tomgauger

Thanks to everyone for the replies, especially to Rich for the Trace PDF. That's a big addition to the library. Tom Gauger

Thanks...I get the math on volts & amps. What I was concerned about is the way he Trace senses the battery bank and it's need to be charging or not. Whether four 6v batteries present the same load, resistance, impedance or whatever the Trace uses to sense the need to charge and at what rate.

Hi gang, I have a 2001 Monaco Exec 43DS2. As many older coaches it came with two 12v AGM batteries for the chassis and four 6v wete cell batteries for the house. I'm thinking of getting rid of the 6v batteries in favor of 12v AGM's installed in parallel. The question is what will the Trace inverter/charger think about this? Would love some advice on this.

The ballast is definitely under the metal cover in the center of the fixture. Failure of the ballast is common. If you replace the tubes with LEDs you can remove the ballast and easily wire in the LED tubes which depend on a pigtail for 12v power rather than pins on the end of the tubes. Just cut out all the spaghetti next of wires under the metal cover, except for the 12v feed from the local on-off switch. Connect the pig tails from the two LED tubes while observing polarity. You'll find the LED tubes to be much brighter and draw significantly less current.

I think they are sold as 12v tubes at Camping World.

My solution to this same problem was to dump the flourecent tubes (and their ballasts) in favor of LED tubes. Pricey, but brighter and much longer lasting. Another possible cause of electrical issues is a failing "salesman's switch" relay in the engine compafrtment along with the battery isolator in my '01 Monaco Exec. I was having flickering lights and HVAC shut-down due to contacts in the relays dying. I dumped the relays and house DC is wired directly to the 12v house bus in the same compartment with the isolator and the old relays.

We added two Fagor induction cooktops in the space occupied by the propane stove. This is terrific! However, you will have to find cookware that reponds to a magnet. So, tke a magnet withyou when shopping as the induction units will nto function with anything else, including aluminum. Camping World recently had a sale on the Fagors and they were about $89.95 each at the time.

The Whirlpool I installed was not at all happy with the Xantrex 3kw modified sine wave inverter in my '01 Monaco Exec. I bought a 1kw pure sine wave inverter just for the Whirlpool. It's adequate since the Whirlpool draws around two amps or less after it starts. However, the initial start, particularly if you don't wait a few minutes before switching from shore power to the inverter, will often trip the GFI on the inverter. I should have gotten a larger unit... the 2kw would have been perfect. Love the Whirlpool! Ice cream every night!!!

I went through this exact process two years ago. The Whirlpool is a dream with almost twice the capacity of the Norcold LRIM1200. (A well documented fire hazard) Mine was installed by Beckley's in Thurmont, MD. Keith spent a good hour measuring the opening and available space BEHIND the Norcold. Because of the burner tube and various other junk on the Norcold you will gain almost three inches in the rear. Consequently, the Whirlpool will fit nicely. In the case of my '01 Monaco Exec there was no propane heater under the Norcold and the Whirlpool was able to side almost on the floor of the coach. Berckley's build a "stage" for it and it is nicely secured. I did lose the cabinet that was located on top of the Norcold but it was finished nicely by the cabinet shop at Beckley's. The old Norcold and the new Whirlpool came and went through the front windshield...or maybe a side window. I wasn't there for that part. I do have a set of pictures of the installation if anyone cares to see them. -Tom

I believe that everyone is talking about the dreaded "Salesman's Switch" which is going to fail at the most inopportune time you can imagine. In my '01 Monaco Exec there are two large relays in the same compartment with the battery isolator. One of the 12v relays handles high current items, the other is for low current devices. The high current relay has always been hot to the touch but is designed to run continuously. Bit are turned on and off by a switch in the entry stairwell. When they fail (and they will!) you are left without any house power and that includes heating and air conditioning as the thermostats are fed 12v off these relays. The simplest fix is to simply wire directly to the house 12v located in the same compartment. If you wish to kill the house DC you can do so in the battery compartment with the large switches located there. This is a simple fix.

I got rid of the four wet cell batteries and they were repalced with AGMs. WOW! No more fumbling around with distilled water, cleaning up overflows and corrosion. The choice came after getting rid of the Norcold LRIM 1200 fire hazard refrigerator freezer. The "residential" Whirlpool refrigerator-freezer was installed by Beckley's in Thurmont, MD. A beautiful job, pricey install, but worth it. After that an additional pure sine wave inverter was installed to handle to Whirlpool when driving without the generator running.

All of the flourescent lighting tubes in my coach ('01 Monaco Exec) are 12v. I'm replacing them with LED tubes. Yeah, they are expensive... but they're also much brighter, have no ballast to burn out or burn up and they are said to last a lot longer.

I also looked at Great America in Titusville and, as stated earlier in this thread, it is golf-oriented and there are properties of all shapes and sizes. There is also an excellent RV repair shop (Josh is the Service Manager) and they are well qualified to work on everything from aging Winnebagos up to Newells and Prevosts. The down side of Great America is the incredibly difficult security procedures. It's a touch place from which to go & come. If you own one of the bigger houses with full garage there is a second security gate to get through. But the over-riding reason we decided not to buy there (or anywhere else right now) is that we all own motor homes and why would you want to anchor it someplace? I understand that many of us use our motor homes and comfortable transportation back and forth from the frozen north or Florida, Arizona, New Mexico or California. Meanwhile, in the same Titusville area there are two other excellent choices for a winter stay. One is a rental... and that would be Seasons in the Sun in nearby Mims just off I-95. It's very well managed and we've stayed there two years in a row. This coming winter will find us at Willow Lakes RV Golf Resort on US-1 just south of Titusville. Property there is reasonable to own and the people there are VERY friendly. It has a less nasty security gate that operates only at night.

Also... if you haven't converted to TranSynd, I'd do it. My Allison (in a Monaco Exec 43') is much happier. While it does push up toward the temperature redline in summer mountain driving in NY state, it never gets beyond it.

Another point: Assuming our coaches can handle either size, would you go with 315's or stick with 295's? I'm told my '01 Monaco Exec can use the 315's.

I have four Cisco/Linksys WVC210 IP cameras. As long as you hve reasonbly high speed Internet access and a router you can access them from anywhere. There is software available from Cisco that will function as a motion detector including noting if an object in view has been removed. It will then send email to wherever you designate. Works well. Cameras are under $200 each... the software gets a little pricey if you want to be able to record.