Southwind by Fleetwood – sporting its new paint job
UPDATE – October 2023. I bought two new Toyos and installed them on the front. I rotated the old front tires to the dullies, replacing the two oldest tires. The two Toyo’s were right at $1,000, mounted and balanced. UPDATE – October 19, 2020. I just bought two more tires, Continue reading Baby’s got new shoes.
I haven’t counted, but I think there are 14 exterior baggage compartment hatch covers. All of these use a gas spring to hold the cover open, and also help hold it closed. At 17 years old, most of these gas springs have lost some of there springiness. The larger doors Continue reading Exterior hatch cover gas springs
Weather was great, so got a lot accomplished on the Southwind. REAR TRIM Replaced the rear trim above the water compartment door. This was damaged by previous owner. I bought 3 ft of used trim and cut it, fixed the door, and in stalled the trim pieces. Looks good. FRONT Continue reading Great weekend for working on Southwind
During our pre-purchase inspection of our New-to-Us Southwind, I noted the two front jacks were different, 500384HR on the passenger side, and a 500384 on the drivers side. I also noted that the drivers side foot pad stuck down a little farther than the passenger side. At the time, I Continue reading Power Gear 500384 hydraulic jack teardown
After inspecting the shocks, the rear ones were original, but there was some question about the age of the front ones. They are a Bilstien yellow and they may have come on the F53 chassis when it was new.. I decided to replace both front and rear with new KBY Continue reading F53 – Replace Shock Absorbers
I removed the front wheels with the intention of installing new brake pads. But when I looked at the old pads, they were like brand new, very little wear and they were not old and brittle.. They had obviously recently been changed. The slides were clean and had fresh lube Continue reading F53 – Brake pad inspection
The hydraulic jack leveler system on our Southwind is an older Power Gear manual system. I’m not sure if the levelers have ever been flushed in the 18 years since they were new, so the only way to make sure, flush them and refill. The leveler pump / tank assembly Continue reading Flush and refill Leveler hydraulic system
We just bought the Southwind so I’m in the process of bringing the F53 chassis up to date on all the maintenance. Most people forget about the MAF (Mass Airflow Sensor). This is a critical part as it measures the mount of air coming into the engine, then adds the Continue reading F53 – Clean MAF Sensor
The search begins. We usually spend 6-8 weeks out west during the winter months. During last years migration, one of the questions we wanted to answer was; “How will this (the Mirada) motor-home fit into our future? Our 30ft. Mirada (above – SOLD) was a very simple, no-frills, entry Continue reading Upgrading from Mirada to Southwind