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2002 Dip, first MH to cut our teeth on


JDCrow

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Good morn, I fell upon this site a few weeks ago and have been pouring over all the info here, many thanks to those who post and have added tech tips. I'll try and read before I ask to many questions.

We bought the 02 Dip to test the MH life. We currently sold our home and moved into our 5vr and needed a different RV for travel. We have few AC here in our hometown for a home base as we still own a biz here, but would like to be warm a few months a year.

Anyway, picked up the Dip, 34' and have done a few Mods/upgrade. I had an icemaker leak it I believe as the tile was cracked and floor spongy. So out it came and new sub floor and plank installed. We also cut the bed down 5 3/4" while it was out. Rear Slide was missing lags to re-adjusted and set with new screws also. New couch on order. Going to Paint two kitchen cabinets next week, along with new shower pan. We removed the old shower completely, and the wall that divided the bathroom from the bed room. 

I also bypassed the Primer pump for the Capps injection with a FASS pump that is situated between Primary and secondary pump. Works great.

New LED lights going inside this weekend, along with a new transfer switch (thanks here for all the info on IOTA switch, having GFI issues when I got home and put coach on shore power)

Also got an alignment yesterday. It was an insanely scary ride home from AZ to say the least and found out tires were both toes out and 1" Should help LOL.

Mods left: TRW Box, Monaco Watts front and cross bar rear. Coach has Bilsteins on front, old Monroes on rear so will those will go. AC pump is froze, so need to pull the RADS and replace pump and belts. I'd like to upgrade to a XC pro inverter, in time. Televator TV cabinet to build.

Here are some before/after pics. Will add more if anyone wants to see progress. Wife is not thrilled with the outside colors, but I consider the coach as I mentioned one to cut my teeth on before getting into something else. Grew up absolutely loving Beaver Coaches, and supose will end up with one someday. The older coaches just are solid. Trying to convince my wife of this. She loves the bling of todays stuff, I just see them as cheap.

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Edited by JDCrow
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Nice job. We have a 2003 Beaver. The more you work on an older one and the more you help people with a new one you will realize the old ones are built much better with heavier materials. One suggestion I would make. While you are doing this much work pull the old "not really cold" Norcold and install a residential refrigerator. Lots of info on this site and others. Best thing I ever did in ours. I would hate to see you just get yours finished and have it burn down.

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Ugg yeah that has crossed our minds. 
We have an residential fridge in our 5vr and love it. 
 

The thing that comes up is we are wanting to be “off grid” camping a little more. Upgrading batteries, inverter and maybe solar, get complicated.

I’ve seen the pics of burnt sides on coaches. I know it can happen. 
 

How long do you off grid? Do you use the generator much to keep batteries charged? 
 

Thanks for any help 

Mail brought more stuff 

 LED lights 

speakers

Transfer switch 

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We don't dry camp much but we do spend nights on the road with no hook ups. Goes all night with no problems at all. I do turn the icemaker off. We have a Samsung. Uses very little power. Never any problem. Using the same battery set up and inverter that came with the motorhome. Haven't seen any need to add batteries or a bigger inverter. Lots and lots of good info on the various sites including this one. Pretty sure Samsung uses less power than Norcold does on Propane. Just the four six volts and whatever inverter Beaver was using at the time. After the third recall with the Norcold I decided it wasn't worth the risk. I'm no motorhome tech but read everything I could find and took my time with it.

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3 hours ago, JDCrow said:

How long do you off grid? Do you use the generator much to keep batteries charged? 

There are folks here who really know a lot more than me, but...  I have 4 Duracell AGMGC2s (from Sam's Club) running a Samsung RF18 fridge (and several other minor loads). All of my lighting is LED, but I also have a few plug loads like phone chargers and stuff.  I know I can go about a day and a half without battery voltage dropping too low.  Yesterday, after 24hrs my battery voltage was still at 11.9.  Most recommend running the genny once a day to charge the house batteries

Someone like @Tom Cherry can give a lot better info than I can, tho...

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Thanks! We are going over Res fridge tomorrow as well as upgrading inverter and an AGS. 
 

Having dogs is a big thing for safety, so fridge and AC. 
 

I mentioned we have one in the 5vr. I have 2 banks, 1 with 2 6 volts and 1 with 4 6 volts. Put a switch between them so the fridge wouldn’t suck the batteries dry and leave us with no juice. The 5vr doesn’t have an onboard Gen or solar, I would run the 2k Yamaha for a few hours in the afternoons. 
 

I’d like to get a bit more out of the coach. So I’ll see what we come up with. 
 

thanks again 

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On 3/27/2021 at 10:30 PM, Scotty Hutto said:

There are folks here who really know a lot more than me, but...  I have 4 Duracell AGMGC2s (from Sam's Club) running a Samsung RF18 fridge (and several other minor loads). All of my lighting is LED, but I also have a few plug loads like phone chargers and stuff.  I know I can go about a day and a half without battery voltage dropping too low.  Yesterday, after 24hrs my battery voltage was still at 11.9.  Most recommend running the genny once a day to charge the house batteries

Someone like @Tom Cherry can give a lot better info than I can, tho...

MOST recommend that you run the Genny for 3 or so hours daily. That will work if you leave the Samsung on the ENERGY REDUCTION setting and turn off the icemaker. That also assumes that you turn OFF (Unplug) your Home Entertainment items such as TV, Stereo, Cable, etc). Even in Standby, they DRAW power. I have two SIMPLE (not surge) power strips that I can turn off at each one.

The other trick that Scotty talked about is converting the incandescents to LED. THEY are power hogs....as well as giving off heat. I eventually will probably convert the Fluorescents to LED, but for the interim, I use them sparingly. there is NOT a whole lot of difference in the lumens per watt for LED vs Fluorescent.....but incandescent pulls maybe 5 times the amps (or 5X the watts) for the same light output.

As far as batteries goes, I am old school. I have not converted to AGM's, but many have and are very HAPPY. The one thing, PERSONAL, that I found out....the Inverter MUST be properly configured or you will toast the AGM's. The wet cell (I am a  Trojan believer) will not be as prone to be fried or killed with a bad configuration or a faulty inverter. NOW.....most, and I was one of them, think that the Magnum is invincible. It AIN'T....but it is really robust. I started having an issue with the power blipping off and such when I switched from Line to Inverter. Kept experimenting and troubleshooting and had LONG conversations with Magnum. I had to replace the Inverter Controller. There was a glitch or broken electrical component in the Controller. You can ACTUALLY run the MH without a controller....you just loose all the functions such as monitoring and setting the AGS and fine tuning it. The Default Inverter "control" program is for wet and 450 amp hours and such (read the manual). 

My advice....make SURE that you fully understand HOW the inverter works and HOW to properly configure for an AGM. If this is all Greek to you and you don't know how to do that or can't understand when the Magnum Tech Support tells you, then I would advise NOT installing AGM's. AGM's have come a LONG way....and I assume that the newer inverters might be more "AGM Friendly". BUT, after I lost my controller and had to replace it, It would NOT have surprised me that a set of AGM's would have been ruined. I made sure that my new Trojans were NOT damaged and exercised them and got them up to 100% capacity. 

SO....just be aware that putting in a set of AGM's ain't like changing from bias beleted tires to Radial....and there is no need to worry or understand or make sure that your inverter is working....

Scotty's 11.9 VDC is about as LOW as is recommended. YES, the Trojan and other charts say that 12.0 VDC is 50% drained and we have been schooled (beaten to death) to know that one should NEVER, REPEATEDLY go below 50% SOC. BUT, that is measured at the Controller (Magnum in my case). SO, the actual voltage at the battery will be 0.1 - 0.15 VDC higher.....  Therefore, 11.9 is typically WHERE an AGS should be set to get a little longer life or usage out of a charge. 

Hope this helps....

 

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You do great work.  But don't understand you last post and your pictures.

The IOTA 50R is the fire hazard ATS. It was recalled by many manufactures and it has stranded folks and caught fire. Your pictures show it.

You also show, in pervious pictures, a Surge Guard device. Can't tell from the print and such if that is your NEW ATS.

The RV shops usually (or the big ones) install an ESCO LPT50BRD. That is a a PLAIN and simple and robust ATS.

Folks here usually run a Progressive HW50C upstream (do NOT PUT IT DOWNSTREAM) of the ATS. It is field serviceable. 

As to the GFCI. If you have a GFCI breaker or a GFCI receptacle, REPLACE THEM. You should use a 20 Amp Receptacle. That was factory. Whatever the GFCI Breaker, if you have that layout, match the brand and the amperage. The GFCI's will get hold and crotchety. They will trip for no good rason.

After you replace your GFCI (receptacle or Breaker), if you have continuing issues, then you have a wiring issue such as a HOT or High Resistance connection in one of the receptacles. This imbalances the load on the Neutral vs the Hot and the GFCI trips. HARD to trace down....but that is what one must do.

Provide a little more content about your GFCI issue, but for the interim....start with a NEW one. I recommend the Eaton (Cooper?) Wiring Devices 20 amp standard GFCI Lowes has them. only certain brands work and the Eaton (used to be Cooper) are great.

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Sorry didn’t mean for it to be confusing 

I didn’t post a pic of the finished product as it’s not finished, I had to temp wire the plug as it’s cracked on the outside lid, and a new one on the way. I need some ideas on how to run the wire from conduit. To me it looks a bit unfinished. Aside from putting the EMS in a box, I’m at a loss. 

Iota came out. Reading here told me it was a fire hazaard

Surge guard went back as it arrived broken. 
 

The progressive (Go Power) was installed. I put the EMS before the transfer switch, to take care of shore power. 
 

GFI receptacle is a new 20Amp, it’s in a bad spot, to my eye,  though the bathroom the wall is narrow and the box is a retro fit. 
 

The Neutral wire on that receptacle is a little brown on the end. So will check all the receptacles and tighten wires/replace. 
 

Thanks for your help! I’ll re-read what you posted when I get off work and see how to apply.  

Edited by JDCrow
Here is what I have in the power bay:
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Here is what I have in the power bay:

the TS-50 transfer switch, looked for an Esco, they are back ordered. I read about the hum from other switches, I don’t hear it on the GO Power, or I’m deaf.

The Power Watch Dog is Up Stream, or ahead of the transfer Switch, even though it looks after as it’s toward the front. The wires that ran into the old Iota were only so long. 
 

You can see my temp wiring for shore power, like I mentioned, the cover was broke. 
 

The wires going into the Watch dog to me look unfinished coming out of the Carflex conduits.

any suggestions? 

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Here is the GFI in bathroom.

The connected outlets are so random in the coach. The outlet by cooktop is on same circuit, along with the main slide. (Main slide is pic of outlet)

But, outlet opposite the slide is on separate circuit, as is bedroom, except for the TV, it’s on the GFI circuit. Both TVs in fact are on GFI circuit. 
 

There is a GFI in at least 1  bay as well. 

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Edited by JDCrow
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9 hours ago, JDCrow said:

Another package in the mail:

The bedroom slide luan has delaminated , and one of the rollers has cracked it.

These are the 12” plate fixes. Nice stuff

 

 

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make sure that you do not have an issues with crown molding or such along the top of the slide. If that slide has adjustable rollers, you may have to drop them down. I installed the plates where the rollers were fixed and just small plastic ones. I had to pull the top crown molding or the piece where the slide runs under and take off about 1/4". I say that as I put the plates on and then took a LONG trip I actually had hand sand and add some clearance in the field. Eventually, even though is was a lot better, the inference or friction of the top of the slide killed one of the cables and it had to be replaced....which was a PITA and way beyond my skill set and the tech had to totally disassemble the wardrobe slide and replace the cable and then down the header or the piece of wood that was over the side. 

 

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