tmw188

Good for you, welcome to a never ending job. 😁

Thank you Tom, but all the work was on your end creating a spread sheet and guiding me along the way to perform the testing and getting the Data you needed which took you down a few forks in the rd. to a conclusion. 

That’s an extremely long run and longer than any run in a typical house. If you look on the tag for the amps you can get online and look for a voltage drop chart like this. IMO the cost of the wire would be expensive and one dehumidifier may not be enough and then you have the electric bill for that running a lot. A few Damp Rids should do the job. 

Thanks Mark for getting those pics posted of your setup before you changed things, it will help Tom decipher whether my setup has been modified and how it works. I have some readings I need to take for Tom to help with his homework behind the scenes.

I’m in the middle of cleaning up my house battery tray so I can reinstall the batteries. I will confirm charging is active while motor is running and on gen. 

I think trying to find the roof rafters are going to turn into a time consuming mess. If you have a fastenal near you or go on their website and look at different anchors. Maybe something like this as a start.  Something that can reach thru and then expand with a #10/24 or up to a 1/4-20 threaded anchor. Test it out on a OC of Luann 

Yes from above here is the one I have.

Thank you Tom for your time and detailed explanation and others who contributed. For the time being I’m going to leave as is and be sure I don’t accidentally leave the Chassis battery off. I would still like to see what others that still have the OE set up looks like. 

I will look at that specific termination and get back to you. 

Without verifying again because it’s been sometime since I was checking things out to get familiar with things a few yrs ago, but to the best of my recollect it is charging both banks while the motor is running and while on shore power. The generator I’m not sure about. The big boy relay is pulling in. For now I’ll leave things as is until I decide to go with the Blue Sea. 
that black wire on the bottom of the maintainer rus over to the bottom of the big boy relay. 
 

2 hours ago, Rocketman3 said:

What house batteries do you have that started the engine?

Also, I am curious on how many amps it took to start the motor? on your Victron app, look at the trends page- select current and go bank in time until you see those start events.

If you purchase the standard Victron BMV712 that has a 500a shunt- not recommended to put more than 500amps through it - so I would not redo the experiment.

Can’t find a way in Trends to go back a few days or more without scrolling back minutes at a time. 

Ok here are some pics that I took of my current setup. Note I did not make these changes it’s been this way since I’ve own the coach 3yrs. Curious to know why some of the wires are pulled back taped up and abandoned. They may or may not have anything to do with this issue. I would however like some feed back on why this may have been done. I will say this too, the salesman switch near the entry door does not work. 
Anyone wanting to see if their rig will start with the Chassis battery off you can check without actually starting it. Just turn the key to the on position to see if will energize the dash. Do not actually start it to be safe. Once again this was all discovered accidentally by the Victron alarm not from performing any changes. 
 

Photos show my current setup, anyone one with info on that would be great.

Todd….please let us know if the spike or alarm happens when both switches are on
 

Everything functions as it should when both switches are on as stated. They both are always on unless perhaps performing some work. 
I will send some photos of my BIRD and Maintainer with some notes showing some disconnected wires that are taped up. Whether or not it has anything to do with it I don’t know. But all is good when both switches are on. GOOD THING I had the Victron over voltage warning enabled.

The Vitron is a shunt based monitoring system, reads voltage, loads, SOC abd other parameters. 

34 minutes ago, Tom Cherry said:

.but, i would NEVER, EVER start a Monaco with the Chassis battery disconnected.  That mischief COULD do some damage.

NO Mischief or intentional choice Tom. I had forgotten to turn it back on after doing some work. Victron is a shunt based monitor.

On 4/26/2024 at 3:17 PM, jacwjames said:

FYI,

I went on line last week and signed up for both the Mudflap and TSD cards.

Part of TSD card requires you to link it to a bank account so that they can test auto pay function.  This took several days as they first do a deposit of two amounts, in my case $0.01 & $0.28.  Then they request that you acknowledge you recieved, another couple days.  Then they do a $0.29 withdrawal.  That gets you to the point where you can actually complete the application and they sent me a card.  I received it today and had to send an email request for it to be activated.  Once activated they assign it to the app, took a couple tries to get this done.  Finally shut off the phone and turned it back on it was on the app. 

All was pretty seamless. 

I'll take the coach for a drive next week and fill up at the nearest station about 20 miles away. 

Price at Sam's today was $3.45 so $3.27 with 5% card rebate.  Price at $3.67 posted, $3.23 with TSD plus fees.  Pretty close but could be a benefit depending on access and how far off the interstate either the Sam's or truck stop is and the speed of the fueling. 

Yeah that’s the big plus with the TSD is the diesel fuel lanes. I have Mudflap never used it yet. Never a problem with TSD except a small learning curve on how to use it. There are quite a few YouTube videos on how to do it. They are good about getting back to you if you have any concerns or questions.

I agree with others about using something else to monitor. They are plug and play and can be customized. I use the ScanGaugeD set up for coolant temp, trans temp, boost and oil pressure. You can add another for more options. They can give you mpg, gph and read codes too I believe. Inexpensive.

I noticed just by happen chance a few days ago that I had started the coach with the Chassis battery switch OFF and the House battery switch On. I got a high voltage alarm on my Victron 712 display and I opened the app to take a look and it was 17volts on the Chassis battery. I had the rear electric bay opened that’s when I seen the Chassis switch was off, I turned it on while monitoring it with the Victron app, engine running and it Dropped down to where it should be ~14ish. I turned the motor off and restarted it and it did not show high voltage. Today I was able to replicate the same thing. Turn the Chassis battery switch off and started the coach on the House bank and the voltage started climbing again pretty quickly on the Chassis battery so I turn the motor off. I turned the Chassis battery on again restarted and everything was fine. I did do some voltage checking to and from the latching relay and the boost switch and it seems to be ok but it just doesn’t explain why the coach would start with the Chassis battery switch off.  Very odd, what say some of you knowledgable geeks out there?

4 hours ago, Rob Wilmes said:

I just replaced my sending unit to the holley like 2 days ago .  Was pretty easy to set up and install. I held and moved it back and forth from a box to verify the gauge was reading the same. 

I'm sure I'll still check the mileage after fill up just incase. Already ran out of fuel coming back from a trip. Didn't realize at a 1/4 on the gauge I was empty 

You get a pass on running out of fuel Rob since it was one of your first big trips. 

Similar story, I replaced my OE with the Remco Power RV Series Aquajet 5.3 mine did not have an accumulator tank. I too could not get parts for the old leaking one. I installed w/o a check valve. Loop hoses as it was. I will tell you this these pumps are rated potable drinking water safe because they have orings and diaphrams made of different material than a typical general purpose agricultural pumps which are less expensive. Others I’m told can get bacteria and other not so friendly growth on them. That’s why the correct pumps say drinking water safe or potable water safe. To get the warranty you have to purchase from their sellers like CW and other rv centers. Best price believe it or not was at CW, I purchased in FL $224.00

Measure the overall diameter of your wheel, divide in half for the radius. Find the centerline of your tire footprint then measure out using the radius number you got and measure out how far it will turn. 

I know about expensive pain, your knowledgable and I hope this is all behind you. Sometimes you wonder if it’s all worth it. 

Thanks Robert for letting everyone know your decision, not everyone does that.

Makes a whole lotta sense. 

You might try calling Josam Frame and Alignment in Orlando. Mike Z here on the forum (Zmotorsprts) might be able to give some info. I too would like to have more stopping ability. 

On 4/7/2024 at 8:34 AM, 96 EVO said:

I stopped running the microwave on MSW power for that very reason.

Whether it was harming it or not, I really don't know!

Me too. I also put a small dedicated PSW inverter in for the frig. I’ve had two res frig fail after about 5 yrs. that could be blamed on the MSW. 

On 4/7/2024 at 11:49 AM, Dr4Film said:

I have been advising people for years to always run high amp drawing devices only with shore or generator power, never with Inverter power, whether it is MSW or PSW.

The best way to destroy those devices including your Inverter and House Battery Bank is not to heed my warning.

It only takes a few seconds to fire up the generator and a few more to have the transfer switch over to generator power. However it can be very costly to constantly use the House Battery Bank and Inverter to power high amp drawing devices.

There will be those that disagree so bottom-line, its entirely up to you as it's your coach, your money, your choice.

I’m with you on that. Run the generator.