rcl285

I’m in the process of selling my’04 Imperial and have not used it for a couple of years. The last time I used it, the fridge worked. In checking the coach, the refrigerator was dead, and the protection module red light was on.I recall installing it, and could not understand how the module was tripped as the power was off. The module was provided by Norcold and has a thermocouple mounted on the heater module which when overheated would disconnect the power from the control. I bypassed the module and the refrigerator worked fine. I had this module tripped before, and was reset with a strong magnet, but don’t remember exactly how I did it. Anyone remember? Dick Licas

I found a thread on IRV2.com where the problem of this gear from a slide was discussed. Here were two approaches discussed. First was an available gear listed ND21B made by Boston gear which had the required 21 teeth but needed machining to add the key way, reduce the tooth width and reduce the width of the hub. A machine shop might be difficult to find with that capability. The second is a custom made gear from Adobe (575-885-8322) and I ended ordering the custom gear for a cost of about $280 and delivery time of 4 weeks. They have the specs on file and I am the seventh or eights to order from them. An other difference was that the Boston gear one was mild steel, while the Adobe one is hardened. Dick Lucas ‘04 HR Imperial

Thanks for the replies. I finally got access to the gear drive. I had to remove a divider in the bed box. As I mentioned, I have a single gear rack which is in the center of the bed box. The gear motor is mounted to the coach floor and the pinion drives the gear rack which iis mounted to the slide. The slide has rollers under the bed bottom to support the movement of the slide . When the slide is in, the gear motor is barely reachable. By removing a divider, I was able to loosen the pinion gear from the rack. With a scissor jack I was able to fully extend the bed slide. The pinion gear has 3 missing teeth. Two of them were inside on the floor. I examined the rack when the slide is at full extension and found dark area where the pinion contacts the rack when the slide is all the way in. The third tooth of the pinion was wedged into the rack about one revolution of the pinion from the “in” dark area of thr rack. I have included photos of the rack on the underside of the slide and of the pinion. Since this also happened about ten years ago, I am suspicious of an adjustment problem between the pinion and the rack. Our use of the motorhome may be atypical, as we actually spent only about 15 nights a year sleeping in it. We used it to travel to Connecticut every year from California. That amounts to 6500 miles each year of interstate with the slide in. My theory is that the pinion is spaced too far from the rack, and the road vibrations to fatigue the pinion teeth and crack them off. I’ll have to do more investigation. Dick Lucas Update on my slide. Contacted Lippert and got the bad news that the spur gear is obsolete, and no longer available. I seem to recall that I had heard that before. I also recall that one person had one made at a machine shop, but don’t remember any details. The lippert tech person said that alignment is the most likely cause of the tooth fracture. Dick Lucas

No. Dick L

Thanks for. the replies. I finally got access to the gear drive. I had to remove a divider in the bed box. As I mentioned, I have a single gear rack which is in the center of the bed box. The gear motor is mounted to the coach floor and the pinion drives the gear rack which iis mounted to the slide. The slide has rollers under the bed bottom to support the movement of the slide . When the slide is in, the gear motor is barely reachable. By removing a divider, I was able to loosen the pinion gear from the rack. With a scissor jack I was able to fully extend the bed slide. The pinion gear has 3 missing teeth. Two of them were inside on the floor. I examined the rack when the slide is at full extension and found dark area where the pinion contacts the rack when the slide is all the way in. The third tooth of the pinion was wedged into the rack about one revolution of the pinion from the “in” dark area of thr rack. I have included photos of the rack on the underside of the slide and of the pinion. Since this also happened about ten years ago, I am suspicious of an adjustment problem between the pinion and the rack. Our use of the motorhome may be atypical, as we actually spent only about 15 nights a year sleeping in it. We used it to travel to Connecticut every year from California. That amounts to 6500 miles each year of interstate with the slide in. My theory is that the pinion is spaced too far from the rack, and the road vibrations to fatigue the pinion teeth and crack them off. I’ll have to do more investigation. Dick Lucas

The bedroom slide on my 04 HR Imperial only comes out about 6 inches before stopping. At that point, the drive motor is stopped by the controller. I repaired it about 10 years ago when the gear on the Power Gear mechanism lost 4 teeth. I believe that the gear has broken again. It is a rack and pinion which is centered under the slide. The drive mechanism is exposed then the slide is out, but at arms length at present. I have decoupled the drive motor from the pinion, but the pinion can’t be rotated manually in the extend direction because it seems to be stopped by an obstruction. It looks like i have to remove the pinion to be able to push the slide out to get a close look at the drive mechanism. The access is difficult, especially when I have to do it by feel. anybody done this before? Dick Lucas

Having had several trailers and boats, as well as a motorhome towing a car and towing a boat at other times there are fundamental differences between a car and the other vehicles. Trailers generally have electrically actuated brakes. An electrical trailer controller can directly activate the brakes. With one trailer I had, there were mercury switched that modified the electrical drive of the brakes depending on the deceleration of the tow car. There was no brake controller required in the car. Electrical brake controllers can be designed to be stepped, inertially activated or proportionally driven. After all, you are dealing with electrical circuits. The boat trailer controllers I’ve had used a surge brake, which contained a hydraulic cylinder that used the force on the coupler to activate the brakes. If the brakes on the towing vehicle are activated, the force on the coupler is increased and that applies the surge brakes. However, if you are towing a car, the car brakes are activated by somehow mechanically mimicking what happens when you step on the brake pedal. This means that you must have a transducer that converts an electrical signal from the car to a mechanical force driving the brake pedal. I’m sure that there are add on systems that exist, but the controller and the transducer must be compatible. I’m pretty sure that there is not enough of a market to standardize on a universal transducer to work with all the electrical controllers in the marketplace. I have had the M&G air powered brake system on a Jeep Grand Cherokee and a Honda CRV for the last 20 years. The system inserts an air cylinder between the vacuum booster and the hydraulic master cylinder. The air cylinder has a solid rod through it that allows the brake pedal to operate the brake when the air cylinder is not connected to an air source. Since my Rambler has air brakes. All I have to do is connect an air line from the motorhome to the car being towed. When I apply the motorhome brakes, the toad brakes are applied in proportion to the motorhome brakes. No fancy transducer required to convert an electrical signal to a mechanical force, but I suspect that the air cylinder is custom for each car model towed. my apologies for writing this, but my immediate thoughts when seeing the original post and repairs was that there was not a very good understanding of how the various braking systems available for towed vehicle. Dick Lucas, 04 HR Imperial

Since no one has suggested a serious answer, I’ll take a stab at it. On several occasions, I have visited fabric vendors and noticed the material comes rolled around 3 or 4 cardboard tubes which are displayed on wall racks. I remember that the tube racks have one inch or so pipes that the tubes are supported by. The look like adaptors that push into the tube ends to act as bearings to allow the material to spool off easily. dick L. ‘04 imperial

The roof structure of Monaco coaches consists of a frame, foam blocks, a layer of plywood and the waterproof cover. Water that gets past the cover will travel for several feet before to shows up inside. I’ve had a couple of leaks near the center of the roof that dripped inside over the driver or passenger side windows. The first was from the crank up TV antenna. I found that the base was caulked when the antenna was down, omitting the area covered by the the tilt up bars. The second was where the satellite dome mounting was. The sat mounting is 3 or 4 metal flex plates that are screwed to the roof and the dome is fastened to the other end, allowing flex. The roof end had caulking around the end, but no caulk underneath where the screws penetrated they water proof layer. Over the years, the water found those screws and leaked over the side windows. Dick L, ‘04 HR Imperial

One further advantage of adding the relays is that it takes the high headlight current off the SmartWheel system which is known to fail from overheating the connections on the control box. Dick L. 04 Imperial

When we bought our used 2004 Imperial in 2007, the problems with the SmartWheel had already surfaced and had been “corrected” by the selling dealership with a workaround. Off and on, problems persisted for the next few years until a complete loss of headlights in 2013 occurred on a cross country trip prompted me to completely investigate the system. On the pervious motorhome, weak headlights prompted me to modify the wiring using relays to supply a solid battery voltage to the headlights, bypassing the Freightliner chassis wiring which was designed for universal useage by multiple coachmakers, an as a consequence, had lots of cabling coiled up to handle any situation. After looking at the SmartWheel schematics, it became obvious that all the current for the headlights was routed through the controller box and the J-12 connector was inadequate for the job. The solution was either buy a new control box, replace the connector, or move that high current off that controller. I decided to do the latter by using the solution I used on my prior coach. The use of relays is described in an article by Daniel Stern Lighting which can be found by an internet search. The J-12 connector on my controller was now high resistance and couldn’t supply the full headlight current, but was sufficient to supply the relay coil current. I found a good battery connection on the large circuit board located in the cabinet on the drivers side to power the headlights and used the original headlights to switch those new relays..this reduced the current supplied by the controller from amps to milliamperes and even though the connectors on the controller were toasted, they worked for the relays. I also used heavier gage wires for the connection from the relays to the headlights and ran heavier ground wires as well. That solution has worked since 2013 and I now have over 100K miles on the coach. I now have all the functions originally designed into the Smart Wheel. Dick L. ‘04 HR Imperial

In 2001, the typical setup did not charge the chassis batteries from shore power or the generator. Only the house batteries were charged from those sources through the inverter. The chassis batteries are charged from the alternator, but your photo shows a device which connects both the cabin and engine batteries together after the high initial current required to satisfy the engine batteries tapers off. That sensing device is an IRD, and is seen on your photo just above the large relay. That large relay is also used in the “boost” function to assist when the engine batteries are depleted and won’t provide enough current to stare the engine. To charge the engine batteries while on shore power, a device called the Lambert Battery Maintainer was added on the High end Monaco coaches. If you have one, it should begin the same area. It is a green device that provides a small charging current to the engine batteries whenever the house batteries are being charged from the inverter. Dick L. 04 Imperial

It was that who ever did the caulking didn’t raise the mast when they caulked. The base wasn’t sealed completely. Dick L. ‘04 Imperial

Nervous Supply…. Sounds like auto-correct strikes again. Dick L. ‘04 Imperial

One thing to consider is that just because you see water in a spot doesn’t necessarily mean that the source is nearby. The roof structure consists of several layers, a fiberglass sheet, a plywood layer, foam block insulation and the interior panels. Each layer is somewhat waterproof so the water can travel for some distance. when I bought my coach, the prior owner was struggling with a water leak that showed up on either side neat the windshield. Attempts had been made to caulk the inside, which, of course was futile. It took a bit of detective work to discover the source. It turned out that it was missed caulk at the tv antenna. The caulking was done with the antenna was in the down position and the area under the mast was not caulked. The water could travel from that To either side, depending on the tilt of the coach. Some years later, another leak showed up. This one was from the satellite dish on the roof. The mounting consists of several metal plates that form the connection to the roof. They are first screwed tp the roof and then the dish Is fastened to those plates. They are long enough to allow a bit of flex in the mounting. They were caulked around the roof mounting screws and the edge of the plate. The flex end of the plate is free to move up and down with the sat antenna. However, water could get under the plate and penetrate the roof screw holes because there was no caulk there. The lesson is that water can travel for some distance between the source an where you see it inside. Dick L. ‘04 Imperial

Last fall, I discovered that my Sony backup camera had quit. I had a great experience with Tim at RV Cams. I sent him my camera and he confirmed that it was dead, and he suggested a plug in replacement. He is quite familiar with the setup in my 2004 HR Imperial. Last week, I had to move my RV and discovered that it did not switch on when I put the coach in reverse, although it worked normally when the backup camera was selected with the Aladdin joy stick. I sent Tim an email and he responded immediately with the solution. It turns out that I has inadvertently plugged the camera cord into the wrong input on the Sony monitor. I highly recommend that you contact him at www.rvcams.com dick L. ‘04 Imperial

According to the SmartWheel schematics, there is another relay off the controller board which does the hi/low swithhing. The 25A relay on the controller is only used to perform the “flashing” function for the headlights and the clearance lights. The hi/low relay is totally independent of the controller board and will click even if the controller board is non functioning. Dick L ‘04 Imperial

By the way, if you can catch the “toasted connectors” before they fail completely, you can take the headlight current off the SmartWheel controller using the technique described in danielsternlighting.com which uses two relays and upgrades the headlight wiring to minimize the voltage drops. It reduces the current through those connectors to 100mA or so needed to drive the relays. I had added this mod to a prior coach and it really helped the illumination. That was on a Freightliner chassis Endeavor and the headlight harness was maybe 10 feet long, all coiled up. That chassis was an “ off the shelf” unit designed to be used in many applications and had enough wiring length to handle any situations. My present coach had toasted connectors, but even though the headlights were not working, there was still enough conductivity to operate the relays used in the Daniel Stern mod. I still have the ability to flash the headlights. That was in 2013 and nearly 40K miles ago. Dick L ‘O4Imperiad

here is the VIP troubleshooting manual that contains schematics. Dick Lucas, '04 Imperial Troubleshoot VIP Wheel.pdf

This is a very simple solution to a design problem with the SmartWheel controller, but you lose the ability to flash your headlights with the button on the steering wheel. The full headlight and current is routed through the controller through J11 pin 6 and J12 pin 1 or pin 2. The flashing of the headlights is controlled by a module on the controller that operates a dual 25 amp relay, I would suspect that the connectors that are most prone to failure Re the J11 pin 1 and J 12 pin 1. J12 pin 2 only carries current when the headlights are flAshed on during daylight for a short time. I don’t know how valuable the ability to flash the headlights is important to most people is. It is something which should be decided to each operator. From the schematic I have, it appears that the headlight flashing is the only function that you lose by your modification. Can you confirm? i searched for the VIP troubleshooting guide but didn’t find it on line. If anybody would like to have it, I’ll post it when I get to my desktop computer where it is stored. By the way, on many motorhomes, the headlight wiring is marginal and has significant voltage drops which affect the brightness. Dick L ‘04 Imperial

Basically, after cleaning up the contacts on the controller (by the way, which was located under the dash behind the radio) I cut the wires to each of the headlights and connected them to the relay system driver coils which I mounted on the firewall. I then supplied a good 12 volt source that I found on the large panel in the front run box cabinet located outside under the drivers side. That source has to be a non-switched point connected to the chassis batteries. I then ran heavy wires from the relays to the headlights. Now all the headlight power and grounds are capable of carrying the current without any voltage drop. Dick L. ‘04 Imperial

Hot connectors indicate that they are reducing the power available to the headlights. When I bought my coach used in 2007, the dealer had attempted to fix a problem with the headlight circuitry. A few years later, I lost my headlights completely, which prompted me to do a fix. I discovered that the connectors to the controller were toasted and unreliable. The damaged connectors carried all the headlight current. I was able to solve my problem by taking the high currents off the controller by adding a set of relays which fed the headlights from a good 12 volt source. There is a good write-up I the Daniel Stern Lighting site. This had two benefits. First was that the SmasrWheel controller only supplied the relay coil current (milliamperes) vs the 15 or more amps that it originally supplied. Second was that the factory headlight wiring usually does not supply a real battery voltage to the headlamps because of resistive drops. This in itself can cause poor headlight brightness. This fix allowed me to use the poor connectors on the controller and it has worked for me since that fix. Dick L. ‘04 Imperial

Hot connectors indicate that they are reducing the power available to the headlights. When I bought my coach used in 2007, the dealer had attempted to fix a problem with the headlight circuitry. A few years later, I lost my headlights completely, which prompted me to do a fix. I discovered that the connectors to the controller were toasted and unreliable. The damaged connectors carried all the headlight current. I was able to solve my problem by taking the high currents off the controller by adding a set of relays which fed the headlights from a good 12 volt source. There is a good write-up I the Daniel Stern Lighting site. This had two benefits. First was that the SmasrWheel controller only supplied the relay coil current (milliamperes) vs the 15 or more amps that it originally supplied. Second was that the factory headlight wiring usually does not supply a real battery voltage to the headlamps because of resistive drops. This in itself can cause poor headlight brightness. This fix allowed me to use the poor connectors on the controller and it has worked for me since that fix. Dick L. ‘04 Imperial

More than likely, you have a smart wheel, that allows you to flash your lights with a button on the steering wheel. If you do, it’s likely that your problem is with the controller box. All the headlight current is passed through that controller which has relays on it that allow you to flash your headlights, flash your ICC lights, set your windshield wipers and a few other functions. Since all the headlight current is passed through that controller, the connectors are prone to overheating and failing. Look up VIP SmartWheel for a description of it. Dick L. ‘04 Imperial

Years ago, I learned this lesson with some ultrasonic mouse repellers that were plugged into my coach. It was normally parked in my driveway connected to 110 Vac with a power cord. When I unplugged it, the inverter came on and the mouse repeller fried. The other day, I bought an electric heating throw and there was an insert in the package that said “Do not use with an MSW inverter.” Dick L. ‘04Imperial