ZMotorsports Shop Projects 2.0

[zmotorsports]

Wow! I glad I stumbled across this discussion. I have just applied for the Automotive Shop Instructor position that has just opened up at my school. I'm currently the Shop Foreman at the Transportation Maintenance facility at the district. I've been in the automotive/diesel repair industry since 2003 after graduating from UTI. I've been interested in teaching for around a decade and finally put in for it. I hope I get the opportunity and really believe I can get these students ready for the workforce. Also after reading many of these comments, I really hope I can make a difference in these students lives like some of them did in yours.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope you get the position and best of luck with the new career as you'll be forming some minds for the future in our industry.

 

[zmotorsports]

Picked up the coolant for the next round of maintenance on the coach on the way home yesterday.


The night before, I fired up the coach to build up air pressure and to raise it up a bit.


I've been the slacker in the neighborhood this past week as most of my other neighbors have already mowed their lawns during the week's 70 degree weather. I figured with the weather going to **** for the next 5 or so days I had better get after it before I need to rent a swather to mow around the house and shop. Like every other year, the middle takes its sweet time, but around the perimeter as soon as we get high 60's into low 70's the lawn takes off.








After mowing, I blew the mower off with compressed air and parked it back in the house garage.



It sure felt good to be mowing the lawn again, I missed it, even though it needs a lot of work this spring.

 

[madison069]

It sure felt good to be mowing the lawn again, I missed it, even though it needs a lot of work this spring.

Yea, mine needs a skid steer for a week worth of work.

 

[Sbusmech]

Thanks for stopping by. Hope you get the position and best of luck with the new career as you'll be forming some minds for the future in our industry.

Thank you and yes.

 

[fouckhest]

It sure felt good to be mowing the lawn again, I missed it, even though it needs a lot of work this spring.

Its bitter sweet Mike, same thing with the weather here. My back yard is the mixed bag of grass, a lot of contractor grade, some fescue and some other interesting stuff. I've already cut "some of it" twice, the front is sloooooowly starting to green up, but its about time to get into full blown lawn maintenance season.

I am very interested to follow the progress on the two areas you "killed" off in the back, I see they are still rather brown, hopefully that means that restoration is off to a good start

 

[zmotorsports]

Its bitter sweet Mike, same thing with the weather here. My back yard is the mixed bag of grass, a lot of contractor grade, some fescue and some other interesting stuff. I've already cut "some of it" twice, the front is sloooooowly starting to green up, but its about time to get into full blown lawn maintenance season.

I am very interested to follow the progress on the two areas you "killed" off in the back, I see they are still rather brown, hopefully that means that restoration is off to a good start

Funny you mention the two areas that I killed last fall Mike. Yesterday before mowing I did a full walk-around and was looking at both the buds that were already forming on my trees as well as to make sure there was nothing growing in those two areas that I killed. So far I have nothing trying to green up in those areas so I'll keep an eye on them and may even hit them with another round of killer in a couple of weeks to make sure everything is dead. Still undecided on that though, just kind of waiting to see right now.

The rest of the yard is actually greening up quite well, even despite that it is technically very early yet. I don't think I've ever mowed in March before at our current home. Our last home had a spring yard, meaning it was one of the first to green up and looked amazing in the spring. This yard is usually a bit slower to green and sometimes as late as May before it really gets green entirely. Not sure if that has to do with the sandy soil here vs. more clay at our last home or what the difference is. Can't be region, as we're only about 8 miles apart, so it must be soil characteristics.

 

[fouckhest]

Can't be region, as we're only about 8 miles apart, so it must be soil characteristics.

Yeah, I'd think soil would be the factor/variable. I know that is a big thing here that people that get "really serious" with their lawns do soil samples every couple years to make sure they are feeding it the right way.

My lawn certainly doesn't get going really good until later in the year, but once it does its a beast; I do water a LOT, which results in me (self imposed) mowing twice a week, but I like to think that helps keep the grass denser, but does tend to look good mid-to-late summer

 

[PugetDude]

I am reading about anticipated excitement for lawn maintenance with a heightened sense of bemused indifference.

 

[zmotorsports]

Yeah, I'd think soil would be the factor/variable. I know that is a big thing here that people that get "really serious" with their lawns do soil samples every couple years to make sure they are feeding it the right way.

My lawn certainly doesn't get going really good until later in the year, but once it does its a beast; I do water a LOT, which results in me (self imposed) mowing twice a week, but I like to think that helps keep the grass denser, but does tend to look good mid-to-late summer

Same here Mike, once it gets going it's mowing twice a week. When the wife and I go on vacation and my son is unable to mow it for me, it's a nightmare to mow after a week. I still end up mowing it twice, but once with the deck raised then again with it lowered. And I keep mine around 3.5" so it requires less water and remains a more lush green.

To be honest, mowing the lawn is so therapeutic to me. It kind of melts some worries and stress away because the finished product is so gratifying and rewarding, especially sitting on the deck Saturday and Sunday mornings drinking my coffee. I look forward to the day when every day is Saturday.

I am reading about anticipated excitement for lawn maintenance with a heightened sense of bemused indifference.

 

[Wiz02]

Same here Mike, once it gets going it's mowing twice a week. When the wife and I go on vacation and my son is unable to mow it for me, it's a nightmare to mow after a week. I still end up mowing it twice, but once with the deck raised then again with it lowered. And I keep mine around 3.5" so it requires less water and remains a more lush green.

To be honest, mowing the lawn is so therapeutic to me. It kind of melts some worries and stress away because the finished product is so gratifying and rewarding, especially sitting on the deck Saturday and Sunday mornings drinking my coffee. I look forward to the day when every day is Saturday.

It always amazes me which activities people enjoy.

The one thing that I gladly pay someone else to do is grass cutting. I hated it as a kid and I only do the spring and fall clean up because I am cheap. So while I have the usual set of yard tools, I don't own a lawn mower.

I would much rather be in the garage puttering around or doing home projects than cutting grass. Different strokes for different folks

 

[fouckhest]

Same here Mike, once it gets going it's mowing twice a week. When the wife and I go on vacation and my son is unable to mow it for me, it's a nightmare to mow after a week. I still end up mowing it twice, but once with the deck raised then again with it lowered. And I keep mine around 3.5" so it requires less water and remains a more lush green.

To be honest, mowing the lawn is so therapeutic to me. It kind of melts some worries and stress away because the finished product is so gratifying and rewarding, especially sitting on the deck Saturday and Sunday mornings drinking my coffee. I look forward to the day when every day is Saturday.

As expected, I couldn't agree more, great way to let the stress of the day melt away! Not to mention, I LOVE arriving back at my home and being able to admire the nice plush grass!

 

[zmotorsports]

It always amazes me which activities people enjoy.

The one thing that I gladly pay someone else to do is grass cutting. I hated it as a kid and I only do the spring and fall clean up because I am cheap. So while I have the usual set of yard tools, I don't own a lawn mower.

I would much rather be in the garage puttering around or doing home projects than cutting grass. Different strokes for different folks

To be honest, I would rather be spinning wrenches or fabbing something in the shop, but I will not pay someone to do something I am perfectly capable and willing to do. I would say on a scale of enjoyment, lawn mowing falls below wrenching in the shop, but WAY higher than blowing snow. I hate that ****, it's near the bottom of the enjoyment scale.

 

[ntsqd]

Seeing all of that coolant sparked a thought. Is that concentrated or "ready to use" i.e. 50/50 (or some other ratio) coolant?

I ask because for years I've heard the mantra to only use distilled water and coolant in cooling systems, no tap water. The no tap water part seems obvious to me (especially given my local water's very high calcium content), but distilled water is not benign. Without those minerals in the water it is pretty chemically active, aggressive even. Makes me wonder if distilled isn't the best idea, but I've no idea what I might use in it's place. For the time being I've been buying the "Ready to Use" coolant, but it's kind of galling to do that.

 

[Wiz02]

To be honest, I would rather be spinning wrenches or fabbing something in the shop, but I will not pay someone to do something I am perfectly capable and willing to do. I would say on a scale of enjoyment, lawn mowing falls below wrenching in the shop, but WAY higher than blowing snow. I hate that ****, it's near the bottom of the enjoyment scale.

Where I live, snow storms that have enough accumulation to need a snowblower are now only once or twice a year. No big deal. I only used it twice this year and the second storm really didn't warrant using the snowblower.

Grass cutting is a constant once a week chore around here, although in spring the grass really needs cutting more often. We have a rain deficit of over 8 inches and almost no one has sprinklers, so I am expecting all kinds of landscaping issues like losing shrubbery and parts of the lawn dieing this year.

 

[Finallygotit]

It sure felt good to be mowing the lawn again, I missed it

I'm with Scott.

 

[madison069]

Where I live, snow storms that have enough accumulation to need a snowblower are now only once or twice a year. No big deal. I only used it twice this year and the second storm really didn't warrant using the snowblower.

Grass cutting is a constant once a week chore around here, although in spring the grass really needs cutting more often. We have a rain deficit of over 8 inches and almost no one has sprinklers, so I am expecting all kinds of landscaping issues like losing shrubbery and parts of the lawn dieing this year.

It's been a little dry on the west side too.

I didn't snow blow anything this year, but did use the snow shovel on the sidewalk a few times.

I've already cut my grass once due to working on a customer's zero turn. Yard is still looking dormant but there's some greenery covering the yard.

 

[zmotorsports]

Seeing all of that coolant sparked a thought. Is that concentrated or "ready to use" i.e. 50/50 (or some other ratio) coolant?

I ask because for years I've heard the mantra to only use distilled water and coolant in cooling systems, no tap water. The no tap water part seems obvious to me (especially given my local water's very high calcium content), but distilled water is not benign. Without those minerals in the water it is pretty chemically active, aggressive even. Makes me wonder if distilled isn't the best idea, but I've no idea what I might use in it's place. For the time being I've been buying the "Ready to Use" coolant, but it's kind of galling to do that.

Thom, those gallons are concentrate. I will mix distilled water with them when the system is being refilled. I have not seen any issues with distilled water based on my years of experience. Tap water? Yes, buildup in the systems. I think the main key factor is actually replacing the coolant as scheduled maintenance, that is the bigger issue from my experience and what I've witnessed on vehicles that come into my shop.

 

[zmotorsports]

Where I live, snow storms that have enough accumulation to need a snowblower are now only once or twice a year. No big deal. I only used it twice this year and the second storm really didn't warrant using the snowblower.

Grass cutting is a constant once a week chore around here, although in spring the grass really needs cutting more often. We have a rain deficit of over 8 inches and almost no one has sprinklers, so I am expecting all kinds of landscaping issues like losing shrubbery and parts of the lawn dieing this year.

We've had a relatively mild winter here as the temperatures have been a bit warmer than normal, so therefore, the storms we've had have mostly been rain in the valley and snow hitting the mountains. That's the best kind of winter in my opinion because we need the moisture, but I don't have to shovel rain.

On a normal year I would say we get about 12-14 snowstorms that require some snow removal, this year I think I used my snowblower 3 times and another couple of times it was just a skiff and I just pushed it off with my 36" wide shovel as it was quicker. The downside of having a north facing property is that while my neighbor's drives melt off by afternoon, mine don't. That is about the only disadvantage of a north facing property in my opinion and the other 350+ days of the year I LOVE having my property face north. Our realtor told me I was crazy when I kept insisting on finding a north facing property, but it was worth the wait.

As for the constant mowing weekly, to me that is easy to schedule or plan. I have a certain day of the week where I merely run around the lawn with the mowers, and another day where I spend the extra hour trimming and edging before mowing. The thing with mowing a lawn vs. clearing snow is that I can plan lawn mowing and the snow has to be cleared without any schedule. I HATE that fact, because it messes with what I have going on in the shop. I can schedule my work easily around mowing lawns, I am at mother nature's mercy clearing snow.

 

[rd65]

Thom, those gallons are concentrate. I will mix distilled water with them when the system is being refilled. I have not seen any issues with distilled water based on my years of experience. Tap water? Yes, buildup in the systems. I think the main key factor is actually replacing the coolant as scheduled maintenance, that is the bigger issue from my experience and what I've witnessed on vehicles that come into my shop.

Will your tap water source be a contributing factor for this? Our water is rain water/run off from the mountains (Spada Lake to Lake Chaplain. On google you can see the water filter plant at the south end of the lake) vs well water.

 

[zmotorsports]

Will your tap water source be a contributing factor for this? Our water is rain water/run off from the mountains (Spada Lake to Lake Chaplain. On google you can see the water filter plant at the south end of the lake) vs well water.

Our tap water here isn't what I would call terrible, but I would still consider it "hard water", and why I would never put it in anything I work on. This is why I only use distilled water in batteries and cooling systems.

 

[madison069]

Will your tap water source be a contributing factor for this? Our water is rain water/run off from the mountains (Spada Lake to Lake Chaplain. On google you can see the water filter plant at the south end of the lake) vs well water.

depends on what's in your water. heavy metal and sediment are the issue with what type of water is used in coolant systems. Distilled water is basically boiled water into steam and recollected to leave behind the metal and salt behind. So, if your spring water is free of heavy metal, which I would find strange, then spring water is ok for coolant system. But most spring water has mineral in it, which gives it the fresh unflat flavor that everyone comes to associate spring water with.

 

[Mr.zippy]

I'm with Scott.

Now,now....you guys get to rake your gravel/rocks every now and again!

 

[Wiz02]

We've had a relatively mild winter here as the temperatures have been a bit warmer than normal, so therefore, the storms we've had have mostly been rain in the valley and snow hitting the mountains. That's the best kind of winter in my opinion because we need the moisture, but I don't have to shovel rain.

On a normal year I would say we get about 12-14 snowstorms that require some snow removal, this year I think I used my snowblower 3 times and another couple of times it was just a skiff and I just pushed it off with my 36" wide shovel as it was quicker. The downside of having a north facing property is that while my neighbor's drives melt off by afternoon, mine don't. That is about the only disadvantage of a north facing property in my opinion and the other 350+ days of the year I LOVE having my property face north. Our realtor told me I was crazy when I kept insisting on finding a north facing property, but it was worth the wait.

As for the constant mowing weekly, to me that is easy to schedule or plan. I have a certain day of the week where I merely run around the lawn with the mowers, and another day where I spend the extra hour trimming and edging before mowing. The thing with mowing a lawn vs. clearing snow is that I can plan lawn mowing and the snow has to be cleared without any schedule. I HATE that fact, because it messes with what I have going on in the shop. I can schedule my work easily around mowing lawns, I am at mother nature's mercy clearing snow.

Interesting points about scheduled vs extraordinary events. I usually enjoyed it when snowstorms blew up my usual routine when I worked for a living. Not the traffic delays though.

Really funny that you mentioned your home's front yard exposure to the sun. My house has a southwest exposure and it's in a cul-de-sac. But over the years, I've noticed that all my neighbors' driveways melt and mine remains snow and ice covered. I don't recall it being so obvious years ago, so I think it's the trees blocking the sun. (Even though they are oaks?)

So I have the worst of all worlds. A sunny exposure in front that doesn't melt the driveway and a northern exposure out back.

 

[PugetDude]

Now,now....you guys get to rake your gravel/rocks every now and again!

Roundup and a rake bring me a high level of happiness.

 

[Finallygotit]

Now,now....you guys get to rake your gravel/rocks every now and again!

I do??

 

[PhantomEB]

Next door neighbor has asked for photo ops of their little boys with the bronco when it’s out and about in a few months. I said wouldnt Have it any other way!

 

[NUTTSGT]

Stay tuned for more.

Reminds me of my buddy's garage albeit smaller when he has his Shelby on his lift. It's also an '07 white w/blue stripes.

The tool to hold the yoke while crushing the pinion nut, is that something you made Mike or bought ? Brand/part number if you bought it ?

Thanks

 

[zmotorsports]

Reminds me of my buddy's garage albeit smaller when he has his Shelby on his lift. It's also an '07 white w/blue stripes.

The tool to hold the yoke while crushing the pinion nut, is that something you made Mike or bought ? Brand/part number if you bought it ?

Thanks

Eric, I have a couple that I have fabricatd over the years, but this particular one is a purchased one. I think I bought this one from Summit Racing, but there are other identical ones for sale.

Here is a rather inexpensive one.

https://www.amazon.com/GEAROLL-Stainless-Loosening-Sockets-Various/dp/B0D21Q3LDV/?tag=atomicindus08-20

 

[zmotorsports]

Hope everyone had a nice weekend.

It rained most of Friday night and into Saturday morning here along the Wasatch Front, but had stopped by sunrise, so I was able to grab my coffee and sit out on the deck and watch the world come to life, listening to the birds chirping and neighbors chickens.

It was a bit chilly, but hey, it was sitting outside and I was enjoying my morning coffee so what more can a person wish for.

I headed out to the shop to start knocking a few things off the coach's list. I started with replacing the park brake valve that began leaking air last fall. I had sourced a new one and thought it was time to replace it before our 2025 RV'ing season begins.

It was a pretty simple job and turned out to be a simpler job than originally thought. Originally, I thought I would have to remove the entire left side panel that housed my air leveling controller, rocker switches and transmission touchpad. However, upon taking a closer look first thing in the morning, I realized it was going to be simpler and quicker than I thought. Once the knob was unthreaded, there were two socket head button screws holding the valve to the panel from the underside.


I removed the access cover under the left side panel to gain access to the valve from the underside.


New valve at the ready to confirm it is the correct one.


Old valve easily came out from underneath the switch panel.


Comparing to make sure they are identical.


Old valve disconnected and on the workbench.


Fittings being removed from the old valve.


Thread sealant ready to apply.


And fittings threaded back into the new valve.


Air brake lines reconnected, valve reinstalled, knob installed and access cover replaced. This job is completed.



Time to move on to the nasty one for the day.

 

[zmotorsports]

With the interior work completed, it was time to put a couple of jackstands under the rear of the coach and attack the dirty and filthy job at hand, draining the cooling system.

I have replaced the coolant multiple times in the 18 years we've owned this coach now as preventive maintenance and it is time to do it again. In 2016 when I replaced all of the heater hoses from the engine all the way up to the dash and connecting to the Aqua-Hot system, I realized there was some heavy pitting and corrosion to the outside of the lower coolant tubes between the engine and the radiator. At the time I wire wheeled the steel tubing and coated it with a heavy application of POR-15 which seemed to hold up well for the past 9 years now. However, when I was doing my end of season inspection last fall, I determined that this spring when I performed another drain and refill of the cooling system, that I would replace these coolant tubes. They've held up well for 23 years and close to 150k miles, but I don't want to push my luck and have a failure out on the road. So these will be getting replaced.


Here you can see some additional pitting of the steel tube.


Clamps loosened and coolant draining. The coolant actually still looks fantastic and tests good, but it will be getting replaced. The Peak Final Charge Global is a million mile/8 year coolant and although it's only been in less than 50k miles, it is at 8 years old. Still don't think it is used up because it tests good, but the new version (Pro-Series) is a 10 year and 1.5M mile coolant so it should last me a while yet.


With the coolant draining out the bottom hose, I began to disassemble the upper hoses and tube.


Look at how clean and nice the inside of that tube looks. Even the upper 90-degree tube to the left is still in pristine condition and I could in fact reused this easily and just replace the rubber hoses, but I think I'll replace it as well.


With the hoses and upper tube out of the way, I wanted to see what the inside of the radiator looked like and it is in excellent condition. No buildup nor deposits, just clean and free of deposits.


I will also be replacing the water pump and thermostat while I have the cooling system open.


That was a filthy job getting that lower tube out from under the coach. I had forgotten how bad that was to finagle out from under the coach. I think they built the entire coach around this one tube.


All radiator tubes and rubber hoses out from under the coach.



The stainless steel tube should be here today and silicone hoses within the next couple of days so next will be to replicate the tubes from multiple bends of stainless steel tube. I know on the Monaco forums, there are people having issues with these on much newer coaches than ours, so I will be glad to have these replaced.

I've read where there's a company that makes the new upper, but there are so many variations of the lowers, I don't want to risk not having it fit properly as space is limited. Plus, the prices I've seen on some of these is quite high, so nothing I can't fabricate. The joys of RV ownership.

Thanks for looking.

 

[zmotorsports]

After closing up the shop early Saturday afternoon so I could take the wife to dinner for her birthday, I hurried and applies some mud to a couple of dings in the walls in the house that the wife pointed out to me.

I put the mud in them, then Sunday morning I sanded them and touched up the paint so they could dry.

These two were above the kitchen countertop in the corner.


This lower one was in the laundry room, not sure what happened here as it was a pretty good sized little ding.


Painted and left to dry.




After a few hours of drying.




After the paint dried, it was a dead nuts match.

The ones up by the countertop were from a plaque that the wife has on a stand and it gets pushed back too hard and dings the wall. I installed a couple pieces of felt on the corners to hopefully prevent that from happening in the future. Not sure when caused the ding in the lower one near the receptacle in the laundry room..

 

[NUTTSGT]

Eric, I have a couple that I have fabricatd over the years, but this particular one is a purchased one. I think I bought this one from Summit Racing, but there are other identical ones for sale.

Here is a rather inexpensive one.

https://www.amazon.com/GEAROLL-Stainless-Loosening-Sockets-Various/dp/B0D21Q3LDV/?tag=atomicindus08-20

Thanks Mike.

I'm going to get one for my buddy if he doesn't have one already. He's helped me out many times and done a few gear sets for me.

 

[zmotorsports]

Thanks Mike.

I'm going to get one for my buddy if he doesn't have one already. He's helped me out many times and done a few gear sets for me.

Yukon also makes one that has multiple bolt holes and a tube coming off that you can put a long cheater on that works well. I pretty much copied it for one of mine as it is a bit more money.

Pardon Our Interruption

 

[NUTTSGT]

Yukon also makes one that has multiple bolt holes and a tube coming off that you can put a long cheater on that works well. I pretty much copied it for one of mine as it is a bit more money.

Pardon Our Interruption

Holy hell, they are proud of that one. There's stuff in the scrap bucket that could be used to make one of those.

However, now that you post that one Mike, I think I/we might have made one something like that before. I've sent him a text with a link to the first one.

 

[zmotorsports]

Holy hell, they are proud of that one. There's stuff in the scrap bucket that could be used to make one of those.

However, now that you post that one Mike, I think I/we might have made one something like that before. I've sent him a text with a link to the first one.

Agreed Eric, they are pretty proud of it, which is why I did exactly that, dug through my scrap/drops and copied it. I even bead blasted and painted it so it looks identical and no one's the wiser.

For the Jeep applications, I think I use one of my shop made grunt tools much more than the one I used on the Mustang. The reason I used the smaller one for the Mustang is due to space constraints, being right between the exhaust tailpipes I didn't have the space to work with that I usually do on Jeeps.

 

[NUTTSGT]

The more and more I think about this, I believe I made the one he has and I used some square tubing for the handle.

It would have been built for the 8.8 rear ends. We mostly deal with mustangs....fox bodies.

 

[ScepterToad]

I struggled with replacement of my pipes or cleaning them up and chose to clean them up. Those lower pipes they sell online must be gold plated or something. I don't think I could fabricate them for myself, so it'll be nice to watch when you do.

 

[zmotorsports]

I struggled with replacement of my pipes or cleaning them up and chose to clean them up. Those lower pipes they sell online must be gold plated or something. I don't think I could fabricate them for myself, so it'll be nice to watch when you do.

Thanks Keith. I cleaned up the lower pipe once and it has held for around 8-9 years now, but I just don't think I trust it much longer. The real issue is that it is directly in line with the drive and tag axle tires so the lower tube gets pelted with rocks and road debris. This is why I am opting to go with stainless steel this time.

I've seen some of the prices of those offered by a couple different vendors and I agree, for the price, they must be gold plated and I can easily build them myself so no need to throw the money away. Plus, I'm not 100% convinces the lowers are a perfect match and with the space constraints, I really can't have them off by much at all or I'll never get it back in the correct orientation. The upper one is just a 90-degree bend, but I've seen that is still over $125 for a simple 90-degree bend through the same vendors. No thanks.

 

[ntsqd]

When I plumbed the FSB's OBA system I decided to put the QD's in the middle of each side rather than at the front and the back. That put them in the "firing line" of rocks etc. from the front tires. To keep that from becoming a problem I made some simple guard/deflectors from a short piece of square tube and two layers of Delo 400 gallon jug (reduce, reuse, recycle, HA!) pop-riveted to the tube. Those jugs are made from HDPE, the same material that most lower air dams etc are made from. Tough, pretty abrasion resistant, and flexible. Can see one of them here:

So far they have worked well.

Any chance of doing something like that to deflect debris away from that lower tube?

 

[zmotorsports]

When I plumbed the FSB's OBA system I decided to put the QD's in the middle of each side rather than at the front and the back. That put them in the "firing line" of rocks etc. from the front tires. To keep that from becoming a problem I made some simple guard/deflectors from a short piece of square tube and two layers of Delo 400 gallon jug (reduce, reuse, recycle, HA!) pop-riveted to the tube. Those jugs are made from HDPE, the same material that most lower air dams etc are made from. Tough, pretty abrasion resistant, and flexible. Can see one of them here:

So far they have worked well.

Any chance of doing something like that to deflect debris away from that lower tube?

I already have mudflaps/rock guards behind the tag axle tire and in front of the cooling tubes. Don't think protection is the main culprit here as they've lasted well over 20 years and 150k miles. I think had they made the tubes from stainless steel to begin with, they'd still be in good condition.

These new tubes will more than likely outlast both me and the coach.