Joined about a week ago

[ewiebe]

Hi,
I joined about a week ago, lurking and checking out all the good information.
I figure it is time to introduce myself. I and my spouse are both retired and love to travel. We have done a fair amount of traveling in a 1990 VW Westfalia which after we have had it for 10 years now has 430000 km on it(we did not put all those kms on it ourselves). The Westfalias are great vans, but the upkeep on a vehicle of this vintage gets fairly intense.
It was time for a change. We found a 1997 Dodge Ram 3500 Freedom Leisure Travel Class B with 150 km. It has some issues, but I think I'm fairly handy with tools and this looks like a well maintained van. It has had very little usage the last 4 years and has 2 specific issues right now. The Dometic 3 way fridge is not cooling and the Onan 2600 Generator is not starting. Hopefully with the helpful information here I can get these problems taken care of.
We live on Vancouver Island and hope to travel south to Arizona and a trip across Canada next year.
Ed

[markopolo]

Welcome to the forum.

Re: the Onan Generator not starting - that happens often to Onan gens that sit unused for a while. The carb gets gunked up. Sometimes it can be cleaned and sometimes they have to replace the carb. I had a Onan 4000 that sat unused for a year or so on a dealer lot. It wouldn't start but the dealer cleaned the carb and it worked fine after that. You could try spraying carb cleaner in it but you might have to get it serviced.

Re: Dometic 3 way fridge is not cooling - does it not cool on battery, LP gas or when on electricity? I'd check 12v fuses and 110v breakers first. Light the stove to confirm gas flow. If you smell ammonia then the cooling unit is leaking. The cooling unit can be replaced but you'd want to check the price of new fridge first for comparison.

These guys from New Brunswick sell cooling units: http://stores.ebay.ca/ARCTIC-COLD-RV-RE ... 4340.l2563 it will give you an idea of what it costs.

[ewiebe]

Thanks Marcopolo,
I will do more research on my 2 problems, the fridge and the generator and post later under a new topic the progress or non progress I am making on these two problems.
This forum has a lot of great information and I want to thank everyone that is keeping it current.