waterskier_1

George, as I look more closely at this mystery circuit board, I see it is screen printed as "Intelliitec Fuse PCB". It appears to be no more that just that - a PCB with places for 6 fuses, and associated LEDs and connectors for the wires the fuses are in series with. I don't think (other than what might be needed to drive the LED Fuse Indicators) there is any active circuitry. It's merely a fancy "fuse block". Mine is labeled for "VIM", "SOLAR", "SPARE", "SPARE", "5A ENGINE", and "30A ENGINE". Mine was missing the 5A ENGINE fuse. I have no idea how it might have worked before, if it ever had a fuse, and if it did, where it went. I am concerned because I don't want this fuse insertion to just be coincidental to the coach starting. I also wanted to check exactly where these ENGINE fuses went (or to what they supplied power). Did you coach come with Solar? Mine did, just one panel around 100Watts. It seems that is where that panel (or the controller) was fused. That original panel has be repurposed for just the chassis battery, with a new MPPT controller just for that. The other panels connect to one of two other MPPT controllers for the house batteries. I have circuit breakers for those connections....not fuses. Without a wiring diagram, I'm not sure what that 5A Solar fuse controls, if anything. I don't remember with VIM stands for - Vehicle Information ....??? You have more wiring diagrams than I do. I can't say specifically which ones...my book is in the coach, but just looking for what I wanted to find, I noticed that there are diagrams (pages) that I do not have. I have confirmed they are applicable to my coach. But, you have exactly the same diagrams to mine regarding the drawings saying "NOT EXEC". Specifically, I was looking at where connector M6 went. On both page 200 and 226 of 238, it show the diagram for M6 with that notation above it. I did a quick search of your drawings, and I can't find any that show M6 for the Exec. Also, I didn't see a single wiring diagram in your files for Detroit Diesel. I have no documentation as to how that is wired to the coach. Lastly, your diagrams of the Rear Run Bay are the same as mine, and do NOT show this Fuse PCB either. I'm hoping that David Pratt might respond. Since I have it working now, I'm not in a rush, but it would be interesting if he has anything specific to Detroit Diesel. [PS - I owe you a response RE: Hydraulic Pump - that was where I was going when the coach wouldn't start. I'll respond directly to you.]

I have the coach running. I'm at a loss as to this event. I called my local shop owner and he came by with his electronic scanners. I told him about the lack of voltage showing on my dash voltmeter and the Aladdin, but that I checked all I could and found proper voltage everywhere. His scanner didn't recognize my engine, and he had to put data in manually. He then removed the intake to the air filter and while I was holding the throttle down in the cab, he squirted ether (or some starting fluid) into the air cleaner, and it fired up but only ran as he would squirt more in the air cleaner - clearly it was not getting fuel. Next the checked fuel at the fuel filter closest to the engine (I always get primary and secondary mixed up). There was fuel there. He said he didn't think there was an electric fuel shutoff, but instead on DD Series 60's it's all done by the computer. So he consider the computer (ECU) was not getting power. He went through my RRB, and found a slot for a second ENGINE fuse (5A) that was unoccupied. I've never seen a fuse in there before, and can't imagine how it could "fall" out while sitting in my driveway. He put a fuse in, and it "fired" right up upon craning about 2 seconds. This really surprised me! I'm an electronics engineer and I missed this. That was yesterday. Today I went through all the wiring diagrams included with the coach. Neither this fuse or even the Printed Wiring Board (PWB - Circuit Board) were listed. This PWB was not even shown in the RRB diagram of components! I'm attaching a copy of picture I took, showing the board outlined in Blue, and the fuse that was missing, shown in Red. Has anyone seen this PWB before? I'd love to find documentation on it. I'm also a such a loss as to how I could have lost this fuse - if it was ever there. If I had documentation, I could confirm that this fuse indeed would cause the issue, but without that, I'm still wondering if it's coincidental. Additionally, I have zero documentation regarding wiring to/from within the DD60 engine. I have a bit of info for the Cummins ISX, but nothing for Detroit Diesel. If anyone has any documentation (wiring type, not mechanical breakdown) I'd really appreciate it if you would send me a copy. Another thing I found, while scouring my wiring diagrams, is some of the connectors I wanted to check for voltage, were annotated NOT EXEC, but I never found any for the Executive. I found some for NAV ONLY, and SIG ONLY, but none for EXEC ONLY. I'm not sure that I could even access these connectors, they just happened to be in the circuit flow I was tracing and I identified as possible check points. Really curious what some of you with Detroit Diesels or Executives in the mid 2000's might think (Mine is a 2005 Exec). Unknown PWB.pdf

Coach ran fine 2 weeks ago. Went to start this morning, and seemed like dead batteries...surprising since on charger. Volt meter showed about 11 volts, and should have been 14 volts. Checked batteries and found loose wing nut on one of the batteries. Jumped from fully charged house batteries to chassis batteries, and also put battery charger on. Went to try starting again, and starter spins fine, but no fire. Also noted that Voltmeter doesn't move (shows no voltage). Checked schematics, and since fuel gauge works, the voltmeter gets power from same wire. Haven't disassembled dash. Noticed that Aladdin shows XX.X volts for Chassis battery. Obviously where ever it is sensing voltage, there is none. All fuses show good, don't have a schematic for where Aladdin connects. Also, don't have a wiring diagram for the DD Series 60, only ISM. Everywhere I check, I have voltage as should be. I'm suspecting the fuel cutoff but don't know where it is, physically or on a schematic, so can't check. As last resort, disconnected the chassis batteries for about 10 minutes, just to see if something would reset. I do suspect that the chassis voltage dropped well below 10 volts when I first attempted to start. Any suggestions?

Ok Verles, I finally found the 20-Amp DUVAC fuse on the wiring diagrams. These are some of the worst diagrams I've worked with. Good news is the only thing that (according to the Monaco Wiring Diagrams) that this fuse go to is the DUVAC terminal on the alternator. In case you are not aware, the main reason for the DUVAC is to monitor the voltage at the starting battery, when it is NOT directly connected to the Alternator + Terminal. This is the case where you have some sort of "isolation circuitry" to keep the house battery and the chassis battery isolated, and that "circuitry" is in-between the Alternator + Terminal and the Chassis battery + terminal. If you didn't have a DUVAC alternator, the alternator would "regulate" the voltage at the input to the "isolation circuitry" which is typically not at the same voltage as the Chassis Battery. I am wondering if you are connecting it to the correct terminal. You can NOT go by where the physical lug is on the back of the alternator unless you have the exact same manufacturer/model of alternator. I am attaching a Leece-Neville (which is now Prestolite) Maintenance Instruction which discusses the DUVAC Alternator that was commonly used in your era Monaco coaches. After review, if you have questions, let me know. I'm pretty sure you have the wrong connection on the Alternator, or the Alternator/Voltage Regulator (which is usually built-into the Alternator) is bad. But if you have gone through 3 Alternators, it's highly unlikely that all were bad. -Rick N. Form4801.895.pdf

I'm sorry that I'm coming in on this post late. Have you resolved your problem? If not, could you be a bit more specific as to which fuse you are blowing? I'm looking at a 2000 Diplomat Wiring diagram, and there are two 5-Amp fuses shown near the alternator; one in the Ignition (IGN) [what I think you are calling "Key"] and the other in the Stator (S) line which I think you are calling "Tach". Also in the IGN line is a 10-Amp fuse, that I think is in the Front Run Bay. I also see mention of the 20 Amp Fuse/Circuit Breaker. I don't find that in the wiring diagram, but it could be much further upstream. I believe you have said that you disconnected the the "Key" wire (which I believe is the Ignition) and the "Tach" which is the Stator (S) and you still blow the fuse. Those are the two wires that have the 5-Amp fuses - so if they are disconnected, somewhere else you have a short, independent of the alternator, or neither of those fuses are the ones you are blowing. Can you provide more detail as to the fuse you are blowing? I have some L/N troubleshooting and repair documents that might help, once it is positively confirmed that the problem lies in the alternator itself. -Rick N.

John, I'll try and provide details necessary. If I'm not clear, just ask. Hoping to be at Gilette next summer.

Jim, yes I am using my Victron Multiplus to control my generator. It takes additional components. I'll look up my drawings tomorrow and send the info to you. -Rick

Another reason to dump the air, is to have the coach lower to the ground. It will be less susceptible to wind movement, and, more importantly, you won't need a step ladder to get into the coach. I find it amusing to see coaches with additional steps to get to the steps, while the coach is sitting at ride height. Granted, many of those coaches may not have air suspensions (we tend to them for granted) and therefore can't drop the coach lower, but it still looks odd when sitting next to a coach the is kneeling on the ground next to it.

Have you answered your question; where is the sub-woofer? Or are you also looking for information on how to connect it for future use once you abandon the original Home Theater system?

First, are you positive that you have dual filament bulbs in that position originally? I very much doubt that Monaco used a dual filament bulb for marker/turn signal. I ran into this problem on my 97 Dynasty. It only affected the front and rear marker lights that also blinked when the turn signal was engaged. There were 2 amber on the front - each side, and two red on the rear - each side. The problem is that the way Monaco wired those lights is that they were not connected directly to ground. In the maker only mode, the power flowed one way through the bulb to eventually to ground. But then, when the turn signal was engaged, since the marker was already on, it had to cut the power to the light intermittently. It did this by removing the ground path (actually it applied +12 VDC to the path that eventually went to ground). I identified two ways to solve the problem - there are likely many. First was to use diodes, but that would reduce the intensity of the LED, if it even would have enough voltage (without modifying the internal resistance). The second way was to add relays, that would mimic the old filament bulbs and then have the relays control each marker/turn LED. Before you continue, you need to review the wiring drawings for those marker/turn signals (if indeed they are single filament as I suspect) and then determine the direction you wish to take.

I just looked at the 2000 Diplomat wiring diagram. I think this should be representative of how your coach was originally wired. The 300 Amp Fuse you are talking about is in series with inverter and the battery circuit. It would protect the batteries and cables between the inverter and the batteries in the case that the inverter tried to draw more than 300 Amps (in the Inverting mode) , would could damage the batteries. Additionally it will protect the charger and cables between the inverter/charger and the batteries in the case that the batteries shorted out or cable to shorted out when the charger was attempting to charge the batteries. In any case, I doubt they put it there to protect the inverter from itself.

That fuse is the too disconnect the batteries in case the is a significant current draw. We are talking 300 Amps, much more than a shorted transistor would draw (it would melt and open circuit long before the 300 Amp fuse or circuit breaker would react. The most likely fault would be shorted wires to the chassis. The inverter-charger has a 30 Amp a couple circuit breaker on the input, and additional breakers on the output. Those are there to protect the inverter.

No, that is way to high! If you had that much solar, none of us at Q-Site would ever need to run or generators LOL. You want a fuse or circuit breaker that is the size of the rated output of you controller or maybe just a little over. If you controller is rated at 40 Amps, then go with a 40 or maybe up to a 60 Amp max fuse / circuit breaker Here is the box I used, along with the appropriate size breaker, but you could use a fuse with appropriate fuse holder.

Jim, 1. You pretty much defeat the purpose of running them in series if you run each panel to the combiner box. I've never needed to check an individual panel. But if you did, you'd be up on the roof anyway. Run from each panel to the next. Most of my connections are not actually under the panels. They came with 4ft-5ft pigtails and I needed the length to run from one panel to the next, but I wasn't able to mount my panels adjacent to each other. 2. I recommend having some sort of protection and cutoff for both the input to the controller and from the controller to the batteries. You want to protect the output of the controller in case the wires become sorted or for some unforeseen reason it attempts to draw too much current. Also, there may be times you want to be able to disconnect the solar system from the batteries. Most installations the solar controller output goes directly to the batteries (not through the battery cutoff switch). Many, like both my old Dynasty and my current Exec, tie into the Inverter feed. That also does not go through the battery cutoff switch. If you wanted to replace batteries or do some other maintenance, you want to be able to remove all voltage sources from the batteries. 3. Are you guys planning on going to Q-Site again this January? Dad is wanted to go, and I plan unless prohibited, but still need to consider him flying home. -Rick

Need to know the year make and model of your coach.

I suspect your 96 is wired similar to my 87 Dynasty. If the lights you are referring to are the ones that flash both with the running (parking) lights on or flash with them off, you simply can not replace those lights with LEDs. This is because Monaco did something tricky in order to have a single filament bulb flash one when needed and the running light are off, and then be able to use the same bulb flash off, if the running light are on. The way they did this is by grounding and supplying power different directions through the bulb. It is convoluted, and if you really want to know what they are doing, you can study the wiring diagram, or ask. But short of designing your own switching circuit, which will mimic the light bulb in there, and then have an output that will switch the LED, or redesigning the system, it won't work. I did design a circuit to do that, one is required at each of the four lights (front and rear) that flash this way. It worked except when the brake lights were also on. The easy way it to leave those four bulbs as is. And No, a new flasher won't help this problem. The new flashers are sometimes required because they use the resistance of standard bulbs as part of the timing circuit (that's why it flashes faster when a bulb is burnt out). The LEDs don't have anything similar to that resistance, so they will either not flash, or flash extremely fast. Adding resistance is the key, either as an external stand alone resistor, or a special flasher with that resistance already built in. -Rick

No, while that may be an issue, the main issue is that most lithium batteries want 14.0 - 14.6 VDC in Absorption mode for 20 - 30 minutes, and then drop back to less than 13.6 VDC. Your alternator would have them at over 14 VDC for hours! There are ways around that problem, as discussed above, but that is the main concern.

Maybe we're getting wires crossed. I DID get free shipping from HD. The link to the panels you said you got (but not the quantity), shows additional Freight Shipping. I did not search eBay for panels, because I wanted to inspect, and did send one back, before accepting them. As long as we're happy, that's all that counts.

Jason, the Grape Solar Panels at Home Depot are 190 Watt, not 200. When I first bought them in 2013, they were 160 Watt, when I bought them in 2019 they were 180 Watt, now they are 190 Watt. As mentioned, the reason I got them was because they are shipped FREE to your local Home Depot. If you don't have a local Home Depot, this is not such a great deal. I see others mentioned on eBay as cheaper, but not available. Also, it looks like they charge freight shipping, but I don't know how much. The last time I looked, 2019, all the "good deals" I found were no longer good after you added in the packaging and shipping. This may no longer be true today. I offer it only as a suggestion that I found. That is a different product than I purchased. I got these: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Grape-Solar-190-Watt-Monocrystalline-PV-Solar-Panel-for-Cabins-RV-s-and-Back-Up-Power-Systems-GS-STAR-190W-US/313629211 I had to purchase the extras you got separately, but since I was designing my own system, I wasn't sure a "package extension" would save me money.

Sounds like you have most of this sorted. I used Grape Solar Panels on my old Dynasty, and the tilt-able ones I installed on my Exec. The primary driver for those was Home Depot sells them with free shipping to the store. I found that shipping is a major cost, up to 50% of the price of the panel, depending on where you buy. Many wanted to wood crate and freight ship the panels, which made their quite reasonable panels much more expensive in the end. Looking forward to Quartzsite, as is Dad.

Jim, I'm sure you are going with an MPPT controller. That said, running running 40+ Amps off the roof for 800 Watts is ridiculous in my opinion. Maybe that would be acceptable with the old tech PWM controllers. In you case I would run 3, or even 4 in series. I believe that Open Circuit Voltage (the absolute voltage that could be produced with no current draw - a design parameter more than functional) is 24.335 Volts. That is only 97.34 Volts absolute maximum that you controller could possible see in a theoretical situation. The voltage you'll see is more likely 24.052 or less (Voltage-Max Power). So that would be 96.208 Volts. Most all MPPT Controllers will handle at least 100 Volts - if they don't, move on to the next. By running all 4 in series, the current in the wire from the PV array on the roof down to the MPPT controller would be max 9.87 (short circuit current) and more likely less than 9.5 on a clear, cool day with the sun directly overhead. You are familiar with the current vs wire size tables, and I'm sure you can see that you'll be able to use a much more manageable size wire off the roof. Remember the beauty of the MPPT controller is it doesn't care what combo of voltage/current you hit it with, it will use what it gets to the maximum benefit. An additional benefit is that you don't have to wait until the sun rises high enough to produce 15-16 volts before charging can begin. By wiring in series you get that when each panel is only producing about 4 volts each, not near enough to charge a 12 volt battery. The down side is that if you got old panels without blocking diodes, shading on one panel can adversely affect the total system. But, and reputable manufacturer in the last 5 -10 years has automatically built this diodes into their array. As far as future expansion, you and over-buy now, and then if you add 2 more panels, run two runs of 3 down from the roof (74 Volts @ 9.5 Amps each) and input each to it's own controller. That would require you to buy a second controller in the future. Or, you could parallel the two - three panel runs, and make sure you plan on wires from the roof to your big controller that would handle 19 Amps. Of course, this means you'll have to purchase a larger controller off top. Regarding controller power, as other have said, it's the power going to the battery that the ratings are based. You really don't need to care what the combination of voltage/current that makes up the power - the controller doesn't care - as long as the overall specs are not exceeded. Many controller will do exactly what you hinted at. I'm not sure if it is the controller in my current Exec (the Red coach) or the one in my previous Dynasty (the Blue coach), but I called and talked to the engineers, and was told that one the max power was reached, the controller would simply discard the potential addtional current. Remember you don't force current, it is based upon what the load will draw. You can't put more current into the controller than it wants. That is NOT true with voltage. So, if you ended up with a great day of sun and clear skys in the middle of the summer, as long as the voltage didn't exceed the max for the controller, it would just us the current up to the power it's rated at (I'm not sure if that rating is before or after internal losses, but who really cares?). I think I used Renogy for my controller in the Dynasty, and I'm using two Victron MPPT 100/50 (100 Volts/50 Amps) in my Exec. One reason is that the previous owner had already installed one. So when I added more panels, I wanted to keep the system intact so my Battery Power Meter would register all the solar. Note that the 50 Amps (@100 Volts) is only good if you have 24 Volt system. On a 12 Volt system, it's only rated at 700 W. Have you sorted the way to get your cables off the roof and to the controller? BTW, the controller should be located as close to the batteries (or inverter) as possible. That is because you may see well over 40 Amps on that cable, and running big cable is not only expensive, but a real task to just route and bend. If you are still looking for examples of getting the cable from the roof to the basement, let me know and I'll try and take some pictures of mine. It has 1-1/2" PVC running from the basement all the way to the roof. On the roof is a 8x8 or maybe 10x10 PVC Junction box, where all the panel cables, along with WiFiRanger antenna come together. Those that are paralleled are done so inside this box. Then they drop all the way to the compartment where my electrical and water hose are. From there, they run across the basement ceiling, under the plastic ceiling sheet, to the bay where the inverter is connected to the batteries with the huge cable (00 or 0000, not sure). I used the same terminal strip to connect the controllers. My rationale is if that cable can supply enough current for the inverter (mine is 3000 Watt PSW), then it can handle the current from the solar. Let me know if you have any questions. -Rick

A couple years ago I went through this exact thing. I read up on disassembling, clean/polishing, reassembling with descant, and reinstalling. From what I read, my windows were beyond cleaning/polishing. They had been fogged and streaked for over a year. So, I went to my local, competent, auto glass company and asked them. They told me they would remove my window, patch it with plastic so I could drive it home, take the window apart, measure and cut the two panes of glass, but they would have to send the panes out for tempering. They did not have the requisite oven in house to temper glass. That took almost 2 weeks counting shipping back and forth. Then they reassembled the window with new seals and called me to bring the coach back. The then reinstalled the window. Total cost about 2 years ago was just under $250. I shudder when I hear people replacing their windows with plain glass that was cut on site at a campground, and not tempered. I'm not intimately familiar with Laminated glass, such as to know if you can purchase a sheet of it, and then cut it on site, and the integrity of the glass remains. All Auto glass must be laminated (usually the windshield) or tempered, whether it's single or double pane. That is so when the glass breaks, it is either held together by the plastic film (laminated) or it crumbles in small pieces. You don't want shards of glass cutting you when the window breaks.

I've been going over the supplied drawings, and the two wires with inline fuses are labeled IGNITION, and the other is ALT Fail Relay. You also should have a smaller gauge red wire which goes to 12 Volts (unswitched). The wire labeled IGNITION should go to a terminal somewhere which is only hot when the switch is in RUN (and maybe start) Position. This supplies the excitation current to the alternator. The wire labeled ALT Fail or ALT RELAY go to a special 6 Volt relay which drive the alternator failure light. Neither of these goes to dash lights or the tach! Using the wiring diagram that Jim supplied, the tach gets its signal from from the ECM Connector "B", pin 12. If this diagram is correct for your coach, you do NOT get your Tach signal from the alternator directly. This is different from what I provided originally. The easiest way to know if you get your TACH signal from the Alternator is it would have another wire for that purpose.