wamcneil

Magnum owners manual recommends 300a with ms2012 and 400a with ms2812. The two have the same physical dimensions and wiring layout.

Yeah, I labored over these same choices and then settled on ms2012. 3000w of inverter is not useful unless your battery bank (and cabling) can supply 300a at >11v . Even 200 is a stretch with my configuration. Huge project to change that And the original xantrex was set up to pass through and feed 2 legs of power. As far as I can tell, the ms2012/2812 are the only ones available with that setup. I wasn’t willing rewire Cheers Walter

I replaced mine with the other version that’s similar to original, because I didn’t want to cut the hole bigger. But it required some trimming/modifications to reuse the old aluminum trim piece and turned out to be a hassle. If I were doing it again I’d get KE1700 like you did and just cut the hole a little bigger. Cheers Walter

What’s the alternator’s voltage? Lifepo4 has a charge plateau of 3.5v per cell. (14v total). As long as the alternator isn’t much over 14v it should be fine as far as voltage, right? I can see how amperage might be a problem though. If the batteries are low they would take everything the alternator can put out, which might be hard on the alternator or be over the max charge current of the batteries. Walter

VitoA on IRV2 discovered that Essex/A1 has a P/N (not listed on the site) that has the Monaco plug already on it for n-n-p installation cheers Walter

There are no contacts to clean in the Essex keypad. The buttons are piezoelectric. That’s why there’s no discernible movement when the buttons are pressed. Cheers Walter

Yeah, I think you're at a place where you just need to start finding splices and testing sections of wire... Is the PST a triple slide with the galley on the curb side? If so, it looks like your floorplan from the galley forward is almost identical to my 2003 dynasty triple. In which case I'd bet the circuit is wired very similarly (i.e.- not necessarily like the diagram I posted). The kitchen branch goes from the breaker panels to a junction box under the fridge (the diagram says 'located dinette OHD', which is not right). I beleive it also runs to the cabinet just to the rear of your kitchen slide-out. On the dinette side: (I'm betting that this isn't part of your problem, but here's what I know about the wiring.) Under the fridge, I've got a 4"x4" steel junction box screwed to the subfloor with 4 wires coming out of it; 3 are romex and 1 is a black flexible cord about 1/2" diameter. I think the flexible cord coming out of the junction box runs through the sliding conduit into the dinette slide-out. Which is also different from the diagram. And from the junction box I believe one run of romex goes on forward to the outlets in the overhead cabinets up front for TV/stereo. There's also a 2nd circuit inside this box under the fridge (I know it's not the microwave circuit but didn't keep testing to find out what it is). Over on the kitchen side: I don't have a junction box anywhere visible on either side of the big flex joint where power/water/waste/gas comes into the slide-out. But I can see that the flex conduit comes down from the ceiling at the outboard side of the cabinets at the rear end of the kitchen. There's a false panel inside the cabinet with a label saying "Remove this panel to access electrical". So I think there are splices behind the false panel in that cabinet. Inside the slide-out: The flex conduit goes down under the floor of the cabinets and I can't see a termination. I'd bet it runs up inside the wall to one of the outlets above the countertop. And probably runs from outlet-to-outlet on to the forward end of the slide-out. So... Do you have power in the dinette and at the TV? If so, I bet your problem is inside that false cabinet panel next to the kitchen slide-out, or at the back of one of the outlets above the kitchen counters. Cheers, Walter

So... are we done debating the merits of the poster’s choice of battery technology??? Maybe get back to the question in his post????

That’s handy, having a continuous side rail to attach to!

OK, I see what you mean. Now I see the end of the corian top terminating at the end of the recliners. That setup sure looks a lot more comfortable than my original couches.

Nice work!

Yeah, I don't think I'd be willing to give up use of the dinette... That picture makes it look like the recliners are right up against the dinette with no room to sit at the table.

X2. If I were putting the RV in storage for several months I might want to 'clean' the tanks and let them dry out, but what's the point if they're constantly in use? As long as there's water in the black tank, bacterial activity should keep everything liquid and prevent accumulation on the bottom and sides of the tank.

Here's what the previous owner did on ours. This is a 40" tv, but a new 43" with narrow bezel would fit in its place and sit closer to the cabinets. Which would be nice... I occasionally hit the TV on my way into the rig. The tv box was cut back close to the cabinet fronts and coped to the back of the TV, with a plywood mount inside the box for the VESA attachment. They relocated the cabinet doors on either side of the TV outboard as far as they would go (so they just clear the edge of the TV) and put a 3" filler strip on the inboard edges of the door openings. The filler strips aren't a perfect match, but you'd never notice them back behind the TV. Cheers, Walter

That's an odd place for it to crack. Mine cracked above the driver's seat where the cap is glued to the roof panel. I'd be inclined to do like Bob said.

Many years ago I had an paint and body shop. Occasionally we’d get a head scratcher and it was fun to try and reconstruct what may have happened. It might help to see the what the bumper reinforcement looks like. I assume the base plates are still attached to it? Are all of the bolts still tight with locktite, or have they loosened? Without knowing more, I would suspect that your base plates are fastened primarily to the bumper reinforcement? Looks like there may have been one additional fastener down through the top of the longitudinal members that has also torn out towards the front when things parted . My guess is that the bolts that ripped out of the top had loosened, allowing the base plate loads to move the bumper reinforcement back and forth a bit (possibly made worse by the prior accident damage?). That movement would eventually fatigue the metal where the bumper reinforcement attaches to the unibody. The driver side let go first and pulled forward, tearing off the passenger side. I’m glad nobody was hurt! Walter

My rig has a latching relay AND a conventional solenoid. The salesman switch is momentary contact that causes the latching relay to toggle state. The latching relay’s output feeds one branch of house loads and also feeds the conventional solenoid to keep it closed to feed the other branch of house loads. The latching relay uses no current to stay closed, but the conventional relay draws about 700 mA Cheers Walter

Got him!

Well, I'm getting a chuckle out of this one... Every once in a while when I go to exercise my generator I've noticed that the ATS doesn't cut over to the generator as expected and then find that the main generator breaker has tripped (the one on the angled facet of the genny housing). This has been very odd since the generator ran fine the last time I ran it, and I don't have any known issues that might explain this. Each time I reset the breaker and everything seems to be fine. Today I found the breaker tripped again and started thinking again about what on earth could be causing this 45A breaker to trip. And as I was standing there pondering this question, I noticed the CAT PRINTS right above the breaker! Cheers, Walter

Thanks! Here are the meters I used. Not currently available on amazon, but I'm sure there are others with similar dimensions. These are real close to being an exact fit in the original panel, but they require a different scale current transformer than original. So I found those on ebay. Any new meters you buy will either come with transformers or list a spec for them. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B016KD4WTK/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00H8K5WHQ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 If I were doing it again I would probably try and find meters that use the old current transformers and then make a new panel to mount them in. I don't remember exactly what the CTs cost me, but I bought good ones and they were a lot more expensive than the cheap Chinese meters... I bought the meters first to confirm they would work in the original panel, and then figured out the rest of the system later. I used the original cable runs back to the current transformers in the breaker box. To test your CTs, disconnect wiring to CTs, put a known load on the circuit and connect a multimeter to the CT back in the breaker panel. Current transformers provide a certain output current at a specified throughput current. Something like 50A main current produces 50mA in the CT. The ratio should be marked on the current transformers. Like others have said tho, I'd suspect meters, not the transformers. Walter

Should be able to test the current transformers with your clamp meter for reference amperage and then measure corresponding output of the transformer back in the panel. I replaced all of the analog meters in my panel up front with digital and was able to find meters on Amazon that fit in the original cutouts. The new ammeters spec a different transformer though, so had to replace them also. Cheers Walter

I've been re-crimping and replacing ends on some of mine lately. One terminal on a short cable connecting the batteries in series was nicely heat-shrink'd, but wasn't actually crimped AT ALL. Other 4/0 terminals were barely pinched down onto the wire. One of the cables in the battery compartment looked fine on the outside but was all full of corrosion under the heat shrink.

Sure. Here's the writeup I did on IRV2 about replacing the wireless module, including connection of the overhead lights. The original wireless module didn't have a "Dome Light Supervision" feature, but the Avital unit they sell now does. It's easy to replace and was just about $30 on amazon last I checked. https://www.irv2.com/forums/f115/essex-1603-keypad-and-wireless-replacement-330319.html

Couldn't say for sure... but my wiring diagram suggests that all coaches are prewired for the alarm system. Mine did NOT have the viper alarm, but the coach side of the plug has all the wires for the optional viper alarm. My wiring diagram says this wire is used with the viper alarm, but not with the essex keyless entry system. On my wiring diagrams, the wire is not labeled except its color (BLK/WHT). See attachment. This is from the page titled "KE-1601 KEYLESS ENTRY KEYPAD" and the plug is M12, which feeds plug M60 and eventually connects to the Porch and Ceiling relay.

Have you looked into 12v motion sensors? https://www.amazon.com/Sensky-BS010WL-Occupancy-Lighting-Adjustable/dp/B00KAB4CRG Or a cabinet switch? Not sure if that would work with the coach door: https://www.amazon.com/Sensky-automatic-cabinet-Voltage-Cabinet/dp/B00KVFG9S6 If you're not married to those little battery powered lights, you could get some 12v LED strip lights and connect them through the motion sensor. You can get all sorts of surface mount extruded housings for LED strip lights: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=strip+light+housing&ref=nb_sb_noss_2 Another idea... I know this isn't exactly what you're looking for... but the keyless entry/alarm wiring has a circuit to trigger the overhead lights above the entry. I think the viper alarm was probably wired to turn on the entry lights when disarmed. I replaced the original essex fob module with their replacement module and connected it to that it turns on the entry lights when unlocked with the fob. But...the keypad is totally separate and doesn't have a circuit to trigger the overhead lights. Cheers. Walter