Okay, this post is moving on to the next part of upgrading our suspension. These are the front struts. We also know that they are in need of replacement.
So since we are not traveling right now, it's good to make a couple posts of the things that we've done to the motorhome, to make our traveling better!
Keep in mind, these pictures and information were from our maintenance done during Labor Day weekend at home. We were in between our trip to US 2 West, and then we took off again and went on US 2 East.
It was going to be a very hot muggy day, but Steve wanted to get these struts replaced. We parked the front of the motorhome in the shade as best possible and decided the quicker we did this job, the better before the sun advanced too far into our work area.
Yes, I did make a video of the entire process. If you would like to watch that, here's the link to my YouTube channel with the complete video from start to finish.
He ordered up the struts for our 2016 Winnebago View on a 3500 Sprinter chassis from Shock Warehouse. They were $199 each plus free shipping. Here is the link
Here is the complete list with part numbers and where we ordered each part from for what we needed to do this job.
Everything arrived quickly and we were able to start the removal and replacement right in our own driveway.
Steve has all the gear ready, as well as secure blocking and jacking for the front of the motorhome. I help as much as I can, and I'm the go-fer to get the parts and things that he maybe forgot. But usually, he has everything assembled and ready to go.
The arrows below are showing how far the sun is moving forward on the motorhome. It's the sun comes up from the east on the far side of the garage and pokes its head over the roof, with the receding shadow moving towards the front of the rig. This is why we want to get it done before we are out in the blistering hot sun. For some reason the temperatures were really high and things were extremely muggy.
His first step was to remove the entire wheel and make sure everything is blocked up securely.
On the inside he needs to loosen this nut at the top of the strut post. It is located underneath the carpet under the front dash area inside the cockpit of the motorhome. Pretty convenient that it's not all grubby and rusty and full of gunk up in the engine compartment.
He easily got the old struts off because they were very worn out. He compressed them down and popped them out with no problem at all. Luckily, the nuts and bolts were not rusted so they removed easily.
The old one is the black one on the right, and the new one is the yellow one on the left.
Once he had them off he did a little demonstration on the video linked above. I took some still shots of his demonstration. It shows how easily he can compress the old shock. Very little effort needed. Yes, they were in need of replacement.
The new shocks are specifically designed for the Winnebago View on the Sprinter chassis 3500. They are made for the additional weight of the camper portion which is added to the Sprinter frame. That was something lacking in the original design. That is why Bilstein calls these their "Camper Advanced B6 struts".
It definitely took more effort to compress the new one enough to get it lifted up and put into place.
There's a tiny little wire with a clip on it that you need to be really careful to not dislodge it or bend it or rip it apart. This is part of the ABS brake sensor wiring. It's all computerized. Don't break that wire, it's really costly to replace!
So he had carefully balanced the entire hub on some extra jacks and blocking to make sure this wire did not get pulled or yanked in any awkward direction.
Once the strut was into place he was able to slide in the bolts. One to hold the strut, the other to adjust the camber (alignment).
We had ordered a new camber bolt for each strut, as well as a boot and a mounting plate and strut stop. But since the originals were still in good condition, we didn't use any of the other parts.
(We later found out during the alignment, that the Mercedes dealership would prefer the original camber bolts and not the new ones we had bought. Good thing we had taken both types with us to the dealership!)
He torqued up the lower mounting bolt to 129 ft lbs., per the specs from Bilstein. The upper camber bolt was just put into place in a pretty good position until the alignment that would be done the next morning at the dealership.
Steve put the wheel back on, torqued everything up, and now we are able to remove the jacks and safely put the rig back on the ground.
Now he just needs to tighten up the top nut on the inside of the strut, under the dash in the cockpit of the motorhome. A little allen wrench is inserted in the top to keep it from pivoting while he tightens up the bottom nut.
By this time, the temperature had increased and it was extremely hot and humid. We both needed a well-deserved break before we put away all of our tools. This humid weather just is not comfortable for us in our old age!
After a quick breather, we got up and put things away. It's always good to get it all stowed away where it belongs each time after we're done. That way we aren't losing things or misplacing them or having things walk off mysteriously.
Now we fired up the rig and took off for a test drive!
As we headed out of town, the first real test are the very, very bumpy railroad tracks within a half mile of our house.
WOWSERS!!!! What a difference! With these new struts, in addition to the new shocks a few days before. We noticed in incredible change in the handling of our rig.
Incidentally, a Hellwig sway bar had also been added by the previous owner. In case any of you were wondering.
We got home and parked the motorhome in it's spot. It's ready now for our next adventure.
(After the alignment at Mercedes in Appleton the next morning)
These new improvements will greatly assist with the rough roads up to Alaska for the summer of 2025.
~~~~~~~~~~
And here's my darling Mr Steveio, looking somewhat pleased with himself. It's because of his skill and knowledge and willingness to tackle these jobs that makes it more budget friendly for our travels.
I know sometimes I sound like I'm bragging about him. But really, I am so proud of him being able to do this stuff. I know that it's something that I can't do by myself. And paying somebody else to do it really is tough on the budget.
Since we are not traveling this month, I thought that I would fill in a few blog posts with some of the things that we took care of on the motorhome in between trips.
In late August, we turned around from our US 2 West trip (due to wildfire smoke and high temperatures) We were back home over the Labor Day weekend. That was kind of nice, because we like to avoid the holiday crowds in the parks anyhow.
Since we were home, Steve decided maybe it would be a good time to replace the shocks and the struts on our motorhome. It is 8 years old and we do notice some dipping and swaying when we go in and out of parking lots and driveway aprons at gas stations. Also, the amount of sway you get with a passing semi is more noticeable. The guys on our Winnebago View Facebook list have said replacing the shocks and the struts with better designed ones makes a huge difference.
The original Bilstein rear shocks were never made for the heavy added weight of a motorhome on top of the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter chassis. They have since suggested that we upgrade them to the Fox Agile 2.5 shocks. They are rather pricey at $500 a pair, but they are suggested to be a much better shock for the rear of our coach with better dampening and ride control.
Since we cut our vacation short and didn't make it all the way out to the Pacific Ocean, the vacation budget had a few extra pennies in it to order the shocks as well as new struts for the front end. I will post about them in the next blog.
Steve ordered up the shocks from Agile Offroad Company:
Now I only have a few photos that I can find in my files of Steve actually working on the shocks. It was hard to get a camera in close to see what he was doing.
But what I do have is a video that I made of the entire process that I had put on YouTube. Here's the YouTube video if you would like to watch it:
As I said, the shocks came right away and he was very excited to open up the box. Kind of like a little kid at Christmas.
He spread out a tarp and jacked up the rear of the motorhome a bit. Of course he had wheel chocks and the emergency brake on as well as extra jacks and supports securing the work area.
This kind of reminds me of the Wizard of Oz?
As I said, it was really kind of hard to get a camera underneath there. I set a small GoPro on a tripod to make the video. But I was trying to snap some photos at the same time. It wasn't really easy.
Here he is removing the old yellow Bilstein shock. It is stock original equipment, so that means 8 to 9 years old. They are pretty worn out as we discovered pushing on them once he got them removed. Fortunately, all four nuts and bolts removed easily and were not rusted up.
Here are the two old yellow ones compared to the new ones. It was a big difference when he tried squishing down on them with the new ones compared to the old.
Here's a photo now of him placing the new ones up into their correct position. It wasn't too hard to squish them into place. The new nuts were put on with a thin bead of thread locker to help keep them secure.
Then he went around and torqued down each of the four nuts and bolts with his torque wrench set to 110 ft lb. as spec'd by the manufacturer. Done!
I think that it is wonderful that even at the age of 66, Steve is able to crawl around underneath the rig and do this type of maintenance. We really don't want to do a lot of maintenance but he saved us hundreds of dollars in labor by handling this himself. We also ordered the front struts and when those are installed, we will arrange to have an alignment done at the Mercedes dealership down in Appleton. That is one thing we can't do ourselves.
Packed in the box with the shocks, was a really nice thank you note from the company. It's not often you see things like this nowadays. More businesses should do this. Makes us feel like valued customers and that our purchase means something to them other than just "profit".
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I thought I would add on to this blog one other new purchase that we had just made for the motorhome. Our relaxing zero gravity recliners were a bit uncomfortable. They were a cheaper set we had bought at Dunham's a couple years back.
We had stopped in at the local Camping World store to pick up something, and we noticed this really nice relaxing recliner zero gravity chair on clearance!!
We really like the nice wooden arms and when we each took a turn sitting in it, we realized this was going to be a really really nice chair. The center part was really padded and squishy, the cords seem to be heavy duty, the frame seem to be very well made. And most of all the fabric seemed washable and somewhat rain repellent. The only problem was, there was only ONE of them!
It just so happens, in Green Bay Wisconsin, right across the highway from Camping World is a Grand Design store with many of the same products.
So we grabbed our cell phone and called over there. Sure enough, they also had ONE chair left!
We asked them to hang on to it
and we would be right over across the highway.
We had to go up and down a "loop de loop" of an overpass and a couple roundabouts to get there.
Yep,
an exact match!
We tried them out, right then and there. Silly us, sitting in the parking lot. A salesman came by and said he could sell us a camper to go with the chairs! Lol!
To sum this up, besides getting new shocks on the motorhome, we got new shocks for our butts. Lol --- springy bungee cord cable shocks on nice new chairs for our comfy butts.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Stay tuned for our next blog where I will talk about replacing the front struts on our 2016 Winnebago View.
Every year, as a Christmas treat to our grandchildren, we have our "Epic Bowling Day".
It's kind of a nice way to gather after the holidays and do something special with the grandkids. Of course the parents are invited along too!
We start out at noon with a meal. The last few years they have all chosen unanimously to go to Los Maguyes Restaurant here in Oconto. It's become a family favorite. We have never ever had a bad meal or bad service there. They easily accommodated our reservation for 11 people.
We went a little early to get ready and make sure our table is set up in place. The staff has to squeeze together three tables to fit. But it works! Steve asked if I would like a picture of myself on our happy day.
So I took one of him too before everybody got there. We are the host and hostess!
Soon the family was gathered, with drinks of our choice, and appetizers to go around. It was nice to catch up after all of the busy holidays.
Soon our food arrived, each plate exactly what we ordered. We really enjoy the authentic Mexican cuisine. Everybody has their favorites. And Little Whitney got triple cheese just like she asked on top of her meal.
An upcoming birthday for Chelsea was celebrated with the traditional wearing of the sombrero while the staff and music blasted out Happy Birthday to her. They top it off with a delightful sopapilla that she can share with everyone all around the table.
Yup, we totally embarrassed her.
After everyone's bellies were full, it was time to crawl back into our vehicles and drive the few blocks over to the local bowling alley. It's called The Good Place. And it really is! It is family oriented establishment with bowling, games, and a bar with beverages and snacks and pizza. Even off to one side are the owners two dogs who get a lot of attention and petting and love from the patrons.
Bowling shoes were donned, balls were picked out, and everyone got on deck with the two lanes that we had reserved.
Claire was wearing her lucky bowling headband that her sister made for her a few years ago, just to wear on our epic bowling day.
On the grandkids alley, Clayton took the highest honors on the first game, with Chelsea close behind. It really didn't matter who won or lost, because we are having fun all around. Of course, they could play as many games as they wanted.
Clayton is emulating his Grandpa, but actually, his is really Baumeisters root beer!
Even our oldest grandson, Jameson, had fun competing with the younger kids and challenging his parents too. It was fun as we compared scores cross alleys, to see who was beating who even if they weren't bowling on the same alley.
Good natured taunting and teasing, ribbing and laughing. It sure was great to see everyone so happy.
Being together as a family is what it was all about. It was a very cold windy day outside. But inside of the bowling alley we were cozy warm and could ignore the Wisconsin winter weather for a few hours.
Just look at those smiles, you can see how much fun this was. I am so glad that we put together this day as a special holiday present to everyone.
Grins & giggles, hugs and high fives.
The two littlest munchkins kept us in stitches. They would take turns helping each other bowl and push the ball down the alley together in coordinated effort.
Whitney also brought some headbands and said I had to wear one too. Didn't matter if it messed up my hair or not, I was "One of the Girls".
After we were done bowling our last games, the accommodating owner, Michelle, took this family photo for us. CHHEEEEZZZZ!
And right before we left, one of the girls' favorite songs came on the sound system. They hopped into this impromptu dance along with our youngest daughter Heather:
Silly gooses!
I promise that our next blog post is going to be something about the motorhome, and not just family stuff!
Posts
