Service Advisory for Steel-Framed TM's - BlueLine UPDATE !

[Leslie Judson Jones]

During the recent reengineering of a truckmount, it has come to our attention that there is a possible issue with steel-framed truckmounts. During our redesign process we have discovered that if you have all your ground wires coming to the steel frame at one point, you may very well experience excessive corrosion.

A lot of people don’t know that a ground still has current running through it. As you can see in the photographs, at the point where the ground terminals are bolted to the frame, the frame is corroded considerably. There is also an area around the terminal that is corroded.

To remedy this problem, we are planning on removing the corrosion by grinding, re-priming, and painting, replacing the ends on all the ground wires, and reattaching to the existing location but with a modification. The modification will consist of adding a ground wire from the grounding terminals bolted to the frame to the ground on the battery. This wire needs to be a very heavy gauge; something like 4 gauge. This should reduce the amount of current flowing through the frame.












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[bob vawter]

Re: Service Advisory for Steel-Framed Truck Mounts

During the recent reengineering of a truckmount, it has come to our attention that there is a possible issue with steel-framed truckmounts. During our redesign process we have discovered that if you have all your ground wires coming to the steel frame at one point, you may very well experience excessive corrosion.

A lot of people don’t know that a ground still has current running through it. As you can see in the photographs, at the point where the ground terminals are bolted to the frame, the frame is corroded considerably. There is also an area around the terminal that is corroded.

To remedy this problem, we are planning on removing the corrosion by grinding, re-priming, and painting, replacing the ends on all the ground wires, and reattaching to the existing location but with a modification. The modification will consist of adding a ground wire from the grounding terminals bolted to the frame to the ground on the battery. This wire needs to be a very heavy gauge; something like 4 gauge. This should reduce the amount of current flowing through the frame.

ya i been doin' that on my Genies...

 

[tubguy]

Re: Service Advisory for Steel-Framed Truck Mounts

Or you can run a ground wire from the battery to the metal frame!

 

[MerCrewser]

Re: Service Advisory for Steel-Framed Truck Mounts

Or you can run a ground wire from the battery to the metal frame!

That's what caused this mess in the first place.

Is that a new Prochem?

 

[GeneMiller]

Re: Service Advisory for Steel-Framed Truck Mounts

looks like a blueline thermal wave 5m. I moved my ground wires when it was still new. no problems here.

gene

 

[Mikey P]

Re: Service Advisory for Steel-Framed Truck Mounts

Les, I believe someone here thinks you're full of **it.

Since that person is no longer a Moderator here I think he should argue your findings in this thread.


I understand you found some other things wrong with that particular machine, care to share?

 

[Ryan]

Re: Service Advisory for Steel-Framed Truck Mounts

Les, I believe someone here thinks you're full of **it.

Since that person is no longer a Moderator here I think he should argue your findings in this thread.


I understand you found some other things wrong with that particular machine, care to share?

Well I'm in no position at all to argue with Less.

But he has been giving out quite a few of these Service Advisories lately. Are we going to get one for Judson truck mounts too? They must be good, but there ain't nothing perfect.


Marty on Ryan's exgirl's computer, he didn't delete the cookies. shiteatinggrin

 

[Leslie Judson Jones]

Re: Service Advisory for Steel-Framed Truck Mounts

Les, I believe someone here thinks you're full of **it.

Since that person is no longer a Moderator here I think he should argue your findings in this thread.


I understand you found some other things wrong with that particular machine, care to share?

Well I'm in no position at all to argue with Less.

But he has been giving out quite a few of these Service Advisories lately. Are we going to get one for Judson truck mounts too? They must be good, but there ain't nothing perfect.


Marty on Ryan's exgirl's computer, he didn't delete the cookies. shiteatinggrin

Service Advisory on Judson Truckmounts


After about 25 years, you will need to get some stainless polish and polish the dash. It will start looking bad after that period of time.

 

[Ryan]

Re: Service Advisory for Steel-Framed Truck Mounts




But for real, Judson's truck mounts have been immortalized on the forums, even so there has to be some quirks they have. The little giant's maybe?

 

[Leslie Judson Jones]

Re: Service Advisory for Steel-Framed Truck Mounts

But for real, Judson's truck mounts have been immortalized on the forums, even so there has to be some quirks they have. The little giant's maybe?

Ryan,

I’ve been sitting here thinking about any issues with our units. We’ve been building the TNT since 1972, so in the beginning yes there were some issues, like the fresh water supply tank being made out of aluminum. It would develop cracks because aluminum does not like vibration.

Back then we also had a mechanical recovery tank shutoff system instead of electrical that would stick if it was not cleaned frequently. There might be a few other thing; I just can’t remember, but we’ve been building them so long, any issues were dealt with years ago.

The service bulletins I am putting up are on units being brought to me for reengineering that have issues that people who own these machines need to be aware of. These are issues that should be corrected. It is not that I am trying to pick on a particular competitor’s unit, it is just that I happen to have that unit in for reengineering right now.

I have two more units sitting here to be reengineered; they are Prochems. I also have 2 Power Cleans coming in. As long as I don’t see any issues with existing designs, I won’t post any service alerts. You mentioned, maybe Little Giants. I don’t know of any design issues with Little Giants since we corrected the shell housing cutting through the copper tubing. It took quite a few years for that to happen anyway.

 

[Carpet Cleaning Fool]

Re: Service Advisory for Steel-Framed Truck Mounts

Thanks for the heads up Les!

I'll inspect my 5m next time I back it out of the barn.

 

[Leslie Judson Jones]

Re: Service Advisory for Steel-Framed Truck Mounts

Les, I believe someone here thinks you're full of **it.

Since that person is no longer a Moderator here I think he should argue your findings in this thread.


I understand you found some other things wrong with that particular machine, care to share?

Thanks for asking Mike. Yes, Project Bluebook is coming along quite well. I actually found two issues with the unit today that are high priority issues that must be addressed immediately.

The first emergency high priority thing that must be addressed immediately is behind the black engine coolant heat exchanger is the intake manifold for the engine. Coming out of the bottom of this manifold is a 3/8 hose with engine coolant running to the throttle body. This hose is less than one inch from the exhaust manifold. I accidentally barely bumped the hose today and it snapped like a pretzel due to the intense heat it has been exposed to. This hose must be rerouted away from the exhaust manifold and replaced immediately. This unit has less than 2,000 hours on it.

The second high priority issue that must be addressed immediately is that the Zenith wiring harness has failed on this unit with less than 2,000 hours on it. The reason for this premature failure is extreme heat buildup inside the engine covers. When I was test-running the unit today, it developed issues and stopped running. The issue was a wire coming from the oil-shutdown in the harness that had broken where it made a connection with a resistor. While I was removing the harness to find this issue I noticed that the entire wiring harness was melted together from the intense heat. I was able to separate all of the individual 30 wires, but they were heat-fused together when I first looked at them. This wiring harness will have to be replaced due to the heat build-up. It also had several places where it had burned through from the exhaust manifold. I am presently talking to Mike Farmer at Zenith on producing a longer wiring harness to reroute the harness towards the front of the engine and below it away from all heat. I suggest as a quick fix for right now to run the unit without the covers. This will prevent the heat buildup inside the unit. During our reengineering process of this unit, we are replacing the engine covers with perforated, vented metal. You might be able to take your covers to a metal shop and have them cut them out and weld in either expanded or perforated metal.

Several other things I would like to mention about our reengineering of this unit is that we have made quite a few improvements on the design. One improvement is that we have taken the exhaust system from a 1 inch pipe to a 2 inch pipe on the engine.

Another improvement we’ve made is that we have eliminated most of the wires behind the control panel and cleaned it up nicely.

Also, we have eliminated the rocker switches that were not common and fairly expensive to replace. We replaced them with an auto parts 50 amp toggle switch. We were also able to eliminate 3 relays by using these high amp switches. The replacement switches we found cost $5 and can be found at most any auto parts store.

This is a photo of the rocker switches that we replaced. These switches are not high amp switches. That is why they required relays.

We have repaired the corrosion and installed a ground stud instead of a bolt. This ground location has 8 wires going to it. We are still going to install the 4 gauge grounding wire from this location to the negative on the battery to minimize the amount of current going through the frame.

 

[GeneMiller]

I have the same machine and i don't have any of the problems you have mentioned. i live in south florida where it is pretty hot. my engine cowls already have vents in the sides and i've done temp testing and the engine runs cooler with the covers on.

i have 4 times the hours and my switches are fine. why replace a working switch. the originals look way better. yours looks jerry rigged. as far as wires maybe the machine was run with low oil or water causing excess temps. i'll have to check my hose to make sure it's ok because i have not, but i did recently recore the radiator and the hoses were all still supple.

my only complaint with my machine is the powder coating. it rubs right off, but i still don't have any rust.
factory defect.




gene

 

[Doug Cox]

That machine sure doesn't look all that good for only having 2000 hours on it. Maybe some of the issues are owner related. Why not just cut out the affected harness and replace and extend it without replacing the whole harness? That machine is a perfect example of why not to build a machine with a steel frame let alone paint it.

 

[FB7777]

one thing I think many, if not all manufacturers can agree on is that many problems that arise are improper maintenance of the machine

 

[Doug Cox]

And that there is a prime example. My machines don't look like that after 25 years.

 

[Larry Cobb]

Les;

I think you made some very good points concerning wiring ...

and hoses too close the exhaust components.

Our service department see many heat related failures on TM with enclosed engines.

Just for reference,
how much time and money did it take to correct the wiring, hose and rust issues on that TM.

Larry

 

[Nate The Great]

I have the same machine and i don't have any of the problems you have mentioned. i live in south florida where it is pretty hot. my engine cowls already have vents in the sides and i've done temp testing and the engine runs cooler with the covers on.

i have 4 times the hours and my switches are fine. why replace a working switch. the originals look way better. yours looks jerry rigged. as far as wires maybe the machine was run with low oil or water causing excess temps. i'll have to check my hose to make sure it's ok because i have not, but i did recently recore the radiator and the hoses were all still supple.

my only complaint with my machine is the powder coating. it rubs right off, but i still don't have any rust.
factory defect.




gene

Hey Gene, I wonder if having the unit in a box truck compared to a van would make a difference?

Les, was that unit installed in a van or box truck or trailer?