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General Discussion / Re: Coleman Mach 8 air conditioner not working

« on: April 05, 2017, 08:02:39 pm »

Thanks everyone for your input -- they give me some ideas about what could be wrong and what needs to be checked on our A/C.

Pattee

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General Discussion / Coleman Mach 8 air conditioner not working

« on: April 03, 2017, 04:29:34 pm »

My husband picked up his brand new 2351 Phoenix Cruiser in November of 2016.  Last week on a trip we used our air conditioner for the first time.  It worked for approximately an hour, then it started to make a low frequency hum.  We noticed when it made the low frequency hum the lights in the RV dimmed.  The air conditioner no longer puts out cold/cool air.  We have a Coleman Mach 8 15000.

Does anyone have any ideas on what is going on with the brand new air conditioner?
Pattee   

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General Discussion / Re: All weather camping.

« on: February 02, 2017, 10:07:48 pm »

Our winter camping experiences did not go quite as well as yours
Driving back from southern Utah to Wyoming just after New Year day, we pulled over at a Flying J truck stop to spend the night. We were dry camping having winterized in southern Utah before hitting the road. We  awoke around 4 am due to being cold. The furnace was not working due to dead battery. Started the truck engine which warmed up the coach well.
After I got home I started wondering why the battery discharged so fast -- loads were only furnace fan, fridge compressor and a few lights. Did I mention  that it was -20 degrees F. Took a look at the Lifeline battery specs -- at -20 F the batteries only give you 40% of normal capacity. To make matters worse the required charging voltage is above 15V when you are below 0 degrees -- since alternator puts out 13.5 to 15 volts (I have heard) I don't think the batteries were being charged as we drove down the road.  Another concern is that the temperature at which you can freeze your battery goes up as percent charge level goes down -- at 25% charge level the batteries will freeze at 9 degrees F!
On the good side our 4X4 rig performed perfectly on many days driving on snow packed roads.

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General Discussion / Re: Compression refridgerator ventilation

« on: December 17, 2016, 01:07:53 pm »

Michelle,

Your posts got me to thinking and I went out and looked at my PC -- quickly realized that the outside fridge vents are contained in panels and these panels are easily removed -- just turn two attach latches and they come right out.
So once the weather warms up my plan is to glue some block foam insulation which I have left over from another project to the backside of these panels to block the air flow and provide some insulation at the same time.
Thanks for your input.

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General Discussion / Re: Compression refridgerator ventilation

« on: December 16, 2016, 12:54:24 am »

RandallandChris

Actually the Norcold DE-0061 compressor fridge that I have only draws 3.2 amps at 12v -- and it only draws this when the compressor is running. Given my two 105 amp/hr batteries and assuming that I limit discharge to 50% -- I have an 105 amp/hour power budget. Assuming I charge everyday the fridge should consume less than half my budget (I estimate around 40 amp/hr per day). I eventually plan to add solar panels and lithium ion batteries to make this situation better. And I often will have hookups so power not an issue then.

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General Discussion / Re: Over head Samsung TV squeaks and rattles

« on: December 15, 2016, 08:15:26 pm »

Thanks Ron for the felt pad suggestion.
I had also been thinking about trying adhesive backed foam strips that you can buy for weather stripping.
I will have to experiment with different thicknesses of cushioning material to see what works.

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General Discussion / Tank heater power requirements

« on: December 15, 2016, 08:05:52 pm »

 While boondocking at a Pilot travel center in below freezing weather, I turned on the tank heaters for the night. The next morning I noticed that my batteries were mostly discharged.
I had been worried about the drain on my batteries due to the compressor fridge but I forgot about the tank heaters -- you have to remember that I am a newbie to RVs. The compressor fridge draws 3.2 amps while running and given how cold it was I doubt it was on more than 50% of the time -- so say 5 hours of run time X 3.2 amps (12V) = 16 amp/hours -- not enough to draw down my batteries.
I have a feeling that the tank heaters draw a lot more power -- does anyone know how many tank heaters would be on a 2351 and how much current they draw?

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General Discussion / Over head Samsung TV squeaks and rattles

« on: December 14, 2016, 10:34:17 pm »

As soon as I left the PC plant with my new RV, I noticed a constant and annoying squeak/rattle noise. I finally tracked it down to the TV over my head ( which now has a bracket that allows moving the TV around for different viewing angles). I wadded up a paper towel and stuffed it between the bottom edge of the TV and the wall that the TV is mounted to. This stopped the squeak/rattle -- but I need to come up with a more eloquent solution:)

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General Discussion / Compression refridgerator ventilation

« on: December 14, 2016, 09:27:51 pm »

I picked up my new 4x4 2351 on December 1st and drove it across country back to western Wyoming.
In general I am very happy with my new RV -- it looks and performs great.
There are a few issues -- the first of which I will discuss in this topic thread.
On a cold and windy night -- parked for the night at a Pilot truck stop in Nebraska, I noticed cold air pouring thru the vents of my compressor based refrigerator. Thinking about this one night after I got home -- the reason for this occurred to me. When PC installs the normal absorption fridge they provide vents on the outside wall of the RV to allow fresh air intake and exhausting of propane fumes. The compressor fridge being all electric has its vents built into the fridge unit itself and are on the inside. So I now have external vents and internal vents that share the common airspace surrounding the fridge allowing outside air to freely flow to the inside of my PC.
To fix this I think I somehow need to seal off the outside vents since I do not think they are needed for my 'all electric' fridge which has inside vents (above and below the fridge doors)
Any thoughts on how to do this?
Anyone else considering a compressor fridge needs to have a conversation with the guys at PC about this.

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General Discussion / Re: Selling your PC 2400?

« on: November 21, 2016, 02:40:41 pm »

When driving down the freeway I always pull into the truck stops and wander over to where the big rigs are parked -- I love the sounds of the big diesel engines as they idle and 'AAhh' the wonderful aroma of the diesel fumes

Even though I love diesel engines I decided to go with the gas V10 for my RV because I have heard good things about its reliability. I love my diesel pickup but its engine has certainly had its problems over the years.

That reminds me of an interesting problem that could affect any engine. Several years ago on a chilly day in December while parked at work, some squirrels decided to make a meal of the insulation on my engine's electrical wiring -- very expensive repair required. I have read on the internet that some wiring uses soy in the insulation that rodents like to eat. So if you see some of those critters hanging around the front end of your PC watch out.

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General Discussion / Re: Add Windows to Diagonal Area Behind Driver & Passenger Doors?

« on: October 25, 2016, 04:46:39 pm »

You can have a longer bed in the 2351. The 2351 is one foot longer than the 2350 and on the passenger side, that foot can be used to increase size of kitchen, and/or size of corner bed or add a pullout pantry. When we ordered our 2351 we asked for a 80" corner bed with 6 extra inches in kitchen. I think you could ask for a 86" corner bed if you wanted.

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General Discussion / Re: Refer Madness

« on: October 04, 2016, 12:54:12 pm »

The type of camping you do will impact any decision to go with a compressor fridge as we did. In warmer weather we typically go on short 'off grid' trips in the mountains where temperatures are quite low -- especially at night -- so fridge compressor will not be running that much. In the winter we go south for longer trips but expect to be connected to electrical at campgrounds most of the time.
For more electrical power capacity we are using two 'Lifeline GPL-31T' AGM batteries which Phoenix has agreed to install for us. They are rated at 105AH each.
We had a similar arrangement of compressor fridge and AGM batteries in our truck camper -- paired with a small solar panel -- and it worked great for us.

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General Discussion / Re: Introduce Yourself!

« on: October 03, 2016, 10:07:54 pm »

Hello from the mountains of western Wyoming!
We are expecting to pickup our new 2351 in Elkhart in early November.
Because we expect to use the 2351 on snowy roads to occasionally escape the winter here in the mountains, we went with the 4X4 option. It may also come in handy for navigating forest service roads on fishing trips in summer months.
In our 2351 we chose the reclining sofa instead of the dinette with a side-out pantry next to the refrigerator. On the other side we made the corner bed 80" and made the kitchen counter top 6" bigger with 6 drawers underneath.
One unusual change we made was to go with a compressor fridge vs the absorption. To help with the extra electrical demand we are going with two 105AH AGM batteries. We had a similar setup in our popup camper that we just sold. Our camping spots are often far from level so we did not want the absorption fridge -- we will see how this works out on the PC.

Many thanks to all the forum members -- you have helped us decide on buying a PC and helped us decide which model was for us,
Stan and Pattee

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General Discussion / Re: Refer Madness

« on: October 03, 2016, 01:00:54 am »

I also wanted a compressor refrigerator -- primarily we wanted to avoid the requirements for being level that an absorption refrigerator requires -- as we intend to camp in areas that are often not level such as national forests and state parks. We have a 2351 on order and requested that a DE-0061 Norcold compressor refrigerator be used in place of the normal absorption refrigerator -- Phoenix approved this request.