Lessons Learned File 250514 2016 Grand Design Travel Trailer - Complaint: No power to half of the RV (outletes, microwave, and others). 50 amp trailer Trouble Shooting: The first thing I did was test power coming into the breaker panel. I immediately noticed no power one of the incoming legs. The customer had the trailer parked at his house and was running an extension cord to his house where he had a 30 amp outlet. I tested the RV cord and found it only had 120V on one of the two legs. I checked the outlet itself and it had power on both legs. Come to find out, the extension cord that he was using was not conducting electricity on both of the legs in the cord. Most likely the cable had become disconnected from the plug inside. #electrical 250513 2021 Windsport 35M Motorhome - Complaint: Schwintek slide wouldn't retract Trouble Shooting: After turning on the motorhome, making sure the brake was set and having the customer replicate what he did, I noticed that one slide motor made a small sound and stopped. I found the Schwintek control board and tried a soft reset (pushed the button six times and held it in on the 7th press until the lights started blinking). The slide still wouldn't move on its own. I then had the owner push the button inside while I pushed on the outside of the slide and it immediately started moving and pretty much went in under its own power the rest of the way. The owner admitted that he tried to move the motorhome a few feet with the slide out the previous day. My theory is that the slide moved slightly and became jammed such that the motors wouldn't move it. By forcing it to start moving, we were able to override the resistance and it continued on in. #slideout #Schwintek 250524 John Vanek Micro-Air Easy-Start installation on a Coleman Mach 15 RV ac with heat pump When connecting the black wire from the easy start, cut the black wire coming off of the heat pump relay control board and splice in the black wire from the easy start with an end splice connection. You will effectively have three black wires connected in one end splice. According to Troy Grant, AC instructor, you could also cut and splice into the purple wire that goes from the main AC control board into this smaller heat pump relay board (where the purple wire changes to a black wire when it exits and goes to the compressor common). #air conditioner 250524 2017 Coahcman Chaparral 371MBRB Complaint: Dometic air conditioner that was running well, but would trip the breaker after about 10 minutes of use. Initial trouble shooting began with he power distribution panel, all breakers were fine and with no wiring problems. I then went onto the roof, removed the cover and inspected the rooftop unit. All coils were clean with a clear air intake path. I then checked the capacitors which were all within range. Narrowing in on the high current issue, I put my amp meter on the blue wire leading to the compressor. I read 16 amps and as I watched, it kept climbing past 18 amps. The Dometic data plate listed the Rated Load Amps (RLA) at 13.2 amps. Conditions were very hot and humid, but this was still too high. I also checked the compressor windings and found no shorts to the case. Diagnosis which is supported by RVTAA Technician Facebook page is that either the compressor is going bad and will die soon due to internal windings starting to fail or a freon blockage in the cooling coils preventing coolant from smoothly flowing. Either diagnosis results in a replacement of the whole unit since RV rooftop air conditioner coolant is a closed system and not serviceable. #air conditioner 250529 2022 Keystone Cougar 316RLS Complaint: Kitchen slide would not retract Upon arrival I checked the power distribution panel and all fuses were fine. I had the customer hit the retract button, and could hear a relay click but the motor did not move. The slide mechanism was a single electric motor driving two chains that pulled cables. Cable slide systems do not have any sort of control box. Another tech attempted to put 12 volts DC power directly to the motor, but it didn't move. The customer will install a new motor once they return home, so for today, we used a drill to turn the hex nut in the end of the motor to manually crank the slide in for travel. #slideout #BAL 250529 2024 Brinkley Z3100 Complaint: Bedroom slide stuck out I had the customer attempt to move the slide and noticed that one side was moving (motor #2) the other motor was not (motor #1). Lippert numbers their slide motors as 1 is left and 2 is right when standing inside looking at the slide. Reading the green / red light blink sequence on the slide controller, 4 and 1, I confirmed that the controller was indicating a bad wiring harness or bad motor #1. I removed the set bolt at the bottom of motor #1 and then pried, levered, and ultimately hammered up on motor #1 to get it to release from the mounting flange. With the motor free, I could push one side of the slide in and use the other motor (#2) to walk the other side in. Once I got the slide in about a foot, I was able to take the inside trim piece loose and slide the motor out of the wall towards the inside. Once in hand, I noticed that motor #1 had rusty water inside of it thus confirming it was dead. #slideout #Schwintek 250602 2017 Winnebago motorhome Complaint: Intermittent step operation When I arrived at the motorhome the steps were in. I connected my Skill Above step tester between the four wire harness coming from the motorhome and leading to the Kwikee step control board. The step tester helped me verify that the step lockout switch, the door open switch and the ignition switch were all sending signals properly. Without the Skill Above tester, you can check these same things by checking 12 volts to ground at the four wire plug, on the white wire for the step switch and yellow wire to ground for the ignition switch. For the door switch check for voltage between the red and brown wires on the four way plug. You can check the output of the control board by looking at the two wire output that connects to the door step motor. When the door opens, the control board should send power to the step for 5-7 seconds and then stop. You test the motor by applying your own 12V source directly to these wires in the two wire plug that goes directly to the motor. In my case the motor mount was loose and was allowing the motor to shift slightly, thus binding the gearing and amping out or stopping the motor from running and the steps wouldn't move. It is important to verify the motor is firmly mounted in place for proper step operation. #steps #Kwikee 250602 2018 Harland Bighorn 5th wheel Complaint: One air conditioner not working, several outlets not working, E7 error code on Dometic thermostat By the time I arrived, all the outlets had quit working and the Norcold refrigerator showed a no or low power message before it shut down. I started searching for the converter as I was going to measure the DC output as I felt like all of these issues were caused by the house batteries slowly dyeing. As I began to realize how difficult the converter was going to be to reach since it was buried in a compartment, I decided to back up and check some basics first. The customer also mentioned that a neighbor had been spraying water near her pedestal recently. I went to the campground pedestal and checked for incoming voltage. Sure enough, one leg of her 50 amp was dead. Thankfully, she had a 30 amp to 50 amp dog bone adapter on hand and I was able to connect her to the 30 amp plug to at least get her converter back online and charging her batteries while the campground placed a trouble call to repair the 50 amp plug. It should be noted that the 30 amp breaker would trip very easily and wasn't even allowing her to run one air conditioner without tripping. I also asked the campground the replace this breaker while they were at it. #electrical 250605 2024 Thor Inception motor home Complaint: Awning only goes out a few inches and doesn't retract Upon arrival, I checked to make sure there was a good 12V DC supply to the awning. Next I took off the awning motor's plastic cover (front end of awning tube). This allowed access to the awning motor wires and small control board. Pulling out the board, I could see that there were heavy gauge black and red wires going in and out of the board. These represented 12V power into the board and out to the motor. The board also had yellow brown and gray wires which tech support (and the user manual confirmed) were signal wires for extend (brown), retract (gray), and common (yellow). I verified that there was 12V power on the big black and red wires coming into the board. I then held those power input wires direclty to the motor and the awning started going out. This verified the motor was working. I reversed the black and red and the awning went back in. I then knew that I would be able to move the awning wherever I needed it and that the awning motor was working fine. The Carefree of Colorado tech support operator had me check for voltage on the brown and gray signal wires against the yellow constant wire to determine if the switch was sending the signal. I found that I was getting voltage when the switch was pressed and therefore needed a new board. Additionally upon removing the board I noticed one of the signal wires had a bad connector so I replaced both the connector and the board and the awning worked fine. #awning #Carefree of Colorado 250609 2020 Thor Omni motor home Complaint: Main slide goes out but doesn't retract Customer stated that another tech diagnosed new Schwintek control board needed. At the owner's request, I ordered a new board before ever seeing the motor home. After the board arrived, I met the owner in a parking lot that was convenient for everyone on the way to their campground. I will never do that again. It is not a good idea to work on a slide in a location where the RV has to be moved by the end of the day no matter what. I replaced the board and the slide went out fine, but didn't retract. The board was showing a 2 green blink, 8 red blink error code which translates to motor #2 bad wiring harness or connectors. Note the way Schwintek numbers their motors is from left to right while you are standing inside the RV looking at the slide. In this case motor number two was the front motor on a driver's side or street side Slideout. I wiggled the wires around the connection to motor number two and the slide went back in, but was noticeably misaligned from top to bottom. I met the owner at the campground the next day to troubleshoot the slide more. Using my Skill Above Coddiwomple, I was able to connect directly to the slide motor harnesses at the controller and run the slide out. Once extended the slide made a crunching or cracking sound right at full extension. I believe the front rail shoes were previously damaged and this sound was them breaking apart completely. I removed the motor and tried to push the slide back in place. Only the bottom of the slide moved and it bound tightly into place. I returned the next day with a jack and lifted up on the bottom corner of the slide. This relieved the pressure and allowed the slide to move slightly. I then used a pick tool and screwdriver to remove as much of the broken shoes as I could. I then put the slide motor back in place and used the Coddi to retract the slide for travel. During this removal and reinstallation of motor #2 I noticed several wires were frayed right where they came off of the hall effect board. The owner plans to return home before having a tech replace the motor wiring harness and remove the whole H-column to put new shoes on the slide. #slideout #Schwintek 250625 2025 Thor 31WV class C - Slide won't retract Helped via phone support. Customer bought new motorhome, took it home and put the slide out. Now she can't remember how she put it out once she got home from the dealership. A little online research revealed that Thor now puts the Touch N' Go Control Panel on the dash like the radio. https://www.thormotorcoach.com/pages/2025-outlaw-class-c-features-and-benefits Customer needs to look under the RV Control Panel menu, then have the engine running, parking brake set and hold the retract button for the Schwintek slide to come in. #slideout #Schwintek 250627 2006 Coachman Mirada Battery disconnect switch not working Customer informed me that she thought the battery disconnect switch wasn't working as the "battery connect" light always stayed on and the lights always stayed on. I confirmed the switch has voltage not matter which direction it was switched. I traced the wires to the battery disconnect solenoid in the battery compartment. I found the solenoid had a built in 5 amp fuse that was blown. When I replaced the fuse and hit the switch the new fuse blew. I diagnosed as an internal failure in the solenoid. After ordering and installing a new solenoid I measured 12.8V on one side of the switch and 12.7V on the other side no matter which direction it was switched. I then checked the current flow on the heavy gauge wire on the output side of the switch. I found 0 current when the switch was off and 2 amps when it was on or connected. I didn't know where my phantom 12 volts was coming from on the output side, but I knew the switch was working because it changed the current flow. I removed the house battery connection and rechecked. I now had 0 volts going into the switch but still had voltage on the output despite the switch being disconnected or "off". I then realized that because the motorhome was plugged into shore power, the converter was making 12V and acting sort of like a third battery. This is why the similar voltage on each side (battery side and load side) of the switch. This also explains the 2 amps because when it was connected the 2 amps were the converter charging the house battery, but when disconnected, the converter's DC voltage wasn't flowing through the switch and thus 0 amps. The converter was powering the 12 volt loads no matter which position the switch was in. After removing shore power and retesting everything, all worked as normal. #electrical #battery disconnect 2024 Forest River East to West 365 RL Customer complained that their slide topper is loose on top of the slide. Upon inspecting the tube, I found that it was not being held with any spring tension and would rotate either direction freely. I pulled the ends off and noticed the internal torsion springs were no longer attached to the center shaft. I then took both ends off and completely removed the tube. I was able to shake out two broken bolts that pined the spring to the center shaft. East to West used some very small (#6) non-coated machine bolts and had already rusted through and sheared under the tension of the spring. I replaced the machine bolts with stainless steel bolts. This is a good lesson to always check the spring pins if you are removing an awning or slide topper's end caps. #slide topper 2019 Mesa Ridge 5th wheel awning arm bent from wind Customer informed me that a gust of wind got under his awning and pulled some of the screws out and bent his awning support arm slightly causing it not to fully retract. I was able to tighten down the screws along the top of the awning fabric rail that pulled the rail and fabric back into place. The screws were not stripped out and most of them tightened down nicely. While up above the awning I noticed the sealant flaking off so I asked the customer if he wanted the old stuff scaped the rest of the way off, cleaned, and new sealant put on. I then checked the awning motor to make sure it was tight and in well connected to the roll tube. It was, but the awning still didn't fully retract. I then noticed that the slightly bent awning arms were rubbing against each other and not allowing the assembly to fully seat against itself at full retraction. Using my hands, I was able to physically bend the arms just enough to put them back in alignment and allow the awning to close in all the way. #awning 2019 Mesa Ridge 5th wheel lost power to kitchen island and bathroom outlets Customer lost power to a couple of outlets around his kitchen island and in his bathroom after an intense electrical storm. Over the phone I advised him to search the bathroom to find the GFCI resettable outlet and push the rest button. He did and said the outlet now had a red light. When I visited his campsite, I replaced the factory GFCI outlet with a new one from Home Depot designed for home use. At first the outlet wasn't allowing power to flow through it. Upon closer examination the new outlet had different input (line) and output (load) markings than the factory RV outlet. I switched his wiring around inside the wall to match what the outlet was looking for. This solved his problems and allowed power to flow and the GFCI outlet to work perfectly. #electrical 2022 Newmar Baystar 3408 Customer complained that his motorhome was tripping the GFCI circuit in storage facility. When I arrived, I verified that his motorhome was tripping any of the GFCI outlets as soon as he plugged in his motorhome. As I began to look at the newly installed transfer switch the customer mentioned that he really wanted to be able to plug in because he knew his batteries desperately need to be charged. That is when I realized that his house batteries were very low which would cause a significant immediate load or draw from his inverter / charger. If the charger had a poor ground, this might cause the GFCI to trip due to the extreme load. I also figured that eliminating that load would eliminate a significant amount of the amp draw at this time (RV in storage, closed, off and unoccupied). If I could eliminate most of the amperage draw and keep the GFCI circuit from tripping, then I would be able to get 120V AC into the motorhome and stay there, thus allowing me to perform a hot-skin test. #electrical #battery disconnect 2014 Airstream Flying Cloud 25 Customer complained that he lost electricity and noticed his electrical cord melted on both ends and surge suppressor connections melted. Customer is living in the trailer in Biloxi, MS in July. I asked when this happened and he said while he was at work. I asked what he had the air conditioner set to, he said 75 degrees. I asked if anything else was left on? He said no. Before I could get there, the customer went out to buy a new surge suppressor. I talked him into a Watch Dog with Bluetooth connection to his phone. The customer then sent me a screen shot of the Watch Dog monitor screen showing 30.5 amp draw and said it kept tripping the 30 amp breaker. As we were discussing air conditioner options, he happened to notice both the coffee pot and hot water heater were on (electric mode). After shutting these off, the amperage dropped 10amps immediately. He is now in the 20 amp range and not having any problems. Additionally, from the Watch Dog screen I could see that the campground was only giving him 113 volts. While not atrocious, the extreme heat conditions are causing a big demand in the campground in general with so many RV's running air conditioners. This is particularly impactful on a 30 amp RV with only one hot leg. At 2300 watts of energy demand the difference between CG supplied 113V and 123V is 1.6amps less the customer's power cord has to draw. #electrical 2020 Jayco 145 RB small travel trailer Customer complaint was that air conditioner was not blowing cold. He could tell the fan was running but no cold air. I arrived and confirmed that the compressor sounded like it was running, but no cold air out of the ducts. On the rooftop I first confirmed the capacitor was within specifications. I then noticed the compressor was running as it was making noise and vibrating, but I found it extremely hot to touch. I later measured it at over 165 degrees after it had been off for 30 minutes. I removed the terminals on top and found an equal amount of resistance on all three terminals. From NRVTA school notes: between C and R terminals there should be the lowest resistance, resistance between C and S should be the next highest and between R and S should be the very highest resistance. Also from school notes, there should be no continuity between any of these three terminals and the case. Remember, these resistances can only be tested with terminals removed. With my thermal camera I also noted there was no cold freon or copper lines coming off the compressor. Finally, I confirmed by hooking up my Peacemaker and trying to run the compressor directly. It did make a sound, but still didn't provide cool freon. Official diagnosis, failed compressor. #air conditioner 2018 Forest River Georgetown Class A Customer complained of jacks error on LCI One Touch screen. Screen error was: "System Error: Retract error! Hoses or pressure switch may have malfunctioned. Leveling system may require service." t/s revealed hydraulic jacks not working due to low battery voltage and LCI one-touch system locked out. (Note, leveling system hydraulic pump worked fine when manually activating solenoid and also by manually turning pump with drill.) Reset system by disconnecting hydraulic jack power and holding down screen confirmation button for 15 seconds as per Lippert technical support advice. This reset the system and allowed the jacks to function properly. Tech support confirmed that this error was likely due to extremely low battery voltage at some point. Customer later confirmed that he had run his chassis battery all the way down recently. He also mentioned that some resettable fuses in the coach battery box had tripped. #leveling system Once I disconnected the coach from shore power the chassis battery alone was not able to start the engine. Further t/s showed that chassis battery was over charged and was currently over 200 degrees with acid actively boiling out. Disconnected negative terminal for safety. Jacks work fine while plugged into shore power. Customer will need a new group 65 chassis battery and further t/s to determine if Magnum inverter/charger is faulty or some other phantom draw causing voltage drop. #electrical #batteries 2024 Georgetown 31x7 motorhome Customer complained that his leveling jacks would not retract. He had a Lippert leveling system with a pump power error on the screen. Upon arrival, I verified the error message on the screen, then located the hydraulic pump. It was in the coach battery box so I verified the coach battery charge and that all the connections were clean and tight. I then checked for power at the input to the hydraulic pump solenoid. I didn't find any power to the input of the solenoid. I traced the power cable back and found it mounted to an over current protection device on the wall of the battery box. I noticed that it had tripped, with the small red indicator flag sticking out of the side. I manually reset this breaker and confirmed power to the pump solenoid input. I unplugged and re-plugged power to reset the system. When the customer tried the jack again, everything worked fine. Turned out the customer knew when the overcurrent protection likely tripped as he accidently turned the motorhome engine off while the jacks were auto leveling and then he started the engine back up again. #leveling system 2018 Renegade Verona LE motorhome Customer wanted new air conditioning thermostat I convinced the customer to go with a Micro-air touch thermostat, Coleman RV Comfort Multi Zone Replacement SKU ASY-355-X02-C. When I removed the old Coleman five button t-stat, I discovered that not all the colors from the thermostat were connected to matching colors on the motorhome side. Ironically most of the connections looked like original / factor connectors. Important tip; cut the original thermostat wires with just enough length outside the connectors to be able to have a reference for how it was originally wired. Next tip; you have the cut all the wires and completely remove the old thermostat in order to remove the old base plate and feed the wires through the new install plate. You cannot simply start switching wire for wire one at a time due to threading through the hole in the base plate. Once I had the new Mirco-air touch thermostat installed, the air conditioning functions did not work. I started redoing connections putting like colors together and eventually that allowed the A/C functions and zones to show up properly. Last tip; you need to go into the setup menu for the new thermostat and allow A/C and furnace functions to become active otherwise you are not able to select them in the standard zone menu. #air conditioner #thermostat #Micro-Air 2025 Brinkley Model Z Air 310 Travel Trailer Customer complained the front cap lights were not working. Troubleshooting revealed that the front cap light switch was lighting up, but the voltage difference between the two wires in the back was only 3V DC. Testing voltage to ground on each showed that one had 13V DC and the other had 10V DC. Since both of these wires were blue, I tested each to ground to see which was the incoming power wire. I then traced that wire back to find it connected to several other wires in wago connectors behind the front storage compartment. This wire bundle contained some white, white/green, but and white/blue wires. Electrical tracing and "ohming out" the wires showed that the white wires were for ground but were not making good contact. Once a temporary ground was established and hooked to the white wires, the lights all worked as designed. After calling Brinkley customer care back, the Brinkley rep said that it was an acceptable fix to install a new, permanent ground as long as I used a star washer to make the connection. I did this and the problem cleared up. #electrical 2013 Tiffin Open Road Class A Motorhome Customer complained that his batteries were not charging I traced the flow of 120V AC power from the pedestal through the transfer switch to the load distribution center breakers. I then jumped to the inverter/charger and found it only producing 11V DC power output. AC input power to the inverter/charger was only 109V AC. I went back to the power distribution panel and found no AC voltage on the three inverter output breakers on the right side of the breaker box. I then heard some faint electrical arcing sounds. I took a look at the panel with my thermal imaging camera and found the second breaker was much warmer than the rest. This breaker was labeled inverter/charger input. Upon securing power and removing the breaker, I found a bad connection behind it and burnt contacts. My thermal imaging camera also revealed a loose ground connection in the panel. I swapped out the breaker for a new one, distributed the double tapped grounds throughout the bus bar and tightened all connections to the specified torque. This corrected all electrical problems and the inverter/charger produced a strong 14V DC output. #electrical 2024 Forest River Ozark Customer complained that he had no hot water in the kitchen sink The customer confirmed that he had hot water in the bathroom and in the shower. He had a Suburban tankless water heater that required .5 gpm of flow to ignite the burner. I tested the LP tanks and both had propane. I tested the stove and it lighted fine. The water heater control showed an E1 error code which just meant the burner failed to light after three tries. I examined the kitchen sink plumbing and found no obstructions. I examined the kitchen sink faucet aerator and found it somewhat clogged. Upon removing the kitchen sink faucet aerator a significantly greater volume of water poured out and the Suburban water heater burner lit with no problems. I had the customer soak the aerator in vinegar and reinstall later once the screen was clear. The issue was the slightly clogged kitchen sink faucet was slowing down the flow of water just enough to cause the tankless water heater not to light due to being less than .5 gallons per minute of flow rate. #water heater #tankless 2022 Georgetown Gas Class A Motorhome Customer complained that his bedroom slide wouldn't go out and seemed to be held up at the top. When I tried to run the slide out, it moved very smoothly for the first 6-8 inches and then abruptly stopped at the top. The above floor slide mechanism would keep pushing the bottom of the slide box, but something was obviously holding up the top. When I tried pushing on the top it was a fairly firm stop. The slide would retract with no issues. I went outside the coach and asked the customer to run the slide out again. I immediately noticed the AE brand slide topper was not unrolling after 6-8 inches. Further investigation revealed at the anti-billowing peg (or short arm) on the left side was bent. After 3/4 of a rotation of the tube, it was making contact with the left tube support arm. I took the anti-billowing peg off, bent it back straight and reinstalled. This solved the problem. This peg is only there to prevent the tube from rotating if air catches the slide topper while going down the road. At speed this sudden gust of air would try to unroll or billow up the retracted slide topper. #slide topper 2015 Forest River FR3 30DS Gas Class A Motorhome Customer Complaint: Brake lights don't work with brake pedal. They do work with "test" button on the trailer brake controller. They also work with four way flashers / hazards. I noted a small wrench icon on the Ford dash display. Cause: Break in the Ford wire loom between the brake output (signal) switch and the rest of the Ford system. The "Wrench" Light: This confirms the PCM (Engine Computer) is not receiving the brake signal. The PCM compares "Brake Line Pressure" (from the master cylinder transducer) against "Brake Pedal Position" (the electrical switch). When it sees pressure rising but no electrical signal, it assumes the switch has failed, throws a code (likely P0504), disables Cruise Control, and lights the Wrench. The issue ended up being a combination of a bad connection in the trailer brake controller brake signal wire and a failed Ford factory brake signal wire that runs between the switch and the brake controller. Instead of taking the Ford factory wiring harness apart to find the short, I ran a parallel wire from the switched output of the brake pedal switch to the trailer brake controller output. By spicing in this wire, it allowed the brake signal to move from the brake switch to the rest of the chassis via the accessory brake control wiring that Ford conveniently already wired in under the dash. Ford calls this the Ford Trailer Brake Controller (TBC) Port (usually a grey 4-pin or 6-pin connector near the diagnostic port). In other words, instead of breaking into the Ford wiring loom here, I simply spliced into the feed line coming out of the back of the brake controller and going into the factory brake accessory plug that was already there. Side note, while troubleshooting, I accidently let my test light short to ground between the brake switch power input and the chassis. This caused the 30A "Controller Power", Fuse #13 under the hood to blow. I replaced this fuse with another 30Amp Maxi Blade Fuse. #electrical Awning Length: Solara 2000 = 7' Solara 3000 = 8' 2018 Tiffin Allegro Bus 45OPP Customer Complaint: Passenger side main slide made a big pop sound when extending out and now will not retract. Cause: At least one of the floor rollers broke and possibly some of the slide track subframe became misaligned. Additionally we discovered a hydraulic hose leak that was preventing the hydraulic ram from powering in. Correction: Hydraulic pump motor was pumping fine so I released the solenoids one by one until I found the ones that powered the broken slide. I then put a hydraulic jack under the slide to relieve the weight and enlisted the help of five other guys to help me push the slide in manually. Due to the weight of the slide, this much manpower was needed to overcome the floor friction to bring the slide in. I then reengaged the solenoid to hold the slide in place for travel. The other hydraulic slide moved slowly but did retract on its own. #slideout system 2000 Fleetwood American Eagle 40ft Class A Diesel Motorhome Atwood model GC10A-3A 10 gallon water heater serial number 94166000811 Customer Complaint: Very low water pressure and no water coming out of the bathroom sink. Cause: A combination of dirty diffusers right at the sink faucets (both kitchen and bathroom) and also a miss aligned valve in the wet bay. The outside shower hose had wrapped around a ball valve handle and pulled it out of alignment and severely restricted the water flow to the coach. Correction: Removed all sink diffusers and tapped them on a hard surface to dislodge the debris. Then blew out debris with compressed air. Finally, turned them around and allowed water to flow the opposite way, effectively backflushing the mineral deposits and debris out of the fine filter screen. Reinstalled and immediately had much higher pressure. #plumbing 2000 Fleetwood American Eagle 40ft Class A Diesel Motorhome Customer Complaint: Hot water heater works on electric, but doesn't run on gas. The water heater appears to light but goes out just a few seconds later. Customer may have lit it with an empty tank at one point. Cause: The flame sense was not functioning properly. The water heater didn't know the flame lit and therefore would shut off the gas supply a few seconds after it started working. This was due to a buildup of carbon deposits and corrosion on the ignition electrode which also serves as the flame sensor once the burner has lit. Correction: I ended up pulling the gas ignition electrode and cleaning it with a green scrub pad. This removed the carbon build up off of the electrode and allowed flame sensing voltage to flow and the water heater to fire up and stay lit. #plumbing #water heater 2006 American Eagle 40 foot motorhome Atwood GC10A-4E 10 gallon water heater serial number 9402202188642 Customer Complaint: Hot water heater works on gas, but doesn't run on electric. Cause: I first replaced the ECO and Thermostat thermo discs as the t-stat one was not allow voltage to pass. Bench tester later revealed this thermo disc was passing electricity. The customer may have heated the tank more than I thought when I arrived and therefore the thermo disc was actually operating correctly. I was called back out the next day with the same complaint. Upon checking voltages, I discovered that each time DC voltage went onto or off of the control board, it lost .7V - 1.0V. This resulted in too low of voltage to actuate the electric heating element relay. Correction: I was planning to remove the original board and install an after market Dinosaur board to correct the problem. In the processes I ended up cleaning the multipin connection terminals and found that these clean connections now allowed the full voltage flow with minimal loss due to resistance. The water heater began functioning normally. To confirm, I went to the back of the unit and found the 120V AC line pulling 11 amps of current or 1320 watts of power to the heating element. #plumbing #water heater 260121 2015 Itasca Ellipse, Aqua-Hot 450D hydronic heating system, Serial Number: A450-140912 Complaint: Customer says his Aqua-Hot is "not firing". He doesn't have any hot water unless he turns the electric off and then the diesel burner will light. Cause: Electric relay not engaging to send 120V AC power to the heating element. Correction: After not hearing the electric relay engage, I tested the voltage at the JP3 plug. Specifically, I tested wire 12 and wire 11 which are the AC relay + and AC relay - connections. I found that I had 13.3V on both when not calling for electric heat. I think this is the normal "off" mode, power on each side. I then called for electric heat (switching this circuit "on"). I measured 0V on the positive and 0V on the negative. In both cases the relay didn't engage and the heating element didn't light up. Craig removed the relay cover inside the Aqua-Hot to get to the relay connections. He found that the terminals where wire 11 and wire 12 connect were corroded. He cleaned up these connections and we retested. The relay now consistently clicks in solid with a nice audible clunk. I also measure 13.3V on both sides when off (same as before), but now get 13.3V on the + side and 0V on the - side when calling for electric heat and the relay is engaged. #Aqua-Hot #water heater #furnace 260122 2005 Bounder 34' gas motorhome with a Norcold 1200LRIM absorption type refrigerator serial number 1359904 Complaint: Customer's gas absorption type refrigerator stopped working, no light inside, no cooling. He did go outside and confirmed that his 120V AC power source was still good but noticed a red light on at the rear of the refrigerator. Cause: The red light he saw was the High Temperature Monitoring System or High Temperature Monitoring Control Kit (also referred to as HTS or High Temperature Sensor). The red light indicates the safety control board has tripped and doesn't allow power to flow onto the board. Correction: I first verified AC power was present and DC power was going into the HTS, but not onto the board. I then removed the HTS and tried to reset it by passing a magnet over the top and along the front center. This is often the way to reset them once they trip. None of this worked as the HTS would only allow 12V DC power to flow for a few seconds each time before tripping offline again. When I checked resistance across the terminals, it was extremely high and effectively not working at all. After calling Norcold, I was able to confirm that a HTS part number 637360 will work on a 1200 series Norcold in addition to the 2118 and 1210 series that it is advertised to cover. #refrigerator Fire Extinguisher Check: You should always check the factory fire extinguisher, especially on new RVs. Look for 5-B:C or 10-B:C. 10B:C is what is required after 7/1/2021. NFPA 1192: section 6.4.1.3, "Each recreational vehicle equipped with fuel-burning equipment (other than the prime mover engine) or a 120/240 V electrical system shall be provided with a listed portable fire extinguisher with a minimum rating of 1-A: 10B:C." This requirement is for units produced after July 1, 2021. 260218 2014 Winnebago Tour 34 with an Aqua-Hot 450DE Customer Complaint: Plenty of hot water on both gas and electric, but no heat coming out of the furnace cozy heaters. Cause: When I arrived, the tank was hot so I first removed the low temperature cut off (LTCO) spade to open this circuit. Since the burner status light was green, I knew the unit was on. I immediately heard pump #3, the stir pump start up to stir the tank. This told me that at least pump #3 was working. Next I should have used the trick of jumping the thermostat inputs for each zone to force the unit to work by bypassing the thermostat's signal. For zone #1 is this done by jumping wire 94 and 95 which are the bottom two connectors on the JP1 plug. Instead, I incorrectly assumed the unit had a failed board. Correction: I ordered a new board and replaced the main controller board. While replacing the main control board, I accidently let the hot JP8 12V power input line touch a ground. I saw a small arc and then had no voltage at JP8. Also, the burner would no longer start and I had no power going into the burner control module (B4+ and B2-). Further troubleshooting revealed that this optional power source on certain Winnebago motorhomes can come from the chassis batteries. I found a 25amp DC resettable breaker tripped in the DC fuse panel near the coach batteries. Upon resetting this fuse, the JP8 connector (optional 12V power) was energized and everything began working normally. The reason for this is that JP8 pin supplies the high-amperage 12V DC power supply specifically required to operate the Webasto diesel burner (powering its blower motor and fuel pump). With the board replaced and the burner working again, I shifting attention back to the thermostat issue. Testing showed that the interior, wall thermostat was operating the front and rear rooftop air conditioners properly but still wasn't sending a furnace signal. I could hear a relay click in the thermostat, but didn't get continuity from the thermostat wire to the Aqua-Hot board. Further research shows that Winnebago's with Coleman air conditioners have the thermostat talk to the roof top air conditioner board first when they call for heat. If the call is for electric heat then the heat pump activates. If the call is for gas heat then the air conditioner board sends the signal (blue wires) down to the furnace. Thus there is not a direct connection between the wall thermostat and the thermostat inputs for Aqua-Hot furnace connections. The owner is going to replace the furnace relay in the rooftop air conditioner and report back to me if this resolves the issue. #plumbing #Aqua-Hot 260218 2020 Newmar Dutch Star Oasis CH50 hydronic heating system Complaint: Customer said the unit would stop working intermittently and seemed to have trouble starting the diesel burner occasionally. The customer recently bought the coach, but couldn't find any record of maintenance on the system and agreed to let me perform a 5 year maintenance. Cause: I believe a dirty nozzle and filters were partially to blame. Performed the 5 year maintenance. Even after doing the cleaning / maintenance, the unit would start for about 1 second and then shut down. Also, I wasn't getting any confirmation from the AC I or AC II lights inside on the control panel. No error lights on the front of the unit itself. After much research, I found that logically the system was starting, checking itself and then shutting down because it was failing a safety circuit test. I suspected the AC high limit aquastat (what Oasis calls a thermostat) or the DC high limit aquastat but could not find them. Correction: After we left, online we found the start sequence that bypasses the safeties: Bypass / Diagnostic Reset Sequence If you are an authorized service technician trying to enter "Bypass Mode" (which bypasses all components and forces the system to run for 5 minutes for diagnostic testing), there is a specific button hold sequence using the buttons on the front panel: 1. Push and hold the Bypass and Reset buttons at the same time. 2. Release the Reset button first. 3. Then release the Bypass button. You will know this sequence was successful when it is confirmed with a slow flash of the Power LED. The owner did the above and everything started properly thus confirming that the failure was in the safety system. He had already purchased a DC high limit aquastat on a hunch so he installed that in the upper left corner of the cabinet. This is the same safety that Craig found to be not passing 12V and had no continuity. The owner replaced this himself and everything worked fine. #plumbing #Oasis 260304 Newmar Ventana Girard Awning Customer complained that the awning was not retracting all the way. After arriving and adjusting with a 4mm allen we were finally able to get the in-stop correct. After a couple of attempts to adjust the out-stop the awning quit working. Technical support said that the awning is really only designed to go in and out about 3-4 times before it shuts itself down due to overheating. At that point tech support advised waiting an hour before resuming work. Once work resumed, it is best to set it to stop short of where you want it and then progressively work both the in-stop and out-stop stop points to prevent damage. As a rule of thumb, it can take 3-4 turns of the adjustment set screws to change 1" of awning movement. Also, when fully extending you don't want the arms to be completely straight, there should still be about 1/4" of space in the elbow before the arm would be locked straight. Also, remember that once the arm starts to overheat and shut itself down, it will stop in random places and can confuse your efforts to adjust stops. Also when the awning resumes operation it will go with the last command given (in or out). This client also noted that the wind sensor was very sensitive and would move his awning in too soon. The technical support rep at Girard said that the device is in a small black box on the end of the awning. It has a scale from 1-10. From the factory they come set at 3 but he didn't recommend moving the adjuster beyond 5. He also sent a specific instruction manual of how to walk through this adjustment procedure. #awning #Girard 260304 Jayco JayFeather 25RB Furrion air conditioners Furrion model FACR15HESA-PS Complaint: A/C not cooling well despite running Cause: During the pre service interview the customer said this is the first time he has used this new to him trailer and the first real warm weather we have had this year. He said the center air conditioner was cooling well until it appeared to run and no longer send cool air. He said he shut it off and waited a day. When it turned it back on everything worked great, but that he noted a lot of water dripping down while it was off. He started using his front (second) air conditioner to augment. The main A/C had a wall thermostat but the front unit was just a plenum control knob. After climbing on the roof and taking the covers off, I found that the main air conditioner was extremely wet inside as the customer stated. I also found the freeze sensor just sitting in the bottom of the evaporator coil. The specification for a Furrion is to have the freeze sensor in the top center of the condenser coils about three inches down from the top. The second (font) A/C was completely frozen up and didn't have a freeze sensor at all since it was a non-thermostat, manual control. Instead this model uses a copper sensor wire which is to be placed "near" the evap fins, but not touching them. This isn't exactly a freeze sensor but monitors the intake air temperature. Correction: For the main, thermostat controlled A/C, I replaced the freeze sensor in the proper location and the air conditioner resumed normal operation. For the manual control model, I bent the copper wire slightly closer to the fins and advised the customer to turn it off, let it melt and to not run it exclusively. Also, he was advised to put some towels down for the inevitable draining and to try to only run that A/C with the doors and windows closed to reduce the warm moist air that unit would be forced to cool. #air conditioner #Furrion 260325 2014 Georgetown 378 - Stuck stairs, slow slide movement Complaint: Customer said his stairs would not go in or out and that his slides were very slow to move in and out and then eventually stopped working. Also, his leveling jacks would not move either. Cause: After troubleshooting, I found that his Kwikee step controller was no longer moving the steps when it received the ignition signal and the door closed signal. I knew the board needed to be replaced for sure. I was never able to get the step switch to send a signal either. After tracing the step switch wire, I eventually found a burned out fuse at a nearby power distribution panel that also housed the batter connection solenoid. Correction: I replaced the step switch 5 amp fuse and got a good step switch signal to the step control board. I replaced the step control board and was able to get the steps to move. While putting everything back together I noticed that the steps were moving backwards from what was called for (in when out was needed and vice versa.) After more troubleshooting I found that the door magnetic switch had been replaced and the previous tech used a switch with a backwards logic from what the board was expecting. To correct this, the previous tech had cut the power wires to the motor and reversed connected them so that the motor got the opposite direction signal from what the board was intending. Two opposites meant the steps now went in the right direction. I had the choice to replace the very difficult to locate door magnetic switch or reverse the motor power wires on my new board like the previous tech had done on the previous board. This is the option the customer chose and the door worked perfectly. For the slide, I put my own source of power (both 12V and 20V) to the Lippert hydraulic pump motor but couldn't get it to spin. I removed and replaced the motor with a new Lippert motor ($1700) and the motor ran perfectly. The slides now went in and out smoothly. Also the jacks worked perfectly. Upon bench testing the old motor, it would sputter and barely spin with no load on it and also leaked grease out of the end. #steps #Kwikee 260326 2018 Grand Design Momentum TH Complaint: Customer said his jacks were not extending and his slides would not go out all the way. Also his jacks would move in when he tried to move the jacks. Cause: Testing his 5th wheel, I noticed that the jacks would only move for 1 or 2 seconds and would pause for about 5 seconds. I found that his 50amp self resetting breaker was tripping off line and then resetting over and over again. The customer said that it had done this for several years but appeared to be getting worse lately. I surmised that this self resetting overcurrent protection device was getting weak with age / use. Further troubleshooting showed that his Trombetta dual polarity solenoid was passing 12+V of power when it received signal current, but once power was unhooked it was conducting (showing continuity) on one pole, but not the other. This told me that one of the contacts had burnt up inside and was causing lots of resistance and therefore drawing more current and therefore tripping the 50amp self resetting breaker. Correction: I ordered a new 50 amp self resetting overcurrent protection device and a new Trombetta dual polarity solenoid and replaced both of those items. The hydraulic pump now ran very smoothly, but the jacks and slides were still behaving strangely, moving is weird directions when the pump turn on. Further questioning revealed that the customer had been going around trying to use an allen key to open the solenoid needle valves to move the slides and jacks himself. Unfortunately, he didn't realize that they are threaded opposite from most mechanical fasteners and his clockwise tightening was really opening up each valve. By doing this, the controller was unable to open or close any of the valves because they were all cranked all the way open. When this happens the jack or slide with the least resistance will move first in which ever direction the pump was pushing fluid. Once I closed all the needle valves (full counter clockwise rotation of the 5/32nd allen head), then the pump was able to move each hydraulic cylinder. Lastly I discovered a proportioning valve in the front side bay near the propane tank. This valve tied the slides into the front jack legs / landing gear. Since he had opened this proportioning valve all the way, the front jack legs had to fully extend before the slides would move out and they had to fully retract before the slides would come in. By partially closing these valves, it allowed enough pressure to build up and push the slides in and out without the landing gear moving first. Again, this was originally set up properly, but the owner started tweaking them trying to fix the issues himself. #leveling system 260403 Jayco Class C motorhome Complaint: Leveling jacks wont retract and electric slide moving very slowly. Cause: Voltage testing revealed 10V on one house battery. Owner said an RV repair facility advised him to replace one of his two house batteries recently. Diagnosed as failing house battery and advised the owner that he will need to replace it soon. Also advised him that they should be replaced in pairs in the future. Correction: Manually retracted hydraulic jacks. First checked motor by applying 12V DC directly to the heavy gauge wire input studs. Spinning motor in one direction resulted in significantly higher amp draw. This indicated the motor was trying to push hydraulic fluid against closed solenoid valves, dead heading the motor. Then manually opened the blue, return solenoid by turning the 5/32nd allen on the end clockwise. Applied power directly to the hydraulic pump motor again and front jacks retracted. Then closed that solenoid valve back again by turning it counter-clockwise and repeated the same process on the left rear and then right rear jack hydraulic circuit solenoids. I had to experiment with the directionality of the pump motor by switching the battery leads until I found the retract direction of fluid flow. Although this small motorhome had four jacks, it really operated on three circuits front, left rear and right rear. The front jacks are hydraulicly connected and operate as a pair. #leveling system 260515 2013 Mobile Suites 5th Wheel Complaint: Customer's hydraulic jacks and two large slides were moving slowly. Cause: Failed Lippert hydraulic pump motor and Trombetta dual polarity (or polarity reversing) solenoid. Ironically the unit lifted off of the truck and then failed as I was there to witness the last movements of the motor. The owner said they system had been moving very slowly and they recently replaced the batteries. Also, they told me that they learned they had to be plugged into shore power now a days to get the system to move. These were all signs of extremely high current demand from the electric motor that drives the pump. I began my troubleshooting by placing a jumper from the center 12V power lug on the Trombetta to the small line level input spade terminals on the lower part of the Trombetta. I could hear the relay inside click, but the motor didn't move. I then removed the power cables from the Trombetta thus isolating the motor. I tested resistance across the center to each outside post of the Trombetta and found inconsistent conductivity, either very high resistance or O.L. I also checked the resistance of the motor itself and found it to be over 12,000 ohms of resistance. Next I moved on to voltage tests to confirm these readings. When I used the center lug of the Trombetta (or the leveling system control pad) to apply 12V signal voltage to the small, lower spades, I did have my full 14V input voltage at the top output lugs on each side. I also confirmed this voltage or potential energy difference was consistent between the output lugs and the center ground lug of the Trombetta and the actual ground post on the battery itself. Then, using a set of jumper cables, I applied battery voltage directly to the motor leads themselves yet the motor didn't move. Now that I had fully diagnosed the failed motor and Trombetta, I moved on to emergency slide and jack deployment. I gained access to the end of the electric motor and used a 1/4" hex adapter to spin the motor with my 12V drill. I opened each hydraulic solenoid one by one by using a 5/32nd allen wrench in the end and turning in a reverse thread direction to open and close each hydraulic circuit one by one to pump fluid where needed. I also had to experiment to determine that this motor and pump ran in a counter clockwise direction to send fluid out each line. I used two full batteries from my small drill. Each time the slide would near the end of its range or the jacks would bear a good strain, I could feel the torque feedback in my hand on the drill. By the end, I actually had a burnt smell and saw some smoke coming out of the end of my Milwaukee 12V drill. Correction: Once the new parts arrived, I returned to swap out the Trombetta solenoid and Lippert electric pump motor. Note that the solenoid retailed for $207 and the pump motor for $1695. I budgeted two hours to remove and replace the old components. Since this was a fairly easy access fifth wheel, I was done with the removal and replacement of the solenoid and pump in about an hour. Unfortunately the system did not work at first. The motor would engage but had a very weak sound and the trailer would barely move up any. After about 2 seconds of running the system shut off. The LCI leveling system display said low battery voltage. I ran it again with my voltmeter attached with gator clips between the center power input to the Trombetta and the Trombetta ground lugs. Each test run would start at around 14V. (I confirmed that the trailer's converter was putting out good DC power.) After about 1 second of run time the voltage would precipitously drop to 9.5V and the motor would shut off. A thermal camera scan revealed that though the motor had only run about 6-8 total seconds, it was already at 180 degrees. Also the Trombetta, input power cable and even the positive lug on the battery were all over 120 degrees. I checked each of these connections and even ohmed out this heavy gage wire. All connections were clean and the wire from the Trombetta to the battery only had 0.01 ohms of resistance once disconnected. I then moved this wire over to another house battery in the bank that was wired in parallel. After hooking everything back up and testing, the electric motor roared to life this time and caused a metal to metal beating sound the instant it ran. I unmounted the motor from the pump and found the motor output shaft scalded and damaged from spinning inside the adapter without actually spinning the pump input shaft. I removed the motor completely, cleaned the input shaft and ensured the adapter was able to make a good fit. I then noticed that I installed the gaskets that came in the motor kit, but that there were actually extra gaskets. The extra rubber spacing didn't allow the motor to fully seal down onto the pump housing and didn't allow the motor output shaft to fully engage with the pump input adapter. Once I removed the extra gaskets, I was able to tighten down the motor firmly on the pump mounting point / mating surface. Another test run yielded very good motor sound, fast movement of the jacks, low temperatures of all components and less than 1.0V drop during extended operations. The lesson to be learned is that a battery with insufficient power to supply the required voltage under a heavy load can cause a massive spike in amperage and thus generate extreme heat quickly. This heat likely caused a cascade of problems in the Trombetta's contacts and also in the motor's internal windings. #leveling system 260518 2025 Entegra Accolade XL super C with Coleman Mach 15 air conditioner Brand: Coleman-Mach Series: Mach 15 Model: 48204-669 Type: Rooftop RV air conditioner Function: Cooling only (not a heat pump) Nominal Capacity: 15,000 BTU Customer Issue: Rear Coleman Mach 15 roof top air conditioner is not cooling well. The fan runs fine, but the air coming out isn't as cold as it should be. Also, the air conditioner recently started icing up so it was shut down to thaw out. RV Technician Diagnosis: Partial loss of system freon charge. Due to the evaporator coil icing up, I suspected the freeze sensor may have gone out. I checked the freeze sensor at a range of temperatures and found the variable resistance values to all be within specifications. Next, I checked the charge on the start and run capacitors and found them to be within specifications. I closely examined the air plenum and found no holes, gaps or air leaks. The supply / return divider was in the proper location and well sealed. I closely examined the evaporator coil and found a small area on the top of the coil where the fins were bent all the way down to the copper tubing. This copper refrigerant tubing was even rubbed and almost warn through due to the top sheet metal mounting bracket rubbing against it when the air conditioner was assembled. I believe this rubbing has compromised the integrity of the tubing and is causing a small hole which is allowing the refrigerant to leak out. I confirmed the reduced freon charge theory by taking both start up and running amperage readings on the air conditioner's compressor. The compressor only pulls about 50 amps on start up (normal would be 60-70 amps). While running, the compressor would normally draw around 11-13 amps where I only read 9.5 amps. These readings indicate that the compressor isn't working as specified due to a lack of full freon charge. This lack of freon is also dropping the evaporator's saturation temperature below the freezing point which is causing the evaporator coil to begin to freeze from the top down. This coincides with the customer's description of the coil freezing from top down. My final conformation came after taking interior delta T temperature readings. I measured roughly 10 degrees difference in supply and return air where a properly functioning system should be closer to a 20 degree delta. Upon reassembling the system I noticed that the evaporator coil mount has the coil leaning much further back than it is designed to and therefore the top tube of the coil is making contact with the air conditioner cover mounting bracket. This explains why the two are rubbing together. Correction: Coleman RV rooftop air conditioners are hermetically sealed systems and are not serviceable. A loss of freon necessitates a full air conditioner replacement. #air conditioner #Coleman 260518 2016 Heartland Wilderness 3250 BS trailer Post Mission Hotwash: When I arrived the compressor actually kicked on during testing, but wouldn't run consistently. I ended up going onto the roof and eventually finding a poor 12V ground connection to the board. Complaint: Air conditioner blowing but not cold. Also, a burn smell coming from the unit. Cause: Customers were heavy smokers and lived in trailer for several years. The entire unit was filled with tar residue. Cleaning the coils didn't help. The capacitors checked out fine. The compressor would run very intermittently. Found the 12V DC connections were not making good contact, specifically the ground. Correction: Cleaned and tightened all 12V DC connections to the control board. #air conditioner #Coleman 260519 2020 Newmar Dutchstar Complaint: Customer's step would not automatically retract when the ignition was on. Cause: Used my Skill Above Step tester to troubleshoot and found that the switch was sending the proper signal. Also verified the door and the step switch were both sending the proper signals also. I then powered the motor directly and proved the steps moved in and out with no problems. I diagnosed a failed Kwikee step control board. Correction: Ordered, received and replaced the new control board and the steps worked perfectly. #steps #Kwikee 260301 2014 Entegra Cornerstone 44B Aqua-Hot 450D Model: AHE-450-DE5 Serial: A450D-240414 Complaint: New Aqua-Hot system was recently installed. Has had trouble lighting the burner since day one. The burner was very dirty with lots of soot present. Troubleshooting: I found the burner was very dirty and I diagnosed as a failed controller and replaced the reporter. Cause: The Aqua-Hot ran great after I cleaned it but eventually failed again. After I replaced the reporter it ran fine again. Correction: The customer left my area but the Aqua-Hot eventually fail to light again. He finally took his coach to a specialty hydronic heating repair facility. The final diagnosis was a failed fuel solenoid valve. Feedback from the customer: "I had the AquaHot issues that we could not find any solutions for while we were in Gulfport. I just returned from John Carillo’s Heat My RV in Colorado. They said that it was a defective fuel solenoid valve. They are now made in China when you get a complete new heater from the AquaHot factory and they have a high failure rate. They either stick closed or open. In my case it was stuck open and dumping too much fuel. They replaced it with a new solenoid from Webasto in Germany." #plumbing #Aqua-Hot 260526 2019 Georgetown GT5 Complaint: Air conditioner does not work, Dometic thermostat is showing an E1 error code. Cause: Lack of continuity on the communication (green) wire between the thermostat and the air conditioner. From Gemini: An **E1 error code** on a Dometic air conditioner indicates a **loss of communication** between the thermostat (such as the Single Zone LCD, CCC 2, or Capacitive Touch thermostat) and the system's power module board. **What happens when an E1 error occurs:** * The system will completely shut down, resulting in no operation of any cooling or heating functions. * On some models, the LCD will cycle between displaying "E1" and the previous mode setting. * On multi-zone systems, the thermostat will display E1 along with the specific zone number that lost communication. **Possible causes for an E1 error include:** * **Wiring issues:** A shorted, cut, disconnected, or faulty communication cable between the thermostat and the control board. * **Configuration errors:** Having two power module DIP switches mistakenly set to the same zone. * **Power supply issues:** "Unclean" 12-volt DC power. (Testing with direct DC power from the battery is recommended to rule this out). * **Interference:** Radio Frequency (RF) interference disrupting the communication signal. **Troubleshooting:** You should always try performing a system reset first to see if it re-establishes communication between the thermostat and the control board. Customer wanted a new thermostat anyway so on May 5th, I replaced her thermostat with a Micro-Air easy touch and her air conditioning worked perfectly. About a week later, she said that she had the same symptoms with the thermostat not communicating with the air conditioner. Correction: 260526 Returned today and got her air conditioner going. She had 7 strand 20 gage wire that was factory installed between the thermostat and the air conditioner control board. Her Dometic air conditioner only needed 12V positive, ground and a communication line, three total wires. I removed each of the three that were already in place and found the communication wire was completely broken and had no continuity from one end to the other. I checked the continuity of each of the other four previously unused wires and found one of them with no continuity, one with over 10,000 ohms of resistance, one with 7 ohms of resistance and one with 3 ohms of resistance. I replaced the bad communication wire (green) that the factory used with the blue wire that was already in place and only had 3 ohms of resistance. After reconnecting everything between the wall thermostat and the control board, I could hear a relay click in the control box but no action on the A/C fan or compressor. I then checked the 120V AC breaker to find that it had tripped. After resetting the breaker, everything worked perfectly. #air conditioner #Dometic #Fresh Jet #Micro-Air 260602 42 foot Milestone 5th wheel Complaint: Vibrating Dometic Brisk Air II air conditioner. Cause: The fan motor mounting nuts had vibrated loose. One of the rubber mount bushings was not installed. The exterior (top) cover was vibrating against the lower cover due to loose cover mounting screws. Correction: After a thorough cleaning, I found the rubber motor mounting bushing laying in the bottom pan. I loosened the motor mounts to get the mounting flange up enough to reinstall the rubber bushing. I also noticed that one of the mounting nuts had completely vibrated off and another was very loose. After tightening and replacing the mounting lock nuts, I resecured the motor much more firmly in place. I then started the fan and confirmed that it was not vibrating on low, high, or with the compressor running. #air conditioner #Dometic #Brisk Air II