Has SanFord been replaced???!!!

Toyman01 said:

Well, a gentelman just stopped by and offed $10k for SanFord. 

His timing is pretty good. 

 

 

While I don't know how much cash you have into it, that doesn't sound like a bad offer.

In reply to Ian F :

I have less than that in it if you discount all the time. 

$10k is pretty realistic. 

It's pretty tempting. It's going to take a while to get to sleep tonight. 

Sounds to me like what the motorhome needs is now paid for along with a nice trip using the motorhome. 

Over the last few days, went through the brakes. There was a fair amount of air in the system and the master cylinder was about half full. No notable leaks, so I flushed the entire system. The old fluid was almost black. It has pretty decent pedal now. 

Another issue is when I picked it up, both the black and gray tanks were almost full. I wanted the ability to drain the tanks at home so that meant some plumbing would be required. I tied into a clean-out under my house and bought a macerator pump that would hook up to the tanks. From there draining the tanks was pretty easy. 

*

The pump and hose will live under the house. 

The only other thing I need to do to get it ready for this weekend is a oil change. 

Have you made a decision on Sanford yet?

In reply to Norma66-Brent :

No. I'm in no hurry to make a decision. The tags and insurance are paid up until next February and are crazy cheap at that.

Are you pumping E36 M3 through a garden hose?

In reply to OHSCrifle :

Yep. The macerator pump chops it all up into tiny pieces and pumps it through the hose into the house drain. 

Mechanical marvel

Today I hot wired the electric step with a DPDT momentary switch, replaced the missing sway bar bushings, and added a backup camera. I stress tested my plastic ramps. They say they are rated to 12k pounds. I guess they must be. They didn't even creak. 

For a split second I thought I found a gold mine in one of the cabinets. 

It's a reprint, total value, about $5.00.

Tomorrow we load up for Lemons.

Good to hear its going well and awesome that an option presented itself on Sanford. At least you can decide if you want to take it.

I bet sway bar bushings help the driving experience a LOT. It always amazes me how critical they can be to road manners in something like a pickup, I can't imagine the change in a bus.

Loaded up and ready to head out for Southern Discomfort Spring 2019, 24 hour Lemons race at CMP.

Total rig length, 49'.  Not the longest thing I've ever driven, but it's been a while. 

I hope it doesn't leave me on the side of the road or I'll be .

It needs to be painted flat black with skulls.

The Beast Master got the job done. Engine ran great, transmission shifted perfectly, it drove decent considering the load. 

The tires, not so much. Two 5 year old Goodyear Wrangler load range E tires with identical violent failures. A rear at 65 mph on the interstate. And a front  at 55 on a two lane country road. The rear was pretty uneventful. The front was pretty exciting, but manageable. It immediately wanted to swap lanes and head for the ditch but I was able to get it stopped safely. Unfortunately when the front blew it took out all the controls and two hydraulic lines for the leveling jacks. The one thing I didn't pack...a jack. Luckily the nice older gent who's driveway I blocked had a 12 ton bottle jack that took care of the problem. I'm pretty sure the spare was original to the MH. It had an amazing number of cracks in the side wall but it did get me 50 miles to the track. One of the racers had a tire machines so I had my son pick up two tires and we swapped them at the track.

I guess I'll be buying a full set in the next week or so. 

Other notable problems. The front A/C burned up a fan motor. Possibly why it was so noisy when I first fired it up. I thought it was just a cheap unit. 

There is a water leak in the bathroom somewhere. The valve on the toilet at a guess. 

It worked perfectly at the track and towed the trailer like it wasn't even back there. The best thing, I pulled it in the back yard, shut it down, plugged it in to get the a/c and refrigerator running and walked away. I can unload and clean up tomorrow. 

I think she'll be sticking around for a while. 

In reply to Toyman01 :

Holy balls man, glad you kept it out of the ditch!  What’s the date code on those blowed-up tires?  EDIT: nevermind, I see you said 5-year-Old.  My reading fail. 

What kind of ac unit is on there?  I might have an extra fan...

It's a Dometic of some description. I haven't had time to study it yet. 

Shoot, the spare I have is out of a Coleman.  I don't know how interchangeable those all are

So, the front blowout made a mess of the hydraulic leveling system. It broke two adapter fitting out of the control valve and snatched a bunch of wiring apart. I broke the 3rd getting it apart. 

One side of one connector is completely gone. Anyone know what connector is and where I could buy one?

My initial thought was to just replace the control unit. At least until I priced the stupid thing. $750.00!

Which makes me ask why in the hell would you mount something that expensive, right above the front tire where it is subject to all the water and crap off the tire as well as the occasional blowout. Stupid design is stupid. It will be getting a steel plate protector when it goes back together. 

I have a email out to a parts supplier to see if they can get the fittings and connectors. We will see how that works out. 

More to come. 

This thread is not helping my thread o started about buying RVs.  Looks you got a good one

In reply to Toyman01 :

That looks like a pretty common connector, I’m thinking GM? You may find one in the help section at the FLAPS. 

Take the 10k while it’s on the table.  Sanford is awesome, but you found a better tool for the job 

Small update.

All the parts are available for the lift system. They should have shipped to me today and I should have them by the end of the week. I tried a easy out to pull the broken fittings without success so a drill and tap set was ordered to clean that up. I hope to have the system back in service within the next week. 

Two of the storage doors were also in pretty poor shape. The hinges were loose and bent. Those have been repaired successfully as well. I had considered replacing the hinges but was able to straighten the bent parts and replace the broken and loose rivets

Final repair for today was the front A/C. A fan motor was $145. A fan capacitor was $12. I figured I would try the capacitor first and that solved the problem. 

More to come. 

Another small update.

The hydraulic controls for the leveling system are reinstalled and all destroyed wiring replaced or repaired. The system once again works as it should. 

I also ran it up to the gas station to top off the tank. I was curious to see what the mileage was towing the trailer. It got 6 mpg for the 140 miles that was on that tank. I guess if you are worried about fuel efficiency, you really don't want one of these. 

In reply to Toyman01 :

Six isn't too bad for an RV with a car behind it I guess. I only got 9 towing a light boat with the ZJ I had.