don0344

On my return from Organ Pipe my coach seemed to run better. The warning light came on only once on the way out and the engine coughed only once on the way back. Last week I left on another road trip from Tucson to Seligman, AZ by way of Wickenburg. Before leaving I added another gallon of Seafoam. The two trips totaled about 600 miles. My coach ran well all the way to Seligman. No warning light, no stalling and I could sit at idle for long periods without the engine quitting. So the problem may have been with the injectors being fouled. It appears that Seafoam did the trick. At $60 per gallon, it seems a cheap way to maintain a clean engine by adding Seafoam to my 100 gallon tank every few thousand miles. Thanks for everyone's input.

I recently had an oil change and replaced the oil, fuel and air filters at that time, hoping the problem would be solved but, alas, it was not. In view of Cummins apparent inability to pinpoint the problem my next step will be to add Sea Foam to the fuel tank and, in addition, attempt to clean the injectors following Sea Foam's instructions which can be found here: http://www.seafoamsales.com/how-to-use-sea-foam-motor-treatment.html. I'm leaving on a road trip to Organ Pipe National Monument on Sunday and before I leave will add the Sea Foam to the fuel tank. Because of the procedure required to clean the injectors, I will do that as I leave the OPNM park and head back to Tucson where I am now located. I will post the results when I return.

I have a 275 HP Cummins Diesel 5.9 Liter, 24 valve Ser# SBM81599 98 38 engine in my 1998 Monaco Diplomat motor home with an Allison transmission Model #MD3060. On the dash board, in addition to the Check Engine light, is a "Warning" light that comes on and goes out erratically. Sometimes I can go for days without the warning light coming on. Sometimes it will come on several times in an hour. Often, when I am idling, this warning light will come on and the engine will rev up by itself and then quit. When I am driving and the light comes on I seem to loose power. What general problems would cause the warning light to come? Any guesses as to the root problem?

Well, it's been quite awhile and I have to admit that I gave up on this problem, at least temporarily. I recently replaced all four of my 6-volt batteries and the switching has subsided considerably. I was on an Escapees forum and got the following explanation: Since you don't mention what your MH is, I will hazard a guess as to the equipment and what is going on. It sounds to me like you have an Intellitec BIRD (Bi-directional Isolator Relay Delay) -- actually a pretty neat thing to have in spite of the clacking solenoid! The BIRD allows the system to charge both battery banks when either is being charged, ie your house batteries will be charged along with the engine batteries from the engine alternator when driving; and the engine batteries will be charged along with the house batteries when plugged into shore power. The "cause" of your "problem" clicking is that the controller senses heavy loads on either battery bank and isolates the two banks to prevent the wrong battery from being inadvertently discharged. The clicking is "normal" -- fortunately on my coach, the solenoid is located in a comparment under the driver seat. I hear it when sitting in the main area of the coach, but not from the bedroom. I don't normally hear it when connected to shore power, but do notice it when boondocking. Maybe you can add some insulation between the location of the solenoid and the living compartment? (be aware that the solenoid normally is fairly hot to the touch) Following is some verbaige from the Intellitec website on how the BIRD operates: ----------------------- It operates by sensing the voltages on both batteries. When either of these voltages exceeds 13.1 volts for approximately 2.5 minutes, which happens when either battery is being charged, the control will close the isolator solenoid, connecting the two batteries together, charging them both. After the solenoid has been closed, the system continues to sense the voltage. If the ignition switch is off and the battery voltage drops below 12.6 volts for approximately 1 minute, which might occur when the converter is heavily loaded, the solenoid is opened to prevent the chassis battery from being discharged by the coach loads. When the voltage goes above 13.1 volts again for approximately 2.5 minutes, the solenoid closes again. If the ignition switch is on, the control allows the voltage drop below 12.0 volts for approximately 1 minute, before the solenoid is opened to insure the alternator's full output is available for important chassis functions. When the voltage goes above 13.1 volts again for approximately 2.5 minutes, the solenoid will close. It seems to explain my situation.

Tom, thank you for all your input and help. I will check out the Yahoo! group and give Monaco a call too and report back anything I find. I'm sure both are good sources for future reference also. I know others have had this problem or a similar one and hopefully others will benefit as well. The bright side is that the inverter seems to be doing its job of keeping all the batteries charged and and supplying inverted power. It seems the relay problem is more of an annoyance than anything else, although I keep thinking the contacts in the relay must be taking some wear and tear as they probably arc each time the open and close.

I bought my coach second-hand and, unfortunately, much of the manufacturers' literature is missing. I may have mentioned, too, that this is my first motor home. I traded up from a travel trailer. The Monaco owners manual only gives a cursory explanation of the electrical system. I had no information on the inverter until I recently had the new one installed. I could find no reference on either the Monaco site or the Xantrex site to a "battery maintainer." I had searched the Xantrex site for an answer to the switching problem and found a reference to a relay that continuously switched back and forth however it was associated with a red LED on the inverter front panel and since I didn't have that condition I didn't pay much attention to the article although I saw a sentence that said that a charging threshold my have been set too low or too narrowly, causing the rapid relay switching. I just went back to the Xantrex site but am unable to find that message and I can't find any instructions on how to set those kinds of parameters in the inverter. The "problem" solenoid looks to me like the starter solenoid in a car. It's a black cylinder about three inches long with terminals on top. There are two large terminals. One goes to the 6V house battery bank and the other goes to the two 12V starter batteries. The smaller terminals apparently connect to control circuitry but I don't know where the signal comes from - from the inverter or some other source?. The inverter is installed in a compartment that is adjacent to the battery compartment both of which lie directly beneath the bedroom making it tough to sleep when the relay is doing its thing. Earplugs help.

Thanks for your reply, Tom. I purchased my motorhome last November and spent the past 5 1/2 months living in it parked in an RV park near Tucson. I took my first road trip last Tuesday and drove the 150 miles from Tucson to McDowell Mountain Regional Park in Scottsdale, AZ so I have almost no experience with a motorhome. I have to say I was white-knuckling it on I-10 for about half the trip. It was windy and there were lots of semis on the road. After awhile I began to get the hang of it and was able to relax a bit. Previously I had been pulling a 26' Jayco travel trailer with a Toyota Tundra TRD pick up. This 27,000 motorhome is a whole 'nuther ball game both to drive and to live in. As far as my inverter goes, it is a new one. The old one was not charging any of the batteries to full capacity so I had it replaced. My batteries all seem to be charged to full capacity both the house batteries and the chassis batteries. There are no indications on either the Xantrex control panel or on the Xantrex inverter itself of any problems. On the inverter the invert led flashes green which, according to the Xantrex manual, means the inverter is in standby mode, and the charge light is solid green which indicates that external AC power is applied. The relay seems to drop in and out even when I have turned the inverter off at the control panel. Although it stops clicking on and off for long periods of time I would say that it is active more than it is inactive. One problem is the inverter compartment is right below my bedroom and the clacking is loud enough to interfere with a good night's sleep. I have a pair of ear plugs on the night stand for that reason. Don

Sorry, I somehow posted a duplicate and don't see any way to delete it. Don

I too have a related question. I have a 1998 Monaco Diplomat with four 6V house batteries and two coach batteries. My inverter is a Xantrex Freedom 458-20 2000 VA unit. The controller is also a Xantrex. Occasionally I can hear a clicking sound coming from the isolator (the round black component in the battery compartment with two large terminals and two small terminals). I clicks off and on for several minutes at at time, then goes silent for long periods. The time interval from on to off is about a second. Since this device apparently switches the charging from the inverter to either the house batteries or coach batteries, I wonder why it does this momentary pulsing. There is no indication on the control panel of any activity other than the usual readout when the frequent switching takes place. Since it would seem that the inverter would switch to one or the other battery systems for sustained charging, I'm wondering if this pulsation indicates a problem with charging system. Thanks, Don