Odd Vorad question

[Brett63]

Here is a question.

When driving down the highway (Vorad is turned off) I start the generator the Vorad turns back on and in so doing locks out the cruise control.

If I pull over and stop and turn the engine off (generator still running) and start it back up, turn the Voard off and take off the cruise will work again.

If after starting the gen and the vorad comes back on, I then turn the Vorad off and secure the gen the cruise still will not work.

This just started this a couple weeks ago.

As long as I 1. either start the gen before starting the engine the cruise will work 2. don't start the gen at all the cruise will work

 

What would cause the Vorad to come on and turn the cruise off if I start the gen while driving down the road?

09 Signature

[Frank McElroy]

I don't have a direct answer but I do have a hunch.

You have a chassis multiplex coach and because of high parasitic current draw, Monaco configured the engine to start from the chassis batteries but the front dash control switches to work off the house batteries.  I also think that the generator starts from the house batteries.  A weak big boy could allow a low house battery voltage while starting the generator and this in effect could glitch either the CCM chassis multiplex control module or the vorad module. 

Make a battery cable to directly connect the house and chassis battery positive terminals to in effect bypass big boy and if this fixes your problem, clean the big boy relay.

 

[Ivylog]

I’d try holding the boost down before starting the generator…agree your need to check the voltage on either side of it when engaged. The cruise will not work if the Vorad is not working.

[Yoaks5]

I have a simular issue on both the 04 and my current 06 navigator. If I turn the gen on with the motor running it will fault out my vorad cruise and it won't work until I shut the key off and back on. I talked to Rick Youngblood (one of the original engineers) and he said the vorad system is very suspect to voltage spikes and thought starting the gen was most likely causing one and that faults the vorad.

I just rebuilt my big boy so it'll be interesting to see if that fixed it. If I'm going to be using the gen I just start it first before the motor. We normally travel with it on so we can run the ac.

[Brett63]

UPDATE:

Ok, apparantly I have two issues. 1. I guess the charger button got pushed turning the charger off and we didn't catch it OR it turned off on it's own somehow and 2. it appears maybe I am having Big Boy issues.

So here is what happened, as stated a few days ago I went to start the gen while driving and the Vorad turned on and I lost the cruise control. We only had a couple hour run so I didn't worry about it. We stopped for a week and plugged in and went about our business. Yesterday we left from that sopt and drove about 3 hours and I once again went to start the gen while driving, but it acted like it didn't want to start. Ffinally it did and the Vorad again turned on and again I lost my cruise control. So I pulled over, shut the coach down, started it back up and all good. We drove all day yesterday then with the Gen running. We pulled in last night, plugged the coach in and came inside. Today I think ok I will outsmart the system so I pulled the fuse fromt he Vorad knowing then that when i started the gen it would not effect the Vorad.....We got on the road and I went to set the cruise and nothing. That is when I learned that apparantly if you have no fuse in the Vorad system your cruise control will not work. So We stopped and I put the fuse back and and poof, cruise works. A couple hours later I go to start the gen and today it won't start, I try it a couple times and nothing. We can't hear it at all, so all  have is the flashing switch light to tell me if it is running. So I have my wife get up and look at the Magnum remote and we see the batts are at 10.3v and the fault light is on....Ok, so house batts completely dead. Chasis batts are ok. So it pretty much has to be the Big Boy.

As we keep driving I start losing all dash functions, then I get an ABS light and a message of lost comms, shortly there after I see I have no turn signals, no head lights, no smart wheel, no brake lights, no nothing just the engine running. We have 50 miles to go to get to the CG and it is daylight so we continue on. We get to the campground and learn something else, you can't get the door open as there is no 12v to tell the system to empty the doors air bladder.....I finally get it open so we can check in and I get to thinking hell we can't open the slides or anything.

We finally get in the site and I leave the engine running and go out and plug in and we begin to bulk charge, the dash comes back to life, the door air bladder deflates so we can open/close the door and the slides work.

Lesson, on a chasis multiplex Monaco when you lose your house batts, you lose EVERYTHING. You cannot start the gen either as it starts off the house batts. SO I have now made up a 2/0 cable that fits between the house and chassis batts as an interim so that everything will stay charged tomorrow (although I will probably just start the gen before the coach and let it run tomorrow) this will get us back to our home lot inf FL and allow me some time for figure it all out.

You guys with the non chasis multiplex coaches sure are lucky.....lol

[Ivylog]

6 hours ago, Ivylog said:

The cruise will not work if the Vorad is not working.

Guess you learned this. The BIRD system tells the BigBoy when to engage…should be hot to the touch. While hooked to shore power I’d see if it’s hot-engaged. If it’s hot then the contacts need cleaning. If not hot then I’d start by checking the fuses on the BIRD board to the right of it. 

[Frank McElroy]

1 hour ago, Brett63 said:

UPDATE:

Ok, apparantly I have two issues. 1. I guess the charger button got pushed turning the charger off and we didn't catch it OR it turned off on it's own somehow and 2. it appears maybe I am having Big Boy issues.

So here is what happened, as stated a few days ago I went to start the gen while driving and the Vorad turned on and I lost the cruise control. We only had a couple hour run so I didn't worry about it. We stopped for a week and plugged in and went about our business. Yesterday we left from that sopt and drove about 3 hours and I once again went to start the gen while driving, but it acted like it didn't want to start. Ffinally it did and the Vorad again turned on and again I lost my cruise control. So I pulled over, shut the coach down, started it back up and all good. We drove all day yesterday then with the Gen running. We pulled in last night, plugged the coach in and came inside. Today I think ok I will outsmart the system so I pulled the fuse fromt he Vorad knowing then that when i started the gen it would not effect the Vorad.....We got on the road and I went to set the cruise and nothing. That is when I learned that apparantly if you have no fuse in the Vorad system your cruise control will not work. So We stopped and I put the fuse back and and poof, cruise works. A couple hours later I go to start the gen and today it won't start, I try it a couple times and nothing. We can't hear it at all, so all  have is the flashing switch light to tell me if it is running. So I have my wife get up and look at the Magnum remote and we see the batts are at 10.3v and the fault light is on....Ok, so house batts completely dead. Chasis batts are ok. So it pretty much has to be the Big Boy.

As we keep driving I start losing all dash functions, then I get an ABS light and a message of lost comms, shortly there after I see I have no turn signals, no head lights, no smart wheel, no brake lights, no nothing just the engine running. We have 50 miles to go to get to the CG and it is daylight so we continue on. We get to the campground and learn something else, you can't get the door open as there is no 12v to tell the system to empty the doors air bladder.....I finally get it open so we can check in and I get to thinking hell we can't open the slides or anything.

We finally get in the site and I leave the engine running and go out and plug in and we begin to bulk charge, the dash comes back to life, the door air bladder deflates so we can open/close the door and the slides work.

Lesson, on a chasis multiplex Monaco when you lose your house batts, you lose EVERYTHING. You cannot start the gen either as it starts off the house batts. SO I have now made up a 2/0 cable that fits between the house and chassis batts as an interim so that everything will stay charged tomorrow (although I will probably just start the gen before the coach and let it run tomorrow) this will get us back to our home lot inf FL and allow me some time for figure it all out.

You guys with the non chasis multiplex coaches sure are lucky.....lol

Brett, since on your coach you don't have a house battery voltmeter on the dash to monitor the house battery voltage while driving, it would be good idea to add one.   If I'm not mistaken, the dash cigarette lighter is powered by the house batteries.  A voltmeter plugged into this outlet would allow you to monitor the house batteries while driving.  With house batteries powering dash controls, it is critical that chassis multiplex coaches like yours charge both the chassis and house batteries while driving.  Being able to monitor house and chassis battery voltages from the driver's seat is important to give you a heads up that you have a battery charging problem before systems start shutting down.

[vito.a]

I'm surprised.  The generator should start from the chassis (engine start) batteries.  The theory is when camping you are using the house batteries until they get low.  Then you still have the chassis battery to start the generator or main engine. 

I also agree.  With these big coaches and the 12.5k (or 10k) generator you can depress the Boost switch when cranking the generator.  

I've had the generator cause a Vorad fault several times, especially if it is very hot outside.  You can depress Cruise on/off and Set (both buttons simultaneously) on the smart wheel three times and the cruise will start working.  

Even though I don't care for the Kongsburg multiplex, I still envy you having a 2009 Signature.  It is the last of the big Monaco's.  Maybe you just need to learn Norwegian!