Spring should be coming.... preparing for 2018 camping season!

Lot's to do as all RV folks will tell you! Some of the projects I am posting up here and on the YouTube channel are: (gosh! A colon, so you know he's serious!!)

1) troubleshooting of the Dometic RM2800 fridge along with the freebie Dometic Americana unit with recall/ LP issues;

2) Troubleshooting on the coach battery setup and wiring;

3) troubleshooting on the rough start up and initial running on the 454;

4) troubleshooting on the RV furnace....

There seems to be a common thread with all of these....

In any case there is always something to work on and if there wasn't you'd wonder what the heck you missed! The one that has me worried the most is the electrical one with the coach battery. It's like running water going somewhere and I don't know where! I dread trying to trace wires through, under and all over to figure out what is going on.

The furnace really looks like a clean out and get it started issue since little furry friends packed the "squirrel cage" fan area full of clippings. Ironic that it's called that... The engine issue looks like a tune-up one but the extra carbon blasted out of the right side has me wondering if I need to start pulling plugs on that side to find out which cylinder is not working so well. It also feels like it's missing on one during start up. The videos I am working on... oh! I forgot my other project! The Onan genset rehash. The wiring and such on the Onan has been cobbed together for years now. Finally tired of seeing it like this. Hoping to have a donor genset soon to get this one up and running right and original.

Cracked starter solenoid that i bought a year or so ago, starter and run relays NOA, fuses cobbed from the auto shop. Time to get serious! All wires are white which helps soooo much to trace stuff to where it needs to be.... more later. Always!

UPdate: Issue #2 is a bad WalMart battery! Only testing at 6 volts so no wonder it couldn't charge right. I had an older charger on it and my new one along with my tester shows 6 volts and a fault in the battery. Guess I'm taking that one back. 

Better get some protection! RV covers.

UPDate:
Okay, I received the RV cover it is great. Only thing is that although I measured the RV I forgot to include the fact it has a pointed nose and rear ladder and angled back. The new RV's seem to have given up on any angled front or rear panels and this added about a foot of length onto the RV. The cover that should have worked just fine got stuck on the Allegro's angled front and left plenty of spare fabric on the front and back so I could not zipper the last corner down.

While I don't argue the sellers' product quality it does not compensate for my retro (not retro) angles and other design features when putting a cover on it. Should have ordered the larger cover but then Id have even more slack on the roof areas.

I've been shopping around a bit and found this cover for the Allegro. It's certainly low in the price range at about $130 and my hope is that it is a value purchase that helps save the RV during the off months up here in NY.

Hey, I'm fine with seeing the Allegro all through the winter parked off the side of my driveway but my neighbors may not appreciate the retro lines and color scheme of my Vintage RV. Okay, that and it would be nice to shield my magic carpet so I don't get any more repair jobs due to ice, snow and sun pounding down on her. I need to pamper the rig that hauls my family around every summer!

This cover comes from Amazon but it's a North East Harbor product. I've posted some pics of the product here with a link to the Amazon purchase site if anyone is interested.

 RV Cover that should fit P30 Allegro RV's.

I will post a video of getting on the cover by myself with a step ladder and I hope I can do it because no one else will help me! Darn phones and other streaming video devices!

Next purchase is a custom spare tire cover!!

Oh, that's why.... vintage vs. new class A RV's

Those of us hooked, stuck, addicted to classic RV's have many reasons for keeping our old RV's and not trading them in for new versions which should be arguably better than the decades-old versions we keep. I mean, how can the new ones not be better than ours???? Reliability, amenities, efficiency, ease of use.. cost? (HA!). these should all be so much better than a 30+ RV right? Maybe not so much.

I've been to Camping Worlds and their RV sales locations and I have to say that not much beats my Class A 1987 Allegro that sleeps 6. Let us compare. Now, to be realistic we should understand that there are inherent risks with owning an older RV: upkeep, repairs, ageing components, etc. But when you factor this with the costs of buying a new RV the risks seem a bit overblown.

We bought the LH2 for $2300. How can anyone complain about getting a Class A that sleeps 6, kitchen, refrigerator, generator, bathroom, shower, running engine and drive train, no roof leaks, awesome 1980's pink shag and velour seating, curtains??? Let's not even mention the fantastic off white, brown and orange paint scheme on the aluminum panels! It's so angular is "tubular"!!

Here are some examples of stuff out there for sale as "new" Class A RV's about the same size and I'm shocked at what gets sacrificed for a slide out with a queen bed. Guess some of these are empty-nester type RV's with no kids to take along.



http://meyersrvsuperstores.com/vehicle/2016-thor-windsport-34j/

http://meyersrvsuperstores.com/vehicle/2018-fleetwood-discovery-lxe-44h-2/

You know, I'll think I will stick with my $2300 angled brick of an RV. Somehow mine has a bit more personality than these RV's...

Have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Oh yeah, have a Happy Hanukah as well.

Here's my Christmas Eve
start up video on YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNGyV_ywcEY

Doing the weekly start-up!

With the onset of cold weather and not traveling due to kids in school I've been trying to keep the RV in shape with regular start-ups. If I wait more than a week, the battery is not strong enough to start her. That's not right. In any case, I have my two Toyotas parked up so close for a potential jump start that they look like pups nursing up to Momma in the front yard. Bet my neighbor across the street is just pitching fits about all the vehicles in her view. Working on it!

The Toyota's suckling up to the Allegro on a cold December evening.....

I did get the RV started and the amp meter sat at zero amps until some groaning stopped from the belts and alternator, then it climbed into the positive territory to charge. Guessing new belts are in order.... Onan genset started right up with a couple of smacks on the control panel and then hitting the start switch in the back.

Must be cold. Oil pressure is still high, temp is cold and thank goodness the amps are up a bit. 40 gallons left in the tank.

Keep reading and you'll see some further upgrades in the next month before spring. Have to keep moving on and up with this RV! Trips to PA and OH are on the schedule for 2018!

Vacuum good, temps down and RPMs nice and low.

A Blast from the Past. The old Road Trip Blog

Hi All!
This is the link to the old blog that basically stopped once I got back from Floriday trying to rescue the old Dodge RV.

Here it is: Vintage RV'ing

From Fall into Winter! Planning the fixin' projects and other stuff for 2018.....

Hello All! Just a quick post to let you know you can trace down my old blog at:
VintageRV'ing: Long Hauler 1.  To see what we tried a couple of years ago with the old '77 Dodge RV. Crazy stuff there but hope we learned from it going into the LH 2 this and next year! Our oldest son will be spending his last Summer prior to college in 2018 so this should be interesting.

So, for the next few months we'll be posting about winterizing, roof repairs and fixes (oh, you Sillycone users!) upgrades with touchscreens, GPS and warp drive....okay maybe not the last one but I can always dream about swapping out the rear diff to get into that highway cruise sweet spot at 2100-2200 rpm at 65 or so.

Here are some of the purchases to work on. A new dash console to allow for GPS, wifi and other stuff while we are on the road and camping. Now to find a swivel case that will mount on the dash for easy use. The kit includes a rear view camera so that will be pretty cool, too!

Not to mention changing out that rear fold-down bunk set up that our youngest sleeps in.

Stay Tuned and remember... it only costs you your time reading at the LongHauler.com!

Have a good Turkey Day! Triptophan is your friend.

Dan "TheVintageRV'er"

I'll be uploading new video on YouTube as well.

Summer is technically over... Camping Trip!

Now that we're back home and getting ready for the first day of school, again, it's great to know the RV behaved well up to the campsite and back this time! After the crazy side trip to Camping World's parking lot in Liverpool, NY the LH2 is back up and ready for action as noted by the previous post.

I did do some other minor fixes before heading out. One of them was to help the driving behavior on the highway. The Allegro is not so great in a crosswind but even in just a light wind shes' a bit of a two-hander to deal with. So, I ordered a Gabriel RV steering damper and some MOOG urethane sway bar bushings to help the ride.

A stowaway no more! The original useless steering damper.

 This first photo is of the old, OEM? Steering damper. Right. Not much there and it didn't do anything except hang around for the trip. No resistance or anything. Could have worked better as a slide whistle. Getting the part out required a pickle fork (which I found in it's tool box!) and a hammer to pop out the tapered pin/bolt. The other end needed some "Thrust" and my 1/2" impact wrench to undo the 2 nuts locked on the end attached to the cross member. I also needed a pipe wrench (yes, you read correctly) to keep the thing from just spinning with the impact wrench. Right tools= easy job!

 With a couple of trips under the RV the new, very yellow, steering damper was in and ready to go! Now for the sway bar bushings! Moog ones but I'm still a bit skeptical about the fit. I ordered the largest ones and still have a bit of gap on them. I did go the hardware store and picked up all stainless bolts and nuts for the install to replace the bent and rusted ones holding onto the old bushings. That impact wrench smoked the old bolts but did get them off.

There's some new colors in town! Bit by bit, the RV is getting retrofit... Hey! I made a rhyme!

 The only real issues I had was me working the impact wrench under the rig. First I wound up getting the wrong bolt in the bin from the store (someone dumped one in there...) that jammed a nut on it. Then after that I had a nut in the socket and wound up driving 2 nuts onto the bolt and getting that all wonked up. Had to break out the sawsall with the carbide blade to cut that out and redo it. But with all jobs, the right tools= easy job! Okay, now onto other projects that have been lingering on....

The side door always leaked in a big rainstorm. The water would just drip inside and down the door to the floor, making a big puddle on the step that was carpeted. The old drip edge was plastic and completely brittle and shot. You know what? Aluminum drip edge you buy to redo your roof on the house is exactly the size you need to install! All you do is cut off one tab that is used to nail the drip edge onto your roof edge. The rest is bent to fit. I  just cut it to the width and punched in the screws to fit. No caulking or anything. This trip it kept the remnants of Harvey out of our RV on Saturday night and Sunday.

We headed out a bit late after getting everything set for the drive and arrived at the Natural Bridge/ Watertown KOA http://koa.com/campgrounds/watertown/

Gettin' a fire goin' in the Adirondack Campground fire pit! Even cooked two dinners on this one!

A nice pile of old and dry firewood courtesy of Ed at KOA!

Some of the old and outdated playground equipment the new owner's removed from the KOA. Oh, Charlie Brown!

Working and stoking the campfire on Saturday before the remnants of Harvey swooped in and rained for almost 2 days....

The campsite is great with most of the spots being a wooded location under Eastern Hemlocks. The "new" owners have been working on upgrades and fixing things that were left a bit undone by the previous owners. We never had any issues with water, electric or sewer while there. They moved us to a great spot in the middle of the campground (#28!) right next to Ed and family that help them keep the place in shape. Ed even offered to get us some old firewood to stock up our fire pit for the weekend! Everyone was friendly and despite having rain on Saturday night through Sunday all day and night we had a good time.

Now to plan the "after summer" camping trip. Where to go and what to do....