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Old 05-22-2017, 08:02 AM   #8261
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Quote:
Originally Posted by spritz View Post

Really I was hoping.
Can I just bypass or disconnect the Battery isolator,?
Can I rule out the charging sentinel system for the electric for the MH?
I've cleaned all the Battery cables they all look fairy new.
I'm getting to the point , too just take it in to a Fleetwood dealer. I "don't" want too go thru another trip like the last.
Tim
ps the sun is out its been days since I've seen it
Before you take it to the RV store I would search around for a vehicle electrical specialist. The RV store has two things going against it in my book. They have to be jacks of all trades, masters of none. And, sad to say, there's a percentage of them that see issues as ATM's. Unless you know them and trust them........
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Old 05-22-2017, 09:41 AM   #8262
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Good Morning, Hi Tim, I hesitated jumping in on the charging problem because you've been getting a bunch of help and didn't want to muddy the waters. Do you have a DVOM ? if so you can solve this pretty easy, but you have to have the right testers to do so. By the way a DVOM is a Digital Volt Ohm Meter.
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Old 05-22-2017, 02:26 PM   #8263
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Hello all,

As some of you may know I live in NW Arkansas. I was attending a dirt bike rally at Byrds Adventure Center near Ozark, Ar. Last Wednesday through Saturday. I brought my coach to the venue and someone else hauled my bike down for me.

Thursday night we had 72 mph straight line winds, quarter sized hail and 4 inches of rain in a bit over 4 hours and my coach came out unscathed except for being rocked on the jacks in that wind.

Friday was the topper though. It started raining about 2 am and it rained so hard you could not see the ground from the windshield. About 4:30 am we were awakened by the Byrds Adventure Center saying that the Mullberry river was rising and at bank full. They estimated we had fifteen minutes to pack up, get our jacks retracted and get out. We did it in ten minutes.

I had to drive the coach in blinding rain through water that was deep enough to flood my basement. Fortunately, nothing critical got wet. The coach basement is still airing out. I really don't want to do that again!

Well today is coach loading day. We are moving our clothing and other critical items into the coach in preparation for vacating our house on the 24th. After we leave the house we will be staying at the Rocky Branch Campground on Beaver Lake until the 31st. On the 1st we are officially full time.

Lots of stuff still to get into the RV but all of it is little stuff. To say we're excited would be a gross understatement.

Later y'all, and keep on, keeping on.
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Old 05-22-2017, 08:45 PM   #8264
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Harley1994 View Post
Good Morning, Hi Tim, I hesitated jumping in on the charging problem because you've been getting a bunch of help and didn't want to muddy the waters. Do you have a DVOM ? if so you can solve this pretty easy, but you have to have the right testers to do so. By the way a DVOM is a Digital Volt Ohm Meter.
Evening,
This is just too much for anybody too deal with, it just keeps getting better and better NOT.
I threw my back out trying to start mower...Very much pain

Terry your comments are always welcome. Yes I have a DVOM although it came from Harbor.
Again tonight after sitting since Friday the 2 batteries are at 12.3 single was at 11.8, Started MH ran 15-20 minutes 2 batteries were at 12.3 and the single was up too 12.1
So Joe is under MH replacing more bad trailer wire, I'm nursing in the easy chair when (I can't use that language)I said whats wrong, he said one of the rear shocks is laying along side the drive shaft. "WHAT THE hello", Sure enough I climb down to take a look see and yep snapped the upper bolt right off the frame. Don't ask because I don't know how.

Man I never in the 15 years I boated on the Mississippi I never had any trouble like this.
Can't get her into a shop till next Tuesday, I guess we won't be going anywhere this holiday weekend.

Sign this one
defeated.
.
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Old 05-23-2017, 03:34 AM   #8265
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First cup of coffee has been poured. After posting our motorhome for sale last Friday. I have a seller coming out to give it a look today. Claim they are bring a check. Will see how that works out.
Good Morning All.
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Old 05-23-2017, 05:23 AM   #8266
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Good Morning Gang,
Yesterday was in the upper 60's and breezy, so I weed whipped about 2/3 of our lot, will finish it today.
Tim,
Don't get discouraged, stuff like the broken shock bolt happens, you just have to fix it and move on. Once you get the wiring repaired so you are sure there is not a problem there, the next point would be the isolator, with it being hooked up incorrectly it might not be working properly now.
Charlie,
Once you get on the road and go through a year or so away from home, you will find out that you will need or want a few things and you can purge some things. When we changed from the 5er to the coach, we looked at all the stuff that we didn't use after 4 years and disposed of it. Poor Dad, he lost almost 1 wall of his garage, lol.
Have a great day all,
Frank
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Old 05-23-2017, 06:05 AM   #8267
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Morning all!

Raining here again. Getting pretty soggy. Looks like today will be a inside day. Got bikes to noodle on.

I polished the MH wheels yesterday. I already had a mothers power ball, but when buying some more polish I purchased one that has about a 12" shaft with a sleave over it that allows you to hold onto the shaft and help guide it. Very nice, our wheels look super. The old large ball got the big areas, the new small ball with extention got the hard to get places.

Charlie, close call. Glad you escaped with no coach damage. That deep water would have scared me!

Tim, if you didn't have bad luck, you would have no luck! If I understand correctly, the top shop mount bolt broke? That should not be a difficult fix. Usually nothing special about those bolts. This might have been caused by the air bag problems, putting stress on the shocks and their mounts.

Have a great day all!

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Old 05-23-2017, 06:09 AM   #8268
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Good Morning, Tim, sorry about the back, with several compressed vertebrae I can relate. When you can take your DVOM and start the RV and put the positive lead on the large terminal on the back of the alternator and ground the black lead, rev up the RV to about 1000 to 1500 rpms, and watch the meter, it should go to 13.8 to 14.8 volts, (oh yeh set the DVOM on DC volts I think HF meters would be the 20 on the DC side). It might take a few seconds to reach it's peak, if that checks out go to the chassis side battery, that's the one that starts the RV, do the same test, fully charged battery would be approx. 12.8 depending on battery condition, the meter should go up to over 13 volts when you rev up and hold the RV at over 1000 rpms. Then go to your coach batteries, same thing there, The isolator only works when the RV is running, as in it will only charge the batteries when it running. When you shut off the RV it isolates the two battery systems, depending on the isolator you have it may not have a "correct" way to hook up, if it's a three wire solenoid type the two large wires can be hooked to ether post it doesn't matter because it's just a switch inside, of course the small wire has to be hooked to a power source the becomes live when you start the vehicle, you might want to check that also to make sure it doesn't have a blown fuse. Talking about blown fuses there should be a fuse on the wire that goes to the coach batteries after the isolator check that one too. Let me know what style isolator you have and I can tell you more about it.
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Old 05-23-2017, 08:10 AM   #8269
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Good Morning Everyone;
I am not a fan of electrical stuff because it can be so fickle. When it works good it works good but it seems that the smallest thing can screw up the system. The issue is finding the defect and fixing it so it does not repeat. I think you are getting close to the solution but it will be the last thing you look at. For the cost I agree with taking it to an electrical shop. They have the expertise to know where to look and what to look for. RV shop you may get the right tech and then again maybe not.

Charlie - glad you were able to get the warning and get out. Have seen photos of MH stuck in the mud or worse yet flooded. A bit of water in the bays is a passable alternative. I would consider spraying any areas under there with straight bleach to sterilize the area. No telling where the water came from and what it was carrying. Spraying a bit of bleach will only extend the drying time slightly.

Finished planting the garden yesterday. Showers starting tonight followed by a storm tomorrow so timing is good. Going to help the neighbor with his garden today. He bought a system where you install a drip line in the dirt, cover the row with a sheet of plastic and then plant the seeds above the drip line. Will be interesting to see how it works and then possibly incorporate it in our garden next year.

Lloyd thanks for the heads up on the wheels. I have been looking at ours and thinking I should do something. This will be some motivation to get after it. Did you use the Mothers polish as well?

Hope everyone has a wonderful day and it stops raining where you are.
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Old 05-23-2017, 09:40 AM   #8270
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I have to agree with Gordon once again, electrical problems can be challenging. It was about forty years ago when I quit telephony for the first time. I was a cable splicer for GTE. A couple of years later I went back to work for them, lasted three months, quit again. Then I spent about 8 years or so being a cable splicer for hire. Most of it involved chasing down cable trouble and repairing it, different telcos, different states, same issues, mostly corrosion and degradation of plant. The early days were the most fun, Simpson 260 volt/ohm meter for locating shorts and grounds and even guesstimating the distance to an open. By the time I was out of it we had digital meters that figured that stuff out for us.

The best example I ever worked of little stuff making the big difference involved a large cable going underneath a freeway in Southern California. One of the rules that cable manufacturers made a big deal about was having the cable capped during transport and installation if at all possible. Linemen being linemen they poohpoohed that idea more often than not. If a little moisture got into the cable, heck, the conductors had plastic insulation after all. In this instance moisture had migrated down sixty or seventy feet, we're not talking about the kind of moisture you can feel, but the electrical circuits can. Once the cable was saturated, all available circuits in use, the problems started. By the time I got involved they were losing a couple of circuits a week. The issue was the negative side of the circuit will transfer the copper material out of the wire to the aluminum turnplate that surrounds the cable. Even though there is the plastic insulation around the copper there are minuscule openings for the copper transfer to happen. This will only happen when enough moisture is present to provide a path from the breached conductor to the aluminum. When all of the copper is moved then you have an open circuit. They were working with about a fifteen percent bad pair rate and what was driving them crazy was the trouble was always thirty feet from either end. So a failure would read open thirty feet and the next pair would read approximately nine hundred feet away, thirty feet from that end. When I explained what was going on some rules were changed for the linemen. It was an extremely expensive repair because of the logistics. And it was all caused by someone not taking the time to replace a cable cap on each end after they placed the cable. It probably sat like that for a week or so and there might have been one rain or even some heavy fog. It's always something simple.

Yesterday was a tough one working on Lil Blue. This morning I'm going to buy a couple of small fire extinguishers before I head out to work on her. I have one small bolt holding down a heat shield that thought it would be my Waterloo. I can't reach it to cut it off with an angle grinder, can't get a real grip on it with vice grips, and penetrating oil hasn't worked yet. So this morning I'm going to bring in the ace, acetylene torch with a tip for welding sheet metal. It will be either burn and learn for the bolt or burn and evaporate, it's choice. Small extinguishers are a lot cheaper than a big one and if there is a fire it will be something small, no sense in wasting a large extinguisher on it. I ended up spending most of the day playing with Missy Glenda stripping out the carpet in the coach. Cutting and ripping was good therapy.

Tim as Lloyd pointed out, most of these problems are pretty well par for what can happen in one event. Shocks are designed to lessen movement, not support weight. So when the airbags collapsed because of the line being burnt a good bump could have taken out the shock. We can even go back and see where the voltage drop caused the motor to backfire which caused the failures of the muffler and that caused the airlines to overheat etc and so on. It's all one event that you've got to experience over an extended period of time and dollars. Lucky you. I'm glad we have Harley online here to help you with the isolator. I know the principles involved, but have no experience with the devices.
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Old 05-23-2017, 09:50 AM   #8271
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As everyone knows, I'm a chick magnet, just ask me.

We all know there isn't much to laying eggs. But in my flock I have one gal that loves to show off.
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Old 05-23-2017, 12:13 PM   #8272
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I recall a story Dad told me years ago about an old fellow who bought a new truck. Got it home and shortly thereafter called the dealership to complain the truck would not start. He was a good customer so the dealership sent Dad out to "fix" it. Dad gets in the truck turns the key on and the truck starts.

Long story short it happened that they had to replace the ignition. Seems there was a dead spot and when the old guy let go of the key he was not fast enough to keep the engine running when he released the key. Most would not have had the problem.
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Old 05-23-2017, 08:05 PM   #8273
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Today we spent the entire day selecting and stocking items into our coach for full timing. I found this entire process quite intimidating. However, we knew that we would be leaving a lot of stuff for sale at the Estate Sale.

One more day until we quit sleeping in our stix and brix and eight more days until we are on the road.

For the next few nights we will be staying at the C.O.E. Rocky Branch Campground on Beaver Lake. This will allow us to hold the Estate Sale indoors this weekend because of the threat of rain. And let us clean the house.

Tomorrow our washer and dryer will be sold and gone and more than likely our bedroom set. Exciting stuff! I will be glad when it is all over though.

Y'all take care and keep on, keepin on.
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Old 05-24-2017, 06:14 AM   #8274
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Good morning!

Charlie, your getting close. Exciting stuff. Good luck with the estate sale!

Gordon, yes I have used mothers polish for years, tried a few others always end up back with mothers. Good stuff. This is the new polish ball I purchased at our local parts store.

https://jet.com/product/detail/fe78a...9-c0023982b42f


I also have the big ball that is nearly 5" in diameter. It works well in the big open spaces. The little guy above with extension gets between the lugs etc. Are wheels look like new.

The worst of this job is the bending over. I have a little wheelie chair, but being down there stinks. Next time I will spread out the work over a couple days.

Have a great day! L.
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