amphi_sc

My Valid keypad got wet 10+ years ago from a sudden rain storm when we were out and the driver's window was cracked open. It still works for leveling, however, the "battery" light stays on and the LED's for front rear level indication may have both a red and green led on (I.e that green is apparently stuck on but the red will go out when we are level). As the keypads aren't cheap and mine functions I haven't replaced it Maybe I should while they are still available.

My current usage scenario: It's presently 37° outside, I'm on 30 amp service, my AHE100-03S is on electric only, heat source has now switched to AH furnace not heat pump. Bedroom & bath are comfortable 68°. Front salon is cooling down with that thermostat turned off, bedroom door is closed. I don't care at night, no need to heat the front. From the current draw I find the Electric element in AH is running and will be all night. Hot water heat floor fans cycling on for about a minute every 5 or so and are blowing warm air. But I also have a small cube heater on low drawing 7 amps in the bedroom. By morning it'll still be comfortable inside and if I don't get up until 8:30 - 9:00 ish I'll have warm water for a shower and front heat pump can warm up the front salon by the time I'm dressed. Admittedly shower mixer will be full hot drawing water from basement tank ... Shower will still be comfortable for me but definitely not scalding hot ... and shower head volume turned to about 2/3rds full flow. By the way I can hear the neighbor's propane furnace running about 4 minutes out of every 5. Tip: Let the front cool off, close the BR door, supplement heating needs with a small cube heater, draw water from on board tank as it is warmer than the fresh water hose. It works for me. YMMV

It has been a good discussion about GENERATOR starting issues, genset cables, etc, but not obvious that when researching generator issues we will need to find this discussion under the topic of "aux air compressor for air leveling". Just say'n

In CA do you gear down religiously and follow the 55 MPH speed limit with semis and cars constantly weaving around you? Or on two lane CA roads with them attempting to pass you into oncoming traffic often whipping back in just inches in front of your bumper? Or do you reduce the traffic hazard and match majority of the trucks' speed? At least CA isn't quite as nerve racking as South Africa with their 80/120 KPH limits and four streams of traffic on two lane roads!

Just food for thought. When I worked on my system I also changed the compressor power source as coming from the house side tapping in at the rear run box. The original power source from the front run box thru the pressure switch now just powers a 30a relay. Previously I'm guessing the pressure switch contacts were trying to carry too much current and caused me problems when I changed to a Viair compressor when my OEM died. It also allowed me to run a heavier wire for power and side effect of not draining my chassis batteries when my Big Boy needs cleaning. ( That seems to catch me off guard when I get lazy and don't check the voltages on the Big Boy after parking for what will be a few weeks ... Only find out much later the Big Boy is warm but chassis bats are very low and thus time to clean those contacts again.) BTW, The factory used a push to connect T vs DOT compression fittings to my pressure switch which eventually slightly leaked causing the compressor to run more than needed. Seems like the factory loved push to connect fittings as I've observed when replacing several over the years with compression types. FWIW

Just my 2 cents and your mileage may vary since your climate and coach are different. We use our coach a lot so not worried about it when we are traveling & living in it and the temp is in teens or high single digits. There are some times when it may be parked at the home S&B in the DFW TX area and we are out of it. It can get cold in DFW with single digits on rare occasions but I treat the stored RV just as I do the "stored" S&B house. The RV would be in unheated uninsulated metal building with electricity. Most times it is above freezing but it does dip below. I don't drain the water out of my house when we leave for the winter and I set the old house thermostats to 45. Two years ago replaced the 30 year old house systems and new thermostats that don't go any lower than 55 so I live with that higher setting. If we happen to be home around Christmas and out of the RV, I just leave the RV thermostats set to 45, Aqua Hot on electric, heat pumps automatically switch over to Aqua hot baseboard heat when the temp / humidity reaches a point when the units can't deliver heat. (In the AZ desert they've delivered heat as low a 27 outside before automatically switching to AH "furnace" but on DFW rainy days they may cycle to AH around 40.) As an additional heat source (if we are in the RV or not) I use a couple of small tractor supply heaters set on low with their thermostats set just below the main RV thermostat settings so they'd come on if the Aqua Hot can't keep up. Those little heaters consume about 6 amps each when running. As the RV is inside unheated storage and plugged in I do NOT use the diesel setting on the AH as on my unit the diesel and electric come on simultaneously and NOT electric first and then if needed diesel. Some AH units had two independent boiler thermostats but not mine. My AH is located in the wet bay so it's boiler gives some parasitic heat in addition to the hot water thermostatically controlled radiator mounted there. I do leave the AGS set for the generator in the rare case ice knocks out the regional electric grid and accept the trade-off diesel exhaust vs no juice. I've never experienced a problem, even with the little plastic ice maker line hanging out in the cold in the electric channel going to the fridge in the slide. I may turn off that water line at the manifold but never had a freeze induced leak. One year we were going to be home during the two coldest months so I did blow out the water lines but did not pump in antifreeze as the AH was left on. My situation & use pattern will be different than yours, but this is what has worked for me over the years. I do know that occasionally water in my unheated storage building will freeze as one year the engine block casting plugs popped out on the 460 engine in my boat. After that year I did pour antifreeze into the boat engine block as it was impossible to drain the fresh water completely out of the block. From all my ramblings a couple of points (1) my heat pump system automatically switches to hot water heat as needed, and (2) I leave my aqua hot electric "on" to keep the boiler warm which should keep the little internal heat exchange tubes from freezing even if water settles there from blown out water lines as it is designed to cycle for domestic hot water regardless of furnace settings based on boiler antifreeze temperature ... i.e. it can keep the boiler warm regardless if the fresh water system has water or not, (3) the fridge ice maker line appears to be able to expand enough to absorb ice forming in the part that hangs out in the cold outside air although I've NOT experienced a "no water" situation from the fridge door dispenser, and (4) note that I'm not in a climate that experiences weeks of constantly below freezing temperatures. Just relating my experiences with my particular coach and usage pattern. To be safest, full winterizing with RV antifreeze is best but I don't want to be flushing out pink water when we are ready leave and it's still freezing where we are but warm where we are headed.

Thanks. I just tried it ... holding the bottom of the toggle switch for 15 seconds (timed via the neighboring Aladdin clock screen) and then pushed the top of the toggle to start. It flashed for about 2 seconds as before and then the starter engaged ... and fired off on the third revolution ... with no stuttering or smoke as would normally happen on a cold morning after being cold sosked overnight in the 30's. On another morning I may try holding the bottom of the toggle for a little longer to see if it will start on the first or second revolution as Autostart seems to do. I like starting quicker without all the smoke and rough running for 15 to 20 seconds as it would previously do ... I guess clearing all the extra diesel from the longer cranking cycle. It reminds me of old M$ Windows having to press the Start button to shutdown. 😉

How do you do that? When I press the toggle it indicates something (fuel pump priming???) for about 2 seconds before the starter engages. What's the trick for 15 secs of glow plugs?

I've noticed that when I use the dash or bedroom toggle button to start my 10kw Onan that it cranks 5 to 7 times before catching whereas it seems to immediately catch with the Autostart on the first crank revolution. I.e. I never notice it starting to crank over, it just seems to immediately catch and run. Why is that? Is the Autostart circuitry doing something different than the dash or bedroom start/stop toggle switch? ... fuel priming? less voltage drop to starter?

I'd try a couple simple things first. Easiest is completely removing power from the unit for a couple minutes either by unplugging it or the breaker. Probably won't help but a power reset & reboot can sometimes help. Next I would unplug the cable from the control unit to the latch and clean any possible corrosion from the connections on both ends ... sometimes a simple reseat of connections can cure communication issues. Then I'd go deeper into testing the lock and/or replace it.

Try https://www.accuridecorp.com/products/aluminum-wheels and put in the filters you need and check the load carry rating. I don't know it you have a 15000 front axle but many of the common numbers are a 7300 or 7400 lb max. The 40008 has a 8100 rating for a little bit of "max load weight cushion". I don't know what appearance style yours came with but the "D" oval 40020 7650 lb wheel my Beaver built by Monaco is not made anymore.

On this particular vehicle the brake pedal goes to the floor the first time it is pushed even with the key off. The next immediate push will get resistance on the pedal. Then after a while the pedal goes to the floor again. However the parking brake handle appears to always engage the rear brake shoes. It appears that engaging the brakes on some systems would be a problem even if the wheels are disconnected from spinning the transmission.

I'm curious as to how these "pedal pushers" work with regenerative brakes where the actual vehicle brake pads don't always get "activated" by a pedal push as input to the system via link to the physical pedal or via the vacuum booster. As example in my Chrysler SUV ( which I don't flat tow ) when you first turn the key on the first press on the brake pedal goes all the way to the floor by design ... something about calibration of the electronics in the SUV brake modules. Would these type of brakes need some vehicle modifications to insert something else into the hydraulic lines closer to the wheels to effectively dumb down the standard regenerative brake system for towing? Or something which in effect only pulls on the emergency/parking brake mechanical cable on the rear wheels? Curious mind wondering what is out there for these type of vehicle braking systems.

For years I traveled all across the country coast to coast with the old Verizon LTE router. It had the capability for 3 Ethernet cables and two phone lines. I have not traveled with this one yet but some members in one of my chapters have. I think they have only been moving around Texas and Oklahoma so far.

Hello Bob, I'm 2/3 of the way thru the current billing cycle and used 56.74 GB of data so far on that line ... and the above screenshots showing 212.8 Mbps down was current test today. I conclude what ever throttling is happening isn't affecting me much. YMMV

BTW, I think we get reasonable Internet service from Verizon wireless. Only $25/month and no data cap. Attached screenshot is through the Verizon wireless access point/router. It does 5g versus my oldish phone which is only LTE. The slower report is my phone without going through the Verizon access point and just using its own cell access from the same physical location. Big difference in speed with phone versus the dedicated access point/router, but a phone should be a phone versus a specifically designed access point. However both tests originated from the same physical device sitting in the same location.

We threw cable out 9 years ago and went with Dish & Travl'r. Simply move Hopper & Joey to either the house or coach as needed. Have a dual USB tuner for the Hopper to integrate in OTA channels into the Dish guide. For screen casting we have a Google TV plug in adapter ( as our TVs are dumb but adapter makes them smart ... and we are Android users not 🍎), and basically "lifetime" Hulu and Disney+ that we might use couple times a year but as it is no incremental cost we still have it available. The Dish Hopper gives us Sirius/XM throughout the house & outside systems. The Dish Hopper fits our needs best. YMMV - One simple solution where ever we are living at the time. Many will say to dump Dish and stream, but for us, we dump streaming and go with Dish.

Update: I got them loose with a 6 foot extension onto a 3/4 breaker bar. 1200 ft-lb impact air wrench could not break them loose. Re-torqued to 475 when reinstalled and breaker bar can loosen them without the extension.

IIRC, Screwed onto the frame of the roof top unit & wired to the roof top unit control board. All part of the secret communications protocol ...

The problem with driving the RV to a tire shop is I DO NOT TRUST that old defective wheel to not catastrophically fail enroute. It might make it but if it splits the rest of the way ... Ka-boom ... and that's not something I want to experience on a steer axle. After sleeping on the problem overnight I tend to lean away from exceeding the 600 ft-lb design of my torque wrench as it could hurt the ball-cam-ratchet. It's probably time for a new & bigger impact wrench, and save my torque wrench for the sole purpose of tightening to 450-500 ft-lbs which it is fully capable of.

Question about slipping a pipe extension over my 600 ft-lb one piece ratcheting torque wrench. My warranty replacement wheel has arrived from Accuride ( reference topic https://www.monacoers.org/topic/7518-aluminum-wheel-defect/#comments ). I was going to take the old wheel off and throw it into the back of my SUV to get a tire shop to swap the rubber onto the replacement wheel, but evidently my last tire shop just tightened the lugs using their 1 inch air impact wrench. With my 4 foot 3/4" torque wrench cranked up to the 600 ft-lb max I can hear it "click'", but the lugs won't begin to budge. I don't have a separate 3/4" breaker bar so what is the consequences on my torque wrench of exceeding the 600 ft-lb "click" on my torque wrench to loosen these lugs? I don't want to hurt or uncalibrate my torque wrench in the process. It was about all I could muster to get it to click at the 600 lb setting so I'd probably have to slip a pipe over the wrench to get even more leverage. (Hopefully when I do get the wheel off the lugs aren't stretched or damaged by the previous tire shop evidently not using a proper torque setting when the wheel was installed. Am I incorrect in recalling from memory the torque is supposed to be 450-500 ft-lb?). Or is it time to invest in a new 1000 ft-lb impact wrench to loosen these nuts? (I don't know what my existing air impact can develop, but it just hammered away and didn't budge the nuts at all either. I've had good use of that air impact for over 35 years on stubborn bolts/nuts but maybe it's time for a new one? And yes, it was set to back the nuts off.) I would hope the last tire shop didn't go extremely crazy with their 1" impact.

In my case it was the Micro-Air or change the board in the new Penguin II as the Dometic 10 button was too wide for the wall space where the 5 button was installed. It has some nice features but one thing that took a lot to get used to was figuring out what temperature to set up to get the desired temperature outcome. For some reason I need to set it about 3 degrees higher. i.e. If want the A/C to cool the room to 78° I set the Micro-Air to 81°. If I want to heat the room to 72° I have to set it to 75°. Now that I've learned that and verified my "chilly" feelings were correct by cross verification of actual temperatures with several different independent thermometers I'm much happier. Perhaps my Micro-Air is a fluke in the settings, but I can live with it now. Typically I use the "Away" mode to set the "window range"of heat or cool temps so it automatically cools or heats. Many times we're in that in-between climate where it's chilly in the morning and like a little heat but need A/C in the afternoon. When I used the single temp setting for Heat vs A/C I would often find it fighting the bedroom thermostat ... i.e. the bedroom 2 zones trying to cool the place while the front Micro-Air was trying to heat the place up, or vica versa. As far as a Bluetooth ... I find it easier to walk by the thermostat rather than find my phone and start up an app.

The interesting part is while too much current was discussed, the actual case indicated too little current was a factor in that the introduced noise was more significant in proportion. Having converted to LEDs, the current for each set of light strings is in the 1 to 2 amp range if I trust what the Aladdin is showing me when running totally off batteries, thus the Magnum isn't supplying any 12v so the Aladdin should be showing the correct battery draw. When I had three light strings on, the Aladdin showed a 4 amp delta draw. So with the one string on and likely a marginal LED puck connection someplace the introduced noise wasn't drowned out until I turned on multiple strings to get the current draw up past a couple of amps. With all LEDs the module load for lights is way way way below even 25 amps, well below the 60 amps mentioned as a limit. The good news is it is still working normally today, and I didn't have to give 3k to a certain candy store to try to figure it out. All it cost me was time and frustration. And I got a system backup and learned the "all lights on" function whereas I always thought it just changed the key pad backlighting option.

Ah, broke in a different location. My suggested conduit fix won't help.