Axis/Vegas Mods...1,2,3 Go.

[aa9zz]

Nice job.

[Ziggys Vegas]

Has anybody figured an easy and not to painful way to add oil to the engine on the Vegas?

As I understand it, the fold down table thingy on the passenger side has to be removed to remove the battery, and it seems to me that a modification to that to easily gain access to the battery and add oil might be a possibility.

Any thoughts?

[JamieGeek]

Really? From looking at my Axis it would appear that the battery can come out the front?
I've had my doghouse off:

The red arrow at the right shows the oil filler tube that is plumbed to the front of the engine so that you can add oil from the front (I haven't changed my oil: I just had a local shop do it and I'm pretty sure they didn't disassemble the dash at all).

[Beacher]

Originally Posted by Ziggys Vegas

Has anybody figured an easy and not to painful way to add oil to the engine on the Vegas?

My Hurricane's V10 is just as painful to fill with fresh oil.

I found that if you remove the windshield, and the fiberglass front cap you can have clear and easy access to the oil filler tube!

Or, you can purchase a large funnel and attach plastic tubing long enough to reach your fill tube, (kinda like building a "beer bong" as those college folks call them), from the front of your coach with the bonnet/er... hood open.

The tricky part is holding the funnel up in the air, higher than the fill tube, so that gravity feeds the oil into you engine. OK, that's not the tricky part. The real tricky part is performing the oil change by yourself, bending down to pick up the large jug of oil, while you are maintaining the funnel above the level of the oil fill tube so that you do not make a complete mess.

I managed it, and I also installed a new EZ-106 EZ Oil Drain Valve with removable Hose End Combo in the oil pan to make draining easier next time.

[mellewjo]

Harbor Freight sells a small but effective hand pump that I use for this purpose. It has plenty of power to pump from the 5 gal.jug on the ground to the filler tube.

[groswald]

I finished this table before Christmas, but just had a chance to take it to the bus. I think it looks pretty good.



It's natural cherry with an oil finish. It's about 1/2 the weight of the original MDF and Formica table.

Also, I've verified a work-around for the dead chassis battery issue several of us have run into. I believe that the radio and a mal-functioning auto shutoff for the little courtesy light are the culprits. If you look at the picture above you'll see the courtesy light. It should have shut off by the time I took that photo.

To stop the battery drain look up under the center console; you'll see these two bundles of wires.



Simply disconnect both. Our Axis has been in storage since Thanksgiving when I disconnected mine. I went down last weekend (2/14) to check on things and it started right up. I'll have to get a clamp-on ammeter and figure out exactly which of the wires are carrying current and then insert an appropriate switch.



Regards,

Randy

[Bruce]

It does look good.

Bruce

Originally Posted by groswald

I think it looks pretty good.

[aa9zz]

Wow. Nice work.

[JamieGeek]

Well the radio is powered by the coach battery, not the chassis one (at least that is the way it was wired on mine).
You don't really need to put a switch in; simply tie both radio power lines to the switched power (one of them is powered all the time). This is what I did when I connected up the 215 radio. Now when the coach is in 'store' mode the radio is completely powered down.
Our chassis battery has not lost any charge since I put in the knife disconnect at the battery.

Update: Attached is the 212 user manual.
On page 5 is the wiring diagram. What you would want to do is connect the wire from pin B7 to the supply used for B4 (e.g. tie the switched 12V to both B4 & B7). (A simple solution would be to cut both wires at the point where they joined the harness with the camper strip B7, B4, and the switched 12V line and connect them all together leaving the extra 12V line disconnected.)

It is possible that the switched power is coming from the coach battery and the continuous power/keep alive power is coming from the chassis battery--I didn't check to see where the continuous power line was coming from (as I wasn't going to use it).

That table looks gorgeous!

Battery disconnect knife switch on the chassis battery:

[roadrunner]

Hi, I had the same problem with the battery draining it turned out to be the radio, if you notice the radio on the axis will not turn off from the ignition and only turns of when you put your leisure battery into store mode, so if you don't turn off your leisure battery and not plugged in your batteries will drain overnight, to rectify this all I did was install a little switch connected to the live feed to the radio, so when we wild camp I just turn the radio off from the switch and all is well. hope this helps

[JamieGeek]

Ah yeah I hadn't thought of that: If you're camping without access to 120V/240V (for those of you in Europe) you'd want to switch off the radio and still keep the house battery "live". For those of you who did put a switch in: Did you put in a simple toggle switch and bury it behind the dash, or did you match the switches already there and mount it to the dash (for that OEM look)?

[roadrunner]

I just put in a simple toggle switch, couldn't get one to match over here in UK but it looks fine. Just getting ready to go down to the south of Spain, its to cold here in Liverpool, Spain is 65f/70f at the moment so will stay there for 3 months, may as well, looking on the news you guys over there on the east coast are getting some cold weather, couldn't cope with that
also just checking the oil level and topping up, what a palaver on this axis, ended up on the step ladder with a funnel on the end of a hose, even checking the level is a pain, getting the dip stick out is OK but putting it back, I ended up with a torch (sorry flash light) to find the hole, I think I will have to try and fit an extension to the hole, I will let you all know how I get on.

[Larry]

Ahhh, south of Spain for a few months sounds like a great holiday and tough to beat those temps. And yes, it's been rather frosty here in Georgia the last couple of mornings but supposed to warm up with rain on its way this weekend. Anxious to get mine back out on the road again but will most likely be some time next month.
Know what you mean about that dipstick. First time I pulled mine out, thought I would never see the end of it. Putting it back requires plenty of effort also.
Do let us know how the trip goes and wishing you a very safe, trouble free and most enjoyable travels.

[JamieGeek]

Originally Posted by Larry

And yes, it's been rather frosty here in Georgia the last couple of mornings

Sorry but you have no idea what "frosty" is! LOL

Wow camping in the South of Spain..sounds very exotic and fun from over this side of "the pond".

[Larry]

Know what "frosty" is. Just don't know what a frozen tundra is like. You guys will thaw out one of these days.

[aa9zz]

My tundra is a little more than frozen. It's -5 now and was -9 this morning. Really looking forward to south Texas, New Orleans and Florida in April.

[mcr1010]

Here are a couple of pics of my shower mod that is inexpensive and easy to install. Gives a little more elbow room to the tiny shower and every little bit helps. The most expensive item was the heavy duty shower curtain-actually a liner that happen to be a close color match-wife approved. The tubing is 3/4" pvc with pipe clamps at each end.

The other cross tubes are for drying towels and clothes with std. closet end cups.

[aa9zz]

I have an Axis 24.1and I had it in the shop today. While I was there I asked what would be the best vent covers for my unit. They looked on top and said the current covers had plastic rails and would not hold a cover. They were afraid that anything would eventually crack the plastic. They also said the skylight was too close to the bathroom vent and nothing would fit as a cover.

I have not been on top of the unit yet so I don't know. I tend to believe what they said because they were saying I shouldn't buy something from them.

Has anyone added vent covers to their Axis/Vegas?

[pkh]

Yeah we have 2 maxxair covers. One for living area and one for bedroom. They went right over the top of factory vent covers and work great.

I didn't look at how they were installed but it seemed a pretty standard affair from what camping world told me.

[EA37TS]

If you have the fantastic fan there is a cover made to bolt onto the existing hardware. The cover is also hinged (I believe) for easy cleaning.

As a note, my owners manual says do not install vent covers.