveling jacks to raise the coach up fairly high. Then use the axle jack to lift the tire off the ground. By doing this the wheel well and step are kept up out of the way. Much simpler than cutting off the step.

I agree, it is a poor design.


Jerry
 
I think Jerry has the answer.  I learned from my (several) brake problems that the leveling jacks were the best way to take the initial load off the wheels (let the wheel hang) and then put heavy duty jack stands in place.

I often skip the jack stand step, but do not recommend it. :D :eek:
 
Check the panels over the front tires to see if they are hinged. When I had a front blow out on my 1998 Adventurer that damaged the panel I discovered those panels are hinged. If yours is like that you could lift the panel up out of the way like a basement door (no struts on it though).
 
Olive,
Mine is not like that. If they had put hinges in the step that would have done the trick. I even took off the plastic fender flare ! As previously sugested I think the answer may be to jack up the frame and not the axle. The MH does have jacks but they are for leveling and wont lift the wheels off the ground.
 
tweak said:
Olive,
Mine is not like that. If they had put hinges in the step that would have done the trick. I even took off the plastic fender flare ! As previously sugested I think the answer may be to jack up the frame and not the axle. The MH does have jacks but they are for leveling and wont lift the wheels off the ground.
I didn't use the leveling jacks to lift the tire off the ground, only to raise the chassis. Then used a floor jack under the axle to lift the wheel. Also, this allowed using a regular auto floor jack instead of a heavy duty jack. The main weight was carried by the leveling jacks. The floor jack only had the axle weight.
 
Winnebago is good at doing things like that.  When I went to change front shocks on my 2004 Meridian I discovered the top mounting bolt would hit the front leveling jack bracket before it would clear the shock bracket because when the shock was originally mounted the bolt was installed from the back side instead of from the front side then the leveling jack bracket must have been welded on after.  I had to use a reciprocating saw to cut the head off the bolt so I could pull it out toward the front.  Bought new bolts, installed them from the front with no problem.

The design engineers (or builders) forget that what they put together by the numbers may not be able to be removed in different order.  And us RV owners have to be geniuses to figure out how to work on these things.

Allen
 
Wagonmaster2 said:
Winnebago is good at doing things like that. 

The design engineers (or builders) forget that what they put together by the numbers may not be able to be removed in different order.   And us RV owners have to be geniuses to figure out how to work on these things.

Allen

It's not just Winnebago.  Every piece of machinery I've ever worked on, from Honda motorcycles to Coast Guard cutters had some kind of problem that needed creative thinking to fix because the engineers slipped up.  I'm sure everyone at one time or another modified or made a tool to fix something.

I wonder if they have to take a course in engineering college on how to make things hard on mechanics and technicians?  ;)

Best Regards!
 
There is a world famous Doctor,  Dr. Jordan Kare.. Now, what he's world famous for happens to be writing a song.. That song is called: Fire in the Sky (I have a very good copy of that song, as well as a mp3 of Dr. Kare himself singing it)  He is a genuine rocket scientist by the way (Designs rockets for a living)  His current "pet project" is an ice engine.. basically you fill a reaction chamber with water, Freeze it solid, sit it atop a ground mounted laser, and shoot laser beams into it, first melting ice, then boiling water, making high pressure steam which then propells the rocket.

Will it work?  Well.. I am not a rocket scientist.. but it sure looks good on paper.  Non-polluting too.

Another song by Dr. Kare is called, "The Designer" I do not have the lyrics on this machine.. At lest I do not think I do.. And I did not but I finally got lucky with a web search:

The Designer

The designer sat at his drafting board
A wealth of knowledge in his head was stored
Like "What can be done on a radial drill
Or a turret lathe or a vertical mill?"
But above all things a knack he had
Of driving machinists completly mad.
So he mused as he thoughtfully scratched his bean
"Just how can I make this thing hard to machine?"
If I make this perfect body straight
The job had ought to come out first rate
But would be so easy to turn and bore
That it would never make a machinist sore
So I'll put a compound taper there
And a couple of angles to make them swear
And brass would work for this little gear
But its too damned easy to work I fear
So just to make the machinist squeal
I'll have him carve it from tungsten steel
And I'll put these holes that hold the cap
Down underneath where they can't be tapped
Now if they can make this it'll just be luck
Cause it can't be held by dog or chuck
And it can't be planed and it cant be ground
So I feel my design is unusually sound.
And he shouted in glee, "Success at last!
I've designed a part that  can't even be cast.',

Author unknown

I believe this is Dr. Kare's work, but the author of the web page had some of tey lyrics wrong too.
 
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