Search the Community

OK... Hello everyone. we are new to the forum and new to RV living, we are preparing to become full timers. so i am on an intense learning curve as we bought a 1999 Fleet wood Pace Arrow that needed minor work. so here is the problem that i am having right now. We have been staying in the MotorHome trying to become accustomed to staying here full time. i was going through the basement vacuuming everything I could reach with the shop vac two Saturdays ago. I had the basement lights on and i went working into the night as I also had a plumbing leak that I had to repair. To my horror the next morning i found that I had left all of the basement lights on. We had not yet been sleeping overnight in the Motorhome. The batteries were completely dead. i could not get the gen set to start but was able to start the motor and was able to eventually get a charge on the batteries by connecting a shoreline and was able to operate everything eventually. The problem started here... when I started the engine at idle the RPM's pulsed. This had never happened before and i have had the motorhome around two weeks at this point. it has been doing it ever since just not as bad. when they pulse at idle it is a steady up and down pulse. Another thing that has changed and I have noticed a difference in is that the lights have started to surge at times and I hear the converter under the refrigerator make surging noises. Today I drove the motor home around 100 miles and when i got back home to park and level I found that i could not get the hydraulic jacks to level the motor home. two would touch and then the hydraulic motor sounded like the motor would just loose power. This was with the engine running. I shut down the engine and connected shore power and turned the key on and the hydraulic levelers had full power and worked like a dream. Another issue that I found out was that the gen set would not power anything. I tried the generator before hooking up the shoreline because i thought that it might be a voltage issue. So now I am here in the motorhome and I notice that the lights are just not as bright as they normally are and i am just like " what in the world did i do to our motorhome". With all of that said I hope it makes sense what I am trying to convey. I am trying to get everything ready in the motorhome so I can move back to the west from the east. having a hard enough time getting rid of everything in the house let alone now having problems with my motorhome. I hope your knowledge and experience can help me in my predicament. I don't know if it is my batteries or the converter or both. Oh, just as a side note because it might be relevant. we had been getting a rotten egg smell in the motor home that was intermittent. and we were noticing a really strong smell at the front passenger side of the engine compartment as we would walk by it. I checked tonight and noticed that the chassis battery is located here.. could this be related as well. Thank you so much for your help and advise in advance. I'm trying to learn as much as I can as fast as I can and to be honest the electrical is seeming to be the hardest as it seems to be so foreign to residential electrical. BrownSquad

I was running my RV off 20 amp and using a plug to run window unit and seemed to do just fine and all outlets were working good. The A/C won't kick on with 20 amp but makes buzzing sound. I flipped breaker for A/C and just didn't use it. My step dad wired a 3 prong 30 amp plug so I could use 30 amp. I plugged it in and it started smoking out of the converter box . Someone please help. I don't know what happened or what to do. I hope I can fix this issue cheap hopefully I didn't damage something.

Forgive as this is long - but I wanted to give the details. We are having an issue with the batteries charging. I have a 2010 Fiesta 34B, purchased used last year, been working fine through the summer trips. Keep it attached to shore power with A/C in operation. Two weeks ago I noticed the A/C short cycling (about 30-60 seconds). Went inside to find dashboard radio flickering, all 12 volt lights were dim, etc. Immediately though the the converter/charger was not working. Opened the area behind the power center to access the converter. It was difficult to tell if it was functioning. I check the output with the multi-meter and the voltage was fluctuating all over the place. I checked the cost and ordered one to be delivered that Sunday. I immediately dug out the other chargers to see if I could bring the batteries back up. I left those chargers in place for the week and they appeared to recharge fully. I replaced the charger with the new one and hooked everything back up and removed the external chargers. I also checked every in-line fuse to make sure it was still good - no issues there. I left everything off for a few hours and checked the readout on the dash. They were at 13.68 and 13.56 about 4 hours later. I turned the refrigerator on and let it sit overnight. Yesterday afternoon the voltage was still hanging close to the 13.6, 13.5 range. This afternoon I checked the voltage and both are down to the 13.1 range. While I realize the resting voltage of a 12-volt is lower than this I don't recall it dropping off this much previously while being plugged in. Am I right in thinking something is still wrong? If so, any idea where to turn next? Is there some fuse I haven't though of? I appreciate any assistance you can provide. Thanks

I recently decided to go ahead and replace a a Magneteck 6345 converter in an older Itasca Suncruiser. I replaced it with a PD 4645. The replacement was very easy but there was an appalling sight when I remover the 6345, The area under the converter was very scorched and brown. It looked like a disaster waiting to happen. I am so pleased to have made the change. The new unit is so quiet compared to the 6345. The 6345 hummed whenever ac power was applied. I definitely made a good decision to replace the unit. The modes of battery charging will also extend my battery life. I suspect there are a number of RVs out there with the same heat problems from converters.