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General Discussion / Battery Cut off Switch

« on: December 21, 2013, 06:22:50 pm »

I had never used the switch since we park next to the house with electrical hookup but when checking the batteries I thought I would see if it worked.  The red light is on and the battery switch is on "on".  I tried to turn it to "store" and I could hear a solenoid sound like it was trying to turn it off but the switch will not stay down. 

Is there something simple that I am not doing or perhaps something came loose.  Since I am a little "electrically challenged" I don't want to take out the screws to see if something is loose.  Do I just need a new switch?  Figured I should get it fixed before the next trip.  Switch will not stay down to the store position.  If I hold it down I can hear a clicking noise but if I let got of the switch I get the same clicking noise and the red light is back on meaning it is in its regular mode. 

At least it is stuck in the run mode and not in the store mode.  Any input?

Anne
2013 PC 2551
Now in Yuma, AZ

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General Discussion / I killed my carburetor on the Onan Generator

« on: October 15, 2013, 12:29:42 am »

That was the bottom line.  I didn't start the genset enough this summer when Bob was ill and in the hospital.  Finally it would not start so I called the repairman.  Said the gas had turned to varnish and that I needed a new carburetor.

He installed the new carburetor and then added a plastic hose that fits on the end of the carburetor drain and showed me how to drain the fuel from the carburetor if I know that we will not be using it for a few months.  I went out this morning and drained the carburetor making sure to tighten the screw after I had loosened it to drain the gas out.  He said that when I want to start using the genset again to just hold the rocker down for 8-10 seconds to get fuel back into the carburetor and then start it.  I took pictures.

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General Discussion / Storage of Phoenix Cruiser

« on: April 03, 2013, 12:38:14 pm »

Someone will have the answer, I am sure!!

Bob got sick down in our Arizona home so we cannot at this time drive our rig north to Washington State for the summer like we usually do.   I think we are stuck in Yuma for the summer.  We have it parked, uncovered, next to the house where the bottom 2/3 gets shade from our house and the house next door.  The weather in Yuma gets between 110 and 118 in the summer.  We are plugged into electric, of course and I can open the vents and run one or up to three overhead vents.

Question:  Are we better off leaving it parked next to the house (we will be here so are not just leaving it here) or would it be better to be in a covered storage unit.  The units are not climate controlled so it would be like being baking in an oven - at least that is what I figure.

Any comments from someone in the hot south? 

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Adventure Anywhere / Our maiden voyage from Washington to Yuma

« on: October 05, 2012, 07:43:49 pm »

First I must state I 3 never realized there was so much storage room in our PC.  I keep finding another spot for stuff.  My new front solar covers fit inside a pillow case right behind the sofa.

We Left Port Townsend Wednesday.  Rig rides great.  No rattles.  Decided to Bypass our usual park and ended in Wilsonville, OR.  At registration it says "No dogs over 40#".  Never saw that sign before.  Molly is 47#  and Gypsy is 26#.  Told him I had a small Australian Shepherd and that we never had a problem there before.  He finally said OK but if the manager sees her she will drag her over to be weighed.  So we didn't go to the doggie spot.  We were "sneak aboards" as the boat people in Long Beach used to call themselves when they had overstayed their 2 day limit.  Glad to get out of there.  Furnace worked great.  So yesterday to headed on up to Canyonville, OR in the mountains.  Seven Feathers Casino and RV Resort.  A really nice place, beautifully landscaped.  Nice places with those with pets.  At 4 AM we were frozen because we had left the driver's window open and it was now 40 degrees.  I punched in the buttons for the furnace and lo was on the fan.  I clicked the furnace button and cold air ca.me out of the air conditioner.  NOT TO WORRY says I, because someone on the Forum had this problem and the solution was to make sure the fan was on Auto.  In 2 seconds the nice warm air was coming out of the furnace.

Thank you thank you whoever solved that problem before we even had it.  It really pays to read about other people's problems and solutions.  Never know when it will be your problem.

The road into CA is being repaired and one lane only for about 50 miles on and off.  But the fixed road is new and beautiful to drive on.  Had a rude awakening as we crawled up the Siskique Mountains and our speed went down to around 40 - 45 mph.  Our 350 with Triton V-10 used to zip up the mountain at 60 mph.  But I'll take my slow PC any day.  It is only when you are climbing to 4000 feet otherwise fine.

Our check light that we had problems with came on again.  We had been to the Ford Dealer and they had replaced a filter and the light had been out almost to Seven Feathers.  We are just driving with it on and when we get to Yuma will take it to the Ford dealer.  Will be interesting what they say it is this time.  I read in the book and it said it might affect your mileage.  Maybe that is why we had low mph on the hills.  Will live with it.

Hurrah for PC dual pane windows and the solar screens for the cab.  With the solar shades in the cab, the solar shades on all the windows, we haven't had to turn on the air conditioner yet.  It stays nice and cool inside.  Cqn't wait to camp in the desert!!

We are on the road for the next 4 days.  Doing 200 miles a day.    Anne & Bob

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Polls / Battery Charging

« on: August 11, 2012, 11:46:06 pm »

OK a dumb question...Does the battery charger on the PC charge the motor battery too in addition to the house batteries?

I was thinking that we could run down the motor battery if playing music on the surround sound and wondered if the battery charger keeps both batteries charged.

Also, if the battery charger does charge the motor battery could you just run the generator to recharge it when dry camping?  Or do you need a portable battery charger to plug into the generator power to charge the battery under the hood.

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General Discussion / Holding Tanks

« on: August 01, 2012, 02:56:58 pm »

This may be a dumb question but here it is:  Why does the PC have a black water tank capacity of 35 gallons and the grey water is only 23 gallons.  This is our 6th RV and usually it is the other way around i.e. grey water tank almost twice the size of the black.

What are the advantages of this setup?  It seems to me a couple of showers and wash the dishes and the thing will be full of grey water while the black water tank is still almost empty.

When you are travelling/camping how do you manage your tank?  Do you just dump the grey water every day and the black when it gets more than half full?  Do you dump the grey water into the black tank by equilizing them?

We still haven't had the rig out yet so we have just tested the operation of it by dumping fresh water into the tanks.

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General Discussion / Disinfecting and draining potable water tank

« on: July 28, 2012, 04:59:54 pm »

I thought our worries were over.  We sold our 48 foot boat last year and crawled every inch of the bilge figuring out how everything worked.  We bought a motorhome.  How straight forward could THAT be.  I opened the book to "Disinfecting Potable Water System" and the first thing I said to Bob was "Wonder how you drain the potable water tank.  It doesn't say anything about it in the book".  So with a large mirror on my hands and knees I took pictures.  Couldn't find the usual valve to drain the tank.  Finally figured it out that when I took the picture under the bottom drawer so we would know how to winterize the hot water heater etc. there were two smaller white valves really close to the opening for the drawer.

So I measured how far back they were and with my 5' mirror I found two white ends of hoses.  Guess that THIS is where the water will come out.  Will try putting 5 gallons of water and turning the white valves to see if I have found it.

While I was at it I pulled out the cut away under the bed on the passenger side and there was a valve there with a long clear hose attached to it.  I am assuming that this valve is to open the end of the clear plastic hose and allow antifreeze to be added to the water system for winterizing.

Does anyone with a 2551 know if the above is correct?  I was going to disinfect the water tanks today and even called the factory but they don't answer on Saturday so I proceeded on my own.  Don't want a tank of water and no way to get it out.

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General Discussion / Boss DVD Player above bed in 2551

« on: July 21, 2012, 10:52:57 am »

Cannot find this anywhere.  Next to the bedroom TV is installed a multi function Boss player.  Supposedly it plays DVDs, CDs, mpeg and a number of configurations.  Tried a CD and nothing happened.  So I read the Boss book which said to play a CD you must first turn on the TV.  The screen will turn grey and the music will play.  Well the screen turned grey but no music.

Right now the rear TV works with the roof antenna and I am reluctant to mess around with the settings on the TV till I know what to do.  Thought someone who has a recent 2551 with the Boss could tell me.  There is no mention of it anywhere.  Is it part of the surround sound?  Is it just a separate DVD player for the rear TV? 

Anne