zmotorsports
ALLIANCE MEMBER
I hope everyone had a great 4th of July weekend! Busy weekend for me as I worked in the sop all day Friday and part of the day Sunday and had family party on Saturday. Also went to see my folks on Sunday morning. More on that later.
I stopped in the tire shop last week to inquire about two new steers for the coach. The Goodyear G670s I had on just turned 7 and I just wasn't happy with the way they were wearing. I think I've said it before, but they were rivering on the outside edges. I suspect that the PO ran then underinflated for a period of time and they were developing knots on the sidewall. I just didn't trust them any more and when I'm sitting in the seat for 18 hours (sometimes), I don't want to sit there and worry about them. Are they still ok? Probably. Is it worth the risk? Nope. I also asked about the Mickey Thompson's I want to put on the Jeep and his price came back a little high on those. The steers he quoted basically what I can buy the tires for online with no tax, shipping, or install. Deal done.
First up though, was the exhaust brake install. Pretty straightforward, aside from not being able to thread the hose into the air cylinder with the solenoid connected on the other end. It's just wonky in there, and not a lot of room to move around. I prepped the fittings on the bench and went after it.
I swapped out the old push lock for a compression fitting. I find that these are much more likely to not leak after a removal and install. In this case, I just didn't have much room to cut the end off of the supply line. Certainly would have a leak if I just reinstalled the same fitting. Cheap insurance.
Nice Keith. I also prefer compression fittings, but there are simply some locations and applications where they are next to impossible to get wrenches into for tightening. When I do use PTC fittings in those situations, I make sure to buy good quality ones as they seem to seal up well and work as designed, just make sure to trim the line back beyond the last place the O-rings sealed. There are definitely different grades or quality in these fittings and not all are DOT approved.
Now for the coach. My idea was to jack stand the frame by raising the air suspension up, jack stand, then lower the front air bags, setting the frame down on the jack stands.
That wasn't to be. On Friday, I started this project thinking I knew how the suspension on the coach worked. So much for that. I ended up making another set of cribbing blocks, 16.5x16.5 with 3/4" plywood and 2x6's. I placed everything under the coach, got it all moved around close, raised the suspension, moved the stands into place, lowered the suspension and nothing. Jack stands were still in the same place they were before. My mind was blown. How could I lower the coach 4" and still not be touching the jack stands??? I tried again. Raise then dump the air (as opposed to just lowering it). Still nothing. I was flabbergasted. And not smart enough (apparently) to realize that my jack stands were under the air bags, not on top of them. Duh. That thought didn't dawn on me until I was telling my dad my issue on Sunday morning. Further adding to my frustration was the bent breaker bar from trying to get the lug nuts loose. That's the point at which I called it and worked on the Jeep on Friday.
Fast forward to Sunday morning. I went out to see my folks as I won't see them for a few weeks and pick up a new cheater pipe and a 3/4" impact. I was chatting with my dad about it and through that conversation I realized my mistake. To say I felt like an idiot is an understatement. But, live and learn. If I didn't want to know how this stuff works, I wouldn't be doing this work. In any case, I decided to lift from the font axle one side at a time and place jack stands under the axle. Once I looked further at the frame and suspension. I don't think I could place jack stands on the upper frame anyway due to clearance and the fact that the upper and lower are stacked on top of each other.
Originally I placed the jack stand under the frame net to that mud flap. You can also see the vertical piece in the background that runs up to the upper frame. I don't think I can place a jack stand under that area. Possibly I can. More on that in a the next picture.
Here's the front section, where I could possibly place another jack stand under the control arms. If I placed at all 4 corners, might work.
Here's that rear vertical piece behind the air bag. It just doesn't seem like the top is welded fully around where this piece attaches to the main top frame rail.
In the end, she's up on jack stands placed under the axle where the frame bolts to the axle.
Here you can see the rivering on the outside treads. Some are worse than others.
This one is particularly bad.
I also picked up a set of centramatics to go back with once the tires are mounted and balanced.
Loaded on the trailer. I strapped them down and delivered to the tire shop this morning and they'll be ready by lunch.
the only other thing I'll say about this is that the Icon 3/4" breaker bar did well on this job. It certainly flexed pretty good and withstood the 5' cheater pipe I had on it. 450 foot pounds is no joke for sure. All in, the worst part about this job was the lug nut torque.
Thanks for reading along.
Keith, I had to fabricate extensions for my jackstands that reach up far enough to grab the actual frame rail above the H-frame. You are correct that there is not much room under there so some creativity is in order. Most people just grab the H-frame or axle and lift at that point. I do as well, unless I am doing suspension work, then I like to have that H-frame free and able to move it about independently of the frame of the coach. If I am just doing tires/wheels or greasing, then I'll just lift at the axle and slide the standard jack stands under the axle and allow the coach to sit on the air springs, but when dealing with suspension I don't trust the air springs and want a good solid connection between my shop floor and the actual chassis rails of the coach.
Got the coach tires put back on last night, along with the centramatics. I cleaned up the rims best I could and cleaned up all the mating surfaces. One thing I found interesting during this whole process was the suspension on the coach. Jacking from the axle on one side raised essentially both sides at once. By the time I had the passenger side on the jack stand, most of the drivers wheel was off of the ground as well.
Don't mind the dirty wheel and tire. I'll clean those up.
Super excited to get the Jeep tires changed out finally. The old ones are so dang noisy I can barely hear myself think on the highway.
All tire dates are 1126 on the coach and Jeep save for one on the Jeep. It's a 1725. Not super happy about that, but I figure I'll run through them in 3 years or so. I also can't complain as I got them for a pretty decent price. The coach tires actually came in $100 cheaper all in than I could get them online for before taxes and shipping.
I am so glad to see that you didn't go back to those Goodyear's Keith. I couldn't get those damn things off of my coach fast enough when we bought it back in 2007.
I can't see the lettering on the Toyo tire, which did you go with, the M144 or something different?