huffypuff

Where do you live for them to crack so soon? Do you keep them covered or apply tires dressing? Are the tires 5 years old on the coach or by the date on the sidewalls? I heard more than once that sidewall cracking is cosmetic.

That same boost relay is supposed to also energized when the engine is running to keep the house batteries charge. If the relay is weak it won't energized because of the vibration. To check if I'm right check for power to the small positive terminal at that relay and if you got power there you found the problem. I had to replace the relay on my coach to a new upgraded one that look very much like the old one.

If the brake fluid gets hot from heavy use of braking it will reduce the performance of your brakes until cool down. Reduce the pressure setting on your tow braking system.

If you have basement heat and pads on your tanks you should be ok. One years my coach basement heat failed in Idaho at 8 degrees and froze the cold water lines. Once south to warmer weather all was fine. I now have a new basement heater, repaired the old one and another backup. Easy to buy 120 volt ceramic heater but not the 12 volt one.

ObedB you may be right but if it was me if vehicle don't start from dead battery I turn the ignition switch harder.

Merry Christmas from Desert Hot Springs.

If the problem is when the ignition key is off I suspect a problem with a ignition relay. Find the relay for your chassis and disconnect it to see if problem goes away. If so with a test light see if the relay is being activated by the ignition switch. If not bad relay, if so bad ignition switch.

Hard wired PI surge and voltage fault protection will not get wet and not prone to theft. Yes it has happened.

You just proved what I was talking about all along as Delco at same amp rating is no better than Leece Neville. Having a larger frame with internal fans and more amp rating helps. Maybe this should be part of the project when changing to a residential refrigerator. The point made is if you are running it at or near max rating it will overheat the alternator. I can change my alternator to a 200 amps Delco but have to be very careful when to put the voltage sense wiring. I was dealing with ExtraRide insurance so not able to do that. The replacement is supposed to be improved but I guess we heard that before. Supposedly a shop converted one member on here to Delco and did the voltage sense wire wrong and had many problems. He went through three replacements before he found the problem. I can't seem to find the post. Found similar post at this link: http://news.prestolite.com/node/4840

When I was working fleet with emergency vehicles we had a outfit claim that Leece Neville is bad and converted them to Delco. In fact a pair of them. Because of overheating the rectifier bridges were removed from the housing to the grill. Still have problem with heat with either the rectifier or winding burning up. First the company came to educate the mechanics. Then they came to educate the drivers. Fast idle solenoids were installed and resulted in mostly Ford vehicles overheating the exhaust to a point that the inside carpet would smoke. We didn't have any more problems with Leece Neville over Delco on the dump trucks or tractors. I'm not going to say I'm an expert in alternators but Leece Neville being unreliable has not been proven to me. They will all fail if overheated for a period of time.

This is DC to AC amperage conversion run through an Inverter: 120 volts AC @ 5 Amps = 600 Watts. Convert that to 12 volts DC = 55.2 Amps DC. Microwave oven 120 volts @ 7.1 Amps = 850 Watts. Convert that to 12 volt AC = 78.38 Amps DC. This does not include if the refrigerator goes into defrost cycle or icemaker heater kicks in to expel ice from the mold. With that in mind the amperage of a refrigerator could go over that of a microwave. There is an easy calculator at link below http://www.batterystuff.com/kb/tools/ac-to-dc-amperage-conversion-run-through-an-inverter.html

I find a 8 foot step ladder works best as you can get a 12 foot reach over the front windshield.

Bill this is the alternator my coach takes and supposed to be very reliable. The one on the right that is pad mount. http://www.prestolite.com/literature/alts/FL1155_110-555_Long_Brush.pdf Merry Christmas and Happy New Years also Ray

I have these warning in my coach owners manual under the section alternator. CAUTION: Long-term use of the inverter to operate the microwave while in transit damages the alternator. Use the generator to operate the microwave while in transit. CAUTION: Standard is 160 Amp. NOTE: Excessive loads applied to the inverter can actually drain both the chassis and house batteries during operation. NOTE: The alternator is not a battery charger, but designed to maintain proper electrical system voltage. A battery with a low state of charge, or a dead battery, may overheat and damage the alternator. I can bet that it may include residential refrigerator since it was not common when my coach was built in 2006. Also the amps stated on the residential refrigerator does not include compressor startup and defrost cycle. Therefore the electrical load of a residential refrigerator is more than you think. It is best to drive with it off or not hooked to inverter circuit.

Tom, does your alternator keep up while driving. It says in my coach owners manual that running appliances on the inverter including microwave is hard on the alternator and will damage it. I had to replace a 160 amp Leech Neville alternator and I don't even have a residential fridge just three ladies that wanted to plug in their cell phones.

Did the tow bar break or was it the bracket on the tow vehicle?

Bill in my case the water started to leak on the floor. DW was blaming me until she figure it was just water.

I put the ball seal with ball in Thetford china toilet and 2 weeks later the water valve started leaking. Go figure.

It doesn't make sense to do a major repair a 12 year old fridge unless you are selling the coach. You can tell the new owner that the fridge has a new cooling unit so any so call problem solved. Otherwise get a new fridge because doors, shelves, and seals can fail. I will not tell you which type of fridge to get but the residential one put a heavy load on the electrical system. In my owners manual it states about blowing the alternator with extensive use of the inverter while driving. My coach 160 amp alternator blew and I don't even have a residential fridge just three ladies that wanted to plug in their cell phones.

Yes George, the reason we head south every winter the cold and constant rain. We can do it only three months a year while others are lucky enough to do it for 5 to 6 months.

This is a follow up after the login is working again. I left home a day late as my coach failed the pre check and needed the alternator replaced. So we left on Friday 12-11- 2015 at 9:00 am for Seven Feathers and arrived at 5:00 pm same day. We decided to have dinner in the casino and walk around a little. When we got back I heard a mention of snow on TV so I hooked up the laptop to check the passes on. line weather. The forecast was snow starting by 9:00 am Saturday turning to blizzard condition that afternoon and continue to Monday night. I later found out that it snowed 2 feet of snow with many drifts with ice. We had a decision to make, red eye till the wee hours of the morning or be stuck where we were for three days. My DW had to catch a plane on the morning of the 16 in Ontario, CA so the second choice didn't sound good. We left at 10:30 pm top off, the fuel tank and propane at Seven Feathers and red eye until 4:00 am to a Wal-Mart about 100 miles north of Sacramento, CA. Since we were so close to Sacramento we skipped that stop and put us a day ahead when we continue later that morning. Again we were able to avoid trouble by watching the weather in the passes. And DW was able to catch her plane yesterday.

I recommend Progressive Industries hardwired 50 amp EMS-LCHW-50. Lifetime guarantee if something goes wrong with it. If you go to one of FMCA rally, be sure to attend on of their classes.

I read a similar story and I seem to remember that the tires were over ten years old. Could this also be the reason for failures of the tires?

I carry chains by law but I sure won't be using them. That is why I watch the news, if chains are require I won't go.

Thanks for sharing Joe as this is becoming a problem on our older coach. Seems like the manufactures are saving money by using connectors that aren't so weatherproof. I had one to my generator with a connector up on the frame that was about 4 wires that had a wire corrode in half. Picture of it is in my saved pictures under my profile.