amphi_sc

Amen!

I just don't think about it anymore. Our S&B is on a grass strip with Comanche 260B sitting in our backyard hangar along with motorcycle, 4 Amphicars, off road lifted/locked/flat-fendered "fully experienced" Wrangler, trailer to pull some of the toys... and all the other associated "junk". If we are just somewhat "local" - day or so from home for a week or two - we might pull an event appropriate toy. When on the road for 5-8 months they just sit at home unused as we move often enough we want a reasonable toad and the toys would just be in the way. When we worked and were more "home centric", the toys were fun. Being retired and in "see the world 🌍" mode I should downsize, but it is hard to give up. Many times at home I feel I'm just in maintenance mode on the toys...and then it's time to "hit the road again" in the coach. Merry Christmas and enjoy the holidays. Life is too short.

My coach is different but on mine the compressor is hot all the time from a 20A CB in the Front Run Box under the driver's window. Pull that to kill it. BTW, when I put in Viair replacement pump, I put in a 40A rated relay by the pump so the front run box now powers only the pressure switch and coil on the relay. It draws actual pump power from a new 10 ga wire from the rear run box on the 12v House bus after the salesman switch. The pump I picked (480c as half of a 444 twin pack my local distributor splits) for a replacement could draw 23A at 200 psi and 20A at the 120 psi cut off. So I figured the relay would help with voltage drop / circuit wire length / contacts of the pressure switch, etc. I thought perhaps a 50% duty 200 psi pump might still be able to make 120 after a lot of service. I recall reading some place these Chinese pumps have about a 100 HR MTBF. I think one short cycling problem I had a while ago before I installed the relay was bad contacts in the pressure switch, perhaps by arcing too much current. https://www.viaircorp.com/tech/compressor-comparisons

For "No fuel flow", it could be the hi temp cut off not allowing the fuel solenoid to open up, or the solenoid itself. You might put the fuel lines into a clean container of diesel and see it it pumps, but my first bet would be the temp cut off if you just checked for fuel flow out the nozzle. Just guessing... Btw, I believe the electric and diesel hi temp cut offs are identical but independent.

I posed a question in the very similarly titled thread asking for suggestions as to where to start looking for the leak causing excessive aux pump cycles (26 seconds every 45 minutes), but as Valid air leveling was part of the equation Jim J (OP) asked it be in a separate thread as he only had hydraulic jacks. Even when in manual mode and the circuit breaker for the aux pump pulled, my bags would not lose air and the coach remain level over several days without the auto level trying to adjust the system, so it seemed like the six pack solenoids were not a problem and were properly isolating the ride height valves when not in travel mode. So here's what I replaced and now my aux pump does not run excessively ... all back to normal ... pump running only when auto level readjusts due to temperature changes A check valve, Pressure Protection Valve, and a clean cut on an air line to a push in DOT connector.

Seems like when I search I get most of the hits in the "digest" which has sooooo many other unrelated other topics from that day's postings that it is hard to find the thread content you are really looking for. As the daily digest is a duplicated summary from the day, wouldn't it be better if search ignored the digest summary and just search the original posting threads? The daily digest summary is great, but not so much when searching.

Link goes to error page for that item. What search term should I try for another one? Thanks

I found my two leaks, one I can get a part number off of, the other no idea. Here's the pics. Any clues as to what the unknown aluminum color one is? They are right next to each other on the tank. The 4143 one I can find.

Jim, I've been following this with great interest and don't mean to hijack. But have a fairly related question. I have the Valid Power Gear air leveling. Somewhat recently (last couple months) the air compressor comes on for 26 seconds every 45 minutes after the first night. My main tanks have always bled down over night but the air suspension might have come on a couple times a day after I heard it bleed air or add air when the brain said it was slightly off level ... usually due to temperature changes... even when parked for 3 weeks. With the digital dash air guage display I see both front and rear tanks losing pretty equally about 6-7 lbs an hour down to 45 lbs and then I lost track as it goes to zero eventually. If I auto level and then switch to manual the coach will stay level for days holding air in the bags, so I pull the FRB air compressor circuit breaker out so the pump stays off. I've sprayed the lines from pump thru pressure switch and check valve to the first tank and no bubbles. Yes, there are tiny bubbles by the tag axle adjust knob as well as a little by the dash parking brake so I can see why the brake tanks bleed down some. If the electric aux compressor is allowed to run it doesn't pump up either front nor rear tank as indicated by the digital gauge but quickly fills the tank it is plumbed into. The main engine driven pump fills the system fine and cycles as it should ... losing a couple of pounds in 15 minutes as I drive down the freeway. Where should I look for the reason the pump comes on regularly AFTER the first day of parking? It pumps back up fast (26 seconds) but repeats in less than an hour on either auto or manual mode. Al

I guess the advantage you guys have with the 120v dryer is you could carefully do laundry at a 30 amp campsite as opposed to the factory installed a 240v Maytag in mine so I need a full phase connection. In your cases, the washer shares with one A/C (BR?) and the dryer with another A/C (Middle?). Interesting. My dryer draws about max 8 amps 240v so not much of a problem running all three A/Cs. Add in the convection oven and still pretty well balanced with oven + BR A/C or washer + dryer then Middle A/C + Front A/C or Aqua Hot + dryer. Sometimes I think it might be better to load share the Aqua Hot with the middle A/C instead, but if I had a true full coach EMS that looked at the big picture it would be better yet than these individual boxes with two appliances each. BTW Bruce, as far as I know, the 50a 30a 20a 15a etc setting on my original factory Magnum only controls how much current the Magnum will draw to charge the batteries and does nothing as an EMS for the appliances. It'd be pretty rare for me to approach 50a on one leg to cause the Magnum to throttle it's charge draw. I'd probably need to run the leg with the 2 heat pumps + dryer and throw on a Milkhouse space heater in the back or bathroom with the batteries needing a bulk charge. Sometimes though, I wish for a Hybrid inverter that could supplement from the batteries when stuck with 30a on a hot day with no shade trees.

Hi Paul, I re-attached your pictures, but sorry that I can't draw circles and highlighting arrows on your photos using the device I'm currently posting this with. Paying attention to the wiring diagram on the box, notice the Primary Load has the "hot" black going through the coil shown on the bottom right of the diagram and then up to the load terminal block. And in the picture of your burnt box, you can see that black wire in the bottom of the picture as it goes through that wide black loop before attaching to the 2nd terminal from the top. It's starting to exceed my knowledge, but I think via a Hall Effect ... as the primary load current passes through that wide black loop it generates a magnetic field which causes current in the loop to be detected thus enabling the relay to open thereby removing power from the secondary device. When there is "not much" current passing on the primary load wire, both devices are supplied power. Perhaps your dryer is a 120v replacement dryer? I see a somewhat new energy sticker still on the front. Ours is the original 240V Maytag and the dryer sub panel with the double 240V breaker is behind that little flip door near the floor under the washer in your 1st picture. What does your front main panel say regarding the breakers for the BR A/C and Washer? Mine clearly shows one breaker controling both. I'm kinda curious as to what actual devices are attached as loads in your case... to both boxes behind the units.... heated floors, electric range, Aqua Hot 2nd electric element? I think a central vac had it's own dedicated circuit.

The original post has a statement about the "dryer" not working that confuses the heck out of me. My coach should be very very similar and for me that box behind the washers/dryer stack is 120v for the bedroom heat pump and washer shared circuit, not at all associated with the 240v dryer. When mine gave out years ago I replaced it with a new unit from eBay and we now always turn off the BR heat pump/AC when washing so the load switching relay won't arc when the washer draws >2amps killing the juice to a running roof unit ... and then when the washer temporarily uses less juice mid cycle the relay would re-engage starting up the roof unit for a couple seconds again only to be killed almost immediately again by the washer drawing a bit more juice. The box is still used as a safety precaution so the wiring doesn't get accidentally overloaded, but we are trained to turn off the BR roof unit during wash days to minimize short cycling the roof unit as short cycling it doesn't do it any favors either. IMHO, yours likely failed due to the relay arcing too many times over the years. But back to the original diagnosis about the dryer ... There could be another hidden electrical problem if that box is somehow wired into the 240v dryer circuit too. The dryer should have its own 240v sub panel double pole breaker under the washer/dryer stack as that 240v circuit is fed directly from the main lugs of the front main electrical panel without any breaker up front. The dryer should have still functioned with the said box being blown. We have a gas stove top so not sure how the all electric coach load shares an electric cook top. My Aqua Hot electric element is load shared with the front heat pump unit via an identical box giving priority to the roof unit. Rather than having a single master EMS brain I have multiple of these individual load sharing boxes hidden around the coach. When you replace the box be sure you wire the correct wire through the current sensing loop so the correct function is maintained. BTW, my '07 chassis built Sept '06 with the full version Aladdin. FWIW

Curiosity got me so I pulled the curtain back.... Following this thread as it appears I have found a broken roller. Is the chain you ordered a AP32669 (RAP91695)? (My Front X arm is a AP27708, Probably same as yours.) I don't have a malfunction yet, but only a matter of time I'm sure. Looks to me like bring slide in 3/4, loosen cylinder adjustment bolt so can take out the chain attachment bolt in the arm. Pull chain down then rotate cylinder out slightly and remove two pins (space may be difficult...snap rings?) and reverse procedure. Hopefully don't have to remove the hydraulic lines as I think I have a little slack there. 2007 Winchester III

FWIW, Rock Auto also has DOT fittings. https://www.rockauto.com/en/tools/brake+&+wheel+hub,air+brake,air+brake+union,244 There are many other online places that may sell industrial fittings (for a lot less) as opposed to DOT approved. Just saying to be careful... Sometimes it is handy to have a spare T or straight connector, they don't take up much room... Seems like I never need the spare parts I carry but always need what I left at home. BTW, I ended up putting a simple desiccant cartridge inline between my check valve and close to the aux pump. I'll have to see how long it lasts as opposed to a filter drain bowl/valve but my thinking was low use volume and hopefully dryer air. (Some cartridges are only rated for 90 psi so I made sure the one I selected was good for >120 psi of the pressure switch.)

Hey Woody. What date codes did you wind up with on the M144s?. Would you deal with tires-easy.com again? I'll need to roll the dice someplace...and local shops aren't very helpful at this point. Is there a mounting shop in Dallas Ft Worth you'd recommend? Al

I was replacing the auxiliary air leveling compressor 90-120 psi switch and noticed some water in the low spot bend by the T push connector. Line was routed as compressor air enters T on the side, up goes to the tank, down loops down then up very high to the pressure switch. So looks like moisture will collect in the down bend but never reach the internals of the pressure switch as that is tied up high, but that is a dead end line. Should it be plumbed such that moisture will blow thru into the tank? i.e. instead of the T being on it's side it would be horizontal with pressure switch line coming off the top of the T and in/out lines on the horizontal plane (T upside down rather than sideways)? I've never seen any sign of water vapor when cracking the air bleed valves. Or would it make sense to plumb in another cheap/simple dryer from the aux compressor which feeds only the air suspension tank. Moisture probably would not be ideal in the six-pack valves. Either I had a bad switch (which I assumed) or the water in that bend made the pump cycle wierd ... as in run sometimes for a minute then cycle off but at other times run for part of a second every couple of seconds for minutes before staying on long enough to build up pressure. I assumed bad internal switch contacts but would water caught in that low bend make sensing pressure wierd? It works normally now with the new switch and drained line, but wondering about future condensation. Guess I could break the line every now and then for draining condensation but the tubing and push connector would likely wear out. Just trying to figure out what idea is best long term. It was probably collecting condensation for years...

Where's the best source for a matching aluminum wheel?

I don't have this type of EMS so my memory could be way off. Vaguely I think I remember that maybe flipping the block heater CB off will trick the EMS board onto thinking it is on 30A and start load shedding???? Anyway, If you flip off one breaker at a time you might see the display display 30A instead of 50A shore power service even if on a good 240V service (i.e. for testing load sharing purposes only if you don't have a 30A source available at the moment). Remember, I'm getting older and my memory is fading....so take this with the appropriate grain of salt. And you may have wired it back up differently than the unit I'm vaguely remembering.

I can't read the #'s on Todd's relays, but they could be these??? https://www.google.com/search?q=g8p-1a4p These single pole normally open relays seem to be popular in my coach in a lot of places on various Intellitec boards. To fix a random engine shut down issue, back in 2018 I paid (overpaid) 11.38 for 2 of them because shipping was more than the parts, but I could only find them online. I have no clue if your board uses a normally open or nomally closed design.

There could be one other possibility on why the board was bypassed by a previous owner. I am NOT suggesting it was a good idea in the first place, but IF they often used one of those 50A cheater dog bones to plug into a 30A and a non GFI 20A pedestal to "get more amps", AND both the pedestal breakers were on the same leg of the split phase, then the coach EMS would still think it was only a 30A input (as 240V would not have been detected) and load shed things the previous owner was trying to avoid by the extra current from the extra 20A pedestal breaker. I.e. they were trying to run 2 A/C's in a 30A site that had a non GFI 20A pedestal breaker also in the box ... so they just bypassed the EMS. In this hypothetical case, the board & display could still be possibly good. So you might want to fully test the board before just assuming it is bad. Just saying as it could be an off chance possibility not knowing for sure why it was previously bypassed. And we all know such a practice could overload the neutral wire as all current would be returning via the neutral whereas in a full phase 240V circuit only the difference is on the neutral.

JD, I see BCS listing an '07 PT. Obviously not the same as ours as we have the full wall slide and office area in the back (ours is Winchester III floor plan, 45'). C-13 seems to pass anything but a gas station 😉, & no DEF nor DPF, NOT multiplex chassis, office desk in back gives us effectively 2 "work" areas with DW claiming dining living and dash for sewing & embroidery machines (flat dash works great for an embroidery machine) while I can spread out at the rear desk, two double sliding door closets, lots of storage inside and out, mid bath totally on one side is perfect as we feel 1/2 bath is a waste of space for us, etc etc etc Wouldn't trade for any floorplan I've seen and don't think we could find anything with as much storage. We did remove one couch (jack knife) and use two lazy boys instead. We aren't full time but often 6-7 months in a row plus other short rallies so maybe 9-10 months out of a year. Have had some "normal" problems over 130k miles but not really major. Can get behind to access and work on wet bay stuff (water pump, accumulator, cord & hose reels, etc) from adjacent bay ... tight but workable. Anyway, each needs to evaluate their own situation/wants but I would vote for an '07-'08 PT Winchester III as being pretty livable. No idea what they are going for these days. FWIW,

Dick said: "Next week they booked the Private CG at Jacob Lake for the N Rim. We’ll wing it , getting to the USFS CG their by 9AM. Unfortunately it takes...." We've opted to just boondock a couple miles away just off 89a on forest road 248 (as best as I can recall ... I'd recognize the corner/road intersection in person but trying to remember by the map is difficult.). It should be N NW of the 67 intersection about where 89a takes a bend west....see map screen shot. Unhook toad at the gas station and check it out to see if you are comfortable. We're 45 feet and felt fine. Would do it again. Beware of the hummingbirds...if napping outside in a colorful shirt you may get buzzed as they check you out 😀 Anyway IMHO, the forest service CG just provides you a pit toilet and close neighbors so if you have your own water what is the advantage???? The private CG does have hookups if you desire that. FWIW

I bought a MicroAir at FMCA Perry '21 but haven't tried it yet. However when at the booth it appeared there were different models to replace depending on what you had ... 5 button or new CCC2 type units or Coleman vs Dometic. IMHO (which could be wrong), if you have Heat Pumps, the Penguin reversing valve is controlled differently depending on old vs new II model. If it is not a Heat Pump but only A/C then as there is no reversing valve so there may be no difference. In my case, as I had replaced the front HP (that is the only unit on the front thermostat) with a Penguin II and I had no wall space for the HUGE CCC2, I originally opted to put in the HP conversion control board and keep the 5 button. But in that arrangement that front unit is very loud as the fan runs either very very very max loud or just a tad slower but still loud on lower fan setting. Thus I was going to try putting the the original new Penguin II board back in and the MicroAir model specifically for a Penguin II that would fit the wall space of the 5 button and hopefully get the three speed fan settings. But it's been too hot to get around to it. So remembering what that vendor booth had with pictures of existing thermostats to pick the "right" model of MicroAir, I do not believe one MicroAir could control a mix of new and old Penguin HPs on the same thermostat without also modifying the new Penguin II with the back level conversion control board to work with the back level model of the MicroAir as to my knowledge there is no control board to make an old HP speak the new protocol to match the other new replacement HP on a same thermostat. So when you get to the point of replacing the other old HP unit, now you are stuck having to get another back level conversion board for the new replacement, or a different (new) model of the MicroAir and put the original first Penguin II control board back into the first unit you replaced. I THINK it is a catch 22.... FWIW

Jim, "I know you want a new display and we did offer that to customers 2-3 years ago for a short time when we were made aware of the intermittent issue." Makes my point exactly that we are left out to dry (my phrasing) when we finally find the problem, especially when we buy a system in good faith AFTER TST made the (to use your exact words) "firmware update". By the time there are enough systems out there so the "firmware update" becomes noticable to existing systems that "do not know how to interpret" them, TST decides "no longer giving" the solution is appropriate. Per your request, when demontrating and discussing, I'll use your exact cut 'n paste words of "will read those high PSI numbers if the coach gets close to a unit that has one of our newer systems" and "do not know how to interpret the updated signals when they receive them. They then display 200-600+ PSI.". Given the easily demonstratable facts, people can decide for themselves if it broke the system. As you stated, we both have our positions and will continue to stand by them. I will also agree to make this my last post on this thread. As you have gotten many good years out of your '06 Camelot by now, when are you going to "update" to a 2022 or newer coach and take advantage of the newer DEF and DPF technology?

A little more history of the design failures of the TST product. In 2020, Jim (of TST) publicly stated TST made a design change in 2015 that would break the existing systems. Potential future failures unbeknownst to me, in the spring of 2016 I researched systems and after talking with Mike B (also of TST) made what I thought at the time was a good choice and go with the TST-507 and not wait for the color monitor as color can be hard for me read. No clue from TST the system I was purchasing AFTER the internal design change was going to have a design issue. A design change was never ever mentioned! The system worked very well for a while, then I noticed a couple instances of these seemingly random high pressure alarms on the way back from the boonies of Newfoundland in 2018. Figuring batteries were going out I replaced them. But traveling season was basically over and the rare failures dropped from my radar as the coach was parked. In 2019, my system worked up in the boonies of Alaska but upon returning to the lower 48 I started getting false alarm failures more often. Again no clue that TST had broken my system. If the antenna had broken off, or display went black I would assume just normal use wear and tear failure and oh well things happen. I did have one flow thru sensor case crack and develop a slow leak, but I wrote that off as things happen and just bought a new one. But to find out TST KNOWS and acknowledges they broke my system is another thing, and they make no reasonable attempt to make it right is just not right. With them ignoring their problem I have to wonder if indeed it was planned systemic obsolescence. Given what Jim says is only a few affected units, I'm sure their cost to ship a unit correcting the design issue is less than the time Jim wastes reading this, or hearing feedback from seminars/rallies/campfire chats where this problem is and has been easily demonstrated and discussed. Instead they want their customers to buy a fix that isn't the customer's fault. When my system works, it functions great and I will readily say so. When it gives false high pressure alarms it is not so great. In the past I have dealt with many other companies that do the right thing. So far it appears TST's corporate culture is different. I am glad for all of you that have functional (at least for now) TST-507 systems.