Well we picked up our newest Barth a '93, 30' Breakaway in Bakersfield last Sunday and are now back in Michigan. Somebody (I think maybe Bill) forwarned about the fuel tank only being 40 gallons and not 80 as published and he was correct. The gage worked fine so it was never a problem but the literature does say 80 and it is only 40. We had a couple of stops to fix some glitches one was a loose wheel nut rattling around in the nut cover and then the air started leaking out when we stopped and shut down. That, I am told, was the air governor which I had replaced but the air still leaked so they said it was coming from this "other part" connected to the air governor that apparently got blown out when the air governor failed. They took it off and plugged the hole where it was attached and told me everthing would be fine with the breaks. I was a lot skeptical but hey they were diesel mechanics and I'm not so I trusted them. I sure did want to know what that part did however and when we got out on the road I found out! The cruise no longer worked! So I don't know if the air governor really needed to be replaced or if it was just the cruise in the first place but regardless I had to get something fixed and they only charged me $124 so I have no complaints. Now I need to find this part. None of the truck stops including the one where they replaced the air governor had any idea what the part was. Does anybody know where I can get this part? It's a small disc shaped part about the size of a silver dollar with 3 air hose attachements coming off of it. Only 2 of the attachements had hoses attached. The engine is the small 5.9C Cummins if that helps at all. Anyway we had a great trip coming across I70. If you haven't done that trip across Utah you must do it sometine in your lifetime. It is breathtaking most all the way. And a side trip to Arches National Park by Moab Utah and along the Colorado River will absolutely take your breath away time after time. After about 3 hours of stopping for picture after picture my wife and I where almost exhausted from gasping at the scenery everytime we made a turn. It is absoultley without question the single most beautiful streach of scenery I have witnessed in my entire life. We averaged over 12MPG for the trip and one 500 mile streach between fueling we got over 16MPG so inspite of not being able to go over 65 MPH I must say that I can't complain. There were a lot of mountains to go through so I got use to doing 45 which made 65 seem like we were racing! It definately is better in the Midwest. I am so glad Rusty bought that 28' unit before I could get to it because he would certainly have bought this one if he had seen it. It is unbelieveable all the extra work Larry put into this Barth before he passed away unexpectedly. When I got home and started going through everything I discovered how really prepared he was for traveling. He had extra parts for a lot of things including an extra air governor which I wouldn't have had to buy if I had know ahead of time. We just didn't take the time to go through everything before we left. Fortunately is was only a $32 part. He even had 3, 5 gallon tanks of diesel fuel in case he ran out. He was a professional wood worker and the oak floring and trim he added to the Barth looks awesome. No worring about getting the carpet dirty with grandkids trouping in and out all summer. Okay Grandpa too! By the way, it has 2 inlets for fresh water. Does anyone know if those go into the same tank(s)? Didn't seem to use a drop of oil even with all the mountain climbing. What a great engine. Now I just have to figure how to afford to keep this beauty, I got my wife to drive it so that should help as she is already talking about "getting things for the Barth". Thank you agin Dave for your awesome site. Without this site I probably would be relinquished to a tent during the summer having frustrated myself by now dealing with some stick and staple pile of junk. You really need to charge sellers for this free listing service you have without which we would have never connected. I've told all my sellers to send you something, I hope they all follow through but just in case I'm sending out my latest donation tomorrow.

Regarding the fresh water: The labels on mine were odd.

The rear one has the caution about sanitizing everything before use; that would have been usual for the F/W tank, but it was the city water connection and has the built-in pressure regulator.

The front one fills the tank. BTW, there's probably an "auto-fill" switch on the control console (the one with the switch to turn on the F/W pump and the switches for outside lights and tank levels). That means you can connect the hose to the tank and it automatically shuts off when full - handy.

quote:

Originally posted by Rusty:
BTW, there's probably an "auto-fill" switch on the control console (the one with the switch to turn on the F/W pump and the switches for outside lights and tank levels). That means you can connect the hose to the tank and it automatically shuts off when full - handy.

Don't trust it Rusty. It'll bite you one day

quote:

Originally posted by Doug Vanse:
I was a lot skeptical but hey they were diesel mechanics and I'm not so I trusted them. I sure did want to know what that part did however and when we got out on the road I found out! The cruise no longer worked!

Are there one or two wires handing loose by the gov.? It could be the sending unit for the low air psi warning light/buzzer on the dash. If you pump your brakes down to around 50psi with the key on a dash light & buzzer should go on warning you about low air psi. If that's hooked into a 5 pole relay it could kick out your cruise control.

Do you have a picture of the old part you could send me?

quote:

Originally posted by Bill N.Y.:

quote:

Originally posted by Rusty:
BTW, there's probably an "auto-fill" switch on the control console (the one with the switch to turn on the F/W pump and the switches for outside lights and tank levels). That means you can connect the hose to the tank and it automatically shuts off when full - handy.

Don't trust it Rusty. It'll bite you one day

I agree - I don't leave the thing unattended when filling the tank (although I've filled it only twice - StaRV II's already been on two short trips...)

quote:

then the air started leaking out when we stopped and shut down. That, I am told, was the air governor which I had replaced but the air still leaked so they said it was coming from this "other part" connected to the air governor that apparently got blown out when the air governor failed. They took it off and plugged the hole where it was attached and told me everthing would be fine with the breaks. I was a lot skeptical but hey they were diesel mechanics and I'm not so I trusted them. I sure did want to know what that part did however and when we got out on the road I found out! The cruise no longer worked!

What they did was to disable the vacuum generator (what I call it but I am sure there is another name. This is a small venturi device that uses air to generate vacuum, it does so by allowing air to go thru a reduction chamber. If you have a slight vacuum leak, this device will continue to pass air trying to keep the vacuum at a predetermined level. There are two of these devices, one in the front of the coach to run the vacuum actuators in the dash A/C system and one in the rear to operate--you guessed it--the cruise control. The system in the rear gets its air with a hose from the governor. They heard the air passing out of the vacuum venturi and assumed this was a leak.

I have the same system and over night the air will go down to 50 PSI because of this, I have replaced vacuum hoses and it still goes down and yes you can hear the air while it is going down, it cycles as it is trying to maintain the vacuum.

You need to hook it back up (replace the hose from the regulator to the vacuum generator) and check if you have a slight leak in the vacuum system. I find it annoying also to have low air when starting up in the morning and will eventually replace these devices with an electric driven vacuum pump. My air system cycles from low governor to high govorner levels every 3-5 minutes while driving down the road with cruise control on--normal--I disconnected the vacuum generators and drove and had no change in air pressure while driving and using no brakes.

The mechanics that worked on your system didn't understand it but I don't believe there was anything wrong with your govorner, you need to find a mechanic that knows these and get it back to original and then look for vacuum leaks but it will still cycle and probably go down over night.

HTH (sorry so long) Glad to hear you made it safely back and enjoying you new Barth, My Brother lives near Howell and we should be out there sometime this year.

The "autofill" switch allows you to fill your tank through the city water connection. It controls a solenoid valve in the line between your water system & the tank. When it's it's on it's supposed to let water into the tank. When it's off. it's supposed to keep it out.

They are indeed untrusworthy. They tend to get crudded up from disuse. If they don't work, they will let water into the tank even when switched off, leading to overflow.

I exercise mine with the switch several times before I hook up to city water. So far it has worked, but I keep a careful eye on the tank gauge. Some people have found it not worth the trouble, and have replaced it with a manual valve, or trashed it completely, and use a hose to fill the tank.

Simplicity equals reliability and ease of trouble-shooting. My electric fill valve never failed, but I replaced it with a manual valve before it could fail. I also connected an overflow line of sufficient capacity to preclude pressurizing the tank should the operator of the manual valve become distracted.

quote:

Are there one or two wires handing loose by the gov.? It could be the sending unit for the low air psi warning light/buzzer on the dash. If you pump your brakes down to around 50psi with the key on a dash light & buzzer should go on warning you about low air psi. If that's hooked into a 5 pole relay it could kick out your cruise control.

Do you have a picture of the old part you could send me?

Bill

You guys are all really amazing. Thanks so much for your responses. There are 2 tubes. not wires, hanging now that the "mystery part" is off. I am attaching a picture of the part. Sounds like it might be okay although the air preasure was staying up overnight before I heard the air leak in the back (I always heard one in the front and still do) but after a couple of days I noticed the air noise in the back and the air was falling to zero in less than 2 hours. Only 2 of the nipples had hoses attached which would lead me t o wonder why the air wouldn't always leak out of the 3rd anyway? There is a part number on the part which is D7HT-19C747-AB with a FORD logo if that means anything. Thanks for your help

Yup, that is the venturi vacuum generator I was speaking of. It does not have a connection to that pipe that does not have a barb on it. That is where the discharge air comes out when it is working and that is where you will hear it. Look at the one in the front and you will get an idea of how it should be connected.

One small rubber hose is the vacuum source and the other is the the return from the vacuum used for feedback.

I would replace this and reconnect the two small rubber hoses to it and then recheck for vacuum leaks around that area. Of course, this device you show could be defective but it is a very simple device and should be relatively fool proof. If you can get or have a vacuum gauge, connect it to the line that goes to the cruise control and watch what happens.If the vacuum goes down you may have a leak in the small vacuum reservoir, that is the small round thing that is right next to the vacuum generator, there is one in the front also but they are two independant systems.


It will keep using air trying to keep the vacuum at a certain level and if you have a vacuum leak, it will use air until the supply is gone (with the engine not running).

HTH

quote:

"Yup, that is the venturi vacuum generator I was speaking of"

Once again, I have learned something useful. Often when opening my front hatch I've found air "leaking" from that thingamajiggy and always made a mental note to find out what it is and if the "leak" is important. Thanks to everyone!!

I haven't gone out to the Barth to check, it's snowing , cold and blowing ahhhh Michigan! anyway is the part in the front tohe same as the one I pictured? If so could I swap them to see if the one they took off is actually defective. Not having a vacuum gage I'm wondering if this could in effect tell me the same thing? Thanks for all the info.

Yes it is the same device. You could just insert the one you have out in the front, but you will have to check to make sure the dash A/C controls are working to verify that you have vacuum. You could run the coach and then shut it down (after you have built a full tank of air) and then listen, it should cycle and it would cycle more often if you had the key on (engine off) and pushed a few buttons on the A/C control. If the unit cycles, it should be working.

HTH