Greetings from Whidbey Island. WA

[NickK]

Greetings, wife and I recently purchased a gently used 1988 Xplorer 228 based on the Dodge B350 chassis with the 360 V8. 58,000 miles and most systems working fine. We have not taken a trip yet as we are making sure everything is as it should be. We were fortunate to get the original owner manual with it. Photos will come after the Douglas For pollen stops.

Nick,Sue and Beau the spoiled dog.

[Phoebe3]

Oh, don't wait for the pollen to stop - it gives everything a lovely golden glow!

Welcome aboard! You'll find some really helpful people here. Looking forward to hearing about your van.

[Boxster1971]

Originally Posted by NickK

Greetings, wife and I recently purchased a gently used 1988 Xplorer 228 based on the Dodge B350 chassis with the 360 V8. 58,000 miles and most systems working fine. We have not taken a trip yet as we are making sure everything is as it should be. We were fortunate to get the original owner manual with it. Photos will come after the Douglas For pollen stops.



Nick,Sue and Beau the spoiled dog.

Welcome to the forum. Always thought of Whidbey Island as God's country. I spent half of my Navy flying career there.

[NickK]

It is absolutely lovely. We live near the OLF so get to enjoy Growler touch and go noise on occasion. Fun to watch, with earplugs!

[cruising7388]

Originally Posted by NickK

Greetings, wife and I recently purchased a gently used 1988 Xplorer 228 based on the Dodge B350 chassis with the 360 V8. 58,000 miles and most systems working fine. We have not taken a trip yet as we are making sure everything is as it should be. We were fortunate to get the original owner manual with it. Photos will come after the Douglas For pollen stops.

Nick,Sue and Beau the spoiled dog.

You made a very good choice for a vintage coach. The Xplorer 224 & 228 are very well designed and built. The dropped floor permits a nice low exterior profile. The 5.9L engine, although a bit thirsty, is very reliable and both service and parts are still widely available.

Because the technology hadn't fully evolved two decades ago, there is one area that deserves attention and that's the electrical system. The single stage battery charger should be replaced with a multi-stage charging module which will go a long way toward increasing battery life. The go to person for addressing this is Randy at Best Converter. I believe he can provide a drop in charging module that won't require replacing the fuse panel. I think the stock alternator is the 130 amp version which will handily support these changes.

Also, replacing the diode isolators with a good quality bi-directional separator will provide charging to both engine and auxiliary batters when connected to shore power.

[NickK]

Many thanks about the information on the charging system. The small house battery is one of my concerns, and this will help us research. We are also looking into solar for when we are parked.

Yes, the compact size is very nice because we are under 22 feet long and 7ft2in high there is no surcharge when we use the ferry off the island.

[cruising7388]

Originally Posted by NickK

Many thanks about the information on the charging system. The small house battery is one of my concerns, and this will help us research. We are also looking into solar for when we are parked.

Yes, the compact size is very nice because we are under 22 feet long and 7ft2in high there is no surcharge when we use the ferry off the island.

IIRC, the house battery sits underneath one of the dinette seats with a pretty meager capacity. You probably want to increase the capacity to 200 ah using AGM batteries.

We were considering some property in the San Juans but decided that the ferry system turned you into a semi-prisoner. We took the ferry from Port Townsend last year with our 210 Roadtrek and because we were over 7'2", our fare was doubled.

[NickK]

House battery in ours is a Small 12v behind the auto battery under the hood. Ripe for improvement. One thing that is nice about Whdibey Island is that we do have a bridge to the the mainland on the North end. Although we still have the "island tiime" factor that seems to slow everything down somewhat. We know the Port Townsend ferry well, when we visit our daughter in Oregon, we drive down the Hood Canal to Olympia, much nicer than driving through the Seattle metro area.

[Frankshay]

We have a 2000 Xplorer and the house battery(s) is underneath the step-up plate of the side door. I think there's room for two group 24's in ours but I have a single battery in it now as we're always plugged in somewhere.

The 5.9l (360) is pretty thirsty but seems reliable. We have occasional issues with torque converter "shuttle" i.e. it locks/unlocks very rapidly. I'm interested in some of the upgrades mentioned earlier in this thread. Enjoy!

[cruising7388]

Originally Posted by NickK

House battery in ours is a Small 12v behind the auto battery under the hood. Ripe for improvement. One thing that is nice about Whdibey Island is that we do have a bridge to the the mainland on the North end. Although we still have the "island tiime" factor that seems to slow everything down somewhat. We know the Port Townsend ferry well, when we visit our daughter in Oregon, we drive down the Hood Canal to Olympia, much nicer than driving through the Seattle metro area.

I checked with someone who had a 1975 224 and now has a later model 228. He says his coaches only had and have a single engine battery under the hood and a single house battery under one of the dinette benches.