My Persnickity RC Thermostat

[gripper]

I have owned my Fleetwood Providence now, for 4 years. During that time, starting about 2 years into my first and only experience at camping/RV’ing, the AC began to give me trouble, through the thermostat. We would need to change the coach temperature up or down, depending on our desires. At the control box, located on the overhead board (over the dash) where all our controls are, the temperature guage would show “00”. No matter what I did, I couldn’t change the temps, the mode, fan speed or anything. The first time I did it, I just said “shux” and started checking fuses, etc. You know the drill.

I phoned my son, who is an electronic genius, compared to me. He said to pull the fuse completely and then plug it back in, thus “re-booting” the device. Well, it worked (most of the time). After several months, even that wouldn’t work. This time, I was in Michigan, headed for Montana. So I called an RV shop in Traverse City and talked to them about my problems. The tech said that it sounds like the thermostat needs replacing. He said that most of the time, that’s the trouble. So, he ordered one for $300.00 and I picked it up in about 3-4 days. It’s a “plug-and-play” type of electronic device, so I was able to take the old one down and install the new one easily. It started & ran our two A/C’s just fine.

Well, the new T-stat worked good, for a few weeks and then it started doing just what the old one did. I didn’t dare tell the DW or she would have had a hissy. I just kept worrying with it…..some time it would work fine, sometimes it would not. I dealt with the problems until just last week, when I drove it home from Lazy Days, in Tampa, where they have had it for a month, doing repairs on the RV, from a rear tire bolw-out. As soon as I got it home, I set it up to clean and turned on the AC. But….you guessed it, it wouldn’t come on. This time, the T-stat not only gave me “00” temperature, the “Mode” button wouldn’t work. No matter what I did, I couldn’t get it to work.

Having decided that I was in need of a new T-stat, I started looking online for one. However, because I am not an RV technician, I decided to call a mobile RV service in the area, to see if the T-stat was really my problem. He came over and confirmed that it was not working properly, if at all and really, should be replaced.

So, over the week-end, while waiting to order a new T-stat, I started “fooling around” with the one not working. I had read, here on iRV2, that someone (I think it was Sejay), had a problem with his AC. His DW suggested that he clean the contacts again, as he had done before. So he did and his AC came back online. Therefore, I kept sliding the on/off switch back and forth, twisting it, doing everything I could, without breaking something. All of a sudden, the digital read-out started adding additional information, showing that it was trying to work. I kept at it and soon, had the front AC working. But for some reason, the rear AC still, would not come online.

Frustrated, I located the old T-stat that I took off in Michigan (you remember…the one that quit working?). I re-installed it and……..now, both AC’s are working fine!!!!

(I appologize for being so "wordy", but I thought this might be of some use to other RV'ers)

[gripper]

Sorry, the title should read "MY PERSNICIKITY AC THERMOSTAT"