W7BE_Bob

0.07A is very small as expected with LEDs. Apparently there is a wiring issue, probably a bad connection. As an example: IF you had 400' of 16ga wire at 13.0V and 0.07A the drop would be 0.11V or 12.9V at the lights. Could be a bad switch. With the switch on what is the voltage across the switch terminals? Should be 0.0V. Attach a long wire (14-16ga) to a good connection directly on the frame as you want to eliminate any other wiring. Connect the wire to your voltmeter and measure both the + wire at the light which should be 12.9V and if so it's OK. The - wire should be 0.1V and if so it's OK. This will isolate which wire (hopefully not both) is the problem. You can also connect that wire to the negative light wire to see if it's the negative light wire that is e switch off connect it to the light + side and switch light side to help isolate the wiring problem. - Good job as strange and unexpected symptoms can show up with bad batteries. Recheck the light voltages with the new batteries.

As stated above measure both the positive and negative voltages from frame ground which will reveal a ground connection issue. With the switch on post the voltages to the switch, lights and the lights negative wire. Do this with the Magnum on as your batteries are questionable. Also if possible measure and post the amps. If possible check the accuracy of your voltmeter and if not then post the Magnum voltage vs a reading on the house battery terminals where the difference should be minor with low amp charging. Also, as a priority item have the house batteries load tested, auto stores will do this for free and a good battery shop can do this with the batteries installed. Are these starting batteries? Surely a 06 Diplomat did not come with 2 12V starting batteries?

Agreeded and my tire PSI is set correctly and the TST 507 displays the cold temperature within 2 degrees as expected. I'm in the somewhat unique position of having internal tire sensors to compare against and the PSI is the same for each tire on both monitors. I expected the temperature of the external sensor to be lower - How could it not be when it's on a metal stem which is subject to the surrounding cooling outside air and there is virtually no air flow in the stem? What I didn't expect was for the external sensors to read up to 45% lower. I did expect the sidewall temperature to be less than the internall temperature and my hand on the sidewall and stem confirm. My summer time tire temperatures run much higher of course. The TST manual recommends not changing the temperature alarm with no explanation. I'm suspicous that they are well aware of the issue and just want the user to use the default setting.

I installed the TST 507 TPMS on my 8 motorhome tires along with the existing Smart Tire system that has internal tire sensors that are strapped on the inside of the rim. As I expected the 507 system readings are about the same for tire pressure and very inaccurate for tire temperature. The 507 sensors are of course mounted on the end of the tire stems and hence subject to the normal air flow near the rim. I would rate the PSI as 5 of 5, the temperatures as 1 of 5 and the manual as 3.5 of 5. Since PSI is the most important in my opinion my overall rating is 4 of 5. The attached results and include a temperature measurement of the tires sidewall for comparison. The PSI is accurate but the temperature is up to 45% low and the InfraRed (IR) readings confirm the very low PSI issue. I can provide more detail as needed. TST’s response:

Inflated to max when it's not needed means greater wear in the tire center and less road contact. Tire mfgs recommending setting PSI to their inflation tables based on weight. My Toyo's are set to 115 with 14,700 lb, 90 with 19,600 lb, 80 with 5,000 lb steer to tag per weight. Weight is fully loaded includeing fuel, water, propane, passengers. Even the 14 lb cat was included. 😼 If the above weights look strange it's due to poor Monaco design. Increasing the tag to reduce the drive with it's 20,000 lb max, overloads the steer. There is no practical solution to moving cargo to the rear. But we try hard storing cases of wine in the back. 😀

Perhaps the voltage is low. Measure the DC voltage at the motor while the slide is moving both in and out. I've found several places where the Monaco DC wiring is marginal and undersided wiring is one. Since Lipper sent you a free spare my red flag says there is some design issue that they are aware of. Of course it could be that they just send not only replacement motors but free spares. 🙂

In 2011 just under the 2 year warranty Lipper agreeded to replace my slide pump after I pointed out the 6 design problems with the original. Those were 1 Unsupported long tank, 2 failed pump seal, 3 no drain for the failed seal which caused the fluid to enter are ruin the motor, 4 no hex socket to turn the motor, 5 and believe it or not a nut on the end of the shaft to turn the motor with a drill - never mind that it was a right hand nut that had to turn CCW and came right off, 6 a very short shaft and no way to jam the nut on the shaft. Son and I had one hel* of a time getting the shaft to turn and bring in the slides. They sent me a new design replacement unit that is claimed to fix all of the problems including a much shorter and supported tank. Last year I started having a retracted slide extend out a inch over about a month no doubt due to a leaking valve or 2. Two years later with several of the extremely cheap leaking Lipper hoses I replaced all 8 with quality hydraulic hoses. If your hoses have the shiney outer plastic cover then expect them to fail. FYI Hydraulic slides are held in place either extended or retracted by hydraulic pressure, so when there are leaks... On another front Monaco's wiring leaves a lot to be desired and I've fixed a number of their problems.

My last post is MIA. The purpose of a fuse/CB is to protect the wiring. If the controller shorts it's likely toast but you want to stop the heat. I used the Bussman 80A version of the above for my 60A controller with 4 ga wires. Yes, 4 ga is rated for 70A but I'm not concerned.

You can use the fuse to disconnect when needed. I wanted the convience of a switch. No the fuse is sized to protect the wires and 200A is much to high. I have a 60A controller, 4ga wire and used a 80A CB. Also mine is a Bussman not a Blue Seas.

My panels had pigtails with MC4 connectors so it would be easy to check each panel for Voc and Isc. Regardless panel reliability is excellent so the chance of a problem seems slim. You might want to disconnect the controller from the battery for various reasons so a switch is a good idea. You definitely want a fuse just in case and mine is a Blue Seas switch and CB combo.

Solar panels are large, heavy, breakable and hence expensive to ship a few. They are not "free" to ship for the seller so the cost of free shipping to the consumer is included in the price. 12 volt panels are also popular for RVs and they cost more per watt.

Yes, as the temperature drops Voc increases, check the temperature coefficient values for the panel. Standard Test Condition (STC) is 25C or 77F. The Monrningstar string calculator will do the math. You can select a panel or enter yours, tempeature etc. You must use one of their controllers but that doesn't change the panel output values.

Rick - Some Comments Voc increases with decreasing temperature. My panels are about 8% higher at 32F. A controller with a 100V limit would not be wise for your example of 4 panels in series. For bulk and abosrb charging Imp is used. The controller may default to Isc for absorb charging. Your text is referring to bypass diodes not blocking diodes. All controllers prevent panel drain at night which was the purpose of blocking diodes. Lots of good information in your post. My 3 series panels have 62' (includes panel pigtails) of 10ga UV wiring. Wiring is held in place with dabs of Dicor. Monacos inside cabinet panels are cosmetic, connected with brads and glue. I removed some to run the vertical solar wires and reattached with some screws - Out of sight. The wires got to a A/C 240V disconnect switch and then the controller. The controller has a short run of 4ga wire to the inverter which has a long run of 4/O wire to the batteries another poor electrical choice by Monaco.

The stated 540W limit helps to ensure that the controller specs are not exceeded over a wide range of light and temperature. And can also limit warranty claims. I generally use 67% of the panel watts for 4-5 hours for planning purposes with my flat panels.

Jim, Thanks for the compliment. The Morningstar controller was the best choice for me 6 years ago. Since then there have be a variety on new controllers at lower costs. And 24V panel prices are about half the cost today.

40A is the output to the battery. Choose a battery charging voltage like 14.4V. 800/14.4 = 56A to the battery. This is ideal sun and no losses. What will your 40A controller do with 56A? Voc is only used to insure that the panels don't exceed the max input rating of the controller, it's not used for power calculations. MPPT = Maximum Power Point Tracking. For MPPT controllers use the panel spec Imp and Vmp (maximum power).

If the specs don't allow you to over panel for watts or amps then don't. A future second controller is a option.

For the battery I use a 80A CB switch by Waytek, $26, for the 90V panels I use a 240V A/C disconnect $7. I'm aware the A/C disconnect is not DC rated.

Who knows the type and condition of old cables, splitters, etc. Just run new ones down the windshield channel and back to the rear. Then you know what you have. And for the ultimate sin run the coax on the roof. When I bought the rig it had a worthless Hughes internet dish with wires running half the roof length. When the SD dish was replaced more wires on the roof. Added about 30' of solar wire plus 3 large panels. The roof is a great place to run wires, UV resistant is best for long term. I've run wires in various parts of the rig up/down, right/left, fore/aft and none are visible in the living areas. Even one the the ceiling A/C ducts. On another front: Years ago at home I ran a coax to a kitchen TV. More recently I added HDMI converters on both ends for HD, works great, there is a very slight signal delay apparently in the sat receiver composite output. Wireless HDMI adapters are also available.

My solar somewhat like Tim503. 3x250W serial panels. 62' total UV wire which includes the panel pigtails. The wires run straight down midships behind pulled cabinet interior sides to the basement. No visible wiring. The controller MS MPPT 60 is in the basement next to the inverter. Small cable back up to the remote. 2 small sets of wires to the DS rear batteries for battery tempeature and remote voltage sense. Controller DC 4 ga wires to the inverter 4/O wires to the batteries 21' away (42' of 4/O). Wiring loss panels to battery is 1.5% - very low. Serial is more shade tolerant than parallel due to the bypass diodes. Most posters don't understand this and there is lot of misinformation on this and other aspects of solar. I have a lot of solar information posted on RV net including graphs form the controller showing how bypass diodes work. Go to rv.net, click advanced search and in Message Author enter CA Traveler with caps and blank. Maybe enter solar for keyword. There are some recent posts. Then repeat this but change Date Posted to Archive. You should find a lot of information. If you decide on parallel or serial/parallel there are lots of posts on this and equipment. Be cautious as posts reflect what we know or read and are not always correct. To jump start - my solar install: https://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/28119528.cfm BTW If you plow through the above solar install you'll find that my roof is basically not attached to to the ceiling cross frames. I had no problems with the initial install and drove some distance. Later I added some additonal 4'+ aluminum bracing in case I ever got into very high winds. And like a lot of things you'll discover misinformation on wind and raised panels. Never mind that while not the norm various rigs have raised panels. The extra bracing due to the marginal roof design may have saved the day last summer. On I8 we heard a LOUD bank. DW yellled your solar panels blew off! I looked in the rear mirror and saw the 20' awing with roller sailing across I8. DW saw one arm extending out 10' and yelled It's the awning. There was some history with my CareLess awning and it hasn't been replaced.

I've run wires from the roof in 3 places. 1. Cell antenna in PS back corner down through a cabinet to amp under the bed and forward - see below. 2. Sat dish midships down into a cabinet above the TV. 3. Solar panel 10 ga near #2 all the way down to the solar controller in the basement. I setup #1 to run the coax through the A/C ducting to mid ships ie I had a string routed to pull the coax. But needed slightly longer coax. So instead the cell antenna coax reaches the amp under the bed and coax runs forward DS in the plumbing and wiring channel midships to the internal antenna. I've also run AC wiring in that channel back to midships. Do more research, stop thinking AM solar (mostly small parallel panels rightf) and understand series series/parallel. Tim503 gave good information except for changing warm wires - absolutely not - use a wiring calculator and get it right the first time. Do you have closets/cabinets to run the wiress vertically? Do you have a rear camera that you can remove and see in the cap? I'd drill up into the cap from the engine room and run the wires down from the roof. You should be able to get a 1/8" fiberglas wire puller top to bottom and pull the wires. Panel prices are low. This month there was a add for 300W panels for $100. MPPT controllers are expensive. I made a scaled diagram of my roof and paper rectangles for various sized panels to determine how to go. Also looked at $/W and W/sq ft. 12V parallel panels were loosers. A 12V panel system with PWM was the same cost as serial with MPPT.

My inverter has 2 output CBs, one is dedicated to the MW and the second powers 18 plugs (NOT a typo). The first plug is a GFCI and feeds all other plugs, it could be tripped. The inverter CSs are small button type and tripped is not obvious. Hate to say this but those batteries show a lack of maintenance. Has the water level been checked? Son will need to be schooled to detect exposed plates (batteries compromised) and then filled to the correct level with DISTILLED water only. Maybe you need to get a mobile tech to resolve the issues and make sure both banks are being charged.

My first guess is that the batteries were disconnected for service which is common. If you have a salesman switch try it first. Check for loose cables, hopefully you have pictures for reference. Use a voltmeter or test light connected to FRAME GROUND. DO NOT use a cable for ground in case it's a disconnected ground wire. Check for 12V at the battery, then salesman solenoid, fuses etc to the power panels etc. Continue to use a long wire to frame ground.

I installed 3x250W panels using screws and VHB tape. With screws use a small drill, stop when through the roof and probe with a small wire to avoid whatever. My panels are mounted higher to eliminate A/C shade etc. The panels have bypass diodes and series connected with a MPPT controller which results in more shade tolerance from trees etc than parallel panels. My 2014 install costs the same as more 12V panels with a PWM controller for the same total wattage. Here's a link to my solar. https://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/28119528.cfm

Sounds like your A/Cs are working. RVs have very poor insulation some starting with none. Fix all air leaks. Cover all windows and doors with reflective bubble foam so you now live in a cave. Don't use uncecessary heat like HW etc. Awnings out for shade. Some add shade protection for the refer. My A/Cs will cool to 75F when it's 115F in full AZ sun and only window shades. But your best option is move where it's cooler as that is what wheels are for.