We got home yesterday from what was the last trip in our year of ownership, and our year of homeschooling and RVing in the "Magic School Bus" as we called it. All 5 of us felt the same - glad we did it, happy that the kids are going back to normal school next week (even the kids agree with that) and also sad it's over. The total statistics came out to 11 weeks of travel in the RV, 15 states visited (most more than once), 16,000 miles driven, about 4 months of downtime in that period for the initial catch-up/cleaning and then the interior remodel over the winter (plus of course work in between trips). Zero breakdowns, other than when the one alternator started making noise and I had to bypass it. I don't really consider that a breakdown, since it only delayed us an hour to get a new belt that would bypass that alternator, and was a part that I'd replaced but turned out to be defective out of the box. I need to do an inspection on the engine, but I haven't heard any bad noises from this alternator and it behaved fine the entire time, so this one seems fine. I managed to successfully stay ahead of any maintenance items so while on the trips we could just focus on having fun and putting diesel in the tank.
It's rare that all 5 of us agree on something. Usually Laurie and I agree, and then at least one of the kids will disagree. But we all agreed that we love RVing, we love the RV trips and the places it takes us, and we want to do more. That tells us what we need to know, which is that the experiment that was an RV this past year now becomes a more permanent fixture in the household.
The RV, despite now having more miles on it than when we got it (passed 100k yesterday) is absolutely in much better shape than when we got it, and we have more small items planned. At this point, most of them are more around comfort and convenience than anything else, although I do still have some mechanical items such as converting the engine cooling to electric fans, I still want to add a secondary oil cooler to give me better control over oil temps (especially on the long climbing grades). I still need to replace the front suspension airbags, etc.
The transmission cooler upgrade worked very well. No problems with the transmission temperatures, even on the long, steep grades. I did find that while moving down the highway the cooling fans wouldn't kick on until a hotter temp than desired/hotter than the thermostat should turn them on (200-205F). This doesn't happen at low speeds or when parked. I think what is happening is that the air flow is cooling the thermostatic switch, causing it to trip at a higher temperature. It's obvious the fans are working - when they kick on the temperature drops quickly and noticeably. I'm planning on adding some foam insulation like what is used on AC lines and I think that should fix the issue.
Although engine cooling is perhaps still not exactly what I want, I have decided that it's good enough that I can go to the electric fans. I do think that before next summer I'll need to do some more with oil cooling. Really, 85F+ is where the cooling capacity starts to get marginal. I also need to pull the intercooler and see if there is junk between it and the radiator blocking flow. I do expect there is. I'll pull it and clean both, and see what happens. One thing I did was just try revving the engine in neutral to see how much boost/power it seemed to take. At 2000 RPM it's running 3 psi boost, and at 2400 RPM (redline) it runs 5 psi. While that doesn't tell me everything, I do think that means there is a lot of horsepower going into that fan (which I already knew/suspected). and I think there's room for improvement.
The air scoop I added did successfully lower EGTs, although still not as much as I would like. I was generally EGT limited at altitude on the climbs. I'll be curious to see how far out my valve adjustment is when I do that. I have a feeling that they are out of adjustment, on the tight side, and if that's the case on the exhaust that could impact EGTs. We'll see. However one thing I am thinking about doing more now is adding hubcaps to the rear wheels to reduce turbulence. The logic makes sense and I see them on enough semis (including large fleets) to believe they must make an improvement. Of course the semis are looking at fuel economy, which I don't care about, but the resulting turbulence right at the engine air inlet I do suspect has some impact on the effort the turbo puts into making boost/power. I need to look into it some more and see what I think would be worth trying, but I think there is merit to that as a tweak. I could also do some fun before and after tests with yarn around the wheel area to see what sort of turbulence exist if I really felt like it (I probably don't).
Another discovery on this trip was getting the tire pressures set correctly. I had been running them at a higher pressure than was necessary by a good bit. Finally found the chart that shows the tire pressures vs. weights. Comfort improved dramatically as a result.
We've learned a lot. I'll try to summarize the biggest points below:
1) If buying a used RV, like a plane you should buy the best one that you can find. But also like a plane, expect that you will probably have to do a lot of work to it. RVs are generally built with good engines, transmissions, and suspensions, and then a box on top is built by whatever meth-heads the company can find locally and to the lowest cost possible as they are very labor intensive. Even a high end one that is well maintained is likely to have problems, but definitely try to buy the best thing you can. This is a house that is being exposed to earthquake level shakes every mile of the road, and so it's hard to make everything last. Wear is inevitable. But some designs are definitely better than others.
2) Slides are nice when parked, but annoying while on the road. It's hard to design a layout that makes best use of the slides while open, yet also provides complete functionality while closed. We had considered this bus and a 45' that had no slides on it, figuring the usable space was similar on both. I think we're ultimately glad we did this one (more on that in a bit), but my personal feeling on slides is to not bother with them if you think you can do without.
3) There are many ways of camping with an RV. Commercial RV parks, boondocking on public lands, Harvest Hosts (that's a neat program where businesses essentially let you stay in their parking lots overnight, and they usually make for fun and educational stops), campgrounds within parks, the list goes on. All of them have pros and cons, and realistically you end up using all of them. Having hookups is nice if nothing else because then you don't have to go searching for water and dump stations (which are often hard to find). But the best experiences are boondocking, at least for us. On our last trip home we did a rest area where we just parked, went to sleep, and then woke up and kept driving. Slides in, generator on, parked near semis and some other RVers. No amenities but it was actually nicer for just getting home than having to spend the time getting the bus set up for living and then packed up again for driving 8 hours later. Finding the best spots is a lot of work, but so worth it.
4) Like aviation, most people in the community are nice and interesting to talk to. There are some jerks, but few.
5) Like aviation, it's a lot of work, and not cheap, but the experiences are completely worth it.
More to come.
