jptuttle

I have a 2008 Tiffin Phaeton with a Cummins ICS 360 and need to replace both 12V chassis start-up batteries. The batteries that were in it when we purchased it in 2012, was Staab name brand with 700 CCA. I always thought these underperformed because I could never get the 10K genset started on the first attempt, but that’s a different story all together. (Part of that problem was a White-Rogers solenoid valve was improperly mounted horizontally instead of vertically from the factory! It took me 4 years to resolve that issue, thanks to Cummins Mid-South in Fenton, MO.) Yesterday, I went to O’Reilys to get 2 Super Start batteries (AGM) that had 950 CCA. Perfect! The genset started on the first try. Of course it’s like 90 degrees outside too! MY PROBLEM, is I need to go back to the deep-cell fill type acid batteries because I CANNOT mix battery types with my BatteryMINDER, MODEL NUMBER 12112. I was going to get a different BatteryMINDER to fix this issue but the quicker solution is to take these nice batteries back and get the fill-type, which they don’t have! UGH! WHAT IS A GOOD CHOICE (NAME BRAND) AND CCA FOR START-UP BATTERIES FOR MY RIG? I like INTERSTATE, which is what my coach batteries are. Thanks!

Yeah, I’m thinking this is the best approach and will probably do all 3 of them.

This is what my repair guys is telling me. He said the mounting points of the AC units can only be accessed from the inside of the vehicle.

I will give the local guys a try, but I did call Techumseh and they were not helpful at all. Very disappointing.

We’ve had our 2008 Tiffin Phaeton since 2011. The middle 15K AC unit was diagnosed with a bad coil and compressor. It has been sitting in the shop for 2 months trying to get repaired. Needless to say, there goes summer and no camping. We have discussed everything from replacing the unit entirely or repairing it. It is a Dometic unit, I believe. This particular unit is not on the market anymore and it’s replacement is a little different from what I’m being told. My repair guy said it was a bad coil and it took several weeks to obtain one. Now that it’s been fixed, he noticed that the compressor unit is also bad. The rotary compressor, Tecumseh model # 2490-879 is not an easy part to locate for purchase or a crossed-reference replacement. We’ve wasted a lot of time trying to repair the AC from above the roof, verses replacing the AC unit and ripping into the interior roofline, which is what we wanted to avoid. I’ve looked high and low on the internet for this part and I only have 1 potential lead which will probably fall through. I find it very maddening that these type of EOM parts are not more readily available on the market. It would make repairing much quicker than a full replacement. Though I understand replacing the entire unit would provide longevity. Right now, we are without a compressor and our vacation will be here in 6 weeks, so we’ll make due on 2 AC unit’s as it will not be so hot by then, hopefully. Afterwards, if we still have not found the compressor, our only hope it to replace the whole unit. And if you’re going to do that, you might as well replace all the old units at the same time. We would love to trade this in for something newer, but will probably go in the hole, even tho we bought this RV $20K under blue book back in 2011. If anyone can help us locate this compressor, we would greatful! Thanks, Jay