| One of many things that
the Rallye did not have was a class 3 trailer hitch. It did have
a ball type hitch which had an unfortunate habit of hitting the ground
when exiting driveways. I decided to see if I could adapt a C3
hitch to the ball hitch brackets and so began searching the wrecking
yards for something that would fit. The closest thing I could
find was off a Toyota SUV but it was about 2 inches short of filling
the distance between the hitch brackets. A bunch of cutting and
welding and spacer making later, the old Toyota hitch was grade 8
bolted into the old hitch mounts. It has served well so far as
both a trailer hitch and receptacle for the bicycle rack. Click on any thumbnail for a larger image. Use your browsers "back" button to get back here.
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| When I bought the Rallye,
the owner told me never to fill the tank because it leaked when
full. The most likely cause of this would be a defective sending
unit gasket so I avoided filling it. When preparing for a trip to
Yosemite, I noticed a smell of gasoline and found that the fuel filter
located near the right rear wheels was leaking. Well, it was
actually the hose attached to the filter that was leaking, probably due
to the fact that it was hard and dry and cracked. By the time I
got enough old hose cut off to stop the leak, I could barely get the
filter put back on. So, I decided it was time to drop the tank,
replace the hoses and find the reason for the leak when full
problem. After pulling the tank ( which was an interesting
challenge without the benefit of a hoist), I found that the sending
unit gasket was indeed bad and in fact, one of the pipes attached to
the unit was broken loose. Luckily, the tank was manufactured by
a
company in Chico that is still very much in business and they provided
me with a new unit. Once back in, with new hoses installed, I
could attach the filter in a manner that would make it more serviceable
in the future. Upon getting everything back together, I filled
the tank to the top and it did not leak. Mission accomplished! |
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| The Rallye came equipped
with a B-W 30 amp converter which worked okay but for a couple of
things. It did not produce clean power (my 12 volt scanner had a definite hum in the audio), it had a mechanical hum from the transformer and I
had to keep a close eye on the house battery as I keep the RV plugged
in all the time and the battery would easily boil dry, I replaced
it with a Intellipower 30 amp unit which is mechanically and
electrically
quiet. Since it was installed in July of 2002, I have not had to
add water more than once every 6 months to the house battery.
With the addition of the Charge Wizard, it is a fantastic unit. I
also installed a fuse block which makes isolation of the individual 12
volt circuits much easier. |
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