richard5933

You should have a battery charger for your house batteries already onboard. Might be a converter/charger, might be an inverter/charger, or might be a stand-along charger. Not sure what coach you have, but if you post some more information I'm sure that someone with the same or similar coach can tell you more about it. I have a built-in stand-alone house battery charger, and it's basically the only thing that I've got turned on right now. I've got a trickle charger incorporated into the system that keeps my chassis batteries topped off as well. If you don't already have something built into your setup you can easily get a small battery tender that clips onto the chassis battery posts to keep it fresh. You'll see that many people add their coach make/model either to their profile or to their signature, as well as a name.

Welcome to the FMCA forum. When you find the settings/profile page, please add a little information about your coach so that we can better answer questions like this for you. I've got mine parked for the winter months. Everything is off, with the exception of the battery chargers. A modern charger can be left on all the time and will keep your batteries in top shape. Some of the newer coaches will have phantom electric draws all the time, even with switches in the 'off' position. Doesn't take too long for the batteries to drain down to the danger zone where damage is possible, so leaving the chargers on to maintain them is a good idea. Assuming you're in a warm climate and/or you've winterized the plumbing, nothing else should need to be on.

If you can get to the back side of the switch, you can also check to be sure that all the wires are firmly seated. A lighted switch usually has it's own ground wire, and if that gets loose light won't work.

I believe that most roof-top a/c units can run on a 15-amp circuit, with actual draw slightly less than that. Technically it might be possible to run two units on 30 amps, but I'd guess that at some point they'll cycle at the same time and the start-up draw might pop the breaker. Or, more likely, the battery charger or something else which was forgotten will kick in and increase the draw over the 30-amp limit. Obviously I'm talking about those with more manual power management. In our coach each of the a/c units draw 19 amps on startup, and about 15 otherwise when the compressor is running. We can run one on 30 amps, with a little left over for things like lighting, battery charger, and fans. Lucky for us our basement a/c units will turn the coach into a meat locker if we want, so one can usually keep us comfortable enough. We had only 30 amps in Gillette, but there was no problem keeping cool inside. Since our kitchen is all electric, we carry a portable propane single burner stove which we use whenever we're hooked up to 30-amp service. If we use the microwave, the a/c is first switched to ventilate only with the compressor switched off.

Thanks for the information. Just to make it clear, my comments earlier were in on way to make any type of statement about Kiley. Not whether they are in business nor whether they still serve as a vendor to other organizations. The purpose for my posting the information was in response to the thread from last spring. In that thread I had posted a link to Kiley, only to have a rather cryptic posting about the FMCA vendor which sort of corrected what posted. Later on Dan B informed us that Kiley was no longer the vendor for FMCA plaques and accessories. So, based upon that information, I posted what is I believe still the most current information about the 'official' vendor of plaques and related accessories. Not sure why there was any controversy about this, and not sure why there seems to be a hesitation to promote the FMCA vendor/distribution chain on these things.

Still lots of smaller campgrounds with only 30-amp hookups, as well as those with only a few 50-amp pedestals. We stopped at a few on our drive from NJ to Wisconsin. Always good to have a plan for making do on 30-amp.

Good advice for gasoline engines as well. Machinery does best when used. Sitting still is not good for engines long term, and will lead to dried gaskets, seals, and other problems.

Single phase is pretty much the standard electric service in residential buildings. The other option would be three phase, something usually found in commercial or industrial settings. Look at Wikipedia for an explanation.

Some plastics don't take epoxy well. Scuffing them up will help, as mentioned earlier. Also would suggest trying to find a product specifically designated to be compatible with the materials being bonded (steel/plastic). There are many type of plastic, so hopefully the one you're working with has a marking stamped into it which will help you identify it. Also might be good to thoroughly clean the area to be bonded with something like acetone to remove any grease/wax/etc. I just looked at the photo you posted (PDF) and see how big that name plate it. Bigger than I imagined based on the description, and I'm actually surprised that they only used three bolts, and more surprised that they used adhesive to connect the bolts to the plastic. But, maybe they were hoping to get a mechanical bond due to the heat of the hot glue causing a slight 'heat weld' to the plastic name plate.

Dan Ball posted in April that the relationship between FMCA and Kiley ended on March 22nd. If something has changed since then and Kiley is once again the supplier, it would sure be helpful for the information to be announced. Otherwise, the link I posted above is the most current one for ordering supplies that I can find. Here's a link to that earlier thread:

Unless something has changed since the spring, Kiley is no longer the supplier for FMCA plates and mounting accessories. Here is the link that was provided at the time of a previous discussion about this for ordering supplies (including mounting hardware): https://www.fmca.com/rv-plates

It's also possible to get an egg which is a vinyl sticker only (minus the plastic backing plate) which can be applied directly to the coach. Or at least it used to be with the previous supplier. I assume it still is. This is what we did up front. The space for mounting was slightly curved, and the vinyl followed the curve easily.

Photos? (best to get both front and rear of switch) There are lots of places online which sell these switches, and depending on what you're looking for it might be easy or it might be difficult. If this is a 12v circuit, be sure to get switches which are rated for DC current, and the switches only rated for AC may not last long. (There's more arcing by nature in 12v circuits when making/breaking the circuit, and the DC switches are rated to handle this).

These things usually heat the water pretty quickly, and having hot water would be the best test. If you don't have hot water on electric only, then perhaps your circuit breaker needs to be reset. If that's okay, you should check the reset button on the end of the electric heater element. These reset button will trip is things go bad or if there is a problem. My reset button popped once when the unit was turned on before it was filled with water. Wouldn't heat again till the reset was pushed in. If you don't have a manual for your water heater you can find them online. Here is one link I found: http://www.dyersonline.com/downloadfile/download/aitfile/aitfile_id/1985/ Good luck!

Maybe I missed it, but did the OP ever mention what type of batteries he had in the coach? Until we hear back from the OP we're just guessing, but I agree that power lead in the tow harness could solve all this (if hooked up correctly.)

Macon Battery 478-781-7880 https://maconbattery.com Looks like they are near Perry. Never dealt with them directly, but they are listed as a dealer for a at least a few different battery lines such as Trojan. I've had better luck with battery dealers as opposed to RV repair places. They often have more knowledge and more selection. Also likely to have fresher stock.

Coach, car, boat, plane, or whatever you're buying. The point still stands. Take your time deciding what to buy - do your research and ask lots of questions. Don't be afraid of wasting a salesperson's time - that's what they're there for. If there's an RV show around, go and talk to other RV owners at the show and learn what you can. Other owners of the make/model you're interested in will give you lots of information the salespeople won't or can't give you. But, when/if you find the coach you like, if the price is right, and if it checks out with the mechanic, then that's the time to buy. I almost lost out on our current coach taking too long to decide. I'm not trying to push anyone to buy anything, it's just that I've seen more than a few threads like this where a potential buyer found what they liked and then hemmed and hawed too long and someone else ended up driving 'their' new coach away. Good luck and welcome!

In my experience, the best time to buy a vehicle is when you find the vehicle you want/like at a good price.

Yup - our filters also need to be filled before installing. No electric pump or manual primer on our rig. Instead of carrying a can of diesel, which some do, I carry a simple rubber bulb fuel siphon that is diesel rated. If there is need to change fuel filters on the road, I'll siphon some fuel from the tank into a small bucket to use for pre-filling. Everyone with a diesel engine should familiarize themselves with the process of changing a fuel filter, including how to pre-fill or prime the system. It's hard to predict when & where filters will clog and cause a problem. Preventative maintenance is very helpful, but it only takes a small amount of contaminated fuel to really cause a filter problem, and it seems that the filters choose the worst possible place and time to clog up. Great reminder for everyone with a diesel.

Is this thread about gasoline cans or propane bottles?

390 Ah @ 6v We've got four, wired in series/parallel, which gives a total of 780 Ah @ 12v.

Eight batteries doesn't mean much without knowing the capacity of the batteries. We've got only four 6-volt batteries, but it gives us 780 Ah @ 12v since they are Trojan L16 batteries. With a 2000-watt inverter I can run up to about 1800 watts of continuous load safely. Figuring a 50% max draw down, that means I can run at 1800 watts for about 2-1/2 hours. Doesn't really matter was that 1800 watts is, as long as the total never exceeds 1800 watts. Here's a website where one can input the load being placed in the inverter in ac and calculate the load being drawn from the battery bank. https://www.batterystuff.com/kb/tools/ac-to-dc-amperage-conversion-run-through-an-inverter.html If I input the data from above for running a residential fridge of 1.7 amps @ 120vac, that equals about 18.77 amps dc. I assume that the fridge will cycle on only about 1/2 of the time once it gets cold. That gives me the following calculations: 780 Ah/2 = 390 Ah of usable capacity. Divide 390 Ah by 18.77 amps and then x2 since the fridge is only running about 1/2 the time = about 41.5 hours of run time if the only thing running was the residential fridge. Of course, there are other things being run off the battery like the fans, lights, water pump, etc., so the actual time between running the generator would be less. Solar would of course make it longer. For comparison, our 12v fridge only draws 5 amps. If we only run our fridge the run time would be 156 hours using the same calculations. Of course we have other loads so we can't go this long on battery alone, but since we also have solar, the time can be extended even longer between generator use and/or plugging in. If it's possible to either run the generator or plug in every day or so, then a residential fridge would be able to run on most decent sized battery banks, but you've got to do the math using your own numbers to see how long you can run. I'm not trying to push anyone to choose one type of fridge over another. Makes no difference to me. I'm just trying to help by showing how we did the calculations to determine what we needed when I set up our battery banks and installed appliances.

Remember though, the information that's listed on the fridge will be for the 120v operation. That information has to be converted to the actual draw on the house batteries. It takes about 10 amps @ 12vdc to produce 1 amp @ 120vac using the typical inverter. That means that the load on the house batteries is actually 17 amps, not 1.7 and this is all in addition to whatever loss is involved plus the current draw for the inverter just to keep it running. Your Samsung sounds like it draws 39 amps from your batteries at startup and 17 amps after, which would run a typical factory-installed battery bank down pretty quickly. Contrast with a 12vdc compressor fridge which will draw only about 5-7amps @ 12vdc to operate. Both options are doable, but it's important to keep the higher current needs of the residential in mind when sizing battery banks. With our 12v compressor fridge we can go 4-5 days dry camping with no solar operating and without running the generator. Maybe 2-3 if the furnace is running. You learn to carefully manage battery use when you want to dry camp in silence (no generator).

I know that residential refrigerators are becoming more and more common, but if dry camping is what you're after you might consider a 12v compressor fridge. They are typically smaller than a residential unit, but they can run longer using the available battery storage. Our is about the size of many RV fridges, but they do come larger. The downside is the cost, which is typically much higher than a low-end residential. Another option is for you to add capacity to your house battery bank so that you can run the inverter longer without having to run the generator. Or, you can add solar to keep charging the batteries while you're dry camping.

That works, but I'm curious if you've even had to back out of a road? This would be more of a concern for me on secondary roads, especially since around here they seem prone to post the height & weight warning after the last turnoff to avoid the restriction.