Extra 1/2 gear in coach

Wow, lots of replies and a bit has been happening too so here goes.
The original Horton fan was NOT on a clutch, so was spinning all the time, even if the coach was doing a snow trip !!
So I decided to try thermatics, after a radiator clean and an acid block flush and it has been pretty successful and a lot quieter than the Horton fan. However the additional capacity added was just not quite sufficient so that is why I considered a larger custom radiator. It is only an issue when driving at over 90 kph on a day over about 38, when temp can creep up by 10 deg.
It is amazing how overcooled these things were, with the makers having to cater for everything from Tassie to Darwin owners.
Here's a couple of examples.
Took VP down to CPF the other day for some brake work (see later)
Left about 4 to avoid some of the traffic (yeah right, just like peak hour now)
Sat on 90 all the way, the top pair on the original radiator came on and stayed on, the bottom pair flicked on and off, most;y off.Towing 4 tonne trailer.
Came back after brake work sat on 100 all the way same story, the third zone flicked on and off a couple of times. It is isolated from the rest of the cooling system until additional cooling is required.

So, you can see that for most of the time the 4 thermatics on the original radiator are sufficient, except when pushing hard with the trailer on. I am probably being a bit anal about adding a bigger supplementary, most people would simply drive a bit slower ?

As for energy use, the engine sound barely changes when a pair of these fans cut in, the alternator is of such a size and doing so little else it doesn't seem to matter.
I have an option to run the crank batteries off my 700 Ah Lithium house pack, charged by 2000 watts of solar, so no energy required for them at all.

I honestly think I have done the right thing, after the work done at CPF it may not even prove necessary, and I do appreciate your comments.

BRAKE WORK.
I have felt for sometime that there was something wrong with VP's brakes, just not as good as they should be, downright dangerous at times. So we determined to find the cause of the resin and overheating smell on occasion (most after a few K's had been driven.)
What it eventually came down to was worn slack adjusters on the front wheels, they would apply the already hot brakes that were not much use. The slacks were applying the brakes but because of the wear they were not pulling back all the way (splined cog in the middle) This allowed the bottom shoe on each side front to drag, so was basically trying to drive with the brakes on (slightly)
As well one of the drive hubs had a leaking seal and the other side had a slack adjuster problem. Some new slacks, linings, and they said, take it for a drive, so I did.
To say the difference was awesome would be an understatement, it felt like Frank had slipped the bullet engine in there.
Better try the anchors, lots of locked up brakes behind as this 17 tonne coach stopped on a dime in front of them
So the one has no doubt been affecting the other, only way to find out is to drive it so will do a run to Sydney late this week to see what has transpired when it all settles down, pretty happy right now though

Busman, its good to hear you got the brakes sorted out, and it was a simple fix.

I have been thinking about your little setup and I feel that it worth mentioning that the thermo fans your using weren't really designed for continuous use and will have a duty cycle. One downfall of a continually running electric fan is that it will pull the battery down. When you fan starts, it will draw from the battery first as it easier to draw current from a source that will readily give it up as opposed to have to generate the current in the alternator. This generally isn't a problem as the fan will cycle on and off in normal use, however when the fans run continuously, the battery wears down, the alternator will step in and supply the current to the electrical system, but won't have enough capacity to charge the battery. You may remember some years ago when there were new cars by the hundreds all with prematurely failing batteries? It seems that all of the modern technology crammed into cars- the DVD players, Satnav's, drink coolers and phone chargers were all keeping the batteries in a semi discharged state and hence, causing premature failure.

You might not notice it now, but one really hot day with all the fans running for several hours, combined with an aircon system, and maybe an inverter for your fridge? it will pull the battery down and after pulling up for a bite, you may find yourself with a no start situation.

One simple way to get around the risk flat batteries, is to fit an air start because in the one in a million chance that you end up with no air in the tank, you still have six tyres to choose from.

But at the end of the day, its your setup, and your happy with it, so keep on rolling.....

Busman, good to hear your brakes are sorted out.
I've never seen a Horton fan clutch on a Tourmaster or a Denning, not to say they weren't fitted, sounds like yours just had a standard fixed hub a Horton is an air operated Fan Clutch, the standard fan on your Tourmaster will pull a LOT more air through that radiator then those electric things, they are next to hopeless and designed mainly as a helper fan when air conditioning is installed in a car when the car is sitting stationary at the lights to pull a bit of air through the condenser and radiator. If it had a Horton on it, it should have a temperature sensor on it for it to cut in at about 85 degrees. All the Horton's I've seen, if you stand behind them and rev the motor up and flick the override, they blow an enormous amount of air, next time you are at CPF ask Cam to show you.
I think Austral just remote mounted the Detroit Fan hub, and if they did you should be able to fit a Horton to it, mind I'd be inclined to even just put the original set up back, cheaper than cooking a motor.

I do appreciate both comments from dieseldog and bigcam, but I think I have it sorted.
It had a Horton fan, no air operation or electronic operation, just driven all the time.
Amount of air moved was 7000 litres/sec according to the graphs.
The thermo fans have a duty cycle of 100% for up to 1500 hours so will last for some time and I carry spares, as I have an account with Davies Craig.
With the original radiator moved 90 deg, there is no way to go back, even if I felt that was beneficial .Our shroud that mounts the thermatics is down to 1mm tolerance
The alternator is 240 amps at 24 V, so is barely awakened by running even 3 sets of thermo fans,
The amount of horses lost to drive the fan was between 10 and 16% according to DC calcs. There is no way I have lost that to the thermatics
There is no other current drain when running or stopped from the house as that is supplied by the oversize solar system and large house batteries, so no drain and flat batteries at the end of a run.
In fact the house system "leaches" 4 amps into the cranks all the time, if they need it (under 26 V)
All of a sudden this old coach is keeping up with Brissie traffic, that's enough for me.
Will let you know how I go after Sydney and back (if I come back !)
William

Believe me, after you've been to Sydney, you'll want to go back, or go anywhere other than Sydney.

By the time you

Believe me, after you've been to Sydney, you'll want to go back, or go anywhere other than Sydney.

Sydney is great place...
when you can see it in your mirrors!!

Well I've been and got back, somehow.
Yups, Sydney traffic is chaotic, but they have some decent roads as well !

They also have some shockers. I lived at Turramurra for years and there is a narrow rail bridge there for the Pacific Highway. Always been 2 lanes each way, these barstads now have made it 3, without widening the Bridge !! Totally impossible to keep a 2.5 mtr wide vehicle in what seems a 2.4 mtr lane

Some drivers are total dicks, but I guess you get that anywhere eh?

VP ran well on the way down, runs faster at night (maybe air is denser so turbo stuffs more in ?) Managed to avoid all their heavy vehicle inspections one way or another
Left there on Thursday morning (SW Sydney near Camden) no dramas, set the GPS so It didn't take the long way round and was on the F1 pretty quick.
Pulled into Mt White but dwadled enough for the "return to hwy" sign to roll around, the out of there.

Around Grafton the fun started. Mostly sitting on 100, taking it to very close to the governor in each gear, the rain started, heavy enough to pull the B double drivers down to 60 or so.
Then the passenger side wiper stopped working, no big deal, don't look out there much.
Then both front windows started fogging and wiping with a T shirt made it worse.

Persisted until the top of St Helena hill near Byron, pulled over and gave the inside of the screen a major clean, that was that problem solved, occured to me I had never cleaned the inside after they were fitted.
Took off again, switched the wiper on (drivers side) to find it was not working.

Down this bloody big hill (they are tunneling under it now thank god or whatever you believe in) with traffic everywhere, no wipers blind as a bat ! Put out a call on 40 to let others know and found an emergency stop at the bottom, got out to look, found a loose bit on the passenger side wiper, tightened, back inside, wipers on to see if passenger side one worked, no.

But the drivers side started again ! So off at 100 kph again switching this one wiper on and off as necessary as it was hitting the other one when it parked in the centre of the screen.
All good until a dropping fuel guage sent me into the service centre at Coomera, where I had never been. As we pulled off the M1 it started bucketing dow, everyone was slowed to a crawl, so I missed the SC entrance, no biggie I am not going round again, headed back to the freeway, in the rain missed the huge concrete island they have there, about 200 high, and managed to put the trailer wheels over it, good thing the Suzy has 8 chains on it.
Bugger this, go for the one at Nudgee, pulled into the truck area where the high flow pumps are, where I dont usually go as VP does not like to take fuel fast. Got in 100 ltrs, more than enough to get home so went in to pay.

When I came out I noticed the front bags were down, seems to have lost air quickly lately, no worries, start up and have a drink, let them come up while I tidied up inside. Drove out and hit a bump and I knew there was no air in front bags, just about on freeway, what to do, bugga it drive it the rest of the way to Morayfield, which is what I did with no problems, just a bloody hard ride.

There ends the trip from hell !! Don't require another for quite some time thanks.

Have not investigated either yet, too much to catch up on, but a bit mysified as to the cause of either.

Wiper mechanism is new, that means arms, cranks, motor, bushes, everything.

Air bags are new, ride height control valve, new, no obvious air leaks

As an aside, I think I have been driving it much harder and am considering a fan drive (old style) cooling system and will also look at 4 psi propane for the hills.

All in all it was a successful trip, great results from the Woolies meeting, just could have done without the niggles on the last part of the return leg.

William

What was the fuel consumption, William?

Hello Ian,
Best I can work on is about 2.5 K/Ltr as there was a couple of things that contributed to a non exact figure.
e.g. I filled at Taree service centre, at the small car fill as VP has not shown a liking for fast flow bowsers in the past, easy enough to get out of there when done, even if the B Double drivers looked at you strange.

So filled there on way back, but some fool had parked 1/2 way across the exit, alright for family car, not so good for VP and trailer. And then found after filling fuel gauge was only reading 3/4, dunno what happened there, always listen for the "gurgle"

And I was pushing it much faster and longer in the gears than before, so cannot give you an exact at the moment, will have to wait until the next trip, if I can sort this airbag problem.
William