Allegro/P-30

I got a PM from Glynda on 9/18. I'd be happy to chat. I responded with my cell phone number. Let me know if you didn't get it Glynda.

Headed to our annual trip to the Promised Land next weekend. I scooped up the Allegro from my dad's driveway today. The larger leaks that I sealed a couple of years ago have resurfaced while it sat. Very frustrating, but I know where they are. 

I drove a few miles to the gas station with the parking brake on. Rolled up in a cloud of smoke that alarmed the pump jockey (can't pump our own gas in NJ). Had to pull off to the back of the station for a while to let it cool down and make sure it wasn't going to catch on fire.

Other than that, the old girl seems to be ready for the next trip. Got the heat and hot water fired up tonight - seems to be in working order. 

The generator won't stay running anymore. I need to take the carb off and clean it I think. 

Thanks Philip. It's all part of the adventure. The Liquid Roof I applied seems to have shrunk a bit over the past couple of years. The roof rack on the Allegro is a classic look but puts a couple dozen holes through the roof. That's where the leaks are. I have some Dicor tape I can try. The parking brake thing was just a "duh" moment. Wondered why it was so sluggish :)

In other news I'm getting much better at squeezing it into its spot at my "new" place. No longer a white-knuckle exercise. I know how to swing it so I can do a proper K-turn into its spot. It's still super tight, but I'm used to it now. Only hit the fence once this time!

Gone made it back up to Cinnaminson NJ for Brad's wedding over the weekend. uneventful journey up and back thankfully.  SAIL switch in furnace still bad...  thinking I may dremel cut out a few side vent grid pieces of furnace housing so I can access the switch vs taking apart kitchen to get it out... but don't know if that will affect air flow over the dang switch.. was looking at it as I had time to Saturday morning. 

    as for roof rack and leaks.. I've been fairly religious since owning Gone about cleaning, caulking, then coating her roof with elastomerized paint every 2 years...  biggest PITA is scrubbing it and rinsing the result off the sides... before it dries.. that said I need to scrub the screw cover before this weekends fall trip.. as well as the rims..  we just plug in a ceramic heater inside until I get the furnace up and running.. may as well use the campground electricity than our propane anyway... :-)

I had the roof rack leak from where the joints were in the top of hte rack.. not the pedestals...   The only worry about sitting not level is that the fridge if RV type needs to be parked level or nearly level.   my drivers side window up by dash has a leak the sill is always full of water and the paneling around rotted but know that is a can of worms... so reseal around it with silicone after cleaning it next dry time agian... always something. 

So the water comes in that joint and then down in through the pedestals? I hadn't thought of that.

Oh and the fridge - I know. When I turn on the fridge I pull it onto the driveway and level it. When it's not in use it's parked in a dirt/gravel spot where it's impossible to get it level. The water runs off the left, rear corner which coincidentally keeps the water away from all the trouble spots.

yup had a leak over breaker panel in bedroom... was from the rail joint... after inspecting painting sealing every thing possible on the top of the roof... finally saw that... sealed that.. no more leak.  I'm usually up on roof yearly wiht a tube of white exterior caulk and a clear tube too. LOL...

Has anyone had luck using the Rustoleum version of that Leak Sealer spray? I used it a lot on the Tioga and that product actually had a true white instead of a almond white. The spray seemed to do the job really well as long as you didn't overdo it.

Okay, getting all systems up and running and I cannot find the actual fuel capacity for my Allegro's fuel tank! She's a P30 chassis, 1987 with a 454 Chevy. I measured the tank on the driver side and get approximately 15" high x 28" wide x 67" long!! Wow! That's about 28,000 cubic inches taking into consideration considerable tank wall thinkness. At 231 cu. in/ gallon you get about 121 gallons! Is this right? I've heard everything from 75 to 110 gallons for this model. Anyone know?

Mine's 85 gallons, but I don't know the dimensions. I don't see anywhere in the manual where it says that, but the guy that sold it to me knew somehow. It seems about right based on fillups and usage (my fuel level gauge doesn't work).

Mine seems to be holding up okay. One of the straps is pretty well rusted. I think my generator standpipe has holes in it too. I have to have over 1/2 a tank of gas in order for it to run. How did you get the tank out? I pulled the straps off and the thing wouldn't budge. I also don't see how it would drop out with the filler neck on it, and I don't see how you could remove it.

Firmed up my NASCAR plans. I'm thinking the early-June race will be the first time out for the season with the old Allegro. I fired it up today and made a list of things to do between now and then. De-winterize, sanitize, change all the fluids, get more propane, etc. and so on. 

putting new air bags & shocks on our beast not my favorite thing 

Just ordered KYB shocks and tested my front air bags and they both leak like sieves. Time to get new ones! Glad I've seen the install done before.

Ugh. I do need air bags. It's the one thing I've been avoiding since I got it. I have a pair - new in the box. Maybe this will be the year I actually do it. Maybe even before the Pocono race!

A bit higher on the priority list is one of the rear bags has a pretty good leak. The rear bags ARE the suspension in the back (no springs) so I need to fix that. As long as it's running it's fine - the compressor keeps it topped off. But if it sits for more than a day it drops right to the ground. I had just pumped it up in that pic I posted.

Luckily mine just has the leaf springs in back.No compressor.  Low tech but I don't have to worry about 2 sets of bags! The guy on YouTube has some really good videos of his coach (P30 chassis) to look at and get a feel for the repairs. His handle is "Class A Living".

I hear you Phil! Every time I order a chassis part like shocks and such I always have to double-check that it is indeed for my motorhome. Even the shocks I ordered said, "not for mono-beam suspension motorhomes" but mine has independent front suspension. Bet they just meant, "forget it, this ain't for any motorhome". Same size, capacity, etc. but something will be wrong with it! Argh!

When working on my Allegro. I follow some simple rules for repair and fixes. 1) Research as much as you can and know that you will run into something not covered in the manual; 2) the repair job will NEVER be as quick and simple as everyone tells you it will be; 3) assume you will break something that will require additional purchases or fabrication work; 4) accept that many times the application of the wrong tool will not be as good as just getting the right tool for the job; 5) you will get dirty.

Thanks Daniel. I found his video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vE20DUy5njk

He has some cool videos. I wonder what the springs are attached to his lower control arm? I don't have that. Some sort of stabilizer?

I got "Air Ride" bags - supposedly the correct ones.

My rear bags are part of a Jet Ride system installed by the original owner. Back in the day, it was an obscenely expensive air-ride system that for some reason he thought was necessary. When it works it's great. But it's far from maintenance free. There are leaks all over the place, but none are so big that the compressor can't compensate. The good part is that I have a wide range of up/down and side-to-side adjustment in the rear. It keeps me from scraping (much) on the steep approach to my driveway.

Phil - yes it is pretty easy to level. I carry ramps anyway. I try to spitball it with the ramps first, then finish up with the air bags. Combined with the ramps, the bags give me a pretty big range. The rig is almost level in that pic and it's basically hanging off a cliff.  

I do plan to hack the old bags out with a sawzall. There's not much left of them. I really would like to get this done before the next trip to see how much of a difference it makes.

I also got a flow-through TPMS system that monitors air and temperature. I'm super paranoid about a blow out so I figured it was a worthwhile investment. I need to get that installed too.

My gut tells me to check the rear brakes too. I haven't looked at them since I bought it. They work okay but it can't hurt to take a look back there. Thankfully it has discs in the back so it's easy to work on.

I guess I dodged a bullet on that one. I was kind of surprised to see discs back there. I had no idea you had to remove the axles to remove the drums. A buddy of mine has an '87 28 footer with drums. I never thought to ask him about it.

Daniel - I was watching that Class A Living guy's vids and he spotted this in one of his boondocking vids. How cool is that (I grabbed a still frame from the vid)?

LOL! I saw that Allegro with window awnings and commented on that to him! Guess we Allegro owners all have that knee-jerk reaction to seeing them in other people's videos.

:-)

Yeah those window awnings are a lot of work - someone spared no expense on that one! I'm always excited when I see another vintage Allegro. People seem to like to see them out and about too - they're antiques now (just like me I guess)

Also what's interesting about that pic is that he has the power cord out. Is he grabbing power from somewhere? Or maybe hooked up to a generator off-camera. Either way, that parking lot is pretty liberal with their camping rules. Need to be a lot more discreet here in NJ.

Just like Forrest Gump, " I got me new shoes!" for the RV of course!

Glad to have new tires vs. the original (yes, never changed in 30 years) ones.

Wow! Mine were visibly dry rotted when I got my Allegro and they weren't originals as far as I could tell. Do you have 17s or 19.5s?

Mine are 215/85 R16. Big bubble tires but they help the ride quite a bit. The tires I replaced had the old 7.5 x 16 designation on them from the 80's. Glad to have them off the rig. Just waiting for my spare to show up then I'm done with the tire stuff. The old ones were  "D" load rated, 8 ply. These are "E" rated 10 ply.

Pulled the Allegro out of its hibernation spot today. It was starting to sink. Right rear tires spun a bit but nothing dramatic. I got it out onto the pavement, repositioned the 2x12 planks and put it back. I crawled under it to put a jackstand into place and saw that the left rear shock had broken loose from its mount on the frame. Not sure when it happened but based on the hammer marks on the underside I'd say a while ago. Need to add it to the to-do list.

My stepson and his friends use it to crash in on the weekends. I don't think they realize it actually moves.

https://video.nest.com/clip/3a746fae53074fc59b3682a0986249d9.mp4

Ok, all you RV guys and gals , hope your summer is great and your Allegro's are running smoothly and giving you great pleasure. My family and I have used ours several times checking out camp grounds around North Carolina and enjoying the heck out of it. We are still doing a few tweaks and minor stuff to it, and want to continue doing more until it's almost back to where it was 30 years ago. When we bought it back the first of 2016, we were more worried about getting it road worthy, and that we have accomplished , but would like to have the Allegro trademark on it, as currently there is not Allegro anywhere on the outside. I have a friend that has a vinyl business and and all I need is the dimensions on the lettering and I know you guys have it on yours. Would love the height( overall and width of lettering! Any help you can give me would be so much appreciated!!

Thank you Daniel, that would be great!! Would you be able send it via file on here or do you need my private email? I thank you so much and if you need any compensation, please let me know. Laine1032@ yahoo.com.

Awww, thank you so much Daniel!! Not sure where my son wants to put it, I', thinking across the nose/front end, if it will fit, but not sure. If I can get several made up at a reasonable price Jim, I will let you know and contact you! Thanks again for all your help. On a different subject, one of the airbags on front is bad and my son has the replacement already, but might need tips on the installation, any good ideas? Thanks

Hey Martha,

Logo files are on the way to you in PDF. I can get them to you in other formats now that I drew it in CAD.

On those logos.... in order to avoid some sort of copyright I'd either change the size slightly, color or change the text below to do something fun and unique. Also wouldn't be selling them, just charge cost for the restoration printing.