Flying Finn

Hi Glenn, Just saw your post. We have a 2007 Teton with a rear awning. I also have a hard time with the pins. I use a rubber mallet and gently knock them into place. I am not comfortable leaving the pins out. Thought about drilling new holes and using the next size pins. The mallet works ok for now. We love our Teton!! Safe travels Brad

The inverter/charger in our 2001 Volvo 770 stopped working. It is a Trace model # T112sb. The power switch will not turn the unit on or off. The internal fan continues to run and I can't turn it off. I called Trace on two occassions with no call backs. Thinking about replacing it. I don't want to spend allot. A 1500w unit would work fine for us. Thank you Brad

Glenn, I had a leak in the bottom of the windshield seal on the drivers side. Learned the hard way that water had leaked inside the engine compartment running down the firewall and into the junction box that joins the engine and cab wiring harnesses. Was not a cheap repair. Half the pins were corroded resulting in some interesting problems. May not be an issue for you but worth a look. Brad

You may want to check brake chambers. The "pancake" rubber baffle inside the rear chamber was old and started leaking.

We bought Sailun S637's from Simpletire.com Very happy with our buying experience. Got an email from them...currently running a sale.

what is an ARP device?

We were seriously considering scraping our dometic ndr1292 for a household frig. Finding the right size to fit our cabinets was tough. I also did not want to modify our cabinets. We would have lost the bottom drawer. Decided to upgrade the cooling unit by changing it to a household type through jcrefrigeration. Same price as a household frig without the cabinet rework hassle. Did it ourselves. Easy with their youtube and phone support. Completed the work in June. Works great, uses much less power than a household model.

Been on the road and at least 3 shops since last week. Have about 24 hours sitting in lounges. I was told the software update fixed the problem. Got back to the camp ground and everything worked fine......hence my belief everything was well. The next day leave the camp ground, coffee in hand thinking this is going to be great ride to the North Shore for the summer.......wrong!! The accelerator again goes to the floor without response from the engine. So much for a software update. I go back to TRX tuck shop. Still no codes. Trace wires to ECM no resistance. Put in a new peddle sensor. Assured everything is well. This time insist on a test drive. Peddle response fails again. Decided to spend the night at their facility. Decide these guy don't know what is going on. Talk to service manager, he is gracious enough to waive the fees. How fortunate for me. I head to CIT Volvo up I-90. They run a wire trace on the peddle to the ECM and mysteriously find resistance. They open the wire harness junction box at the fire wall and you guessed it....corroded due to water leak. Tech says can replace all the bad female pins and clean up the male pins, reassemble. Cost $900.00. Truck runs great. Overnight at a rest stop near Cheteek, WI. Leave next morning and peddle fails again. Able to get to my destination on the North Shore. At a loss as what to do. I feel like I wasted 900 bucks. To far away to return to CIT. Any ideas would be very much welcomed

Follow up to my accelerator problem: After cleaning all battery connections etc. I thought I was golden. Took the truck to my brothers house on Saturday. On the way over everything worked as it should. On the way back (midnight, rainy) the accelerator gremlins struck again. Totally frusturated and ready to grenade the truck, I called Cummins (Rockford location, JX truck center, 262-709-3209) . Brought the truck in and explained the symptoms andmy attempts at corrective action. He hooked up the code reader and as expected no codes shown. Thankfully the tech checked for software updates. Imagine that, no updates since 2003. I bought the truck in 2006. Seems one of the patches was for.....you guessed it.....accelerator peddle problems. He tried to download the patches but my ECM would not recognize them. Long story not to short, he had to wipe out the old software from the ECM and install all the new stuff. After a test run all is well. 30 mile trip back to camp....all is well. If it wasn't for the cummins tech (Dave) never would in a million years would have thought of a software up grade. Thanks again for all your input. I hope this experience will help others. Brad

After the education I got from all your comments (thanks) I took the truck into a local repair shop here in Sycamore. Asked them to check for codes (thinking something would would show up on their PC,) the Potentiometer, etc.. The results....no codes (of course) and the Potentiometer tested good. So after allot of head scratching we called a Cummins tech. who was kind enough to speak to us on the phone. He told me the symptoms are not fuel related based on what I shared with him. The engine would sputter and for sure post a code. His suggestion( as was spindrifts), was to check the electrical connections. He said faulty connections can cause the symptoms I am experiencing without posting codes to my panel. So I spent the afternoon taking everything apart, cleaning and reinstalling. Storms are rolling in so a test drive is planned for tomorrow.

Thank you guys. What is a throttle potentiometer? What does it do? Where is it located typically?

I have a 2001 VNL770 with a Cummins engine/auto shift trans. From time to time during acceleration from a stop or in motion all power is lost. The pedal goes to the floor and nothing. A second or two later everything is normal. I changed the fuel filter, run biocide in the fuel, nothing in the tank or filter looks out of the ordinary. The engine does not sputter, no codes show up, no unusual exhaust etc. just looses power. What could be going on? Thanks Brad

Darryl, When the brake release (yellow knob) is pushed in to travel, air was rushing in past the valve. If the brake chamber is leaking air it is somehow circulated back toward the yellow knob. I had a mechanic replace what you call the air pot. Cost for the work including labor was $160.00. Noteven is right on. Don't do this repair yourself unless you know what you are doing. I did not, so hired a pro.

I finally found one of my more significant air leaks last week. It was the "pan cake" in the rear brake chamber. Had half replaced and the truck holds air for a couple days. I give up on trying to find the others. Crawled all over the truck with the spray bottle. Borrowed a whisper from a friend. Can't find them.

Like many others we have found stations along the highways off the interstates significantly cheaper than J/Pilot, Loves, TA. However, I always worry about fuel quality. I have heard stories of water or gasoline being added to the tanks, fuel sitting in the tanks to long, pumping sludge from the bottom of their tanks etc. Been told by a couple mechanics it is better to buy from the big boys than smaller stations because their fuel turns faster and is fresh. What are your thoughts?

We have a weather radio. Would not travel without one. To find ours I went to Google and did a search for the best weather radios for 2017 and 2018. We chose a Midland. Has weather alert am, fm, tv, multiple power sources, hand crank, solar, ac, dc light etc. We also use our cell phone, and the weather band on the truck cb.

I had a similar problem when I bought new steers several years ago. One of the tires (firestone bought on sale at Speedco) was out of round. I was shocked. Speedco replaced the tire at no cost. Had a similar problem with a motor home. Fixed that problem by having the tires spun balanced and trued on the rig. May also want to have the steering mechanisms checked for wear....tie rods, ball joints ,king pin, drag link etc. if you have not done that yet.

I have a VNL 770 with a Cummins ISX engine. A diesel mechanic suggested I switch over to Rotella. Anyone heard of doing this? Has anyone done it? He told me allot of the old time truckers use engine oil. I don't remember the reason. If you changed over notice a difference in steering? Any negatives to changing over? Benefits? Thanks Brad

Wow! such a nice group of people. Never said not to use bleach to sanitize.....actually mentioned prior posts in which the process was discussed very well (thank you Kirk).....Bleach does degrade seals, plastics, metals etc if left in contact with them in high doses (short time) or low doses (long time). Barbaraok with his knowledge of chemistry confirms this (it is an oxidizer). So sanitize with bleach if you wish.....I do...just flush the system well. I would not suggest a small dose of bleach in the tank to keep it fresh. Like I mentioned it is a poison and there are safer chemicals to use. That just might be what the OP was looking for.

Zulu, I don't see any misinformation. Did not intend to go into the details of sanitizing a water system which includes plumbing and water in my definition. Just trying to answer the question at high level. The sanitizing procedure has been discussed in prior posts. Bleach/chlorine is poison/toxic and need not be ingested at all if possible. With public water that is impossible to avoid unless it is filtered out. Bleach is highly corrosive and although "plastic" parts are resistant (they do become brittle, seals breakdown), metal plumbing fixtures are not. I choose to avoid chlorinated water.. Purogene in my water system/ tank storage is a safe alternative to chlorine. A good carbon filter helps reduce the chlorine in city water. As far as dosing your tank every time you fill up the tank, that would depend on how often you do that. To me not a big deal when we store the unit for a time or refresh the holding tank water monthly.. Some folks run exclusively off their tanks and I would agree that there are much better systems to use than an additive R.O comes to mind.

Hi Johnny, We use it all the time. It can be purchased at Rvwaterfilterstore.com. One 32 oz. bottle will last a long time. 3oz treats 100 gallons. Bleach is a poison and very corrosive. The only time we use it is to sanitize and then flush the entire system including the water heater. If we decide to store water in our 100 gallon tank we then add the purogene. No odor, bad taste or funky stuff growing in the tanks. Brad

Thanks all for your input. I have turned off the tanks and have a new regulator on order.

I noticed a propane smell at my regulator today and traced it to the regulator vent. Was leaking enough to produce a small flame ( I know a lighter is a bad way to test for leaks). The daily temps are only in the 70's and we are at 600' above sea level along the greatest of Great Lakes. Is this a typical amount of propane to leak from the vent? Is it time to replace it (10 years old)? Thanks Brad