Maiden voyage question....

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chopshop

chopshop

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 18, 2018
Posts
82
Location
Florence AZ
Took the MH on its maiden voyage this weekend; 3 days, 500 miles and everything worked flawless...except...
When we got home, I noticed the coach main switch by the door was not on (red light wasn't on). I stopped to fuel up 50 miles prior to my house,  and it was working at that time. After I noticed the switch wasn't working we proceeded to unload the coach, did some chores around the house, etc...
After about an hour after being home, I went back into coach and tried the switch again, and this time it worked, the red light was on. I'm baffled now and can't figure out what may have caused this. Note, I'm located in central AZ and it's as hot as nails here today, could that have anything to do with it??
It should be noted that we were boondocking on our trip and running the generator periodically. Battery indicator showed the batteries at full charge for most of weekend.
 
The relay could be bad or corroded see picture below. I do not know where it is on your rig but on mine it is under the hood in the electric control panel. There are usually 2 of them one for the chassis one for the house
They can be made to work again with minimal effort but most just replace
 

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darsben said:
The relay could be bad or corroded see picture below. I do not know where it is on your rig but on mine it is under the hood in the electric control panel. There are usually 2 of them one for the chassis one for the house
They can be made to work again with minimal effort but most just replace
Click to expand...

Excellent, I'll see if I can find the relay, I'll start under the hood as well. We're yours in an enclosed containment box or just out in the open?
 
darsben said:
Enclosed compartment
If you want to try fixing PM mme and I will reply with instructions
Click to expand...

Sent you an email, after that I saw the PM button. So, you got both, sorry about that.
 
Alright guys, just checked this morning and it's not working again, I need to start this project asap. I looked under the hood and found where they are located, behind the main board.... Was watching youtube last night and I found a vid where the guy replaced one of his solenoid's, but the issue he was having was his batteries where not re-charging, so I think I'll need to replace the opposite solenoid that he did.

1st question: I know I need to disconnect the negative terminal on the chasis and house batteries. Chasis battery is simple, but the house bank of 4 batteries has me questioning this process. Which negative do I need to unhook so I know for sure that all power from the chasis batteries is dead?

2nd question: Where do I find the new solenoid that I need?
 
chopshop said:
Alright guys, just checked this morning and it's not working again, I need to start this project asap. I looked under the hood and found where they are located, behind the main board.... Was watching youtube last night and I found a vid where the guy replaced one of his solenoid's, but the issue he was having was his batteries where not re-charging, so I think I'll need to replace the opposite solenoid that he did.

1st question: I know I need to disconnect the negative terminal on the chasis and house batteries. Chasis battery is simple, but the house bank of 4 batteries has me questioning this process. Which negative do I need to unhook so I know for sure that all power from the chasis batteries is dead?

2nd question: Where do I find the new solenoid that I need?
Click to expand...

You can disconnect the negative terminal but it is not necessary. The only thing that goes to the solenoid is positive power so unhooking the positives would be my route
A new replacement can be found on EBAY, AMAZON or probably at Norris in Casa Grande.
 
Follow up..... As it turns out, it wasn't the solenoid at all! While I was unhooking the batteries (4 - 6 volt batts.) I noticed excessive corrosion on the cables leading to the battery bank from the coach, with 1 positive line not even connected anymore, corroded so bad the terminal end was broken.

I purchase new terminal ends, replaced about 4 of them, cleaned them all well, re-installed them and BAMB, everything is working smooth again.
 
Have you checked the water level in your batteries?

And if your house batteries were that bad did you check your engine battery for corrosion, etc?
 
Arch Hoagland said:
Have you checked the water level in your batteries?

And if your house batteries were that bad did you check your engine battery for corrosion, etc?
Click to expand...

Haven't checked the water levels, will prob do that this weekend. The chasis battery terminals are fine, they've been replaced last year by previous owner.
 
Arch Hoagland said:
Has the Allison 1000 transmission been converted to Transynd fluid and has the MAF ever been cleaned?
Click to expand...

Yes the Alli was converted to Transynd by the previous owner (approx 8k miles ago) and I did change the air filter and cleaned the MAF, that was the very first thing I did as far as PM goes.
 
The strange thing is that I talk to the previous owner a couple times a week now concerning the MH; he really misses it and likes to let me know what he did to it prior to me buying it from him. It's almost like we're friends now, which I would say we are....  :))
 
Ok, first thing you need to know is that red light does not tell you (necessarly) if your batteries are connectred or not. IT indicates the house systems have 12 volts... I do not shut off for gas-up. I do for propane-up.. I won't go into the science but there is a serious reason why I do it for Propane-UP.

On my RV. I once stopped for Propane and hit the switch    CLUNK. ( can hear the latching solenoid) and since I had no shore power the light went out....

Propaned up. Gasolined up and hit the switch to re-connect..... NOTHING.....

Dirty switch.. Now that is my "Suspect #1".

if you have an INtellete4c Battery Control Center under your HOOD one of the 5 amp fuses feeds that switch.

PULL that fuse (NOTE no harm if you pull the wrong fuse. just put it back) make sure the solenoid does not clunk when you press the switch and cycle it like 50 times both ways.. Use/Store/Use/Store  then put the fuse back in.

THatt's what fixed mine.
 
Sounds like you got a pretty well maintained unit.

Had a friend of mine sell his Class A a couple years ago when he turned 70, now he says he wished he'd of kept it.
 
John From Detroit said:
Ok, first thing you need to know is that red light does not tell you (necessarly) if your batteries are connectred or not. IT indicates the house systems have 12 volts... I do not shut off for gas-up. I do for propane-up.. I won't go into the science but there is a serious reason why I do it for Propane-UP.

On my RV. I once stopped for Propane and hit the switch    CLUNK. ( can hear the latching solenoid) and since I had no shore power the light went out....

Propaned up. Gasolined up and hit the switch to re-connect..... NOTHING.....

Dirty switch.. Now that is my "Suspect #1".

if you have an INtellete4c Battery Control Center under your HOOD one of the 5 amp fuses feeds that switch.

PULL that fuse (NOTE no harm if you pull the wrong fuse. just put it back) make sure the solenoid does not clunk when you press the switch and cycle it like 50 times both ways.. Use/Store/Use/Store  then put the fuse back in.

THatt's what fixed mine.
Click to expand...

I do have that same battery control center under hood, and here's the strange thing that I noticed when originally opening it up to potentially get to the solenoid...... When I took the face plate off, I noticed that there was a connection (red wire) that wasn't plugged in (top r/h side) it's a 10 amp, second one from top right.

After I fixed the battery issue's I put the battery control center back together and plugged this connector into it's 10 amp place and procceeded to hook the batteries back up. Went inside the coach, turned the coach switch on and both lights lit up red (chasis & coach). Turned off the coach switch and turned on the chasis switch and same thing happened, both lit up. I figureed this wasn't right so I opened up the battery control center again and disconnected the connector going into the 10 amp space.

Could this connection be some sort of insurance protection in case either solenoid goes out?? As in maybe 1 solenoid will work for both switches?
 
Could this connection be some sort of insurance protection in case either solenoid goes out?? As in maybe 1 solenoid will work for both switches?
Click to expand...
Highly doubtful. Not even the ultra high end rigs have that sort of extra back-up mechanism.

An non-connected wire in an RV typically means one of two things:1) An wire used for some option that is not installed (they use the same wiring harness regardless)2) It came loose while traveling
 
What model of Intelletec BCC is it (they have made several models)?  Some are just isolators (called a BIRD) and some have charging control & management functions as well.  Maybe we could figure out what terminal should have a wire and does not?

If the big solenoids are under the BCC covers, it has to be one of the bigger models rather than the later "mini" types.  Might it be this one (or similar)?
http://www.mikerobotics.com/Intellitec/PDF/5322119100.pdf
 
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