richard5933

Good news. What did you find that the part was?

My guess would be something on the tank end of things. Assuming you have a traditional fuel gauge, do you have access to the top of the tank where the mounting plate would be for the gauge sending unit?

Or is it that Thor felt they needed a high-end line-up to compete against Winnebago's purchase of Newmar?

According to the manual, it appears that the EMS functions and the surge protection module are separate. As in, the surge protector can give its all to protect the coach and no longer be functional, but the EMS functions can remain functional. If you read through the manual it becomes clear that these are separate. It also sounds from how they word things that the surge protection module can be replaced without having to replace the entire unit, but I'm not sure that's something the owner can do. Sounds like it has to go back to the factory for that.

Generally speaking, surge protection things are a once-and-done type of thing, meaning that they are designed to give their all to protect your equipment from a big surge. I think it's the same for these EMS units with regard to the surge protection. In the manual an error code is listed for replacing the surge protector module. It is error code E 10 = Replace Surge Protector Module. It appears from the manual that the unit will still supply power to the RV with the E10 code showing, but I'd assume that the surge protector module will be useless at that point and offer no future protection against a surge. If the unit didn't indicate an E10 error code I'd just keep using it. However, if you have reason for concern call them and ask if there are better ways to verify function.

How hard would it be for a fleet owner to install monitors on the dash of the coach? Can't be any more complicated than when we install them using stem mounted sensors. The only difference is these being built in. All the parameters would be set in the monitor, not in the sensors, just like what we use. I see this as something specifically aimed at fleets though, not the world of privately owned coaches.

The wider tires can cause issues in a few places, and they need to be thoroughly inspected. The first issue is your wheel width. Most 315s are rated for install on 9" rims so you want to check that. Next, on the rears the dual spacing has to be a certain width. Check the specs for your proposed tires and make sure your wheel setup will provide that. On the front you need to make absolute certain that the tire will not make contact on a full turn to either side, even when the suspension is at full compression (as in hitting a bump while turning sharply.) My coach has 12R22.5 tires right now, and previously someone had put 315s on it. Things were generally good, but on a full-to-stops turn the inner edge of the tires contacted the edge of the air bag mount. No good and they had to go. Finding tires in 12R22.5 is really not that difficult at all. I was able to locate at least half a dozen choices here locally, including some in stock. I went with the Fireston FS561 and find that they ride better than the previous Firestone 315s.

What exactly are you asking when you say "solve"? If you're looking to minimize your legal obligation to pay taxes, the best thing to do is contact a good tax accountant. Nothing you learn here will do much to protect you should your actions ever be challenged. One important item you left out of this is how you registered the RV in Montana - under your name or an LLC? That one fact will likely make a huge difference.

That makes more sense.

One ton? What's left? Maybe a Smart Car? Even a Fiat weighs more than a ton.

Two hrs? Looks like the battery monitor shows 2 days 18 hours remaining based on previous use. Of course, once the sun goes down and the calculations change the remaining time will suddenly be reduced considerably, at least till the next morning when the sun comes up. Those two images were taken at 10:17am, so likely the sun was just coming up to prime solar charging time. At least a few hours of good solar left...

What specifically do you want to know? Looks like you were drawing 4.8 more amps than your solar could keep up with at that moment in time.

It was a Norcold 1210IM refrigerator. The OP also mentioned in one post that it ran on both electric and propane.

OK - misunderstood. Sounds like we agree then.

Not connected to the inverter - that means that if you're not plugged in or on generator your fridge must be on propane, correct? OP is trying to run the whole shebang off the inverter without propane. My point was that if the outlet in question is being powered by the inverter right now it will likely have difficulty, which is opposite your situation where that outlet is not run off the inverter.

I don't think the question is whether there was an inverter outlet for the ice maker, rather whether the outlet is capable of powering the entire refrigerator being run on 120vac. It takes far less power to supply the ice machine than the heating element in the fridge.

Okay - thanks for the info. Makes the point even sharper - running an absorption fridge through an inverter is not ideal.

If you're trying to find a way to run the fridge while boondocking without using propane, the inverter is not the answer. Those batteries are just not enough to power that thing on electricity. An absorption fridge is going to be an energy hog, regardless of what you do to make it run. The electric options are really only for when you're plugged in or for use a short time while driving. The best way to get away from the propane would be to convert this refrigerator to run as a 12vdc compressor fridge. This is the place to get the kit: https://jc-refrigeration.com/ They have a good reputation of converting propane fridges to run on 12vdc using a compressor. I've got a 12vdc compressor fridge and it works great, doesn't use much battery, and keeps the ice cream rock hard. The other option which a lot of people have done is to replace the absorption fridge with a small residential fridge. That works if you have adequate battery capacity and inverter. You've only got about 225 Ah of usable capacity (50% of the 450 Ah your four batteries provides) and that won't last too long powering a fridge if it draws too much. My compressor fridge draws only 5.7 amps from my 12v battery bank, and only when the compressor runs, which is about half the time. A really good energy efficient residential fridge might pull as little as 1.0 amp, but that will be at 120vac. Your inverter will be pulling 10 amps from your battery bank at 12vdc to make that 1.0 amp though, so it's not as energy efficient as it initially appears.

Do you by any chance have the battery charger connected to the same circuit as the outlets? As in the charger is plugged into one of them OR it's wired to that circuit? If so, that can create all kinds of problems - you'll be drawing power from the batteries to feed the inverter, and then the inverter is sending it back to the batteries. Also, if that is truly 5.5 amps at 120vac would equal 55 amps being drawn from your battery bank to run the refrigerator. That is a large enough load to pull the batteries down quickly. Why the need to run the fridge off the inverter in the first place? Typically that's done when one has a residential fridge since they need 120v at all times to operate. The fridge we're talking about here will probably be much more efficient with regard to electrical demand if it's run on propane. Then it will only be a small 12v power load and much easier to handle on the batteries. I haven't ever heard good things about trying to run a propane/120v fridge on the 120v side through an inverter.

Is the outlet that the fridge is plugged into powered by the inverter automatically when shore power is off? Where is the GFCI which is tripping? Is it in the outlet the fridge is plugged into or is it in the inverter itself? If the GFCI is tripping, you have an imbalance somewhere which the GFCI is seeing.

Still not sure why the need to rag on any state in particular here, since this is a common practice and not limited to NY. https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2019/06/07/the-cost-of-that-toll-depends-on-your-e-zpass This is not unique to toll roads. States with lots of visitors from out of state will often add taxes specifically designed to collect money from those visitors.

Nearly every state is going to handle the discounts slightly different. If getting the NYS discounted rate is important to you, then get a transponder from NYS. For us, since almost every trip involves going through Illinois we chose to get one of their transponders. Unless you're going to get multiple transponders, odds are you'll have some states where you get a better discount than others. No point in bad mouthing states that don't give you the in-state discount if you're transponder is from another state.

It's pretty much been this way all across the system for years. The cash price has been higher than the EZ Pass price as long as I can remember, for decades. Nothing to do with your great state, as they all do this. There are lower costs to the tollway operators with the EZ Pass than with toll operators, and the EZ Pass can keep traffic flowing much more quickly removing bottlenecks at the toll plazas. Some states, like Illinois, are using open-road tolling which means there isn't even a need for toll booths or slowing down to have your tag read at all. I forget how convenient it all is until I get to a state which still has the old-style toll booths with lift arms requiring a full stop, even when you have an active transponder.

Yes. We live in SE Wisconsin, and to get anywhere from here going south or east requires going through Chicagoland. The toll roads that go around Chicago are much easier to drive with much less time spent sitting in traffic. It's not just in the motor home that this is true. I drove a semi over the summer for a company out of northern Wisconsin. They didn't allow toll roads in most places, but in Chicagoland we were expected to take them. The time savings was worth the money the company spent on tolls or they wouldn't have told us to take the toll roads. Going east from Chicago, depending on where we're going, the toll roads heading east make life much easier as well. They're not the cheapest way to travel, but when you've got lots of ground to cover they can help. If we have lots of time we'll drop a bit south before going east and avoid the toll roads. But if we're trying to maximize our time at a destination on the east coast then it's toll roads all the way. The I-pass transponder I got from Illinois doesn't cost us anything to keep at the ready. We have some money on deposit, but the hassle it saves us going through the toll booths makes it well worth while.

Our solar panels are connected to the battery bank via the charge controller parallel to the outputs from the other charging sources such as the 120v charger. I've also got a disconnect in the connection, but that it really for times when I need to do anything and don't want to have live power coming from anywhere.