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W7BE_Bob

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Everything posted by W7BE_Bob

  1. Aluminum does not rust. But some alloy variation could contain steel related components. Long term I'd want to know more before covering it up which might mask the problem.
  2. Hard to detect a fake 50 if you mean the lack of 240V vs 20 or 30A with adapter. On my Secpter the load sharing defaults to 30A w/o 240V because there is no practical way to determine a 20 vs 30A circuit. Also can't detect that the gen is less than 12KW and it's a 120/240V gen. But the HW50C could have a 240V indication as a possible alert of fake 50 when off. But when I initially thought of that I also knew that most RVs couldn't spell electricity and certainly didn't understand a surge protector vs EMS and a 120/240V circuit is beyond imagination even though virtually every house has they type of circuit. And there are dieharts that insist 120/240 is 2 phase when it's single phase.
  3. Richard Understood but for me if there is a problem at hookup which has only happened once since 2004 the HW50C did not connect power. I never plug in with loads switched on so low voltage has never been a issue for me at that point in time. I did initially pre check the pedestal but for me this has never been a issue until loads were turned on inside. I developed a high level of confidence in the HW50C to protect the RV.
  4. The cable is a standard RJ11 data cable which is the same as a telephone cable except the 2 inner wires are reversed. These are easily available. You can also use 2 telephone cables with a straight through connector which is then equivalent to a data cable. I didn't see the value of a outside remote when at hookup I could go inside to check. Most of the problems were low voltage and occurred later when we were inside and having the display inside was very useful. Several cases of low voltage on 50A in older poorly wired campgrounds. One case of high voltage (160V) on a 30A plug that occurred at 10PM. This was due of course to a open neutral in the 120/240V CG distribution system. None of these problems occurred at hookup. I did have one case of reversed polarity on 30A. 19 years with the same HW50C and data cable in 2 RVs.
  5. Mopar should have included an extra pole on the switch to take care of the fuse. This thread https://www.irv2.com/forums/f85/jeep-grand-cherokee-death-wobble-339594.html has 500+ posts on death wobble and I believe this is the thread where several posters were very involved in a Mopar death wobble solution. Jeff, Suggest you check and ask your switch question in this and perhaps other irv2 threads.
  6. Jeff, Various vehicles have the well known death wobble which is a result of switching to EPS. The EPS system does not have adequate damping for towing and may not be limited to earlier EPS systems. The fix that is available for some Jeep models/years is a wiring harness, switch etc. Turning it on for towing enables EPS and hence you will need to have a adequate charge line from the MH for EPS and aux brake as otherwise the battery gets drained. My 14 GC Overland has hydraulic steering with an electric motor for the pump, so no problem. To be clear the switch etc. does much more that bypass a fuse and the battery has to remain connected. This is a serious issue and there have been pictures posted with very serious damage to the car and MH. The issue also occurs in other mfg vehicles. Highly recommend you go to the Jeep forum where there are tons of posts and knowledge. BTW If I recall correctly your 2017 Jeep Cherokee has the death wobble issue.
  7. My drive axle has 19,600 lbs with 20K limit and tire inflation tables are 90 psi. Tag is 5,000 lbs with 10K limit, cannot increase this because the stear is at max. Side to side weight difference is small. These are loaded weights. Doubtful that moving the water/fuel/aquahot back would help because the storage areas would move forward. While the weights are within specs a better design with include a higher rating steer axle so that the tag weight could increase and reduce the drive weight. But other than the original badyear tires I've had no suspension issues other than the wonderful Monroe shocks that outlived the warranty and were replaced with Koni.
  8. If still no power jump start the chassis battery and start the engine to charge them. Then if the gen won't start jump the house batteries and start it, ie the gen could be connected to either battery bank. Hopefully the slides will now come in. Once resolved have the batteries load checked as discharged battery have a shorter life and may be shot. Also fix that hydraulic leak. My hydraulic system is Lipper with their cheap, leak prone plastic hoses. Replaced all 8 hoses with quality hydraulic hoses due to leaks to the front 2 slides. The pump leaked at year 2, flooded and killed the motor. The Lipper manual instructions for using the motor were completely wrong. Created and solution and Lipper sent a new pump/tank (warranty) which was a completely new design and no further problems since 2011.
  9. I saw an absolute beautiful sight of a cars headlighs illuminating a launch ramp at night. Only a minor problem with the lights below the water!
  10. Are you absolutely sure the unit you bought has a heat pump option? What is the label on the red wire? Is it +7.5V or? If all else fails remove all RV wiring, use new temporary wiring and thermostat eliminating all RV and Dometic wiring etc and verify that the heat pump works.
  11. My suggestion is to check on iRV2 as those folks were and probably still are very knowledgable on the toad subject.
  12. And make sure that flat towing is written documentation from the mfg. Any dealer, telcon, etc information will not be a basis for compensation.
  13. Not all as my 2014 Grand Cherokee Overland does not have EPS. The steering is hydraulic which has the damping to prevent "death wobble". An electric motor drives the pump but the remaining system is hydraulic. And Jeep has significant "death wobble" problems that they did not want to fix.
  14. Opinion: Originally I had the Roadmaster tow bar that had adjustable length for hookup, would then lock in place and could be difficult to unhook. Later I switched the arms to the All Terrain one to solve that probem. Also had a box type brake and that was also replaced with a permanent built in brake. Note: Our camping style has always been frequent stopping for short periods and ease use for towing became a priority vs say snowbird type of usage staying for longer times. Planning to sell the current 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland which is set up with Roadmaster base plate and Air Force 1 brake. Can be towed with non airbrake MH with the addition of a small compressor. Previous toad was a 04 CRV. 2015 and newer CRVs cannot be towed due too a transmission change. I have always used a 6 wire toad hookup cable and the spare wire connected from the toad brake lights to a MH cab light so I know when the toad brakes were activated. A 6 wire cable allows for the addition of a charge line if needed and there is increased need of one in more current year models due to the increase of electronics including EPS, etc when towing. Just my opinion.
  15. A Bird as I have or a DC-DC charger will take care of the chassis battery. I used 3x 250W panels in series for 750W with a MPPT Controller. Could add another panel in a 2x2 series parallel configuration, can't go 4 in series due to panel Voc. I also raised the panels to better use the roof space and eliminate shadows from the A/Cs etc. There are many misconceptions about raised panels and the function of bypass diodes for a series connection. Below is a link to the install. http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/28119528.cfm
  16. The only reliable way to determine MPG is to average it over multiple fill ups. 5 might be OK and probably a minimum. Mine is averaged over years and for any given fillup I see wide variations of MPG. My average is 7.9 MPG. Single tank variations from 5.0 to 11.0, 5 tank variations from 6.7 to 10.8. The variations are due to the shallow cross tank design, variations in driving, not to mention hills, etc. For reference: ISL 400, 38,000 lb MH, 5,000 lb Jeep. But we all know that anyone braging about MPG is lying and sure include me!
  17. “This Hughes autoformer 30 amp will shorten their life dramatically.“ Typo? The 30A autoformer boots the voltage just like the 50A unit. When its used with a 30/50V adapter both 50A 120V hot legs receive the same voltage. If the 50A RV draws more than 30A (total on both legs) then the pedestal 30A CB will trip. Hence appliances are happy. Simple basic autoformer operation example. The secondary transformer output winding nominally produces 132V and has a 120V tap. A relay normally connects the output cable to the 120V tap and when low voltage is detected it switches to the 132V tap which is now actually 120V. The Hughes autoformer is more involved with 2 connections for the primary winding and 3 for the secondary winding. The 50A autoformer is basically 2 autoformers, 1 for each hot leg, hence the much higher price.
  18. Looks like 3 wires on the switch. You might have some relays that reverse the voltage to the 2 wire shade so that they go up or down. Does your shade have 2 wires?
  19. My salesman switch does not turn off the refer. There were several times with everything else off the salesman switch further reduced the draw by 1A and left the refer on propane as desired. The salesman switch tends to get a bad reputation because it can turn off heavy loads. DC unlike AC has a much higher level of arcing that causes switch failure. Turning off obvious loads before using the salesman switch extends it's life. While this can be useful a significant number of rigs are strickly pedestal to pedestal with less interest in turning off anything. The chassis and house switches don't turn off all loads. I installed Blue Seas switches on both battery banks terminals to comletely disconnect all loads for storage. And for clarity the salesman switch disconnect house battery loads only and not chassis battery loads. A jumper to disable the salesman solenoid isn't needed if the wires(s) from one side can be moved to the other side. Either way be safe, take pictures and disconnect the house battery negative terminal wires first.
  20. A defective alternator could be drawing the amps, have it checked. BTW There is no guarantee that newer batteries are good. Have them load checked for elimination.
  21. Bill Groves had 4 6V and one small 12V (for the chassis) in each of the 2 battery trays, so yes very clever. He likely had limtited starting power for cold northern weather. With his small window AC he found a solution for his needs. Also if you run the AC on day 1 and start with discharged batteries on day 2 then the run time is reduced. In reality if you want longer AC run times then consider a large lithium battery bank configured for 48V with a 48V inverter, 48V charger and a DC to DC converter (48V to 12V) for the 12V draws.
  22. I'd suggest running temporary wiring from the AC (perhaps the panel) to the inverter so you can how it works. A 15A 120V AC will require about 165A draw from 12V batteries which is a lot and as pointed out the run time will be short. 1000W solar is a help but you'll likely get about 66% output at noonish, say 700W or 700W/12V = 58A, so 1/3 from solar and 2/3 from the battery. Of course less for the rest of the day and none at night. Knowing the inverter watt rating, the battery Ah size and the AC draw would be helpful. Plus the cable size and length to the battery are factors as the voltage drop on the cables can be significant.
  23. Isolate the problem. Remove a suspected hose and plug both sides of the connection to determine if it's the problem. And/or remove the tank fill hose from the valve and see if that is the source. My leak was the pump check valve and I added a quality brass check valve from HD to the hose. FYI Owner plumbing is always a suspect. It is not the shower valves as they only connect to the hot and cold lines, nothing to do with filling the tank.
  24. " There should be a direct connection between the charger/inverter and chassis batteries via cables and fuses and maybe a switch the reason being the very high DC amps that can occur. " Typo correction - should be house batteries.
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