Steven P

Recently we stayed met up with @Scotty Hutto and stayed a few nights at Pine Mountain RV resort in GA. Neat small town, Callaway Gardens (known for golf, flowers, and butterflies) is nearby along w a great drive thru zoo. We have also stayed at Camp Gulf in Destin, FL and recommend there. For passing through and needing a place to stay overnight, I like the Tallahassee RV park which is right off the interstate. It's a small, quiet, quaint park we have used several times.

Are you able to have them load tested? Even one or 2 bad cells in 1 battery will mess them up.

Another vote for Stone Vos here. Even if he is a Michigan State Fan. 😜

As a veterinarian who owns his own clinic, I see it too. Corporations come in and buy out clinics like mine, keep the same name, and start with many of the same staff. But the changes they make internally lead to bitter employees and frustrated clients who end up leaving and looking for another clinic that's not run that way. The corporate clinics are all about $$. It's been instilled in me to put the pet first and the $ will follow. Online pharmacies have been a big issue with all vets. It started out that they got their products through diversion...they would partner w vets who either needed the money or didn't care what they were doing was ethically wrong and they would get the vets to order products and then they would buy them from the vet who shipped them to their warehouses. At that point, the manufacturers and distributors were not allowed to sell to thes online pharmacies so the pharmacies found a back door. I "politely " turned them down when I was approached as an associate. The online store wanted me to order products, have them shipped to my house (illegal), and put their mailing label and ship them out to their warehouses. Nope, not now, not ever. Fast forward to now, pricing is a struggle w these. I've seen items priced at reputable online pharmacies below my cost and been asked to match. Sorry, order from them. I'm not gonna take a loss. What a lot of people do not know is if there is a problem with a product you buy through a vet, such as heartworm prevention, flea prevention, even vaccines, they come w guarantees from the manufacturer. Then we get on the phone and handle it for and with you. When someone buys online, all that is gone. Will Chewy help your dog with heartworms? Nope. Anyway, I read this and thought I'd chime in. Off to play with puppies and kittens now. 😸

I agree about the $179 not being a bad $. I pulled my battery tray out yesterday and am getting the rust gone and repainting. I'm not in a big hurry as we cannot go anywhere now so I'm gonna see if they go on sale after Jan 1

Yes, we stayed at the horse park for 3 games the first year we had our coach. It's a great place. They had camping this year, but no shuttle to the games. Last year we were able to get a spot next to @Scotty Hutto on campus about 300 yards from the stadium. We hope to stay on campus again next year.

When stored, I keep it plugged in to 110v. I'm not sure how long the batteries have been bad, so I'll know more once I have installed the new batteries. This year I replaced the Norcold w a residential GE fridge, but the dying was occurring before that.

@CapnDean, when we bought ours 2.5 years ago it had 2 12V marine batteries for the house. The PO had passed away and his wife knew nothing about the coach, so I couldn't get any answers about it from her. We haven't boondocked pretty much any since we got it bc I haven't felt like we could stay somewhere long enough on those 2 batteries. Just a few hours at the storage facility off shore power and no genny running would bring them down. Fast forward to now and they are bad (3 years old and I kept the water filled). So now, I'm gonna put 4 6V batteries back and see what that is like. I'm hoping the Duracell GC2 AGMs go on sale at Sam's soon. The coach is in storage, so I can wait a bit. @Jim Andrews, those AGMs are running $180 each now and the FLAs are about $90 ea.

Great job Scotty and all others! Thank you.

No snow here at Disney World. Definitely chilly for here though. Merry Christmas

I tagged u in the thread.

@johncvandoren@gmail.com this thread

This Diplomat identifying as a Thor caught my eye. 😝

John, did you see the post 3 up from yours? It may help you.

I wondered about that. I am not new to using voltmeter, but am new to using reading amps. I don't think my meter can read DC amps. Do have a recommendation for a good DC ampmeter?

Magnum inverter/setup questions for when I get new batteries. Waiting til after holidays for batteries (hoping for a sale). When I do install them, they will be 4 6V AGM batteries in series parallel. So my question goes w setting up the Magnum charger. I know to change the battery type to AGM, but what other settings are recommended for best performance and to help keep them lasting a long time? Charge rate? Cut out volts? Should they never go below 12.0V? I see that mentioned a lot, but thought they could drop to 11.5V without harm? Thanks again, Steven

@Bob Nodine That's crazy. The tech started there and I do not have that port that you have. And mine is round instead of rectangular. How about you @Scotty Hutto? @Doug Hoegh? I checked but do not have a pic on me.

Update: both 12V batteries failed. One had 12.7V but failed load test. Other had 8.8V after being on charger and failed load too. Both read 13.1V at coach on charger. I am gonna wait til after Christmas hoping for a sale on the Duracells (currently$180 each). But anyone have experience w Diehard 6V GC2 AGMs? They are $130 each at Advanced Auto. O'Reilly has some but they are $200 each. I'm going w AGMs to save maintenance for me. I have enough going on without adding battery maintenance. 😃 Thanks again for all the help.

Doing some troubleshooting now and made some discoveries that the PO added, but not sure they matter. These wires all meet in a cabinet and there are 2 factory lights installed there. The PO added a 12v fan and a separate light fixture that uses solid copper wire for its wiring. I unhooked the fan AND the added light and took measurements with them unhooked. For ground, I do not have a long enough wire on me for frame ground, but have compared using the round hole in the AC outlets and the ground wire from the CO detector and get consistent readings. The PO installed 2 12V marine batteries for the house batteries. I'm hoping to see Sam's have a GC2 sale soon. At switch: 12.89v with lights off, 12.58v with one light on and 12.26v with both lights on. Amps at switch: 0A off, 0.043A w one light on and 0.067A with both on. At the light located further back: 11.06V if both on, 12.0V if this one on and front off, 12.08V if this one off and front on, 12.84V w both off. Amps: 0.04A with one on and 0.031A if both on. Checked battery voltage at battery posts and see 13.05V, Magnum going from 13.0 to 13.1V. Rechecked at switch and voltage dropped a little: 12.84V off, 12.55V w one light on, and 12.19V w both on. Rechecked my water levels in my 2 batteries, one was fine, had to add water in 4 of the 6 cells in the other. Levels were just below the line. Water was Last checked fine about a month ago. I believe I'll take em for testing next. I may have found one issue: with the added hall light (solid wires) and fan unhooked: I rechecked the voltage. I am seeing 12.58V at the pos and grounded to either the CO ground or the wall outlet, but 12.3V when hooked straight to the associated ground wire. Same thing if I hook pos on the meter to the pos on the CO detector and use the ground associated w the lights. Problem is that wire disappears into the wall.

I learned a little when my transmission went out a month ago. The transmission tech needed the diagnostic port for his computer to read the codes. The FRB port and port under the steering wheel did not work. The port (black, not gray) zip tied to the transmission dip stick under the bathroom access is for the transmission. Once he hooked there, he had all the tranny info and once he fixed the wire, he rode there (hatch open) for a few miles to monitor the transmission. My port under the steering wheel is hooked to my Scan Gauge D and will give engine trouble codes. I understand the FRB port to do the same, but I do not think I've tried it.

Gotcha, from all I can tell, there is nothing else connected. I have not found anything else that switch controls or seems affected by it. I'll pull down the other light soon and see what lies underneath. Thank you.

As mentioned in the first post, he installed a second ceiling light and spliced into the wires for the first one. But I still don't think it should drop that much. @Bob Nodine

Yes, I followed the instructions from M4LED as written and removed the ballasts and wired them per their instructions. He's been responsive to my emails too and is helping troubleshoot. All agree the voltage drop is excessive. I've got some more troubleshooting to do. Thank you all. 😊

My 06 Diplomat has 2 ceiling lights in the bedroom. I changed the bulbs from fluorescent to M4 Led tube bulbs several months back. I kept having flickering issues and today pulled the fixture down and found a loose 12V connection where the PO spliced in the second light. I fixed and checked all the connections and the lights are working well again. But here's my question: I see 12.3V at the switch on the wall. I have 1 switch for both lights. The lights each have 9.4V at their source wire while they are on. The Magnum is reading 13.0 float charging and I'm plugged in to 110v. Plenty bright. Is this normal for this type of situation? Seems like a significant voltage drop. Also, I have 2 12V house batteries and am questioning how good they are. I'm waiting on Sam's to have a sale. @Hotrod Thank you, Steven