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Old 08-07-2015, 06:30 PM   #261
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1974 20' Argosy 20
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Martin, here's what the later Classic motorhomes had for the access cover attachment. Pretty simple.

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I took a few pictures of my Argosy access cover and it has two sliding latches. It also has one lock in the lower center. What I'm unsure of is how a person can reach inside to slide the locking levers. Can they be accessed from below?

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Here's a couple of pictures of Fred's 77 20' Argosy engine access cover. Surprisingly it's a hybrid of the early and late versions. It has the later hinge arrangement but the earlier style latch setup.

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Personally I don't think it would be to difficult to fabricate two hinges like those found on the later coaches. I'll probably give that a try before resorting to using the original setup.

Hope this helps!

Brad
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Old 08-07-2015, 07:24 PM   #262
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bkahler View Post

I took a few pictures of my Argosy access cover and it has two sliding latches. It also has one lock in the lower center. What I'm unsure of is how a person can reach inside to slide the locking levers. Can they be accessed from below?
Yes Brad the 'flippers' are easy to get to through the early type grill, and they push up the sprung latches to let the lower edge slip forward. Your lock in the center is where my hole is (like one of the PO had moved the lock from lower edge to upper edge to try and take out the slack).

Hope the brackets/panel are 'swapable' from our donor.
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Old 08-08-2015, 04:50 AM   #263
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Originally Posted by martin300662 View Post
Yes Brad the 'flippers' are easy to get to through the early type grill, and they push up the sprung latches to let the lower edge slip forward. Your lock in the center is where my hole is (like one of the PO had moved the lock from lower edge to upper edge to try and take out the slack).

Hope the brackets/panel are 'swapable' from our donor.
The brackets on the cover should be swapable but the arms on the coach are cast aluminum and an integral part of the frame opening. You will need to fabricate arms of some sort and bolt them to the frame opening. Probably not the easiest thing to do but should be doable.

If I get some time between mowing sessions today I'll take my Argosy cover off the shelf and do some comparisons.
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Old 08-08-2015, 05:33 AM   #264
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Some photos of the flappers from this morning to show how they work.





I am convinced the key to the original access panel closing tight is the kink in the pivot/hinge bar. When the panel is open, the kink is revolved and rests against the back bar.



When the panel is closed the rod revolves forward and when fully closed is at its furthest forward position. If there was a spring holding it forward (maybe to the edge of the battery tray), it would always be held firmly.



It is accessible from the grill when closed so I am going to try and add a wedge of rubber behind it temporarily
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Old 08-08-2015, 07:09 AM   #265
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Martin,

I just finished comparing my Argosy cover to yours and they are identical in everything I can see with the exception of one thing. Your cover has a couple extra holes where the round bar connects.

Here's my cover.

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Here's your cover.

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Your hinge point is the lower hole which makes me wonder if that's not the reason the top of your cover is able to pull out like it does. You might try relocating the bar to the top hole and see if that helps.

I'm betting some PO added the extra holes to allow for more opening clearance. Just a thought....

Brad
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Old 08-08-2015, 09:53 AM   #266
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Good thought Brad

I gave the other holes a try but the current bend angle of the rod meant that the panel wouldn't shut at all in those positions. To get them to fit I would have to try bending the road some and to be honest the situation is actually getting a little worse with my fiddling around.

Going to look at the donor later today although I suspect it will have the newer style hinges and would be more of a medium term solution. Short term could be simply to add the rubber T-straps.
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Old 08-09-2015, 07:19 AM   #267
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Well the '78 donor is has hinges almost identical to the example later classic, and I will swap to the newer type when the body and paint is done. In the meantime there could be an easy fix; the center latch is a simple T-handle quarter-turn cam latch (like fitted to the classic mini trunks), but the cam lever is useless. The lever (shown in grey below) currently is bent, but doesn't actually reach to behind the surrounding frame/ If that cam was either spaced out to the distance and straight (option 2) or longer and bent (like a regular cam latch) it would work fine!


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Old 08-09-2015, 08:28 AM   #268
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Martin, if you have a Home Depot or Lowes in your area they sell various quarter turn locks that usually come with a variety of blades. You could also bend something up in a vice and use small 10/24 screws to bolt to your existing blade.

Looks to me like you're on the right track
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Old 08-09-2015, 02:16 PM   #269
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No joy at Lowes or Home Depot Brad, and the old (cast zinc) cam arm gave away as soon as I tried straightening, but a 1" aluminum spacer and a 3" piece of 3/4" aluminum flat stock took less than my '30 mins per day' limit to cobble together something that works, using the collar from the now broken original cam as a stop.

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Old 08-09-2015, 03:39 PM   #270
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Looks good!

Have you taken it for a test drive to see if the noise goes away?
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Old 08-09-2015, 06:26 PM   #271
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Unfortunately not Brad....

Part of my "30 mins a day" limitation is there is a wholes cascade of events that have to fall into place over the next few weeks. One of those is our shed roof gave way under the weight of snow last winter. The shed was only 10 months old and I have spent that last 6 months trying to buy a replacement rook, or get my insurance to replace the roof, or get the company to supply a new roof (in that order....I was happy to buy - just the company don't sell spare parts).

The connection is.....we have a large Rola Pro Series cargo carrier for camping (for things like our camp grill, rocking chairs, windbreaks, inflatable boat (essentials are on-board, luxuries go in the cargo carrier)); all of which has been stored in our trailer, until last week, when as part of the planned downsizing, I gave the trailer away. So all the luxury camping stuff is piled in our mud room/family room. As luck would have it the shed parts (or some of the parts) arrived this week, so the roof had to take priority.



At least that task is done, power is back on, lights back in, and tomorrow I can rediscover the mud room! Fortunately DW is away visiting family in Europe, so I have at least another two weeks to try and get to the bottom of the pile of tasks.
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Old 08-17-2015, 06:13 PM   #272
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Bella's electrical system

Back on post #248 I mentioned doing some posts on specific elements. So I'm going to start with the electrical...simply because it has already proven it's use when over the weekend we had micro-burst thunderstorms come through the area and had no power to the house for several hours; more on that later.

So the basic wiring is....



"Everything" on-board running together is under 20amp (including the AC). There are a couple of places where I have had the guys deliberately but in a single 110v outlet so that, for example, we can't plug in both the toaster oven (700watt) and electric kettle (1000watt) at the same time because there is only one outlet! So "Everything" is actually when all outlets are occupied not all applicances are on. Basically we have a 30amp smart LED Furion inlet (which did it's job and tripped when the shore power spiked in the storms) feeding a master shut-off (so 110volt can be isolated) but feeds the 110volt side of the Magnum. The Magnum then has a 4gauge connection back to the battery bank via a fused shunt - this is two way, for charging and for inversion. Also on the battery side we can directly shut down everything and plug in a Deltran (or other)battery tender via the same 2 way SAE connector that is the inlet from the Zamp solar panel. The batteries themselves are a little 'old school' wet cell lead acid. why? Because when they need replacing in two years the new formula Lithium Ion will be ready and then I will 'splash the cash'.





One little detail that maybe of interest is all the under chassis compartments have been converted to double hinge - with a 2 1/2" section added to give more height for the battery tray, propane tank, and matches the larger fuel tank which shows below the compartment door.

If we don't have shore power we can run from the Eu2000i which can plug into the 30amp inlet but again because we have no transfer switch (we just plug in whichever we want) the wiring is pretty simple.



Inside all the power is directly above the battery tray under the drivers side bed. Standard magnum inverter setup with the Magnum 110volt going to a 15amp sub-panel and again AC outlets for the 15amp are placed so we can't exceed 15amp....if we want to plug in the AC through the inverter (and it will run) we have to change the outlet it is plugged into and then nothing else can be used.

The Magnum, sub-panel, and Parallex D80 distribution panel all sit next the the wheel well on the drivers side.



And there is a cubby above the wheel well which holds the 200watt Zamp solar.



So far everything seems well balanced and with the Zamp and its extension lead so that it can be positioned in the sun the draw is less than the charge when dry camping and no AC....to be honest we haven't used the AC that much and the decision to sacrifice outright performance for utility seems a good one.

In mentioning utility and back to the storms of the weekend, the on-board systems had enough capacity to run and extension capable from the inverter side to power lights etc (and of course the internet!) until the house power came back.....I never even had to turn on the generator.
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Old 08-23-2015, 07:03 PM   #273
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Hmmm; first d'oh moment since we have had Bella back on the road and note to self; when the fuel gauge isn't working reliably - don't rely on it!

Luckily I had my 5 gallon gas can (for the generator) with me, so once I convinced myself "not to believe" the gauge, and try and add some (and as soon as I started pouring and could hear the sound of gas hitting the base of an empty tank, it was pretty obvious) she fired straight back up, and away we went.

As break-downs go, I'm not sure this even counts as a break-down!
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Old 08-24-2015, 10:24 AM   #274
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As break-downs go, I'm not sure this even counts as a break-down!
Nope, I don't think that qualifies as a break-down unless you want to classify it as a "mental" break-down
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Old 08-24-2015, 01:03 PM   #275
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A sure case of mentalpause if you ask me.....ask me what?....... I dont know......someone has gas...
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Old 09-06-2015, 04:21 PM   #276
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So after a few changes of seats mounts and adapter brackets, I have finally stopped messing around with the seats.....what is there now is what I am keeping.

The seats themselves are (new take out) second row seats from a VW Routan (same as a Caravan and Town & Country) so 'fold flat to although them to be taken out easily.





However even with this feature, they hit the steering wheel when tipping forward, and fit the wheel when turning....no matter how much 'back and forth' you do.



However the addition of the removable wheel solves any issues with multi-purposing the seats



I have cut a second notch in the passenger swivel to stop that seat at approx 200 degrees from forward, and on the drivers seat at 150 degrees and 210 degrees.



Which gives both seats a good view of the TV and the drivers seat the option to point towards the end of the kitchen counter and gives a good position for my laptop when travelling.





[IMG]http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd260/warmanm/2015-09-06%2017.52.08.jpg[/IMG

As well as a clean, open look from front to back with nothing above counter height.

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Old 09-06-2015, 04:36 PM   #277
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Martin, your coach sure is beautiful looking!


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Old 09-06-2015, 04:39 PM   #278
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Martin, your coach sure is beautiful looking!


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And it's amazing how much functional space Martin is squeezing out of that 20'.
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Old 09-06-2015, 04:49 PM   #279
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And it's amazing how much functional space Martin is squeezing out of that 20'.
If Martin PM's me the cost per sq/ft I wonder if my heart would take the shock; but if you have the means, by all means, do it right.

I just hope that Martin has some kin that this treasured heirloom could be passed onto one day.

Cheers
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Old 09-06-2015, 05:14 PM   #280
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Thanks for the comments guys.

When we got Bella back on the road, I bought the largest possible Rola hitch mount cargo carrier and we expected to have to use it for; the awning (we have a old style rope and pole - so also carry a 8ft collapsible ladder to help in assembly), camp chairs, rocking chairs, windbreaks, outside grill (plus stand, and cast griddle/dutch oven), etc etc. On our first trip that 2ft by 5ft by 2ft cargo carrier was full, yet after a couple of trips and a little organization, the cargo carrier is empty, and we don't even need to take it - every piece has a home.
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