Running new a/c hose for dash air

[Bill Lampkin]

Must replace hoses for dash air from engine a/c compressor to condenser at front of coach. Anyone else do this , how do you route the hoses? Inside of frame rails? Any obstacles? Big job, big money if I have cat shop do it. Can it be done without lifting the coach?

[Carl Boger]

Bill,

I have not pulled new AC lines but have pulled a camera line from front to back.  I would follow the old route as closely as possible which will likely run on the inside of the frame rails.  The job is not that bad but you will want to get the coach up on blocks to give you better access.  A lift would be ideal. 

Pull the lines through leaving enough slack to keep them safe and give you room to hook everything up at both ends.  Zip tie them up to secure them.  You may need to drill some new holes to get the lines through.  I would abandon the old lines and cut them off as short as possible given the access available.

Hopefully this will help some.

[Eric Maclean Co-Admin]

Bill
I have never had to replace the A/C lines but I did replace the hydraulic line for the power steering .
Your biggest hurdles will be getting the new hoses through the rear bulk head and over the holding tank bay , it's also very tight between the frame rails and the fuel tank.
When you cut through the rear and front bay header using a hole saw be careful to avoid the aluminum framing in the header .
That said it is doable and as Carl subjected the old lines will have to stay where they are as the where P clamped into the frame rails before most of the other half million wires and hoses where secured to them making it impossible to remove them.
It's not a bad idea to cut the old hoses off but leave them exposed in a place that's accessible you may want to use them later as wire chases to run a new wire  through for something .

Good luck
Eric

[Zeb Severson]

First I should mention I replaced my hydraulic lines for my slide out which are smaller than the AC lines, also my coach is 37" but you have a tag and the shorter wheelbase. I am assuming you have a magnum chassis left over from before Monaco took over (I thought 2005 was the last year for Patriot and Magnum)

Running the lines not how they were run originally with our model coach grinds my gears a little. Not out of principal per se, but there is not just any good way to do it either for risk of damage or it would just look like a hack job.

What I did, and recommend doing is removing the fresh water tank and pulling the new lines through where the old lines used to be. Our coaches are over 20 years old and its not a bad idea to get a good look at the other hoses. I can see some difficulty passing the lines around the gas tank, but forward of the storage bay I think routing a different easier way isn't too risky. Passing though the front bulk head of the storage bay was easy. Passing through the rear of the bulkhead over the wet by was difficult. I had connected the new hose to the end of the old hose and pulled the old hose through with some added 550 cord around the connection. The rear bulk head is pretty tight to access with the differential and suspension taking up a lot of space. Running the lines to the engine wasn't too bad from that point.

As far as having a shop run the lines, I would be cautious on the type of shop and who is doing the work. It takes someone with care and intention to to this repair and my I just don't trust the guy doing the work to be mindful enough. But that is me.

[Bill Lampkin]

Good points, well taken , thanks

[Eric Maclean Co-Admin]

Bill
Zeb brings up a good point if you drop the water tank it will make running the lines easier although I managed to get the new hose through there with out dropping it but I was only doing the high pressure hydraulic hose for the power steering. .in the wet bay I created an opening in the wall between the wet bay and the basement big enough to be able to reach in over the tanks which helped but it's still a very tight area to work and even with that opening you cant reach all the way to the rear bulk head .
Speaking of the high pressure power steering hose you may want to inspect yours on my coach it ran up the inside of the right hand ( passenger side) frame rail and then turned sharply behind the gen set over to the driver's side through the other frame rail and onto the power steering box.
Where it made that sharp turn coming out of the passenger side frame rail it rubbed or chafed a hose in it on the frame cross member causing a power steering leak and failure fortunately it happened in my yard and not 3000 miles from home.
If your going to all the effort of dropping the water tank it would be a very good time to think about changing the heater hoses which run from the front back to the engine and tee off to the Aqua hot as well or at least do what I did as my hoses looked pretty good where I could see them I decided to install a pair of ball valves inline in the heater hoses in the engine bay so that if I ever did have a problem with one of those hoses or heater core leaking on the road I could isolated them to get me home or at least to some where I could replace the bad hose or heater core.

Hope this helps
Eric

[Zeb Severson]

Thats a good point Eric about checking the other hoses and adding ball valves. My slide hydraulic were blistering, and were routed poorly through the frame rail where they were cutting into the hose. I will make sure I will check on what hoses I can see and get to my new chassis lube.