Hey, Marvin&Doris. Yep it was me. It took four days but I pulled into Madisonville about 12:30PM today. The biggest problem I had was that at any speed approaching 58/59mph, the whole coach would shake rather violently. So I was a real slow poke. Mid Kansas the first day, mid Missouri the second day, Nashville the third day and then home. The Breakaway engine did rather well, although with the limits on speed, I'm not sure it was a good test. The last pusher I owned was a Dynasty with a big Cummins 8.3 in it. You set it at 70 and went to sleep. It would pull anything. The 5.9 will not do that. I can see where people want to upgrade those engines to a higher horse power. Now the fund begins.

Do you mean fund or fun? Check your u joints too, the 5.9 is slow but it should not shake. We had a 5.9 in a SOB, a front engine, never got over 65 mph and slow acceleration. Good on fuel consumption though.

Check radius rod bushings too

The Dana 60 has none.

I chased a vibration in the same speed range for years - the culprit turned out to be a warped LF wheel; only 3/16" runout, but that was enough.

The spring shackles no doubt contribute - as do the panhard rod bushings (some are rubber - mine are metal with grease fittings). Also check all the steering linkage ball joints.

I may move it later. I'd suggest you posting a new thread when you get deeper into the diagnosis and repair .

Jim I replaced both the miter box and the steering gear on my Breakaway still need Spring pins but If we go that deep might as well do king pins also. Good Luck and have Fun
Wayne

Slop in the miter box can be adjusted by taking out shims.

I replaced my steering box with rebuilt unit, about $500, because of a serious leak.

I have more slop in the tilt/extend mechanism by the steering wheel that I haven't figured out how to fix yet.

Thought it might be fun to keep a running dialogue on 'BertII'. Rusty, if I should start this somewhere else, move it to where you think it should go.
First of all, Bert II, is named after my Dad, Humbert Bianchi. He was a very cool guy, kept going strong until almost 90 when he died in 1986. I miss him every day. Bert I was a 28' Safari Trek with a solid front axle that we never could get to handle well.
The first order of business was to get the Breakaway clean. Four hours on the frig, three hours on the shower, two hours cleaning seats and leather on dash, another two hours on the carpet, and another three hours on the microwave/convection oven. When it was all done, the interior sparkles. It's very, very, nice.
Next up, what works and what doesn't. The 'what doesn't' list is nicely short. The latch on the driver's side armrest that allows that chair to swivel, is broken, and other than not being able to fire up the air horns, everything else works. This thing has more gadgets than Carter has liver pills. There are three compasses (one electronic), one weather barometer, a Sirius set up, a satellite dish set up, a regular tv antenna, cb radio, am/fm/cd player, and a 23" fold down flat sceen tv. The two analogue tvs that came with the coach are still there but without the converter to digital. They work, but will probably be replaced. It also has a factory installed security system that includes motion sensors and such. The PO never used it and no one has the guts at this point to start pressing buttons. Back up camera works fine, levelers work fine, electric step works fine, fans, water heater, generator, furnace, air conditioner, all work fine. So, by the end of Day One, we had figured out what all the switches were for and determined that they all worked, and got the thing nice and clean for living. Next will report on Day Two.

"levelers work fine"
That was your hearts desire.

Day two was the 'electrical' day, trying to figure out the modifications in the electrical compartment at the foot of the bed. The PO had installed an inverter and then removed it, but left the wiring in a mess. I did my best to draw a schematic and send to mwrench for analysis. It works the way it is, but for those that like upgrades, could be changed by removing the isolater and installing a battery separator. Not sure if the alternator is 105amp or 170amp. While I was doing that, Tere was in the battery compartments, cleaning, scraping, rust proofing etc. The two house batteries are new and the two engine batteries still read good. Also discovered an 'auxiliary' battery set up with a positive and negative cable in the outside storage compartment under the couch. No battery but all set up if someone wanted to add another battery. This was even wired to be charged by the converter/battery charger. It was an option that Barth had and I think it is factory original on this coach. The DC system has two disconnects, one at the house batteries, and one by the front door. Strangely, the house batteries have two positive leads going to the isolator. One stays hot all the time, even when the main disconnect is activated. Think it has something to do with the charger charging both the house batteries and the engine batteries. I say this because one of the red leads to the engine batteries is hot all the time. There was also a homemade device to provide a trickle charge when hooked up to shore batteries. Again while the original convertor is ok, a new Progressive Dynamics converter with Charge Wizzard would be better. And there's no reason why a nice inverter couldn't be added. Certainly have the battery capacity, especially with the 'auxiliary' battery set up. Found some rust in the engine battery compartment, cut a 12 gauge plate to patch and primed, painted and undercoated all of that and put everything back together and she's ready to go. Again, not too much to complain about. Just needed some TLC. On to day three.

Day three--the dreaded 'Inspection by Others', and slobber issues. A young friend who is a big Cummins 5.9 nut just had to come over and inspect BertII. He couldn't believe that we had the 'big' engine, so in he went. Of course while observing with Tere at his elbow, he started noticing things that 'need to be fixed'. Like the pots over each cylinder that are leaking a little oil. And while looking at the exhaust system, Tere manages to remove an exhaust manifold bolt that was not attached to anything. Oh my . Then the 'friend' says 'Hmm, that looks like a crack', and indeed it was a crack, right by the #2 (or #5) cylinder in the exhaust manifold. . Fortunately, he got out of there before he found something else for me to get fixed. Otherwise I would have put both of us out of our respective miseries. Exhaust manifold and bolts/nuts/gaskets, $504 from Cummins. Labor @ $74/hr, between 5 and 10 hours depending on how many bolts break off.

Thanks, Kevin. As soon as I get the plumbing fixed, I'll follow your advice. I like the hose technique better than pouring it in the potable water opening(especially since I haven't been able to get the door unlocked yet

Run the pump and open faucets until you get the smell of bleach, then close faucets down for an hour, then drain the FW tank, refill, open faucets. repeat two more times.

It's important to sterilize the piping also.

The 'Dreaded Suspension Fix'.
Coming across from Denver wasn't all that bad, what with new Goodyears on the front and all rears matching and in good shape(replaced one in Denver). I did notice some 'wander' and was not looking forward to finding out what it was. And there was a bad vibration in the rear that kept my speeds around 54mph. So, first things first,lets get at those shocks. After much consultation with Spartan and Bilstein, but mostly with Ed Rather, bought 4 Bilstein shocks. Installing was great fun. It's easy to take the old ones off but you have to be stronger than I am to compress the new ones. After Tere and I spent an unproductive, frustrating 1.5 hours trying to compress just one of them, we gave up and waited for the son-in-law to come home. Even he had some trouble but they are now on. What a difference. Like black and white. It's a whole new Barth and the rear vibration is gone. A week later, up to the alignment shop. They balanced all 4 rear wheels, one was out of round, and turned their attention to the front suspension. First thing they did was take off the 'Steer Safe' apparatus. Then they inspected everything else and declared all was well, and no further repairs needed.

On to the Plumbing
As I mentioned in an earlier post, the PO had never used the fill tube located above the city water hookup. In fact, he didn't have a key for it. In addition, when I examined the plumbing located under the sink, I saw indications that the whole system needed a thorough cleaning. I replaced several hoses involved with the water pump and the auto fill mechanism, replaced the 1 1/4" fill tube after getting the door open. Reason it probably was never used is that it had a leak in it. Not any more . Now everything is up and running. Even the autofill works great. Everything is sanitized, clean as a whistle and ready to go. It's a darn big fresh water tank. 44 gallons. While some of the hoses were a pain to install, all in all, it was well worth it. Hot water heater works, everything works. Hey we're getting to the end of it.