Our Maiden Voyage

Dave5Cs · July 25, 2010, 10:12:31 AM

So we have replaced the kitchen, Bath, made and installed cabinets for the bedroom, Sent the couch out for re-doing the fabric. Installed the Air horns, Made beds for the cats that hang from the ceiling (the beds not the cats). Installed air ride seats, Checked for air leaks of all kinds Gas,fuel,air. Checked brakes.Still have to change filters and oil.She hasn't been out in 5 months, so this morning we started her up and let her rise.
Re-did a lot of the electric and plumbing. etc.

We drove her around with a litter smoke which would clear after letting off the peddle. It would come back a little when pushed down to take off. Brakes worked great. Motor ran smooth, Transmission shifted great.

We were laughing like a couple of kids. Drove by friends house at 7 AM and honked the air horns and watched as they came out waving and laughing. It came up to temperature 190 nicely and stayed there.A great time was had by all. Sometime in or around November or October we will leave our house and go full time so want to be ready. So far so good.
Dave

PP · July 25, 2010, 05:05:24 PM

Congrats and excited for ya!

That feeling of exhileration never goes away, even when you live it every day. Good luck, Will

Dave5Cs · July 26, 2010, 07:04:17 AM

There is one thing wed like t fix. The front end feels every bump in the road hard. Could this be the shocks need replacing and if so whats a good pair cost for the front of an MC5Cs. Lucky we have air ride seats because we had to adjust those to soft t take the jolts.
Any one got an idea on this.

bevans6 · July 26, 2010, 07:46:34 AM

I put new shocks on the front of my 5C. After talking to Luke at US Coach, I went with his standard shocks, I forget how much they were but they were not expensive at all. $40 each sticks in my mind. But - they were not the problem! The shocks I took off were fine. Nor were the airbags over inflated (ride height checked out, nor were the bushings in the front suspension (but check both things). The problem was over-inflated front tires. I run mine at 85 psi now, based on load inflation table for my tires (which happen to be Firestone FS-560 Plus 12R-22.5 load range H) and the ride and handling improved a lot. I will say that part of that may just be getting used to the ride, familiarity over time.

Brian

Dave5Cs · July 26, 2010, 07:56:26 AM

Thanks for the info. have been running them at 100lbs as suggested in Manuals but will try 85 r 90 and see if it improves. The wife said her back is killing her this morning just from driving around town. I called Mohawk and they have 12B-5-1 for 48.00 each in sock but thought I would call Luke too to see what he had. But sounds like he already gave us the answer.
Dave

Ed Hackenbruch · July 26, 2010, 08:18:29 AM

Sure seems like a lot of the roads could use some repaving too.

Ed Hackenbruch · July 26, 2010, 08:20:30 AM

So Dave, do you have any plans on where you are going yet?

bevans6 · July 26, 2010, 08:56:37 AM

Before you go for too low a pressure, I suggest doing the normal homework like finding a load table for your tires, double checking the load range (some 12R-22.5's might be load range G, for example, and have a different load table that what I used) and the most obvious - weigh the axles of your bus!

Brian

Dave5Cs · July 26, 2010, 08:40:28 PM

Ed , No we know we will stay in California for awhile being I am a Contractor here and maybe work will come back someday LOL. The wife still has work and needs to stay here also to do it because of state licenses etc.
But down the road we will travel around RVing so to speak.
Dave

Dave5Cs · July 26, 2010, 08:48:47 PM

Brian,

The PO has new Mich's 12Rx 22.5 H on front with 85 lbs in each. The rear are Goodyear G149 H 12.Rx 22.5 but are 8 years old and have started cracking sidewalls so will Replace those when can afford the new outsides. Have new ones already for the insides but don't want to put them on until we have all 4 ready.

Weighing the axle? Ok I can do a lot of mechanical things and have but What or how do you do that. I am still trying to get all the things together to get off my back wheels to cut out a metal 3 inch block the last owner put in when he cut only one wheel well out and then never finished the job?

bevans6 · July 27, 2010, 04:58:24 AM

I guess weighing the bus and getting the front and rear axle weights can be done in a number of ways. I go down to my waste transfer station, you pay for dumping trash by weight here, so the commercial side can weigh up to full semi-trailers. They charge $5 if they give you a weight ticket, if they just tell you your weight it's free. I weigh the whole bus, then pull forward and weigh just the rear axle, the difference is the front axle. You can get a pretty good weigh job at a truck stop that has a CAT scale, they are usually set up to weigh individual axles for the truckers. If your region has roadside commercial weigh scales for the DOT, sometimes you can go in when the scale is not active and they leave the machine on, you can weigh that way. Nothing that you can really do at home, though. I think in your case I would feel very easy about running the 85 psi that your previous owner ran. My PO ran 110 PSI, the thing rode horribly.

Brian

Dave5Cs · July 27, 2010, 08:06:04 AM

Thanks Brian,

I did notice even though the PO put on H rated tires, when I found the Manufacturer's plate. It says

GVWR 14.290kg
WITH 12.5x22.5 G TIRES , 8.25x22.5 RIMS
AT 690 kPa COLD SINGLE, 585 kPa COLD DUAL

WITH 11.5x20 G TIRES, 8.00x20 RIMS
AT 690kPa COLD SINGLE, 585 kPA COLD DUAL

14,190kg
WITH 12.00x22.5 G TIRES , 8.25x22.5 RIMS
AT 690 kPa COLD SINGLE, 585 kPa COLD DUAL

WITH 11.00x20 G TIRES, 8.00x20 RIMS
AT 690kPa COLD SINGLE, 585 kPA COLD DUAL

Front
GAWR 6,051kg with 12.75x22.5 G tires 8.25x22.5 rims
At 655KPa COLD SINGLE

5.570kg WITH 12.00x22.5 G TIRES 8.25x22.5 rims
AT 690 KPa COLD SINGLE

REAR
9,070kp WITH 12.00x22.5 G TIRES 8.00x20 RIMS
AT 585 kPa COLD DUAL

Now it looks like originally it had G not H rated tires would that matter on the ride feel?

bevans6 · July 27, 2010, 08:22:40 AM

I have a very similar plaque on my bus, only in lbs and kg. It's more relevant to 1970's tire tech than todays. It's also for a vehicle running at max GVW, and my bus weighs about 6,000 lbs less than that. Note that your 12R 22.5's aren't even listed... That's why the recommendation is to adjust the pressures to suit the tires you now have, and the load you are actually carrying.

I would think that if the bus was fully loaded, and the load distributed ideally, the weight on the front axle would be a lot higher than what you actually have. That weight would calm down the ride and make it a lot more comfortable. You really can't adjust the spring rates of the suspension much, but you can lower the air pressure of the tires and that does make a difference.

Here is the load table that I use, for Firestone tires. It's probably fairly close to what your Michelin's would require, within a few percent anyway, for the same tire size and load range. http://www.trucktires.com/firestone/us_eng/load/load_pdf/F_loadTables.pdf

Brian

Dave5Cs · July 27, 2010, 08:30:57 AM

Thanks for he help Brian. Will check it out and see what Happens. Dave

bevans6 · July 27, 2010, 10:42:21 AM

Dave, another thing just occurred to me, I apologize I didn't think of this earlier, probably because my 5C still has the original air beams and stock (although brand new) air springs. If you bus has had the air beams blocked off, the ride will be harsher particularly if the original dual convoluted air bags are still in place. You can tell if there is a plate between the top of the spring and the mount, I think. Some conversions use rolling lobe air bags as replacements when blocking off the air beams, as they ride much softer that dual convoluted air springs when the additional volume of the beam is taken away.

Brian