Moved several posts in a thread started by RichieC from a discussion on polishing the Barth that turned into a discussion on electrical. The Original thread can be found here and it's titled Getting ready for summer

quote:

Originally posted by towerguy:
What say you all?

quote:

Originally posted by RichieC:
I say you could've started your own thread.
I'm going to work on my car.

Moved Reply:

I'm in the process of getting the Stagecoach ready for the first trip of the year. I had more seat belts installed since it only had two sets when I bought it.

When I went to pick to pick it up, one of the rear tires was flat. Of course it had to be an inner dual, I think that is Murphy's Law #128 but I will have to check. The point I'm slowly getting to is what caused the flat.

Not having this coach since new causes certain problems such as not knowing how something is supposed to be, or was originally configured. In this case, the valve stem cracked due to vibration and was all that needed to be replaced. The Goodyear tire shop it was taken to added a rubber grommet at no extra charge (nice touch). This grommet will keep the valve stem from vibrating and might save someone a flat at a very inappropriate time. I was lucky; this problem reared its ugly head while in service and was only two blocks from the truck tire dealership. Now I need to go back and get more of those grommets in order to save myself some future aggravation. Additionally, they found plastic caps on the valve stems that will notify you visually of low tire pressure. Neat idea but these plastic caps actually will cause the tire to leak eventually. They suggested I pitch them in the trash and I did.

Now it goes back to the shop that installed the barrel chair so they can install it correctly. It was installed to far aft causing the fold out table to be partially unusable and the base was installed 90 degrees out meaning it locks in position when facing the side instead of the front as needed.

The previous owner had a platform installed underneath the toilet to make it more comfortable for them. In the process, they had to make changes to the linen closet door to allow for the extra height of the toilet. It also limited how far you can open the closet door between the bathroom and the bedroom. It will be put back to the original configuration, making it more user friendly for my family and it will certainly look nicer as well.

I seem to remember Bill N.Y. and Bill H, among others, suggesting a meter to test an RV parks power pole before hooking up. On our last trip a couple of months ago, we could not use the forward TV because the inverter would begin to howl. I believed this was due to the inverter not being large enough so I took it back to where it was installed and had it checked. Everything checked out as it should and the tech agreed that the RV Park was not actually putting out as much power as listed. I'll be buying a meter shortly. We won't be staying at an RV park on this trip, we'll be plugging in upon our arrival to my brothers home in Durango, CO. He does not have anything but the normal AC outlets so that will have to suffice.

What say you all?

Moved Reply:

quote:

Originally posted by towerguy:
I seem to remember Bill N.Y. and Bill H, among others, suggesting a meter to test an RV parks power pole before hooking up.

What say you all?

You should definitely have a meter for checking the power pole. RV parks can be scary, even lethal. You should also have an AC voltmeter permanently plugged in where you can see it inside the coach. Cheap and easy. Low voltage can be very expensive. When I was a perm in a park, I had to use a Variac to keep my voltage up. On a hot weekend, voltage in the park got low enough to burn up air conditioner motors.

My own rec for voltage checking inside the coach is the Kill a Watt. It plugs into an AC outlet and gives digital readings of volts, freq and can measure current draw of anything plugged into it. The frequency measuring is particularly useful in checking or adjusting your genset. They are also handy inside the house for checking consumption of this or that appliance.

Moved Reply:

quote:

Originally posted by bill h:
My own rec for voltage checking inside the coach is the Kill a Watt. It plugs into an AC outlet and gives digital readings of volts, freq and can measure current draw of anything plugged into it.

While it is a good unit - expect to loose an outlet if you use it for consumption tracking.



P4460 Kill-O-Watt for 39.99 from Amazon

P4400 Kill-O-Watt for 20.87 from Amazon

Moved Reply:

quote:

Originally posted by Bill N.Y.:
expect to loose an outlet if you use it for consumption tracking.

Yeah, that is a drawback for so many things. Like the Kill a Watt, chargers, wall warts, timers, etc.......All I can figure is that the outlets in Chinese walls are spaced farther apart than ours. Or they just have singles.

Somebody is even marketing little short extension cords to address this problem. Whenever I throw out an appliance, I cut the plug and six inches of cord off and solder it on to the prongs of whichever wall wart has annoyed me the most recently.

Maybe we can get the outlet makers to turn each receptacle 90 degrees.

quote:

I seem to remember Bill N.Y. and Bill H, among others, suggesting a meter to test an RV parks power pole before hooking up. On our last trip a couple of months ago, we could not use the forward TV because the inverter would begin to howl. I believed this was due to the inverter not being large enough so I took it back to where it was installed and had it checked. Everything checked out as it should and the tech agreed that the RV Park was not actually putting out as much power as listed.

The inverter runs off 12VDC - park power would have nothing to do with it...unless the coach batteries were very low already, and the converter wasn't charging very quickly - but it should have been enough to shut the low voltage alarm off. Most will work fine from 105 to 130VAC.

Anyway, I put two 6-way outlets in the coach; remove the trim plate, and plug these in and secure with the captive screw.