CorinthWest

Ivan, the nice thing about what you did was you don't have to take them down when you put the awning up. I considered this as an alternative for that reason. Like you said, it's "personal choice". But that is something that should definitely be taken into consideration. The drawback to my solution is it takes me 10 minutes to put them up, 5 minutes to take them down, and requires basement space for storage. Sudden storms/winds become an emergency when you need to get the awning up fast, and the lights have to come down before you can put the awning up. Your solution has none of these drawbacks - kudos.

Like this? These were fairly easy to make, and not very expensive, relatively speaking. And they put out quite a bit of light. I can tell you how I did it if you are interested.

Before I took the engine cover off, I did turn the key on and the instruments came to life, but I didn't try to start it because I didn't know what the engine wiring looked like. Since cleaning up the nest/mesquite beans off the top of the engine, throwing away what was left of the underside insulation from the cover, and inspecting the engine harness, I have not tried to start it (yet). But I am getting close. I just want to open up the dash first and look at the extent of the damage. The multiple 6" strands of wire I found on the floor was all RJ11 phone wire mixed with what I believe was the insulation from the underside of engine cover (and now needs to be replaced - but it's no big deal). So I know I at least have issues with the telephones at this point. But phone wires I can fix. It's the Sony backup monitor with the proprietary cable to the camera that I'm concerned about. Worst case, I'll splice it. I'm pretty good with shrink wrap and a soldering iron. Thanks for asking, JD. I really do appreciate the moral support.

NOW I see it! The plastic treadle is/was white plastic. In your picture, that looked like a "bait bar", but I couldn't tell. Thank you for the clarification, kind sir. I've just started cleaning up and looking at the damage from last month. That rat had started to build a nest on the engine, but the only thing he chewed was a plastic wire keeper on one of the coils. In that respect, I was INCREDIBLY lucky that it didn't damage the engine harness. The engine bay is all cleaned up once again. Still procrastinating on the dash, however. I'm scared to take it apart.......sigh. Thanks again, JD. Keep killing those rodents!

The clamp trap. I'm not getting anything in a dozen rat traps (lately). I think they are growing smart. In the picture you provided, it looks like the bait (bar) goes into the back of the trap and protrudes into the opening of the "clamp". But it could be an optical illusion. I'm also thinking about getting some Homer buckets and buying the false floor traps to go on the buckets. I know they work for mice, but not sure about these damned rats.

JD - where did you get those particular rat traps with the white bar shaped slide in bait? I have looked all over for them and can't find them anywhere. I loved the idea!

Try Mindy at (813) 808-1030. They are a dealer. Mindy saved my butt on some disco'ed parts. -R

West Central - about 45 minutes north of Abilene. "God's country".....LOL I make it sound worse than it is. I truly love it here. But it has it's trade-offs - like everything else.

JD - Then you know that God-awful feeling. To those of you that don't know it, I pray you never find out. It's horrible. And what was worse was it took me a week to kill this thing. I ended up with 7 glue traps, 3 plastic snap traps, 1 live (small) animal trap, and 1 bad-azz wood (old style finger breaker) rat trap - and a mouse trap in case he had friends. All inside the coach at once and all baited with peanut butter, dog food, and even some KFC. I found him in the morning just under the coach. I think he was working on a nest in the engine bay when he bit it. But for a week, I went to bed every night knowing he was in there destroying the wiring. It's not easy living out here in rural Texas. In 90 days between October 1 and December 31 of 2016, I killed 284 wood rats and 49 rattlesnakes between my shop and my little parking lot. That was my best record in the 24 years I have been here.

JD - It's small consolation, but comforting to know, I am not the only one dealing with these "problems". When I opened the coach up last week and walked inside and saw 6" hunks of wire on the floor, my stomach just sank. I've put hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars (and a lot of love) in this coach in the 2 years we've owned it trying to get it back in shape - and still have yet to spend a single night in it. Now this. And what's worse is, I know he was in the dash and that is where the hunk(s) of wire came from. I know I have to go take it apart to assess the damage, but right now, I just can't bring myself to do it. I'm afraid of what I'm going to find. Just makes you want to cry.

Snap trap baited with peanut butter and placed where it is accessible to the mouse but not the dog. Got this wood rat that has torn up my wiring last week. I've probably killed a thousand of these, but this is the first one that ever made it INTO the coach. Still assessing damage. Wood rats - the most destructive rodent out there. A single wood rat will destroy a vehicle in one night.

BINGO! Thank you, Larry. I watched the video of an RF Mogul system being installed and they were replacing a MotoSAT system. There it was......those screws were for mounting RAILS, and that 9 pin connector is clearly the power connector for the MotoSAT controller inside the coach. Grampy OG was spot on! Look at page 58 of the J1 MotoSAT installation manual. Clear as a bell - 9 pin connector and all. So, you had a MotoSAT, and someone removed it. Mystery solved. Next! LOL

I'm not sure if this will help, or not.......but you SHOULD have a forward "power distribution" box. It is a black box with 3 white nylon wing nuts. It is fed from the chassis battery disconnect, which in my coach *IS* in the RF basement. I would suggest that if you can find this distribution box, the disconnect should be next to it. I've seen references to it where they put in on the other side of the coach as well. Then again, someone may have removed the disconnect switch like they did in mine before I purchased it. What a PITA that was! Good luck finding Waldo! -R

There are 2. The first is a unit called a "MiFi" (Mobile WiFi). AT&T sells them. I have one and it is a little bigger than a pack of smokes. They use a Netgear "Aircard" Model 781S device, and it connects to the cell tower using a "data link", like your cell phone. It is reliable, and I have not run out of bandwidth on it. I think AT&T added $10 or $15 per month to my cell bill to add it with my unlimited data plan. It is fast, portable, and cheap. It plugs into any 110V outlet in your house/motorhome, and is really easy to move between the 2 (unplug and put it in your pocket). AT&T will assign it a phone number, but you can't get/receive calls. You can get SMS messages, but you have to physically look at the MiFi device and look at the "messages" option. We don't use that feature. It also has no Ethernet cable connection. The second option is something AT&T sold us to replace our landline when they told us they weren't maintaining copper cable phone service out here anymore. I asked them what they suggested, and they said to go to "Digital Home Phone Service". I didn't know what this was, so I asked and they said it is abasically a box that emulates a hard wired landline, but it uses the cell towers, and has internet capability. We ordered it and subscribed to the service. Sure enough a "box" came in the mail. It is about the size of 2 packs of smokes. Again, all you do is plug it in anywhere. Then your RJ-11 equipment plugs into it. In my case, we have a home office system with remote phones all over the house. AT&T then ports your old landline number over to it, so you don't even have to change phone numbers. It also has the added feature of internet connectivity via WiFi. Like your phone, and the MiFi unit above, they all act like a hot spot using the digital tower links. The only drawbacks are 1.) it doesn't have any way to hardwire an Ethernet cable and make it work like a modem. And 2.) it only has 10 WiFi ports (we run out of them all the time around here with the wife and kid all watching movies and playing games). When we travel, I unplug the Digital Home Phone box and plug it into the motorhome basement outlet (coach is factory hardwired for RJ-11). That way we take our home phone with us no matter where we go, and we always have internet connectivity with us so long as there is cell service. I also gave up the satellite dish and went with Roku (Wifi) instead. You can get these at Wallyworld. It works, and it's cheap. Hope this helps. -R

Jim, I have never had a coach that had tank heaters, so this is new to me (hence my "what is a tank pad" question). I've been thinking about this a lot since yesterday, and one of the questions that came to mind is "IF" someone had tank pads, do you still need to winterize if you turn on the tank pads and keep a space heater going inside the coach? I too have the tank pad relay in the wet bay, and all the wiring and CB is there. My wet bay heater works too, but the tank pad relay isn't controlled by the snap disk, only the wet bay heater (see below). The system heat switch powers the relay for the tank pads. But I purchased this unit used, and I don't know if it came with the tank pad option. I need to check this out, and I will before winter. The guy that owned the coach before me neglected to winterize. He said he just drained the fresh water tank (which he didn't). So after I purchased it, I put city water to it and WHAT A DISASTER. I had 13 leaks throughout the coach, including an in-coach fountain coming from the bathroom sink, a toilet that was all but destroyed and leaking like a sieve, busted PEX fittings, busted fixtures, all in all it was a HOT (wet) MESS. Took me a week to seal everything up and fix/rebuild the toilet and fixtures. I even had multiple leaks in the wet bay - it truly was a "wet bay". The only thing that wasn't leaking was the "shower" - LOL....go figure. Anyway, thanks for posting on the tank pads. How hard were they to install? -R

Wanna bet someone has bypassed that circuit breaker for your wet bay heater IE. feeding the wet bay heater from some other source? Possibly because the CB went bad? It would be easy enough to power the wet bay heater from the tank pad connector in the wet bay if that were the case. Not the correct solution to the problem if you ask me, but certainly possible, particularly if the pad heater relay plug is/was "empty" (no heat pad option). If you disconnected the "heat pad relay" CB wire, does the wet bay heater still function? I would hazard an educated guess and say it won't.

Got any money? LOL - just kidding. Mine came with my coach when I purchased it (used). I suppose I got lucky. It is an odd size book of diagrams, but I will go to the copy place the next time I go into town (next week), and get it copied for you, and send it out. Send me a PM with your address, and you should get it within a week or 2.

I have them? LOL - News to me.

Found it. I also think the "Sys Heat" may be the heater in the wet bay. But I have no idea what a "Tank Pad Relay" could be.

If you believe the label on mine, it is power for the 30A Optional Sofa, which I don't have. They even left the circuit breaker out. But if I was looking to solve the mystery, I would look for the "Optional Sofa" plug and do a continuity test (which I may do someday as well, if I can ever find the plug). Prolly find this blue wire goes to it. That would solve (my) mystery wire. Prolly yours as well since these coaches are almost identical.

2004 37PCT, just went out and took this pic for ya.

I can certainly understand why (now). LOL God, did I feel stupid.

Last weekend, spent an HOUR trying to figure out why there was no power coming from my EMS to the A/C's. Everything looked good, voltage to both legs of the 50 Amp service were good, all breakers looked good, but EMS was dead. Tried to start the generator, no crank. Started coach engine, then started generator, no EMS, no A/C's. Took cover off transfer switch, power in, power out, all good. Took cover off EMS breaker panel, checked 12 Volt fuse - dead, nada, zip, zilch, dead as roadkill. Thinking, thinking, thinking.......and then it came to me......I had shut off the Salesman's switch when I parked the coach at the storage facility. Turned the switch on, EMS powered up, A/C's came on, and everything was fine. As my mother used to tell me....."For a smart man, you can sure do some dumb s**t.". Lesson learned.

Yours may be different, but in mine, the HW bypass valve does NOT shut off pressure to the HW tank. I think it is there only to stop water from flowing through it. But there "SHOULD BE" isolation valves on both the inlet and outlet from the HW heater. I would look for these and shut them off. UPDATE: I should not have posted that. I'm flushing my WH this weekend and found the problem. My check valve is defective. So when I put the WH in bypass mode, I still get water flowing through it if I pressurize the water system (it backflows from the WH outlet past the broken check valve and flows into the WH). Your WH should isolate like other posters have said by simply putting the WH in bypass mode. Sorry for the confusion. Ordering check valve today. If it wasn't for your post, I probably wouldn't have looked into this. Thank you. Mine uses a Lakeview bypass valve, and looks exactly like Scotty Hutto's picture below.