I took the Barth out for a little road trip yesterday for about a 200 mile round trip. Pretty uneventful just a couple of things. First was the rattle from the window directly behind the drivers seat. By the time I convinced my wife to deal with it my head was about to 'splode. Little rubber wedges left by the previous owner came in handy!
Second, after I got to my destination that was in a parking lot that was covered in huge rocks and was super bumpy we could smell the alarming scent of gasoline. At first glance I am thinking that it could have come from the front tank being overfilled. I was running off the rear tank because I wanted to clear some of that 12+ month old fuel out of there. After switching to the front tank and driving for a while I didn't notice the smell anymore. Oh, the third thing, which is why I pulled over. We were driving back at night and the headlights were way to dim. I noticed that the alternator gauge was only listing around 9V. I pulled over at the last bright spot on the trip home and swapped in that huge spare deep cycle battery. The gauge read around 11V. I made it home without a hitch but will be addressing these issues before the next trip which will be a shorty.

Congratulations on your shakedown cruise, sounds like she is gonna make you proud to be a Barth owner.

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Originally posted by jsloan:

we could smell the alarming scent of gasoline.

That could be lethal. Find the source and correct it.

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We were driving back at night and the headlights were way to dim. I noticed that the alternator gauge was only listing around 9V. I pulled over at the last bright spot on the trip home and swapped in that huge spare deep cycle battery. The gauge read around 11V. I made it home without a hitch but will be addressing these issues before the next trip which will be a shorty.

~Jeff~

Next time, fire up the genset and drive holding the parallel switch.

Or use a jumper connecting the positives of each battery bank, and run the genset. It doesn't have to be very big. I made one out of a coat hangar once.

I could write a book on the hillbilly uses for coat hangars.

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fire up the genset

I still haven't gotten the genset repaired. Thats one of my to do items. I did think about tying into the house batteries anyhow. but it wasn't necessary.

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Next time, fire up the genset and drive holding the parallel switch.

Some of the paralleling switches aren't made for continuous-duty. Jumping the house and chassis batteries and running the genset will work fine.

The headlight issue is a constant problem. My recommendation is to install a 30 amp relay (there are number of unused ones in the Regency electrical panel below the drivers window) and run the 12v directly from the buss bar to the lights with the headlight switch only switching the relay. You will have to also connect the high beams to a relay (or use a second unused relay) and use the foot dimmer switch to actuate that relay. An electric technician should be able to do this easily without a lot of cost. As for the voltmeter - I found on my coach the voltmeter was connected to the "rats nest" of positive wires under the dash and not the BATT post of the ignition switch. It always read low because it was reading with the load actuated. By moving to the BATT of the ignition switch it indicated the actual output of the alternator, much more useful. It doesn't stop the battery from being discharged but it does show the alternator is putting out 13.8 v when it should.

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there are number of unused ones in the Regency electrical panel below the drivers window

Anyone know where the equivalent of this is on a regal?

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Originally posted by Rusty:

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Next time, fire up the genset and drive holding the parallel switch.

Some of the paralleling switches aren't made for continuous-duty. Jumping the house and chassis batteries and running the genset will work fine.

On mine, the paralleling switch carries only the current required to energize the relay, which is far less than the 10 amp rating marked on it. The relay, which appears to be OEM, is rated for continuous duty.

The one time I had to hold it down to drive, my fingertip detected no rise in temperature. BTW, finger fatigue soon moved me to do it only some of the time, monitoring the voltmeter.

This is what it looks like. Each of the buss bars are spanned by breakers and some are not used (they were for the Gillig Bus).

Actually, the alternator seems to be fine. Someone had bypassed the unused smog pump and the belt was rubbing against the pulley. I opted to remove the pulley to allow clearance for the belt and now all is well with the charging system.

Up next: genset removal.