Hello all, My wife and I have been RV'ing for almost a year now, having bought ourselves a 1984 30' Fleetwood Southwind for $2,500.00. Our original intention was to have a RV to camp in as we traveled to local craft shows selling jewelery that we were making. After several "poor" shows, we abandoned the craft shows, but have really become addicted to RV'ing. Today really fueled the fires, we attended the RV show at Hershey, PA. Man, did we come out of there with about 2,000 ideas! We aren't to the point of buying a new RV yet (maybe next year) so we are going to start working on repairing several things in ours. Two of the biggest are re-sealing the roof, and replacing the ceiling. I told my wife that tomorrow we start by removing all of the cabinets inside so we can get to the ceiling. Hope we're not biting off more that we can chew. Next will be sealing the roof. We read about a tape that can be used, expensive, but long lasting, that we may try. Other that that, the rig is great! Built on the P30 chassis with the Chevy 454 motor. The only problem I have been having with it is that it eats alternater belts. I've become such a pro replacing them. Rain or shine, in the driveway or on the side of I-95. I tighten it before we head out, but after several hours of driving, the "screaching" starts with a vengence. I read somewhere that this is common with this chassis, and that perhaps the alternater pully is not in line with the fly wheel. What the heck do I do about that? Well, my hopes is that we might learn some things here, get some advise when needed, and generally start to "network" with other RV'ers. Take care, PA Gypsies
PA Gypsies, First off welcome to the group and yes you will pick up a lot of very good information on nice parks. We like to visit your state. Lots to see in PA. Good luck on rework and remember the tape is for small holes and not the hold roof cover. You may need a new rubber roof on unit that old. I think 10 to 12 years rubber roofs are shot. Use the correct caulk also on rubber roof not the Home Depot stuff. On drive belt, this is not right. Belts will run for years with no problems. Remove belt and look at each pulley. If you see a spot or mark inside any pulleys this will damage belt in short order. You are right on pulleys need to be in line or this will break down rubber on side of belt and off it will go. Very hard to see this but look at a belt that has come off and check sides for damage. Note side it was on and you can track down problem.
QUOTE(John Blue @ Sep 16 2006, 11:21 PM) [snapback]5069[/snapback] PA Gypsies, First off welcome to the group and yes you will pick up a lot of very good information on nice parks. We like to visit your state. Lots to see in PA. Good luck on rework and remember the tape is for small holes and not the hold roof cover. You may need a new rubber roof on unit that old. I think 10 to 12 years rubber roofs are shot. Use the correct caulk also on rubber roof not the Home Depot stuff. On drive belt, this is not right. Belts will run for years with no problems. Remove belt and look at each pulley. If you see a spot or mark inside any pulleys this will damage belt in short order. You are right on pulleys need to be in line or this will break down rubber on side of belt and off it will go. Very hard to see this but look at a belt that has come off and check sides for damage. Note side it was on and you can track down problem.
I would certainly not put a lot of dollars and effort into a coach that old with the idea of selling to recover your efforts. You would be better off to bite the bullet and get the coach you can afford and want and sell the existing unit for whatever you can get. You might even get someone to take it off your hands in a tade. Gry
PA Gypsies, welcome to the forum. No matter what question you have, someone here will have the answer. You are much braver than we are, I don't think the jobs you are preparing to tackle are ones that we would even delve into...good luck. Hope to see you posting often.
PA, I agree with the other posts. You are spending good money after bad.. We did the same thing you did with a 1990 Electra. Everytime you turned around you were spending money to keep it reliable. After many estimates, we decided it was not a good investment to replace the vinyle roof and traded it in. Owning a MH in supposed to be a hobby, but enough is enough. I had the same belt problem on a Dodge engine. Squeel after 2k miles, tighten, squeel, tighten. I finally found out the Power steering pump was locking up and heating the belt to the point of stretching and then breaking. I had a 1988 454CC that spun off belts and it turned out to be an idler pulley that went and left me stranded. Having an extra belt was little help in that situation. I'm not sure if that your year 454 has a serpentine belt. P.S. we gave up craft shows also. It was a lot of fun, BUT....It won't pay the gas. Good luck to you and yours and I hope we meet on the road someday. oldcutup Florida
