trailmug

It's unfortunate that motorhomes have 12V house systems.. at 48V, this would be easy (1/4 the amps).

Agree with the general sentiment on the thread already.. Even with 8 GC2 batteries for 860Ah on the Sig, the microwave (roughly the same load as an A/C) on our inverter pulls the DC voltage down into the dubious range (10.5-10.8V) on anything but a full charge, and the sine wave starts to suffer, which will cause motors/compressors to run hot and appliances without switching power supplies to groan (our refrigerator lights flicker). I wouldn't want to do it for an extended period.

I think it's a common issue.. maybe restrictive return creating a vaccum on the evap drain. Ours has done it for years, don't pull out of the driveway with the driver window down! 😂 I wonder if they (should) include a trap like you need on a downflow residential unit.

The "hat" to the right of the yellow label with the tiny copper tube is your TXV. As an aside, this particular photo appears to show the pressure switch (screwed onto the receiver/dryer) with no wires attached to it.

I would also add that if the system took a can of refrigerant while the compressor was not running, it has a major leak and was empty. If the system had liquid, and the can had liquid, and both were at ambient temperature, there would be essentially no flow of refrigerant from the can because they'd be at the same pressure.

I'm with Ivan on the suspect pressure switch.. jumper the pressure switch terminals (usually up front near the receiver) and see if the compressor engages. Those binary switches are pieces of crap. Don't run it that way for long, though, just enough to verify. Low refrigerant would mean low oil circulation.

Battery technology can't come anywhere near the power density of a diesel tank, plus recharge can be had immediately for $$. Best we do with two panels on our rig is break even with the daytime standby loads. It'd work as a battery tender (salesman switch open), but it would take a lot of determination and some good luck (weather) to live off of what you can fit on the roof.

Agreed, I manually change to furnace around 40-45F .. The heat pump beats itself up icing and deicing (can hear the cracking sounds on defrost), and doesn't seem to do much useful work below that. Also, I notice if we're near border temperature, the cold discharge air from the outside coil will cause the system to flip back and forth ("Oh it's colder now, go to furnace; oh it's not so cold, back to heat pump..")

I like the idea of a Cat's Eye or Crossfire.. I bought a pair for my dually axle but never installed them. A good deal of the reason why is I had a leaking stainless hose valve extender, and had a commercial tire tech say that they're junk and recommended installing extended rigid valve stems, advice which I happily accepted. You're a step ahead with the TPMS and will never have to worry about a concealed flat. I think realistically there's always some scuffing between dual tires owing to difference in road crown, temperature, etc, but figure if it's a big concern, the big rig world would have fixed it.

Tire and wheel manufacturers publish recommended cold pressures and make no mention of hot pressures, only to say never to let air out of a hot tire. Our steers (120PSI) get up over 145 in the summer, and they're 22.5". The tires on a Monarch IMO are going to be working harder.. If the tires are wearing OK and are not too hot to touch, run it and get used to what's normal. 👌

Our Sig has a switch in the galley for its share of Aqua Hot blowers in the zone. The dash vents tap into the dash A/C blower via what I believe is relay logic.

Our front vent coughs out a piece of fiberglass batt every once in a while.. I'm afraid to look. 😅

The one case where I'd disagree with running the compressor after summer is in OP's case of a known leaking system. I don't trust the binary switch to fail open, because I've seen my (reasonably new) switch still closed when the system was under vacuum. Well, and on my Cadillac, where the short-cycling of the system during winter due to close proximity to the frost point caused a constantly wet and musty-smelling evap.

Pictures: bad crimp (puckered out MEI fitting), good crimp (Gates fitting), ParkerStore discharge hose I had made with Gates crimp fitting attached. Both crimps made with the same MasterCool manual crimper.

IMO, electronic leak detector is the only way.. oil doesn't always leak out unless it's a huge leak. Monaco field assembled the hoses using manual crimpers, I'd bet lunch it's leaking at a crimp joint (well, at least one), as you've been finding. My discharge hose would only leak when the system was operating, and it held vacuum fine. Took me a couple of years to find it, and the first replacement fitting also leaked. If you can, avoid crimping onto the old hose wherever possible (have short hoses or short segments of long hoses made at a hydraulic shop), and if you have to for the long hoses, I recommend fittings from Gates. They fit much better than what you can get through MEI, for example, in my experience. IMO, barrier hose is very unlikely to develop a slow leak in the middle of a run.. it has a solid sleeve of nylon on the inside. You can get to most of the hose except the area where it passes over the fuel tank, but I wouldn't bother unless you're replacing it. I'd disconnect the pressure switch at the receiver; that way the compressor connector is still watertight. In case it's interesting, I've seen it suggested that cooling performance doesn't suffer until a system loses 60% of its charge. That was certainly the case for me when I discovered my last leak.. only recovered 2 of 4 lbs and it was still cooling fine. Edit: sorry, my browser wasn't showing the latest posts.

I'd say ours is sufficient down to maybe 50 outside and then the aqua hot pumps become necessary even for driver comfort (though we don't need to run the diesel burner). Wonder how well it was burped after the valve was installed. Maybe try burping the hoses to see if you can release an air bubble? A/C does run on defrost.

Amen to that.. 62MPH but we get 7MPG in the Sig. 🤷‍♂️ Any higher than that and the boost, fuel, and heat runs away with the EGR.

Yep, extra summertime propulsion engine fuel usage is from the fan. Compressor eats 5 max HP which is negligible. Now if you've got a side condenser a/c that runs the fan on high speed all the time, that would be tough to call.

Checked the fuel pressure yet? I understand this is crucial.

Silicon diode drop is 0.7V.. might not provide good float voltage?

Sure thing, I had some cables made from custombatterycables.com (details below). Battery isolator: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00WTAFR84 Battery cage: https://www.summitracing.com/parts/TGI-301347-KIT Battery: Optima Red Top 78 NSI ITOG-1 wire splice (for splicing the Monaco 2ga hot wire to the battery isolator cable). Painted battery cage and riveted to generator front cover. Ran 1/0 ground cable to generator negative terminal, leaving the existing ground wire in place. Ran new #2 from battery isolator to rear of generator, cut off and discarded the factory red lug, spliced to new red 2ga battery isolator cable. Ran new 1/0 hot cable to generator positive terminal. Attached isolator battery side terminal to aux 4ga from red battery cable. Butt spliced isolator ground wire to aux 10ga from black battery cable. The side terminals they used were too thick for regular battery bolts, so I had to get extended ones. Maybe next time I'd get a 34/78 battery and use regular clamp lugs. I like to sit tools on top of the generator, though, and didn't want one to fall down across the battery. Using some air compressor hose worked well to measure the necessary cable lengths (roughly the same size and flexibility). I recommend following the existing wire paths as much as possible, as if you have a generator slide, the cables need to lay in such a way that they're not pinched when you retract it. #70 - Custom: 112 in, 1/0 ga SGT Black, Side Mount (short bolt) , std 5/16 lug AUX: 10 in, 10 ga L no end $88.89 USD 1 $88.89 USD #70 - Custom: 74 in, 2 ga SGT Red, std 1/4 lug , no end $34.25 USD 1 $34.25 USD #889 - Add Loom - Per cable Options: $5.00 USD 1 $5.00 USD #70 - Custom: 98 in, 1/0 ga SGT Red, Side Mount (short bolt) w/cov, HD 5/16 lug AUX: 24 in, 4 ga L std 1/4 lug $100.36 USD 1 $100.36 USD #889 - Add Loom - Per cable Options: $5.00 USD 1 $5.00 USD

Decided to check the alternator brush wear on our 12.5kW HDKCB today.. service manual says if you can stick 1" of wire in into the hole, it's time for replacement. I can stick 1.4" in 😑 Guess it's (past) time to replace. Our genset has 4,200 hours on it. I haven't been able to find a lot of info out there about the brush service life, but based on my experience, I'd say it's less than that. I'll post up if there's anything weird about replacing it.. looks straightforward enough.

My understanding is 450-500 ft/lbs.. gets you into 3/4" wrench territory, although everyone at truck tire shops seems to use 1" guns that are at least double that.

Do you think water only drains to the roof if the tube is clogged or the coach is tilted? My front unit drains water to both.. 🤷‍♂️

The scraders look the same to me, but I never paid them much mind.. their job is to keep the system from dumping when the cap / switch is removed, but otherwise they don't do a lot -- the O ring is the primary seal. If you're pro, you use a core tool to remove them in order to make vacuuming faster but I've never bothered with it.