Newmar’s Amazing 33’ Luxury New Aire - Mike Mas

[Idleup]

Originally Posted by Gonna_Wander

Hi Mike, what do you mean by "main Wi-Fi?" Are you referring to Wi-Fi source that it as the top of the list? I have the "X" checked on both the home router and the cellular hot spot.

Hey Wander yes that was the box I was talking about, what that does is tells the router to first select that link over the others that show up in the list. Wish I could be of more help to you!

Mike

[mikekohut]

Originally Posted by mikekohut

I had the coach connected last night to a hot spot on a Samsung V. So far, so good. I will be putting the coach in the barn today and plugging into a 15 amp circuit. I will be in the area for the next two weeks, so it will be easy for me to get back if something goes astray.

Started our cruise yesterday with Rozie reporting all was OK. Checked this morning and Rozie had not reported in 22 hours. Fortunately we were only 8 miles away on Mackinac Island. Back to Mackinaw City where the coach is stored. Checked the coach and all was well with it. The hot spot on the cell phone had turned off. Left without any other options, I have pulled all of the hot cables off all the batteries. Three from the house batteries and four off the chassis. On the chassis there is a custom connector that connects the two batteries and has mounts on each end for the other four cables. I pulled the whole assembly off and isolated it away from the positive terminals. I have left the connection between the two negative terminals in place. I don't think that should be a problem, but if anyone this it is, please let me know. On the house side, I left all eight batteries connected and put on a small 1.5 amp charger/maintainer (all that I could find in stock at the auto parts store). I hope that it will be big enough. The directions say that if it stays in charge mode for more than 12 hours it will fault and will not start again unless it is unplugged left to sit for 5 minutes and then re-plugged in. I will check it in the morning to see what is happening. If the little charger/maintainer does not work and I cannot find a bigger one, I will strip off the three positive parallel connecting cables and leave the batteries sit as four sets of two batteries each. Figure it is better to loose two batteries than eight if one should be bad. The batteries are all fully charged and they will be sitting for three months. No idea what effect the coach sitting that long disconnected is going to have on all the computer systems in the coach. I guess I will know in September and will report my findings.

[timekeeper]

Originally Posted by mikekohut

Started our cruise yesterday with Rozie reporting all was OK. Checked this morning and Rozie had not reported in 22 hours. Fortunately we were only 8 miles away on Mackinac Island. Back to Mackinaw City where the coach is stored. Checked the coach and all was well with it. The hot spot on the cell phone had turned off. Left without any other options, I have pulled all of the hot cables off all the batteries. Three from the house batteries and four off the chassis. On the chassis there is a custom connector that connects the two batteries and has mounts on each end for the other four cables. I pulled the whole assembly off and isolated it away from the positive terminals. I have left the connection between the two negative terminals in place. I don't think that should be a problem, but if anyone this it is, please let me know. On the house side, I left all eight batteries connected and put on a small 1.5 amp charger/maintainer (all that I could find in stock at the auto parts store). I hope that it will be big enough. The directions say that if it stays in charge mode for more than 12 hours it will fault and will not start again unless it is unplugged left to sit for 5 minutes and then re-plugged in. I will check it in the morning to see what is happening. If the little charger/maintainer does not work and I cannot find a bigger one, I will strip off the three positive parallel connecting cables and leave the batteries sit as four sets of two batteries each. Figure it is better to loose two batteries than eight if one should be bad. The batteries are all fully charged and they will be sitting for three months. No idea what effect the coach sitting that long disconnected is going to have on all the computer systems in the coach. I guess I will know in September and will report my findings.

May I suggest, with my limited exposure to the battery compartment on the coach batteries( I’ve hooked up a cut off switch there):
There are 2 lines hooked up to larger fuses coming from the right side( rear wall) of that compartment ( see wiring diagram on front right side ( rear) of the eight battery compartment) One goes to the coach directly (200 amps) the other goes to the inverter ( 350 amps).... where these are connected at the battery posts should be where you disconnect those 8 batteries from the unit IMO.
Yes, then I would leave the 1.5 amp. maintainer hooked up with a timer that kicks off for a short period ( maybe 1 hour) every 24 hours? Or just leave it on if a timer is not available. Make sure you turn off your inverter before you start this procedure.Good luck and have a good trip, hope there’s not any mice in the storage facility to worry about, that’s what always gets me 😃

[mikekohut]

Thanks Time Keeper. I found that the 1.5 amp maintainer will keep the 8 batteries charged. In fact it is keeping them at 14.5 volts. Now I am worried about the batteries overcharging. I know that the charger had to go into float mode at some point because it faults if it stays in charge mode longer than 12 hours. I bought a timer and put it on the charger. I am going to start by charging only 8 hours a day, then 16 hours at idle. I will be near the coach for the next three days, so I can monitor it and see how it working out and adjust accordingly. BTW there is a third line that does not go though a visible fuse. It is on the positive terminal closest to the bay door. It goes into a bundle and then disappears into the coach. No idea what it is for.

I agree about the mice. The fall seems to be the worst time. Hopefully I will have the coach out before they start looking for a place to live.

[timekeeper]

Originally Posted by mikekohut

Thanks Time Keeper. I found that the 1.5 amp maintainer will keep the 8 batteries charged. In fact it is keeping them at 14.5 volts. Now I am worried about the batteries overcharging. I know that the charger had to go into float mode at some point because it faults if it stays in charge mode longer than 12 hours. I bought a timer and put it on the charger. I am going to start by charging only 8 hours a day, then 16 hours at idle. I will be near the coach for the next three days, so I can monitor it and see how it working out and adjust accordingly. BTW there is a third line that does not go though a visible fuse. It is on the positive terminal closest to the bay door. It goes into a bundle and then disappears into the coach. No idea what it is for.

I agree about the mice. The fall seems to be the worst time. Hopefully I will have the coach out before they start looking for a place to live.

My "guess" on the third line is the monitor for the silver-leaf voltage???
Why not get 6 mice traps and bait them with peanut butter?? I know if they get caught by the time u get back it will be smelly and probably some other predator will have had them for lunch It's just very hard to track down damage from those critters when they get in
In the northeast we catch them all year...admittedly lots more in the fall.
You know best for your area, I've been to Marathon Key several times in the RV...always a blast

[mikekohut]

After leaving the house batteries sit for a day, I found that the little 1.5amp maintainer would charge back the batteries and go into float mode in less than two hours. I am sure that the batteries could sit for a couple of months, disconnected, and not suffer any damage. To make them happy, I will leave the maintainer on a timer for two hours every day.

BTW According to the wiring diagram inside the battery box, the third wire attached to the House Battery Bank is a Bi Directional Isolator that allows the batteries to be charged from both the 110v charger and the chassis alternator. I probably didn't have to remove it for storage.

[turbopilot]

Originally Posted by mikekohut

BTW According to the wiring diagram inside the battery box, the third wire attached to the House Battery Bank is a Bi Directional Isolator that allows the batteries to be charged from both the 110v charger and the chassis alternator. I probably didn't have to remove it for storage.

You should probably understand what the TM102 is doing with your setup controlling the charge bridge solenoid. I still don't understand the logic in the TM102 but if your batteries are steady state, fully charged with the trickle charger check the SilverLeaf control panel for the presence of the lightning bold near the chassis and house battery voltages. If you see the lightning bolt your charge bridge solenoid is closed putting the chassis and house battery on the same circuit. In this scenario even though you unhook the chassis battery, the charge bridge solenoid will still feed the chassis electrical system.

FYI, I measured the parasitic load on the house batteries alone in my coach and it is 2.2 amps. Don't know the parasitic load from the chassis electrical system. So it would appear a 1.5 amp trickle will be helpful but less than the full parasitic load from the house circuits.

[mikekohut]

Turbo, thanks for the info. I have an undependable 15 amp power source going to the coach right now. I am afraid to leave anything connected to the batteries for fear I will lose the AC plug. I have stripped off all three positive cables on the house batteries and all four off the chassis batteries. Right now, none of the batteries have any load on them. I put the trickle charger on the house batteries, just in case one battery tries to draw down the other seven. I am confident that I can leave the coach batteries until September and not suffer any damage if I lose power to the trickle charger. I will drive back to the coach a couple of times over the summer to check on it.

I tried to get a 12v wiring diagram from Newmar to see what exactly the house and chassis cut off switches do cut off and what is left on, but they said they are not available. Taking everything off seemed to me to be my best alternative for not having to worry about it all summer. I am out on a boat now until September and I will have more time in the fall to fool with it.

[turbopilot]

Originally Posted by mikekohut

Right now, none of the batteries have any load on them.

Ok, you should be fine then.

[Ann n Gene]

Have not found it but I feel sure it has been discussed, how are New Aire owners getting along with the tire monitors built into the glass dash? Are they giving accurate readings? Are the lower and upper limits adjustable so you can set your tires and not get false reports or yellow or red alerts when the Ira temps go up? I ask because the new Entegras are using a system from Valor and have to be programmed with a special tool. Apparently they have been programmed at the factory with minimum pressures and are causing false alarms and wondering f the Newmar system is free of these problems.

[Aegon]

Ann n Gene,

The Silver Leaf TPMS screen on our New Aire isn’t functional yet. It is supposed to be compatible with Pressure Pro & TST sensors. We bought the TST system with the promise that TST will soon develope a module to integrate with Silver Leaf; it’s my intention to do that eventually, but I think I’ll wait for the 2.0 version.

I haven’t seen anyone post about using the Silver Leaf TPMS screen, but like you, I’m wondering if anyone has.

[Ann n Gene]

But it is functional for the coach isn’t it? If so how does it do with that?

[Aegon]

The NA does not come with TPMS sensors, so the screen does not have data to process.

[Ann n Gene]

Oh, my bad, I thought that was built into the system, the same as the Essex and others in the luxury line.