Posted by MarkB_MI on August 29, 2021 at 04:01:46 from (174.245.17.175):
We just got back from a trip to Yellowstone with our small fifth wheel RV. It was quite an education. We brought our youngest granddaughter with us and rendezvoused at the park with our other two granddaughters and their parents. This was our second trip out west with the camper, and the first that involved serious dry camping. We had an omen of problems to come when I hitched up the camper the morning of our departure and there were no marker lights on the trailer. It took me a couple of hours, including a trip to the auto parts store for fuses, to find and fix the problem. It turned out a strain relief on the electrical box where the electrical lead attaches to the camper was pinching a wire and shorted out the lights. I threw my Fluke multimeter in the RV tool box when I was done, which came in useful later.
OK, first the good parts: Everyone had a great time at Yellowstone. My wife cooked up some great meals and all the granddaughters slept in the camper. Our Honda EU3000is generator performed flawlessly; I had rejetted the carb for the 8000 ft campground elevation. We managed to stretch out our 40 gallon water tank for all four nights, mainly by washing dishes outside, taking 'shipboard' showers and not allowing the granddaughters to use the shower. (The latter was a bit of an issue, as the campground showers were closed.) We ran out of fresh water on the morning of our departure.
Now the not-so-good parts. The temperature dropped to the low forties our first night, so we ran the furnace. I forgot to turn the thermostat down before going to bed, so it ran a lot and ran the battery way down. With campground restrictions on generator use, I wasn't able to run the generator more than about three hours a day and never got the battery recharged. The problem seemed to be our camper's WFCO 8955 power converter: It wouldn't put out more than 13.6 volts, even when the battery was totally dead. It seems this is a common problem with this particular converter. My first order of business now that I'm home is to order a Progressive Dynamics PD4655 power converter, which is a direct replacement for the junk WFCO module and is said to work flawlessly.
On our way back we stopped at a RV park on the plains east of Bismarck, ND. Early the next morning, we got hit with a big thunderstorm. Midway through the storm I noticed the furnace blower was running, even though the furnace was turned off. I think high winds blew water into the furnace vent, shorting out something in the furnace circuitry. So I start looking for the furnace fuse. No furnace fuse. Eventually I figure out it's on the REFRIGERATOR circuit! WTF? The refrigerator is the one appliance that absolutely needs 12 volts at all times, and it shares its fuse with another appliance? I pull out the power converter and sure enough there's a splice in the rat's nest behind the converter. I clipped the wire to the furnace and we were back on our way. I'm going to move the furnace circuit over to one of the unused fuse slots.
A couple of questions for more experienced RV guys:
1. When the battery voltage drops, our water pump will start running continuously. If you're asleep or not in the trailer to turn it off, it will completely discharge the battery. Is this just the nature of the beast, or is there a pump that's better behaved? Our pump is a Flojet brand, if that makes any difference.
2. Our 15k BTU Dometic Brisk Air II air conditioner has already been replaced once, and I think the replacement is likely to fail soon. If it does, I'd like to replace it with something quieter and hopefully more reliable. Any recommendations?
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