Isuzu Trek Owners Infoletter #30
Brake lights and switch plus improved entry/exit light switch
Al Readdy (areaddy1 at gmail.com) Remember to change “at” to @
1993 24-footer
1. Brake lights: I noticed my brake lights were on so I went to the brake pedal and lifted it up and down a few times and then pushed it up. The lights were off. A little while later the brake lights were on again. I examined the brake pedal lever and found in the casting a round indentation about the size of a quarter and about two quarter thicknesses deep. In this indentation was a piece of “fabric”. This area was directly below the brake light switch. The ” plunger” on the switch had a rounded point. This point over time had worked its way into the “fabric” noted above so the switch stayed on. Since it was difficult to get to the switch to adjust it, I glued a piece of metal on top of the round casting noted above. This has worked fine since.
2. A safety consideration.
Standing on the floor looking out the door, on the upper right-hand side is the cabinet above the table. In the end of the cabinet there are three switches: one for the step, one for the outside light and the third one controls some of the inside ceiling lights. I took the inside ceiling switch out and replaced it with a pull-chain switch which has a long string on it. Thus one can turn the lights on as you enter or off as you leave. Just remember to keep a ceiling light switch on. On my rig this switch also operates the light on the bottom of the bed.
Delaminated tire belt, alternator belt, heat/air conditioner blower
Bruce Matlack (matlackwindsurfing at gmail.com)
I found my front-end wobble was due to a broken or delaminated belt in one of the front tires. If you spun the tire, you could barely see a defective area. They installed new Uniroyals but I just found out, after 2000 miles, the truck/RV shop had only put 50 lbs of air in them. One of the few times I did not check the work of “experts” by simply using a tire gauge. Hopefully, I have not damaged the belts on the new ones. I normally run 73-75 lbs.
Alternator belt. While traveling at higher speeds I could hear a belt slipping. When the engine cooled the next day, I found one alternator belt gone. The remaining one had some wear showing on the outside wherein the size markings were rubbed off. On closer inspection of the belt routing, I found a sharp object in the vicinity, and I am pretty sure my belts were too loose and the one was destroyed by rubbing on this sharp object. Probably all 2400’s have this, so keep the alternator belts tight, and inspect often so there is no slop.
My GFI “trip trick fix” to turn on the alternating current from the inverter wasn’t working. Naturally I was thinking the worst. So for the hell of it, I pounded on the GFI with my fist a couple of times and on it came! Stupid, I know, but it works… has happened twice now, and they are new GFI’s.
Ken, you might want to comment on the blower fix of putting up a new ground lug and cleaning the connection. It certainly was the cure for my blower problem and I thank you.
Have slowed down to a GPS cruising speed of about 56 and am getting 13.5 mpg average
2400 1994 – 114,500 miles -Bruce Matlack
Editor note: I have lost most of my confidence in tire shops. On my coach they have left a lug nut just finger tight, set tire pressures too high and too low, replaced my high pressure stems with low pressure stems plus breaking a stem and replacing it with a stem located where there was no way to check the tire pressure. As Bruce found out, it is a good idea to check things before you get back on the road. As far as the heater/air conditioner blower fix, my main problem was with the hot wire connection at the blower. When the crimp on the terminal end no longer made good contact with the wire it caused the whole connection to overheat. My fix was a new crimp on connector plus silver soldering it to assure a good electrical connection.
Spring re-arch.
Ken Harmon, (IsuzuTrek at aol.com)
I began to notice my Trek was riding lower and lower as time went on. It was getting so low I was concerned it might high center on the top of some of the “topes” (speed bumps) we encounter in Mexico. Looking in the rear wheel wells, I saw marks where the tops of the tires were hitting the RV floor. Checking the rubber bumpers on the frame it looked like they had less than 1″ clearance to the axle.
My local Isuzu dealer said they routinely have springs re-arched and suggested a local shop. The price of re-arching all the springs on the coach was less than the purchase price of two front springs. I elected to try the re-arching. In the front they re-arched some of the leaves and added one new leaf to each side. In the rear they apparently re-arched some leaves and added some new leaves. Overall it seems to have raised the coach around 2″.
Now that we have some road experience with the coach it seems to ride a little harsher in the front and maybe a little softer in the rear. We sure like the added height and increased spring travel, plus it sure helps to avoid dragging the tail end