richard5933

Since this is a recent purchase of a used motor home, there exists the mystery of what was done to the rig prior to you purchasing it. No telling what modifications a previous owner did, nor what work was done by a shop before your purchase. By design, most manufacturers will connect a few house systems to the chassis/start batteries - could be the steps, could be a slide, etc. However, there is a chance that someone along the way connected some other device to the start batteries that should be connected to the house batteries. I've seen photos of some battery bays with multiple wires piggy-backed on the positive terminal of the start batteries when there should only be one. Your initial testing was to pull the cable from the negative terminal. That wouldn't remove any of these extra circuits from the positive side. Also, we're talking about a 2014 motor home. Likely the start battery is still the original, which means it could be 5 or 6 years old already. Might be advisable to test the battery before going much further. No sense in trouble shooting the entire coach when the problem is the battery itself. If the battery is the original, I'd replace it as a matter of maintenance regardless. A picture or two of the battery bay will help us help you identify anything that looks odd or out of place as well. And, welcome to the forum. Glad to have you join us here. Lot's of good information to be shared.

I can happily announce that spring has sprung for us here in Wisconsin, and not a moment too soon. This cabin fever thing was getting to me. After a week or two of above freezing afternoon temps the ground dried out enough around where the bus was parked, and today I was able to bring it from behind the barn back to the parking pad next to our driveway. Yay! Not a moment too soon since I have an appointment next week to have the Jake Brakes installed on our engine. Great thing, these old mechanical engines. Hasn't been touched in about three months - started instantly as soon as I touched the switch. Oil pressure came right up and all systems are 'go'. Next thing you know the spring bulbs will start popping up.

Have you checked with Newmar to be certain that the larger tire size isn't going to cause a problem? Sometime a larger tire looks good standing still, but it still creates a problem as the suspension moves to full travel. Wouldn't hurt to make a phone call.

You can also have some type of internal damage. The weight of the cable/clamp on the post is enough to cause a problem. Take off both clamps and the problem disappears. I've seen weird things with internal battery failure. How old are these batteries?

I just had a thought after reading Brett's comment. Like he mentioned, we never sanitize our house plumbing, even if we leave the house for weeks at a time to go on the road. Our fresh water system at home is fed by our own well. Periodically we are required to bring a sample to the county offices to have it tested for contamination. If the sample tests good, we do nothing more. In the nearly 20 years we've lived here, taking the samples is all we've ever had to do since everything tests good. Seems like that would be the gold standard for our RVs as well. Not very expensive to have a water sample tested, and certainly not very difficult. Rather than guessing on the proper formula for sanitizing our systems just get them tested and be armed with facts. If you live in an area where homes have wells, the information on getting a water sample tested should be readily available. If there are no wells in your area, then you might have to dig a bit to find which office at the county (or, town, village, etc) handles such things. This is now on my list for spring prep, so I'll report back once I've done mine.

Those electrons have to have a path from the negative post back to the positive post. They're not going to jump through the air unless the humidity is really (REALLY) high, so something somewhere must be conducting the current for the battery to be draining. Also, any signs of cracking or damage to the battery case itself, especially near the posts? Any chance you can post a photo or two of the way you've got things set up in your battery box?

Only time I've seen that on otherwise good batteries was when there was LOTS of grime and dirt on the batteries, especially in humid weather. Herman - The Victron BMV is really nice. I can watch what my system is doing from my phone through Bluetooth, and I'm able to see precisely what a particular device draws from the system if I want by isolating it. Once I got it calibrated, it was quite accurate regarding remaining charge.

If you have a battery monitor system (like the Victron BMV 712) installed you can use that in the same way. It will show any draw or charge going to the battery. Follow the same procedure Herman mentioned, and when you put in the fuse for the offending circuit a draw will show (unless the problem is intermittent or resulting from something which cycles on/off). The key to using a system like this is to install the shunt so that ALL current to/from the batteries goes through the shunt. Otherwise you'll never get an accurate reading.

I certainly would. They sold you tires already a third of the way through their life. At the very least they should have consulted you and asked your approval before mounting tires that old. I'd look for tires with a date no older than 6 months if possible.

Both truck tires and RV tires are available with a 75-mph speed rating. AFAIK, RV tires don't have a higher speed rating than many regional and long-haul truck tires. They are all designed for highway use. On the surface, the specs for highway-rated truck tires and RV tires have the same specs (compared in same size/load rating) so if there is a difference it must be elsewhere. Urban deliver tires, local delivery tires, etc. are certainly different and obviously not suitable for an RV.

Curious - what makes a tire specifically designed for motor homes? Other than possibly adding something to help prevent sun and environmental damage, I can't figure what difference there would be. Part of me wonders if they make the RV tires to a lessor standard since they won't receive the same intense use as a cross-country truck tire will as a way to keep the cost down.

Did the manufacturer issue a maximum top speed warning on the RV of 65mph? I bet it's in the small print in the manual somewhere.

Do I understand that the same charger is showing different outputs depending on whether you're plugged into shore power or on generator?

Perhaps there is a check valve in the plumbing for the pump that's not in play when you're hooked up to city water which is causing the problem.

Reading through the wildlife tales from you guys in Texas, I couldn't help but notice how strange it is that we've got a very similar population, despite the severe weather difference. We've got pack of coyote in the valley, and they get quite loud on foggy nights. Kind of eery to listen to the sound when the moon is bright and the fog is thick. Aside from the coyote, we've got red fox, skunk, racoon, more rabbits than I can count, the occasional barn owl, and deer living somewhere in heavy brush.

Not yet - it seems to be closer to the river basins right now. Some isolated road flooding from frozen storm drains is all I've seen.

Wisconsin is under $120/year.

I don't know where FIVE got it for only $10 - the link I posted was the best I could find so I posted it in case it helped someone. Perhaps a phone call to Good Sam will get more information.

https://www.campingworld.com/good-sam-road-atlas-17th-edition-112588.html#q=road%2Batlas&lang=default&start=2

I've seen this before in a single-handle faucet when one of the washers/seals was worn enough to flutter and move a bit.

Looks like your message was truncated - Do not what?

A big welcome from Wisconsin. Glad you are all here with us.

First project of the new season started and finished this weekend! With winter refusing to give up, I was determined to get started on something. This wasn't a really big project, but it hopefully gets the ball rolling. Our LP tanks have an aluminum cover which must be removed to gain access to the valves & gauges on the two tanks. It's really a PITA, especially when it's cold outside, to unscrew the cover to open the tanks so that the heat can be turned on. Never fails that we'll wait to turn on the tanks until it's so cold that no one really wants to do it. I recently stumbled across these boat deck hatches on Amazon and instantly thought that these would be really handy for quick access to the tanks, and they'd still be able to provide a vapor proof barrier for the LP tanks. These were really simple to install - just cut a hole with a jigsaw, apply some caulking tape, and screw down. While I was there I painted the panel since it was pretty scratched up. I might be installing a few more of these deck hatches in other places for use as a hose & power cord pass-through. Thought I'd share since others may have need for a way to provide access behind panels or bulkheads.

Do you hear the pump motor going at all? If you do and the pump is not moving water, the you might have a build up of crud inside the pump. The diaphragm section on most of these pumps can be opened pretty easily. Just keep things in order and take care to watch which was things came out so you can put them back again. I've had success cleaning water pumps before, but sometimes the diaphragms are damaged. Depending on the pump, there may be rebuild kits available. Of course, whole pumps are not that expensive either, so perhaps it's just time to change it if you find that the pump is bad. The worst thing for any type of machinery is sitting idle. That goes for pumps as well. My guess is that something inside the pump head either stuck or got crudded up while you were connected to city water.

You can find it in the left-hand column of the main fmca.com website once you're logged in. https://www.fmca.com/member-help-search