DBRV.0

This note is for all you avid readers. the curious, or adventurous. Jay and I talked, and I pointed out that for my setup, there the OEM TV (Sharp) has two HDMI inputs. All are located on the TV in the upper right corner at the rear. Jay wanted to connect his Fire Stick to an HDMI port on the TV. However, I pointed out that my OEM configuration is using both HDMI ports, thus there are already two HDMI cables. The other end of both are in the AV (stereo) cabinet over the passenger seat. If I recall, one is for a satellite (DirecTV on mine), and one is for a DVD player. As a tip, I believe that going to my TV's menu setup, that ports with a connection were enabled and used a bolder font, while unused connections could not be selected. My TV is currently out and ready for disposal. - Jeff

Very understandable! Recently, I was in the belly of my beast and was looking at the PEX lines for the water supply. Visually, I thought I could see 3/8 and 1/2, but when I fetched my digital calipers, I found everything to be the same. Very deceiving. And they are all 1/2" PEX B, and even my flexible nylon-reinforced water hose reel supply line is 1/2. If you think you have 3/8 somewhere and need to be sure, I encourage you to measure again, for a washing machine should want a flow greater than something minor such as a sink, and even my sinks use 1/2.

Oh, and if you are curious about the 12V outlet, this is the outlet: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C5X5Q1NN And this is an example of a pre-made cord (I can make my own of any length): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B48TT9LK As I check my devices, I am amazed at how many electronic pieces use 12V wall-warts (transformers). My desk computer even uses 12V. When powering DC things directly with DC, there are no conversion loss, no transformers, no load on the AC (electrical) system. There can be 100% up time.

A couple of months ago I bought 3 and installed 1 next to the living room sofa. Only 1 because it was a test. The brand is Bryant, which is an offshoot of Leviton, or something similar. First issue was that the wall has is no receptacle box - the original receptacle for mine has "wings" that draw the receptacle tight against plywood. Basically, you have to have a method to mount the new receptacle into a square hole in plywood. I grew tired of the new USB-capable receptacle and replaced it with a standard outlet. My peeve is that the USB holes were too close to plugs, so rarely could I have 2 AC plugs and even one USB cord. I have located a 12V source under the kitchen sink, and will soon run a wire from there to a dedicated 12V USB wall outlet right next to my AC receptacle. And while I am at it, I am going to also add a 12V XT-60 wall-mounted connector next to the USB outlet, so I have a handy 12V outlet where I can plug a cord to support 12V powered devices. - Jeff

Apparently not. I am stationary, but tried everything with the ignition 'on'. For mine, the Lo/High fan speed control at the left of the driver controls the defrost/windshield fan at all times, regardless of the dashboard HVAC settings - specifically the Defrost option.

Hmm. That is an excellent idea. While my cabinet is open, perhaps I should look into that on mine. I'm too new to know the details about how defrost affects it. Thanks.

Kent: after thinking about your situation overnight, I would suggest that it may be easiest to remove or service the motor by removing the TV, if indeed you have one. By removing, you will have convenient access instead of working with lots of encumbrances. Here is a summary of the steps I took to remove mine: I removed the rear access panel. I removed the cabinet speaker and camera because they were in the way. I unplugged the TV and all of the HDMI cables and sound cables so when the TV was released, wiring would not hold it back. I removed four 10mm bolts on the rear of the TV that held it up against a metal mounting bracket. I believe your coach and mine were both built in the same facility, so I expect both to share a lot. In mine, I have found that the multi-speed fan blower under the kitchen sink is the same as the multi-speed overhead windshield/dash blower you reference. Coincidentally, yesterday I removed my kitchen motor for replacement. The motor is a 4 wire motor with a 5/16" double shaft. The following image is from the motor body. Of the 4 motor wires, black is negative and the other 3 are positive. In my testing, my voltmeter indicated that all of the 3 were operating at 12V, not 24V. Perhaps the coach builder wants the motor to turn slower? I don't know the answer, but I ordered the following: https://www.ebay.com/itm/292361083321 In a week, I should find out if I will end up with a good replacement.

If you look it up, you will find that #1 diesel is often exchanged with kerosene. There is a technical difference, but they are normally interchangeable, so whatever you can find can be used. As far as severe cold, we discovered a couple of weeks ago with strong northern winds and temp in the teens, that we encountered frozen water lines. Windshield was facing the wind, thus Aqua Hot was at the other end in my Monaco. For me, the bay adjacent (next to) the AH was empty. My infrared thermometer told me that some pex lines were 29 degrees as well as the fresh water tank was 29 degrees. That tank sits on the floor, and the floor was exposed to the wind. I don't know if it was a standard configuration since the P.Owner said the AH was replaced a couple of years ago, but we have an auxiliary AH-supplied heat exchanger in the water bay. However the exchanger is not central in the bay - it sits next to a bay door on one end. What I did to defrost everything was I placed and plugged in an AC window fan in the empty bay. The bay divider was open between the empty and the water bay, and the fan circulated air. I added a hand-held heat gun to provide extra heat into the air and everything was operational in half an hour.

I have an 09 Monaco Dynasty, which is probably exactly like yours, or nearly so. I think Garry meant "cabinet" to read "TV cabinet". My TV cabinet is front and center over the dash. In the back of my TV, between the woodwork and shades, is an access panel. Mine is wood and snap-in, although I have heard that some may have screws. Behind the panel is the blower motor with ducts going in all directions, including driver's front corner and passenger's front corner. The motor is screwed/anchored onto the horizontal ceiling over the front shades. If you really want to get the motor out, you may be required to remove the TV- if you have one. If this does not describe your setup, see if you can include a photo of what you have. p.s. With the current age of mine, I am finding more and more "permanently lubricated" electric motor bearings squealing due to lack of lubrication. If you are skilled, you may be able to force lubrication without motor surgery, but my experience is that it only lasts a short while. For your windshield blower, perhaps that will last the rest of the winter. Otherwise, the longest surviving solution may be to pull it out, get dimensions or a part number, then replace. ebay seems to have quite a few fan blower motors.

Good to know. Mine happens to be Magnum pure sine. It would be interesting to understand why some things, like blankets, have an issue with modified sine, as well as symptoms that indicate a problem - like non-functional, or other control issues such as lack of temperature stability.

The schematic has an amazing amount of detail - shows that it is a complex HVAC system. I appreciate your mentioning of a hidden piece (brain) to the puzzle. Certainly gives me a lot of valuable reference material. Thank you!

On the topic of tips ... here's another. If you wish to allow your RV to cool down at night but you want to remain warm, consider what we have done. We were gifted with an electric 'throw' blanket big enough to cover just the top of a double bed. It was designed to shut off after a couple of hours, but that was enough to convince us to buy a mattress-cover electric blanket with separate controls for each side, and could stay on all night. We now turn the electric on an hour before retiring. When we crawl in, it is all nice and toasty, while everything has minimal heating overnight.

Actually, the P. Owner said he chose to replace the AH a year before I bought it. I've had it a year, so yes, it is a newer AH, maybe newer than you knew. Nice to see that the AH control box in the basement has some nifty features, including a Diagnostic mode which shows every pump status, a Test mode for manually control of features, water temp, and some other things. AH seems to call it 'Reporter 2". PO said replacement cost $10k. Ouch. Diesel heat didn't work when I bought it and I haven't diverted enough of my time to investigate the AH, as well as to improve diesel quality. Maybe this week. I found a couple of excellent tutorials by Darren on YT channel 'My RV Works'.

Hey Tom, I've tried reading your details, but sometimes I can't translate words into an understanding. I guess I'm more of a visual person. This is not @grizzly's setup, but is what I understand of mine. Perhaps you can review and comment? The attached image is the extent of my understanding of my configuration. Maybe AC units are reverse numbered, but in tinkering with the topside (roof) telephone data cables, they behaved like there was a communication chain as shown in red. When cleaning telephone wire contacts, we cut AC power from the unit being worked on. Then and now, the telephone data cable out of AC3 is disconnected and all seems to work correctly. It would be nice to know what it does. We never did a thermostat "reset", but perhaps that happened by default if power was cut to it. This morning, I accessed AC3 interior and found telephone wires and a connector inside (picture shown). Don't know where the wires/cables go. Don't know if they are related to the topside telephone wires. Also in the schematic, I don't know if the temp sensors are chained, or a home-run wire to the thermostat, so I show no wiring. You seem to know boatloads about the setup. Perhaps you can clarify? Thanks, Jeff.

I understand your interpretation, and I hope your are right. Mine is that cold air blowing means cold fluid, and cold fluid means no heat source, not just minimal heat source. A 50 degree interior is mighty cold, but one item missing was a statement of what the outside temp was. I also don't know his AH system and how much electric capacity it may have. I have noted with our 600D on electric only, I can keep the interior in the mid-60s on nights that drop well into the 30s. Electric only is not what I want, but what I have to currently work with.

Tom, To be clear, your instructions are from the inside?? When I bought my used Dynasty with 3 AC units, the units that would fail to run intermittently, so my son and I went up on the roof and did something similar to your description. Once the corrosion was taken care of (the 4-wire "telephone" data cables) all was good. I haven't looked inside - are you saying that mine also has interior data cables? If so, is there something I can read so I understand the logistics to be able to effectively diagnose in times of trouble? For example, what is the "path" of data? And why does the first unit have 2 cables and the last unit have 2 cables if they are all daisy chained together? - Jeff

As I re-read @Bigdogracing's initial entry, it seems that his problem is that heating stops. He doesn't say that heat is insufficient. I'm sure he appreciates, as well as I appreciate, the comments regarding preferred heat source. I don't have the knowledge, but perhaps someone can guide him in getting his problem fixed?

What's a "mini PC" you ask? This is my current unit; a powerful and fast desktop computer. This has 32GB RAM and 1TB SSD inside. Runs on 12V. I've been considering using the new front 4k TV as my monitor, at least part-time.

Good question; I thought about writing earlier, but figured it didn't matter. I have now conceded that removal is not as simple as removing the TV cabinet, so they are going to stay in place and I will work with them as-is. Here were/are some of the planned actions. 1) After removing the TV cabinet, I found insulation behind the cabinets lacking, so wanted to ensure I could improve the conditions as much as possible. 2) I am replacing the TV. The new one can use HDMI, Ethernet, OTA coax. I need to run all of those from the AV box to the TV. 3) I will be incorporating an ethernet switch, an LTE Home Internet box, Apple TV box, HDMI switcher, ethernet NAS, maybe a mini PC, other small ethernet devices, UPS unit, and would like to organize them effectively without making a wiring mess by shoving or stacking them on each other in the AV box. 4) To help work item (3), I was hoping to create a new storage area behind the cabinet in the corner to the right side of the TV. I would have removed the cabinet and added a door on the back to access devices on a shelf or whatever, or for wiring changes. Items selected for placement there between the cabinet and windshield would need to be insensitive to temperature swings. At this point I am trying to identify, then pull out all of the DirecTV components and wiring, which I will never use. - Jeff [edit: I also want to provide 12V "ports" so I can eliminate at least a few of those AC wall-wart transformers. I will wire directly from a port to the electronic device if it uses 12V]

Yes, they are tight and my putty knives seem to work well. I have some that are a mm or two in thickness and are very rigid - almost like a chisel. In contrast, the ones I use here are very thin metal and springy/flexible/bendable. I insert them flush with the vinyl, so as not to catch. Years ago when doing car body work, they were my go-to to spread bondo.

I would guess that a magnet and/or putty knife would find them. Interesting approach. Then how did you re-attach? It is into wood or metal? The cabinets were easier than removing the driver's seat? On mine, the window top is slightly above the bottom of the cabinets.

Any thoughts on how to address that? With that, although not efficient, it seems that the path of least resistance for cabinet modifications and re-wiring would be in-situ.

I have removed the center overhead TV cabinet on my '09 Monaco Dynasty. On the passenger's corner, are now 3 cabinets. Referencing my picture, the left is an empty box, the center is for coach electronic gauges, and the right is for AV. I would like to remove the left and center pieces. I am wits' end, in trying to figure out how they are attached. Left cabinet/box: I removed two screws on the back (from the rear) of the box (photo note #4) where it is attached to the dash ceiling. There are no attachment points between the front edge of the cabinet and ceiling (I tested with a putty knife). There are no attachments on the back side (it is open air). There are no attachments on the box top rear (towards windshield) where I can run my hand and visually inspect. That box appears to run to intersect the coach wall above the entrance door. I can shake it hard and it only has a hint of movement. Center cabinet/box: I removed three screws that connect the walls of left box and center box (photo note #1). My putty knife has found only one front attachment point (photo note #2), but there is no visible screw. Interior or exterior, I find no other points of attachment. Right cabinet/box: I have observed two screws that anchor the rightmost vertical interior rear edge of the box to the coach wall (photo note #3). I have not removed them, because there appears to be other unseen anchor points to be determined; besides, this box can remain in place if possible. Anyone with knowledge or experience or ideas? - Jeff p.s. With great interest, I read "Front Cabinets shook loose", by @Jobert. What concerned me was a statement by @RNMCBR that cabinets may have been installed before the roof. If so, what a maintenance nightmare!

I'm going to return to my younger days when we had carburetors, points and condensers. I had a VW bug that would buzz the radio speaker in my dash. The faster the engine rpm, the higher pitch of the buzz. That's when I learned about quality spark plug wires. I don't suppose that both of your gennys are gas, are they? Therefore they use spark plugs? The physical reason for the interaction with speakers is that bad (or damaged) plug wires create EMF, and speakers by their nature are designed to amplify small (micro) currents, including those caused by induction (from the EMF). There are three ways I can think of to fix the problem. (1) use high quality spark plug wires, or perhaps just replace if they are old or damaged, (2) twist the speaker wires, (3) move speaker wires farther away from the EMF source.

I understand the durability of direct burial, but haven't yet determined if plenum would be appropriate if I end up utilizing the HVAC ducts. Any details available? -------------------------- Does anyone have information on the crown molding? Is there an air gap behind it? For example, in my sticks-n-bricks home, I had crown molding that was a piece of trim at a 45 degree angle, which left a triangle-shaped void behind the wood. - Jeff