Community Forums

hrhuggie · 04-07-2008, 07:15 PM

Rick,
glad you were able to get your furnace up and running for the summer

. I was going to ask you about it at Santa Barbara but was afraid it might be to painful

Rick Coleman · 04-08-2008, 05:59 AM

You're right Hugh- it is so wonderful to have heat in Indio at 85-90 degrees outside! I will be glad I have it working (and quieter) when we take a trip to Glacier National Park this Summer. These kinds of problems don't bother me like they used to. I'm more philosophic about it and it feels great to solve the problem. I keep reminding myself that my house would have plenty of issues if I drove it down the street at 60 mph.

However....once the heat started working the A/C quit working! The learning curve with motorhomes never ceases to amaze me.

All else works. I checked the breakers, re-booted the juice to the coach and still nothing.
Since I had to get back to work and left Indio Sunday afternoon I had to table my efforts. I called Chris Pursley @ WRV on Monday and he suggested re-booting the Duotherm thermostat and told me how to do it. He indicated it seemed to solve thermostat problems 70% of the time. I can't try it until I go back to Indio in a couple of weeks.

It was really nice to see you and Cyndi at Ocean Mesa.

Rick Coleman · 04-09-2008, 02:02 PM

Well, I get the "dummy of the year" award for my inoperative A/C. Turns out I had zone 1 set to cool and zone 2 set to heat. Duh!! Both zones need to be set the same, or I believe you might be able to run either at cool or heat if the other is set to off. I'll double check on that point. All is now well.

Ted III · 04-09-2008, 02:26 PM

Rick, I think #1 has to be on furnace. I do not believe that #2 has any effect. I believe that is correct but Buddy & Beverly could agree or disagree as they have had 1 of everything go wrong in their motorhome, but they stick with it and I sure do give them credit. I truly congratulate you both. I don't think there is enough scotch in the world for me to tolerate what you two have gone through.

Ted

Rick Coleman · 04-09-2008, 02:51 PM

All things considered I don't think I've had an extrordinary number of problems with my coach. Perhaps I just go to iRV2 for help more than others. The only problem that was a real headache was the bedroom slide hoses and that finally was solved. I looked at a lot of coaches at this February's FMCA convention at Pomona and I'll still stack our Alpines up against anything within $250,000 of them. Furthermore, I have met some really great people at Alpine rallys.

I'm pretty mechanical but I've never been tested like this before, so the learning curve is kind of steep. I haven't put nearly as many miles on my coach as most of you (only about 6500 in 1 year, 9 mo.) so I also haven't been terribly inconvenienced as someone who spends a LOT of time away from home or fulltimes.

I feel like the overall tenor of the Alpine forum is much more positive than it was a year ago, and I have been more and more satisfied with help I've sought from WRV about solving problems.

As an aside- I have a pretty good wine cellar for solace when the going gets really tough.

hrhuggie · 04-10-2008, 03:00 PM

Rick,
fill us in on how to "reboot" the duotherm themastat in case it ever happens to us.

Dont feel too bad about the different zone settings, seems like someone I know did that too

Rick Coleman · 04-10-2008, 03:26 PM

My notes from WRV read: (1) Slide bottom switch to off (2) Hold Mode and Zone buttons down simultaneously (3) While Mode and Zone buttons are depressed, slide switch to ON, and let go of Mode and Zone at same time. Chris thought you might see F1 on the LED readout after doing this. Given that was not my problem I never had the opportunity to try it. I plan on clipping these notes to my Duotherm manual for safe keeping.

EngineerMike · 04-14-2008, 11:49 AM

Rick- If you have a PDA and use it, you can keep notes like this in a series of files on your PDA. I can always find the PDA (I hope!!!) easier than rifling paper files, and I can store an amazing amount of junk, er, uh, I mean technical notes in it, easily indexed. Keep the paper copy in a logical place (soon to be forgotten) also; never hurts.

Rick Coleman · 04-14-2008, 03:29 PM

Mike- I have a PDA but I think I'm even older than my years, so clipping notes will probably work best for me. By the way, I remember when I first bought my coach and asked for advice as to what kind of things to keep in the coach. Your advice was to make sure I had a large, sweaty wad of money! It has proven to be excellent advice.

jerry davis · 04-14-2008, 06:26 PM

Rick, just curious, do you park your coach in #97 at Outdoor Indio? I was in #99 for a couple of days but never seemed to be home when the Alpine in 97 was home.

Rick Coleman · 04-15-2008, 05:43 AM

Yes, we own #97 and keep our coach there November through May, when it just gets too hot. We take an occasional trip from Indio in the winter, but bring the coach back home in June and try and take trips from here. Finding a place to store it in the Summer is getting tougher and tougher, so when I find a spot I may just have to keep the spot year round.
Too bad we didn't see yo when you were there, but I'm still working so I can't get there as often as I'd like. I have noticed more Alpines in the park each season.