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Old 03-20-2011, 11:28 PM   #1
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1994 34' Legacy 34
Lake Village , Indiana
Join Date: Jul 2010
Posts: 9
Rear heat exchanger water hose bypass

hi,

i bought a '94 land yacht legacy 34 footer last june, and have been using it as a mobile office when i work on location. i've put about 15K miles on it in the last 9 months and i'm trying to do everything i can to make it a reliable x-country machine.

i did have a rear heat exchanger hose fail near the side door and had a mobile truck repair guy do a quick and dirty cutout and patch of the original (now 17 year old original hose).

the problem is that the rig still has maybe 30 feet of old water hose in the system with coolant being pumped through it---i do want to take a weekend and replace all the hose with new, but no time right now while i'm working.

what i really want to do is find the access point where i can easily bypass all the old hose as a temporary measure since we're coming into warm weather anyway---do any of you guys know what i'm getting at? what i want to do is a quick and dirty temporary fix just to keep me on the road until i can find time to do the job right.

it looks like just under the hood on the upper left is some sort of junction box for these long water hoses, can i just buy a foot of new hose at autozone and bypass the entire rear system right there until i get around to doing the job right? The idea is i don't want any hot water running through that old hose while on the road, the last little leak cost me a new water pump in the Appalachians and i'm afraid it will happen again if i don't do something immediately. And i need to go drive this rig about 3000 miles right now for work.

and IF i do the job right, how tough is it for a do-it-yourself-er working on a creeper in the driveway? RV dealer quoted big bucks to do it, i'm handy but i don't have a hoist.

thanks for any advice on this!
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Old 03-23-2011, 10:05 AM   #2
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1995 30' Cutter Bus LE
Madison , New Mexico
Join Date: Nov 2008
Posts: 312
Images: 4
Hose Bypass

I did a similar bypass job on the road for our 1995 30’ cutter The “bypass” worked well until we could get to a dealer for repair.

Our leak was in the heater core up front but the technique should be the same.

The “junction box just under the hood on the upper left” that you found is actually the heater/air conditioner unit. That box contains the heating and cooling “cores” and the fan for those systems. That is where we had our leak, in the heater core.



Because the problem we had was the heater core, I inserted the bypass assembly up under the hood to bypass the entire heating system. If you do this you will have no heat when you are driving. The “rear heat exchanger hose … near the side door”, that failed on your rig is either the supply or return hose for the rear heater (usually under the step) and the water heater. I think you should be able to put your bypass under the rig near the bad hose.

I made a bypass using plumbing parts we got at a little old country hardware store in Turbeville SC.

Here’s what I did.
I used pipe elbows and fittings because a piece of hose bent in a “U” for a bypass would kink and the water could not flow. The parts where two 90 degree elbows, one 2” pipe nipple, two pipe to hose adapters .and two hose clamps to clamp the supply and return hoses to the pipe to hose adapters.



I took a piece of the hose to the hardware store to make sure I got the correct size parts.

I hope you find this helpful and good luck with the project.

BTY... It sounds like we may be in the same business. Are you in the film or TV production business?

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Old 03-23-2011, 12:09 PM   #3
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1996 36' Clipper Bus
Tub City , British Columbia
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Diagrams On Photos

Good work Bill.
I have never figured out how you add discription and arrows to pictures, so I have somethings to learn yet.
Was the heater core available at local auto supply or more difficult to come be????????
What chassis is on you unit?
Dave
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Old 03-23-2011, 11:43 PM   #4
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1994 34' Legacy 34
Lake Village , Indiana
Join Date: Jul 2010
Posts: 9
really slick Bill, and you are right to custom build that metal U to prevent a hose kink.
thanks for the pix and diagrams i'm sure you helped more than me.

not quite same biz as you, i'm an aerial photographer working on location out of little
country airports all over, and i've got to have almost perfect weather to work, so it means lots of waiting and then being able to fly at a moment's notice, so for this application the old land yacht beats the motel in town, and if i'm socked in by a week of low ceilings or rain i'm livin' for free.
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Old 03-24-2011, 08:31 AM   #5
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1995 30' Cutter Bus LE
Madison , New Mexico
Join Date: Nov 2008
Posts: 312
Images: 4
Quote:
Originally Posted by masseyfarm View Post
Good work Bill.
I have never figured out how you add discription and arrows to pictures...
Was the heater core available at local auto supply...?
What chassis is on you unit?
Dave
I use an old piece of software called Image Composer for adding the text. You can add text using the "paint" program found under All Programs>Accessories in windows, but you wount have drop shadow or outlining.

The heater core work was done at a Ford dealer. I didnt have the equipment for the job, like recharging the AC and stuff. But to answer your question, the heater core was not easly available. It had to be shiped in from canada.

We have the Ford F-53 Motorhome Chassis.

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Old 03-24-2011, 08:35 AM   #6
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1995 30' Cutter Bus LE
Madison , New Mexico
Join Date: Nov 2008
Posts: 312
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Glad it helped. Your work sounds like fun. I have spent some fun hours in a Tyler Mount hanging out of the side of a helicopter
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