hard brakes '94 land yacht LA

[ducatist2]

hi,

newbie here, just bought '94 land yacht 34 foot Legacy motorhome and drove it home. Seller said had newer brakes and front rotors.

never drove one before.

brake pedal did stop the thing ok and did not go to the floor (34 footer) however, brake pedal effort seems hard, not like power brakes of a modern car, more like the manual brakes of
pre-power brake era, like the '54 chevy i drove in high school.

is this just they way they're supposed to feel, or should i have it checked out?
thanks!

[shadejo]

Do you have the diesel pusher on the Spartan chassis (which has air over hydraulic brakes) or are you on a chev P30 chassis?

I'm suspecting the latter, or a fault with your system as the air over hydraulics on the Spartan are very good, but have limited feel. I have never needed to apply a lot of pressure to completely launch things around the motorhome in a panic stop .

If you are on the chevy chassis, I never found the hydroboost brakes that great on my mid 80's one. Don't know however if that was the sytem that was in use by 94.....

John

[WeLoveToCamp]

Originally Posted by ducatist2

hi,

newbie here, just bought '94 land yacht 34 foot Legacy motorhome and drove it home. Seller said had newer brakes and front rotors.

never drove one before.

brake pedal did stop the thing ok and did not go to the floor (34 footer) however, brake pedal effort seems hard, not like power brakes of a modern car, more like the manual brakes of
pre-power brake era, like the '54 chevy i drove in high school.

is this just they way they're supposed to feel, or should i have it checked out?
thanks!

My MH is a '98. It is on a P30 chassis. The breaks have always felt like I needed to stand on them to stop the thing, even when it was new. They work fine, but are not comparable to either of my daily driver vehicles.

I just had new rubber put on mine, all the way around. While they were doing this, they checked all the breaks and stuff in there. It all looked fine. Having the shop do this makes me feel better, and breaks are always a thing of concern for me. I do worry about stuff, my wife will vouch for that.

Anyway, good luck with your coach. One point I might express.... make sure you stay ahead of all the seams. Keep her sealed with the right stuff, and check it yearly. Cracks can form between the metal roof and the fiberglass endcaps. Also, around the edges of everything that has been installed through the roof.

Happy Camping,

Steve

[ducatist2]

thanks you guys, ok seems maybe this is normal, i did check the rotors and disks and they seem ok.

this is a p30 chevy chassis, 34 foot land yacht LE series.

so when i take it down through the hills in northern GA and coast down a long grade i just use the tranny for "engine braking" and pull it down into the appropriate gear---is that what everyone does?

and this won't burn it up? (the tranny)?

forgive the newbie questions.

thanks!

[WeLoveToCamp]

I have used the lower gears while both climing and coasting down long grades. I use the brakes when needed. I've not had any tranny problems or brake problems so far.

Good Luck and Happy Camping,

Steve

[WeLoveToCamp]

Hi Folks,

Just a little update since I posted a reply several days ago.

Friday afternoon, we were all loaded and headed out of town for the weekend. MH was driving fine. We pulled into a Wal-MartSuperCenter for some last minute items. Everything was working, things were looking good. We sat there for about 25 minutes while my wife ran into the store. She returned and we were going to get under way again.

I put my foot on the brake, shifted to drive, released the "park" brake, and the motorhome started to take off. Problem... My foot was still pressed to the floor on the brake pedal. I pumped it and found absolutely zero brakes! I quickly shifted it to neutral, coasted a few feet to dissipate the little speed that was generated, and pulled out on the park brake again. Came to a quick... safe stop.

I couldn't believe it. No warning... no brakes... hmmmm, what could it be?

I jumped out, had my wife pump the breaks as I looked under/behind each wheel. I couldn't see any sign of leaking break fluid. I checked the fluid level, and found it to be full. This made no sense to me. I then paid close attention to the master cylinder area while my wife once again tried pumping the brakes. I could hear a squishing sound, no leaking though.

Time to call the Good Sam ERS dispatch number. Huge tow truck came, hooked on to the MH, pulled the drive shaft loose and strapped it to the frame to hold it up. Off we went to the repair shop.

When we arrived at the shop is was about 10:30 pm. The shop was closed and nobody was around. The tow truck driver set the MH down and started to unhook it. I didn't know this, but when the drive shaft is disconnected, the park brake will not work. The motor home started to roll, even though the park brake was set again. Luckily, the tow truck was able to grab and hold the MH until I found some large chunks of cement to place behind the rear duals. Finally, it was all secure.

Saturday morning I was back at the shop when they opened. (We all returned home via a friend after the MH was safely delivered to the shop.) The shop put in a new U-Joint and reconnected the drive shaft. I had them replace the U-Joint with a heavy duty one with grease fittings, since it was already off. I'm also having them replace the master cylinder/booster, and to rebuild all of the wheel cylinders, along with new fluid. I don't want anything to be a weak link.

When all done, this motorhome would have had the following done to it over the past 6 weeks. 7 new Mich. ZXE tires, fluid change in rear diff, trans, generator, engine, and radiator. New serpentine belt on engine, new hoses for radiator and heater. New airbags in front end, new alignment, new air filters, new plugs, wires, etc..., a/c serviced. Roof resealed, roof top air conditioners serviced, new fresh water filter. We replaced the entire rear ladder too. Had to order a new one from Airstream. The old one had a couple cracks in it next to the connection bolts.

We cleaned inside, and are working on polishing the outside.

This MH has 16,582 miles on it. The generator has 204 hours on it. Lots of records on maintenance that has been done. It has lived most of it's life inside an RV carport.

Now that I have spent all this money on it, my wife thinks we should sell it before we have to put more into it. I don't share her feelings though. If I sold it, I would have to purchase another Airstream, and probably a new tow vehicle. I do like the 30' with slide. Anyway, I thought that I would share my current situation, as it is mainly to do with breaks.

When I get her back, I'll relay how the breaks feel. I'll be able to tell if they are any easier to press, or if there is any difference in how they work.

Chow,

Steve

[TerraYacht]

Steve;
It looks like most of the work you have done comes under the category of time-based maintenance, like hoses, belts, etc but also an "ironic" twist: a '94 chassis with only 16K miles did not get a lot of use. Brake fluid absorbs moisture from the air: that's why it should be changed every 2 years. This moho probably didn't get driven enough to heat up the fluid, and the water settled in the master cylinder & corroded it.

It looks like you've covered most of the time-based issues now, so I vote to keep it, at least for a year or two to see how much you like it.

My P32 chassis has the hydroboost system as well: there is a lot of pedal travel before anything happens, and then not a lot of pedal feel, plus it feels kind of "soft" compared to my cars. This chassis has anti-lock brakes too, have not tried them, even though I advise car owners to try out the ABS so they know what to expect.

Go the the workhorse website and register your chassis with them in case of recalls, etc and you can also ask them about brake issues if you need to.

The general suggestion for downhill is to use some engine braking, downshift a gear or two so the brakes are not overheated. I had a brake fade incident many years ago in a car ('52 chevy) with drum brakes on a one-lane downhill & it was way scary.

[WeLoveToCamp]

Our motorhome is home and now has new brakes. Black's Tire replaced all of the rotors, calipers, pads%

[TerraYacht]

Originally Posted by WeLoveToCamp

Our motorhome is home and now has new brakes. Black's Tire replaced all of the rotors, calipers, pads%

Congratulations, looks like a great start: remember to break in the pads for about 500 miles and get out there. We just took a long weekend north of us in Ft. Bragg, CA. A Thursday to Monday works our pretty good for those of us who still have RJ's (real jobs.)

[WeLoveToCamp]

Hi,

I have made plans, including reserving the campgrounds, for a 9 day jaunt. We are headed from N.C. up to Amish country in PA, then moseying on over to the Smokies for a few days. My son starts school in two weeks, so we wanted to get another good camping trip in before that happens. This year is the big Fourth Grade. He is very excited about it.

Once school starts, we will be stuck to using short weekend trips and the occasional 3 day weekend until Spring Break.

Yesterday, I crawled under the coach to view the repairs made. I noticed that while in the shop getting the brakes done, that all the bushings in the front end have been change out. They are now a pretty red color, and match my new red air bags in the front springs. Cool stuff. The shop said that they had to replace the bushings when they did the front end alignment. Some were broken and missing large chunks of rubber.

Enjoy,

Steve